Jado sighed at the sky, feeling the miraculous strength in his body slowly dissipate. He watched the sunrise, bathing in the morning light as the flames burning the desert down finally died down. Oberon was lying down further away, a wry smile on his face.

  "Yet another day..." He whispered, not intending for anyone to hear him. But thanks to his enhanced perception, Jado was able to catch that. He didn't comment on it, simply trying to get rid of the last drop of adrenaline flowing in his veins. The sand of the desert was charred black, mixed with ashes and remnants of the cobwebs that previously covered the surface.

  Jado glanced down at the corpse he was sitting on and decided to identify it.

  "Red..." Jado shook his head, the corners of his lips rising slightly in disbelief. He let out a short nervous chuckle, unable to properly understand how he managed to slay such a beast. A monster at the same rank as the big black crab that day, or the mass of flesh it killed. Something more powerful than the Wild Alpha Leopard, a true predator reigning over the desert. By combining their strengths, they had managed to slay it.

  "Incredible," Jado said under his breath, rubbing his face in a poor attempt to get rid of his tiredness. Interrupting his thoughts, a ringing tone in his ears informed him of new notifications. He summoned the status window and everything that came with it by a swipe of his hand. With everything they killed and how the Monster Wave's window had promised rewards to them all, he couldn't help but feel expectant and excited.

  "...Two new titles, and a new skill. I need to understand the conditions to unlock these because I feel like I'm obtaining them randomly," Jado muttered, ignoring the strange glances Jackal and Noah threw him. Every member of Heavensbane was resting after the tiring battle, so no one had the energy to spend on questions or curiosity. Without waiting any further, the young man opened the descriptions of the titles, as well as Stat Analysis.

  "So the title gave me access to the new skill..." Jado blinked, suddenly realizing that Zen was the citizen mentioned in the description. He turned his head suddenly toward the entry of the Small Shrine, glancing at the small figure sitting next to it. The kid was staring at his hands like they weren't his, with shiny and excited eyes.

  I'll check it out later, right now I need to understand my new abilities. So, Stat Analysis.

  "Common rank... It seems much stronger than what announces the rank, though," Jado concluded, liking this new skill. This was precisely what he needed since he had no idea what were the conditions that made him increase his stats or the ranks of his skills. It was evident that he could, after all, already do so, but he couldn't even think of how that was supposed to happen. Too curious to wait, he tried the skill on himself, making a new window appear.

  "...Isn't this too...simple?" Jado's voice was filled with incredulity. He was about to try and understand more about the actions required, when a ting and a new window appeared, overlapping with the previous one.

  Can I merge the skills? Jado rubbed his chin and, after a moment's thought, pressed Y. His eyes suddenly began to burn with the same sensation as when he touched them after eating a very spicy dish, making them cry with red tears. He tried to press against his eyes, clenching his teeth in pain, when he felt the tears on his fingers. They were much more viscous and thick than they should be. He strained through his blurry sight to discover that he was crying blood. Another pang of pain made him throw his head backward, and he slipped from the back of the spider, falling into the sand.

  Zen, who noticed the anomaly, rushed to his side, clenching his hands together in the same way he did to save him earlier in the night, when Jado stopped him with a raised hand, using the other one to hide his eyes.

  "Wait!" Zen froze and obeyed with worriedness, watching over the writhing young man on the ground. After another minute of torture, the pain began to recede, and Jado was able to open his eyes once again. He wiped off the blood that had flowed down his cheeks and used his eyes as he normally did. As far as he could see, there was no difference to how they were before, perhaps they were a little sharper, but he couldn't tell.

  He looked at the kid that was watching over him, who gasped once he saw his eyes. Jado made a puzzled expression, Zen only able to point at his own eyes helplessly. The young man pushed himself up from the ground and went to see Oberon who was finally done catching his breath. He didn't even have time to say a word that the old knight frowned.

  "What happened to your eyes?" Oberon asked, as he stood and placed himself at the same level as Jado.

  "That's what I'm trying to figure out," Jado replied with an awkward smile. The old knight rubbed the back of his neck, before turning his gaze away.

  "They're black with golden light in them," He simply stated, "Eyes like the ones of ancient monsters." He walked off, heading toward the corpse of the Adult Sand Crawler, taking a look at the reward of their fight. Jado's eyebrows creased, as a certain dream came back in his mind. The old king had the same eyes, black and filled with golden light! What could it possibly mean? He opened the description of the Eyes of the Pharaoh, seeing that it had changed once again.

  "...Gaze of the Pharaoh?" The name of the skill itself had changed. It somehow sounded a little more authoritative and higher ranking than Eyes of the Pharaoh. And the skill became Red rank too. Nothing to complain about, but it seemed weird to advance so rapidly. If he trusted his new statistics, as the system called them, he had become much more powerful in a very short period, but he didn't feel any changes in his body. During the fight with the adult Desert Crawler, he did manage to perform actions with his body that could only be called miraculous, but he had a hard time thinking it was his strength that did this.

  Jado then opened his status window and used Gaze of the Pharaoh on himself, to see if anything had changed. The Stat Analysis skill was gone, of course, but the most notable changes were when he used his skill.

  "So I can just beat up Red-level monsters and I'll automatically get stronger?" Jado theorized, smiling at how nonsensical it sounded. How was he even supposed to kill a Red-level creature by himself? Jado's expression froze, and he looked at Shade and Oberon, the main contributors to killing the Adult Sand Crawler. Could it be that the system was indeed made this way so that he would cooperate with others to get stronger? But how could it guess that he wouldn't stay alone in this desert and that some strangers would suddenly join him to create Heavensbane?

  Jado rubbed his chin, feeling a shiver crawling down his spine. Perhaps he was taking this from the wrong angle, and that the arrival of Zen, Shade, and the others was intended by the system. Could it possibly be able to control the fate of others, influencing them to allow the main target, himself, to grow stronger and to build the Empire it wants him to?

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The thought of such a thing made Jado profoundly scared of this blue window that helped him since the beginning of his hell in the desert. Perhaps there was more to it than he could see, no, he was sure of it. Could he just depend on it to survive and get stronger? And most importantly, did he have a choice?

  Jado shook his head and cast his thoughts away. For now, such reflection wouldn't help him or the others survive, and doubting the system wouldn't help him get stronger either. He'll have to do with it and adapt over time because he had no other choice. But the young man promised himself to never forget that this blue window was something he never earned or deserved. He had to consider what to do if one day it just disappeared, alongside the benefits it brought with it.

  With a swipe of his hand, he dismissed every window in front of him and summoned the description of [Eradicator - Desert Crawlers]. It was the title he didn't check yet, and he wanted to know what its use was.

  That seemed like a pretty good title, but from what he gathered, he wouldn't find its use anytime soon. The Desert Crawlers should be scared of Heavensbane region from what he could understand from the description, and the title only applied to spider-type creatures. So unless he discovered a new species of spiders that wanted to assault Heavensbane, this would probably not be very useful. But it was still good to have. Additionally, he wondered how the "increased damage from fire attacks" worked. Did they just burn better thanks to some strange, mystical reason? He'll have to investigate that.

  He dismissed the window, satisfied, and turned back toward Zen, who was studying the Adult Sand Crawler alongside Noah. The dark-skinned man was looking at the corpse with a crest-fallen expression, probably depressed from missing the "big" fight. Jado used his Gaze of the Pharaoh on the kid, to see what this class Of Legends thing was supposed to be.

  Wow, that's a lot of new things. His rank is Red? What about his Intelligence, why is it Deep Red? Does that mean it's even higher ranked? Jado's thoughts raced uncontrollably as he read Zen's status window, his face scowling in a struggle to comprehend the jump of power the kid received. Zen also had three new skills, Restoration, Purification, and Blessing, alongside a new class. The young man didn't wait to open their descriptions.

  "A healing spell? This is insane," Jado muttered, a smile creeping up his face. The fact that Zen was a healer changed entirely how he needed to think about his plans. If he or the others could be healed after a fight, that meant they wouldn't need to rest as much or be as careful. This took a lot of risks away.

  "And that takes care of the other part..." Jado could already see Zen becoming the main shaman of a village or the head chief of a city's hospital with these miraculous powers. Anyone would fight to get him on their side.

  A powerful blessing? Is that what gave me the strength to fight against the Adult Desert Crawler? If that is, then it's the most powerful skill I've ever seen!

  A satisfied expression installed itself on Jado's face. All those new skills were incredible. It was already enough in terms of rewards to discover so many things, so many new powers, but he still had to sacrifice every corpse lying around the Altar and get it to the Shrine level. Adding to that the fact that the gigantic Desert Crawler probably had a Monster Core, which would probably give another powerful reward. Also, he remembered the black window mentioning yet another reward, how was he supposed to claim it?

  As soon as he thought of it, a ringing sounded in his ears, and apparently, not only in his. Zen and all the others suddenly jumped, even Shade, as a black window probably appeared in their eyes. Jado could only guess it did because the same thing just happened to him.

  Oberon is the main contributor? Was his attack with the darkness spear that powerful? How impressive! Jado thought in awe, wondering what he would get for second place. He smiled when he saw that Dune still had a contribution of a single percent, even though he didn't see him at all during the big fight. The little snake had probably fought with its enemy or something. Who knew where he was right now?

  "Ah!" A surprised sound came out of the old knight's mouth when a halberd suddenly surged up from the sand, falling in his hands. The weapon was made out of white immaculate metal that Jado couldn't identify, and it looked extremely tough and equally sharp. A golden line was decorating the handle, like a yellow vein in marble. An impressive weapon for sure, and it seemed like Oberon liked it very much. Jado tried to identify it, and he was shocked at what he discovered.

  Jado frowned at the description, feeling like he was reading a paradox. How could it sound both holy and evil at the same time? Additionally, the fact that it fed on the blood of its enemies was more than ominous. It made him almost think that the weapon was alive. He looked at Oberon in worry, shaking his head. The old knight swung the halberd around, and Jado squinted his eyes, an illusion of a strange being appearing in the dexterous swirls that Oberon produced. The golden line that ran down the weapon seemed to move like blood. Jado rubbed his eyes, and the image disappeared.

  Either I need to sleep, or this thing is really strange and evil. It's surely both. Jado concluded, just in time for his reward to surge out of the sand. He excitedly caught it, appreciating this novel manner of rewarding him. His excitement died down when he realized that the reward was a...book? It was very heavy, its weight probably explained by the fact that the cover was entirely made out of a brass-colored metal. Even though it was pretty hefty, Jado had no issue holding it, thanks to his newly enhanced strength. If he was still the man he was back in Araashir, the book would have probably slipped away from his hands, and he would have needed to put it on his shoulders to carry it.

  Quite a strange book, that's for sure. Why would they use such a material to make the cover? It seemed so out of place. The young man opened the book, curious, and discovered lines and lines of text. He'd have to admit, he wasn't the best at reading, having learned mostly because his parents forced him to, but he never thought it would be really useful. Now, between the blue window covered in texts and this new book, he couldn't help but feel thankful for his parents' tenacity.

  He squinted his eyes, trying to understand what was written, but it was as if the letters flew and flipped around, making up puzzles that had no place in a book. He suddenly felt a headache and gave up reading this thing. He couldn't even recognize a single letter, what the hell was this thing? He didn't hesitate as he used the Gaze of the Pharaoh on it.

  "Huh." Well, this explains that. He knew he never had any similar problems reading before. So it was the system. He'll have to work on this Intelligence thing, that's for sure. He couldn't even lend it to Zen who had a Deep Red intelligence, or anyone else, for that matter, thanks to the Servant of the Sand / Architect requirement. What truly interested him, though, was the durability of the item.

  "Indestructible? Does that mean I can potentially use it as the strongest shield?" Jado wondered aloud, before looking at Oberon with eyes full of thoughts. During this matter, the others received their rewards as well. Shade received a long, slightly curved sword named Bloody Odachi, which was of Red Rank as well, and had the capacity of sending a ranged attack by charging it somehow. Jado didn't understand how it worked from the description, but even without it, Shade seemed to be fine with it, already testing it by sending blades of wind in the sand with large swipes of her blade.

  Zen received a small bottle filled with a golden, shiny liquid. He made it fall on the ground by surprise when he received it, but the glass didn't break. Jado didn't have the time to check its description the kid gulped down the contents of the vial, waiting with a puzzled expression for something to happen, only to be disappointed. The glass bottle also dissolved into sand, unlike the empty leather flasks they received from the Processing Silo. Noah was the next to receive his reward, a duo of blades named "Tooth and Fang". One was black and the other white, forming a strange contrast. They were Common ranks, but a thousand times better than what he previously had. Plus, they came with two options: when Tooth hits, it draws double the blood, and when Fang hits, it poisons the enemy.

  Jackal was the last to receive his reward. His crestfallen expression for essentially being the worst contributor quickly changed when a weapon still rose from the sand in front of him. It was strange, to say the least, something Jado had never seen before in his life. It was a gauntlet made out of steel, only there were hundreds of small contraptions and smaller versions of the cogs he had been able to see in Uncle Jack's watermill. Only, they weren't made of wood but of metal and were much, much smaller, the size of a nail. Jado had to identify it to understand its purpose, one that Jackal seemed to understand without any issue.

  Jackal hastily slipped on the gauntlet, smiling widely as he played with the mechanisms. He punched through the air suddenly, creating a small shockwave. The man rubbed the end of his nose, smiling proudly, before turning toward the other members of Heavensbane to brag about his new weapon. Jackal only remained silent after he saw them using their stuff in much more impressive ways. Somehow, all of them seemed to know what the items or weapons did, even without the Gaze of the Pharaoh's skill. Perhaps they had their ways of understanding them, or perhaps the system simply explained what the items did directly. Jado had no idea, but he wouldn't complain that his citizens got a boost to their powers.

  Finally, he glanced at the corpses strewn all around and sighed.

  It would take a long, long time to sacrifice them all.

  Any idea where the title of the chapter comes from?