The Elven Survival Handbook.

In the blazing desert, the sun has not yet risen, and only a faint light can be seen on the horizon. It is completely unbelievable that when it rises, the heat here will cook people alive.

A caravan was taking advantage of the less hot dawn hours.

There were more than a hundred people in this caravan, but the largest group was the camel group they brought, which numbered at least four to five hundred.

This is a caravan selling camels, and they will not forget to bring other valuable commodities, such as salt, gems, cloth, and spices.

Of course, you can’t bring anything without water. Without water, they can’t survive even two days.

This caravan was formed by several different merchants. It has been two months since they set out from their homeland. The leader, Seim, is an experienced desert merchant. He is familiar with every road he has walked. Make sure you don't get lost in the desert.

But now Sam is not in a good mood.

A few days ago, they encountered a sandstorm. Although luckily the entire caravan suffered no casualties, the sandstorm not only caused them to deviate from their original path, but also covered up an uninhabited oasis they knew.

Too bad, that oasis was the only source of water they could find for ten days.

The water they carry is running low and can only last for two more days at most.

Among the camels they brought out for sale, there were no lactating camels that produced milk, so if they could not find a water source after drinking all the water, they had to kill the camel and drink the water stored in its stomach and its blood to quench thirst.

That's definitely a huge loss.

Although they have many camels, in fact, even Seme, who has the largest number of camels, only has a hundred camels, and most small businessmen only have five or six, which may be their entire property.

In order to avoid losses, several big businessmen with the right to speak gathered together to discuss and finally decided to cross the Golden Sand Sea.

This is a helpless decision. Although the golden sand sea sounds very beautiful, it is also called the forbidden land of life. It is called the most desolate place even on this desolate road. There wasn't a single dead grass in sight, let alone anything else.

There are the most extensive quicksand dunes in the entire Veve continent.

The ever-flowing golden sand sea is full of dangers. You never know whether there is a trap that can swallow lives under those seemingly solid gravels. As long as you encounter it unfortunately, the victim will be trapped by the sand in an instant. Devoured, and ultimately died of pain and suffocation.

Not only that, the Golden Sand Sea is also the hottest place in the entire desert.

It is said that the temperature here can be as high as sixty or seventy degrees during the hottest time, but when night falls, the strong temperature difference changes are enough to freeze the unprepared person - in the coldest season, it is only as low as four or five degrees. .

This is completely unimaginable elsewhere.

But they had no choice. Only by passing through there could they find the next water source as quickly as possible.

The only thing that made them feel lucky was that it was still spring and the temperature in the Golden Sand Sea had not yet reached its highest point.

And they don't have to worry about bandits on this stretch of the road.

This was not the first time that Sam entered the Golden Sand Sea. He had walked through it with his father more than ten years ago when he was a young boy, but it was too far away. If he had no choice, he would never agree. Go this way.

The caravan walked very carefully. They did not dare to climb directly onto the sand dunes and could only walk on the sand ridges against the wind.

They had to work hard during the hottest period at noon. There was no place to escape the heat. At night, the temperature dropped suddenly. When they couldn't find any plants to burn, they had to use the collected camel dung to set fire to it. bonfires, and hiding among the camels to stay warm by their hair.

After walking for two days, the fresh water was all gone, so they had to slaughter a camel. After everyone drank the water stored in the camel, they shared its flesh and blood.

However, this sea of ​​sand seems to be endless, and they are still here, unable to see the way forward.

"Don't worry, but we will always get out." Sam told the others. He is the leader and must remain calm at all times.

But in fact, even he himself has no bottom.

He only remembered that when he and his father first walked this road, they walked for three days, but now that they had exceeded that time, they could not even see the edge of it.

The landform of the Golden Sand Sea is always changing, and at the same time it is also expanding. Obviously, in the past ten years, it has become not ordinary.

After another day of walking, they had to slaughter another camel.

There were already some noises in the caravan, and although they tried to stay calm, uneasiness began to spread.

Sam even heard someone say that the camels were going to be killed anyway. If they had known that, they might as well have walked along the original road, at least that would be safer.

"Don't listen to them. Those people are just reluctant to bear their own losses." The servant persuaded Sam next to him.

Of course Seim knew this. The two slaughtered camels were not free, and everyone who enjoyed them needed to pay accordingly.

The big businessmen don't care about this, but the small businessmen accompanying the team are different.

Sam could even think

What do those who say these words think? They want to use this kind of attack to make Sam bear the loss of two camels alone. After all, he still has a hundred camels, doesn't he?

But Sam would not be so stupid as to do what they wanted. He pretended not to hear those words at all.

However, he still rewarded his servant. He really cared about him, which he could clearly see.

Before dawn the next day, the journey continued.

This time, it was different from before.

The servant who persuaded Sam last night to ride a camel and lead the way next to Sam. He has a pair of very keen eyes.

"Master, look over there!"

Sam looked up and looked forward. The sunlight made it difficult to open his eyes. He raised his hand to cover his forehead. It took him a long time to see clearly what the servant wanted him to see.

In the blue sky where the sun is burning, a small patch of black sky in the distance looks particularly conspicuous.

Thinking of what the black color represented, Sam's heart moved and he turned around and shouted: "Wahab, Wahab, get your baby quickly!"

Wahab was another big merchant in the caravan. He only had more than 60 camels, but he brought other goods with higher value, such as gems and spices.

What Wahab always carries with him as a treasure is a monocular telescope.

The telescope was quite old. According to Wahab, he bought it from a nobleman in exchange for several fine gems.

Wahab came over reluctantly from behind, handed the telescope to Sam, and said: "You must hold it carefully and don't break it."

The lens of the telescope was not very pure in color, and everything seen through it had a faint red tint, but this did not hinder Sam's vision.

He finally saw clearly what the black was.

"It's dark clouds! It's raining ahead!"

This is really an incredible answer. Everyone knows how rare rain is in the desert, and now they actually see rain in this place where it is least likely to rain?

Several big businessmen came forward and took the binoculars to check, and then they also saw it.

The dark clouds in that area were so dense that the entire sky was covered. Occasionally, there were a few streaks of thunder and lightning tumbling among them, illuminating the clouds.

Even though they couldn't see the rain, they could imagine it was raining when they saw the lightning.

Where there is rain, there is water.

But the strange weather made them unsure whether to go there.

"That's the direction we're going to go, right?"

"Yes, we can go a little closer to see the situation, aren't we still far away?"

"Can we still go back? It's a journey of several days."

The other small businessmen were talking a lot, obviously wanting to move forward.

Several big businessmen also supported them, and even Sam was very moved.

After all, as they said, it was impossible for them to go back, and other roads would completely deviate from their original direction, making this road even more endless.

The further you go, the more you can see through the telescope.

Then they discovered the castle under the dark clouds and the tall grove of trees outside the castle.

There is such a magnificent building here. Even the many palaces they have seen before are not more majestic than this one.

In the hottest place on the entire continent?And it's still raining there?

They even thought they were seeing a mirage.

But after careful identification, experience told them that it was indeed a real castle.

"Are we going to move on?"

Some people are starting to get scared. It’s weird no matter how you look at a place like that.

Some people suspected that it was the lair of a desert thief, but this was quickly rejected by others. If the lair of a sand thief could be so grand, then would he still need to rob it?

"It was more like some king's castle. He must have been very wealthy."

This sentence reminded everyone.

Yes, the person who can build such a castle is definitely very rich, and he must be very powerful because he chose the golden sand sea as the place.

"Perhaps he has a distinguished mage serving him."

"Let's go take a look? Maybe we can not only find the source of water, but also sell these things at a good price."

There are always thieves here, and ordinary people dare not go too far. Only these businessmen will run around for profit, so they are very popular with the nobles and tribal leaders.

Most of the time, the nobles and tribal leaders would not take action against the merchants, lest other well-informed merchants would never come to their territory again after hearing the news.

So as long as the businessman doesn't offend those people, they can always get some courtesy.

It was this that made them finally decide to try their luck in that unknown castle.

The author has something to say: There are no elves or devils today.