The Last Legendary System

The trio fled into the dunes while the Desert Crane struggled back onto its feet. It crawled after them, slower now but still moving.

"Stay down!" Vergil shouted over his shoulder.

The elves glided over the sand without leaving tracks, but Stun had to drag Benign’s weight. Each step left marks.

Worse, Benign’s blood dripped behind them. Vergil glanced back at the trail and swallowed hard.

The wind carried loose sand across it, covering parts of the stain, but not all of it.

The creature’s distant screech followed them through the desert night.

Benign’s head rolled against Stun’s shoulder. The revolver slipped from his hand.

"Oh," Vergil caught it and stared curiously.

Benign’s eyes eventually closed. The last thing he heard was Vergil praying that the desert would bury the blood before the monster found it.

.

.

.

The dry scent of burnt banana leaves was the first thing Benign smelled when he came to.

Then the stench of dried blood and medicine. He felt the tightness around his torso and legs. A soft sigh left him.

"Are you awake?" Vergil asked beside him.

Benign nodded. His eyes opened to the ceiling of rough rock. He bent his neck sideways and confirmed they were in an enclosed cave. "We made it."

"Thanks to you." Vergil raised a jaw of water.

Benign tried to sit up. His body didn’t let him, so he lay down again. "I couldn’t kill it, but at least you blasted it away—"

Vergil thumped the jar on the ground, cutting off the rest of Benign’s words.

"Sir Benign, if you hadn’t injured it, I wouldn’t have gotten that chance as my precision and range are poor. As you said, we made it. That’s all that should matter."

The assertion in the elf’s tone drowned out the other words Benign had to say. He looked sideways, finding the cave wall suddenly interesting. "Alright then."

Then, he continued. "I will kill it next time."

"That isn’t required of you." Stun entered the cave, holding a basket of sand-colored fruits. He dropped the basket with Vergil, who quickly moved it away from him.

Stun looked over Benign’s body before reaching for a bandage in his bag. "Desert Cranes alert us when they attack glitched creatures around our abode. Hence, they aren’t enemies. We were just unlucky to meet one."

The bandages were replaced with fresh ones. The elf dabbed a cool herbal mixture onto Benign’s injured skin, and the sharp sting slowly gave way to a soothing chill.

Benign said nothing while Stun treated his wound.

There had been no notification.

No new skill.

No comforting message from Lego.

He had nearly died in a world that wasn’t his, with no reliable abilities, no support system, and certainly no clear orders.

His gaze drifted to the two elves.

"And now, my bad luck is rubbing off on everyone," he muttered.

The two elves froze, turning to him at the same time. Benign met their gaze, wondering if they heard him from the other part of the cave where they had confined themselves.

"Sir Benign," Vergil raised a skinned fruit to his mouth. "Are you always this negative? Our troubles have barely started."

"Oh, Goddess." Stun sighed. "I am stuck with pessimists."

"Excuse me?" Vergil retorted. "I take myself as more of a realist. When I said we could die in the desert, that was a reasonable conclusion based on recent findings."

Their attention left Benign, and the two bickered about each other’s life choices. Benign rested his head on the soft cloth under his neck.

’I have to recover the Special Treatment somehow.’

His mind went blank. With a thought, the screen popped up in front of him.

[Mission: Survive The Journey Through The Desert.]

[Reward: Location of Ancient Artifact.]

’That’s it. I have to survive this journey first.’

While the reward would be an old artifact, it could restore his record of successful missions and bring him closer to regaining the Special Treatment.

’If there were a way to increase my luck points, that would also prove useful.’

Once again, he tried to raise his upper body. The pain lasted a second after he sat upright. The elves stopped arguing at that moment.

"Please, Vergil." Benign dragged himself to a wall and rested his back. "Tell me more about the glitches. I don’t believe you finished what you were saying earlier."

A bottle of ink materialized in the air.

Out of it, a red-feathered pen sprouted and drew the dimensions of a book. The next second, the book had form, and the pages fluttered open by themselves.

"With pleasure."

Vergil rose from the ground, having a change of countenance and a scholarly air around him. The book, ink, and pen moved with him. "What would you like to know?"

"You mentioned lost realms last time."

"Correct." Vergil held his book, flipping through the pages. "Noria never met this Hero, Ashold Creeve, but we heard of his good works from the other two."

The way Vergil said ’the other two’ made Benign smile. The prejudice could barely be masked. ’I would have to work with the other realms at one point. They might have useful information too.’

Benign adjusted his sitting position. "So, since you never met this Hero, what evidence exists that Karnak did glitch out? It is concerning for an entire realm to disappear."

According to the book Benign read, he knew it was entirely accurate that Karnak met the short end of the stick. However, the other realms had no reason to believe it.

Vergil stopped at a page. "They are evidence of similar things happening before. That was why Noria believed."

"What was it?" Benign tilted his head.

"While it is speculated..." Vergil raised a finger. "...we have found caves with relics and a language belonging to neither Noria nor the others. That backs the theory that lost civilizations must’ve existed. Possibly now glitched out."

The words hung in the air between the two.

If realms could simply glitch out of existence, what assurance did he have that he would find the core before the realm he occupied disappeared with him as well?