Alex asked the old man if he ever worried about running out of beasts to kill in the desert. However, the old man seemed to not be worried at all.

“We kill a fraction in a month of what these beasts kill on a daily basis. And just as many are born each day, if not more. Truth is, you can’t ever kill too many beasts in the desert. There are just that many of them.”

Alex found that information surprisingly tantalizing. With so many beasts out there, each of which had beast cores, he would no doubt have an army if he managed to gather them.

‘I need my book for that,’ Alex thought, but maybe he could do it once he had the Blood God’s Manual available to him. He had been planning on improving the technique within the book, so he probably should begin from there.

Breaking through the Storm God’s seal was going to take a long time as well.

Alex was excited to have a sunheart of his own sometime later. He wasn’t in a hurry to acquire it now that he knew where it came from. All one had to do was kill one of the stronger beasts and they would have it.

“Hey, how strong are the beasts toward the center of the desert?” Alex asked. “You said the further in they are, the stronger they are, right?”

“I wouldn’t know how strong,” the old man said. “But I have heard about them being so strong that a single one of them could destroy our cities without anyone being able to protect us from them.”

“The only reason we’re safe is because those beasts stay in the center and never come out.”

Alex found that fascinating. “Do you have an estimate of how many people there are in Sunspear city?” he asked.

The old man thought for a moment. “Approximately 20 thousand,” he said.

Alex narrowed his eyes at that number. “And how many of those are warriors?”

“About a tenth, so 2 thousand.”

“And they can’t protect you from these beasts?”

The old man shook his head. “I told you, those beasts are very strong. If the rumor is to be trusted, even 10 thousand warriors of the caliber as Orla and Bajan here wouldn’t be able to protect us. You need warriors from deeper in to help.”

Alex paused for a moment. “Wait, what do you mean warriors from deeper in? Do you mean to say that people living deeper within the desert are stronger than the ones outside?”

Everyone simultaneously nodded at Alex’s question.

“They get to eat the flesh of the strong beasts they end up slaying, so they get stronger still,” the old man said. “It may be difficult to believe, but we are actually the weakest of the people in the desert. We live on the outskirts, killing the weaker beasts to survive.”

“The ones that stay further in are always much stronger.”

Alex grew more and more curious about the inner sections of the desert. He couldn’t wait to go there.

“Does anyone have any ideas on why the beasts are so physically stronger?” Alex asked. “Just consuming the flesh of another beast seems like an answer that goes around in circles.”

“Can’t be helped,” the old man said. “That is how things are after all. Maybe those people deeper in the desert know the answers. They live much longer than us, so their records must be extensive as well.”

Alex made the decision to head there when he could.

He soon fell silent, only his own thoughts accompanying him. The pebble floated around him, using just his mind. The others had yet to catch that.

Only one other beast attacked them before sunset, surprising Alex a little. He knew they were going to be safe for a while, but it was nearly 6 hours. It made no sense why they weren’t attacked at all at that time.

He asked the others if it was normal, and they said it was, but didn’t bother elaborating. So, Alex was stuck without an answer, wondering if the beasts were perhaps scared of them now.

His thought was immediately countered after the sun went down as a large brown toad showed itself from a large boulder it hid behind. The toad looked menacing, but its strength was nothing special at all.

It died rather quickly at the hands of the two warriors.

“These beasts gain nothing from sunhearts, but do they perhaps still try to consume it?” Alex asked. “Are they pulled by it instinctively?”

“I do not believe that to be the case,” the old man said. “Most of these beasts attack simply because we are moving and are thus a target. A select few of them may be able to sense the presence of sunhearts, which they associate with a stronger beast. Killing those beasts is their main objective after all.”

“Very, very few beasts actually know what is up and are aware of the dangers that come with a cold weather in the desert. You never see them, however, since they never show themselves when we’re around. They know that we are dangerous.”

Alex considered it a bit and nodded. It made a little sense.

They continued walking for a while, Alex still lost in his thoughts. As he kept on going, he saw a brief flash of yellow light from far away. The light came as quickly as it went away, leaving Alex a little confused as to what it was. His eyes weren’t good enough at the moment to see things with as much clarity as he could in the past.

His disturbed walking rhythm caused two heads to turn: one of Mabi and the other of her father.

“What’s wrong? Are you tired?” the old man asked.

“Nothing,” Alex quickly said, turning to look toward the distance again. He couldn’t really see anything this time around. He turned back toward his small group with a smile on his face.

“My apologies for slowing us down. We should continue.”