Struggling to Survive in Hell Difficulty

Chapter 109.

As we both continued to walk with Shimm leading the way, I could see that we were slowly getting closer to the marked location. Thinking that it would be bad to be late to react like before, I enhanced my eyesight first before taking out my weapon. That seemed to alert Shimm as he began moved behind me, obviously using me as a shield.

Just as I wanted to retort about it to him, the half-transparent guiding arrow suddenly disappeared, indicating that I was already close to my destination.

"........."

I expected to see some movement on the field or at least some system message appearing and mentioning a Quest, but nothing of that sort happened. Even after waiting for five minutes and my MP dropping to less than 85%, I could not see anything in the vast expanse of desert around me.

"...you know, the engineer group is not just a group of people hastily gathered together."

Surprisingly, Shimm began to reminisce about the past... about his companions that he might have lost.

"At times, we would have discussions that could go on for hours, challenging the limits of our imagination. We envisioned what we could make if we had what materials, imagining grand structures and even innovative machines that might help the people of Dune and push the boundaries of machinery even further."

"........."

"Even when the group was obviously demoralized after the sudden monster attack, we still managed to keep our spirits up because we were together. It was the first time I felt I belonged somewhere aside from Bullet and Millet..."

...I thought he was going to say something important, but it seemed like he was just monologuing for no reason. The realization made me heave a silent sigh as I began scouring the area once again.

{So, what exactly are you doing right now?}

"...isn't it obvious? I'm trying to find something in here."

I tried going over the wreckage which seemed to be what was left of a collapsed defensive wall or some building, but I did not find anything as far as I could tell. Seeing that Shimm was still following behind me, it did not seem like there would be any monsters attacking this close to Dune.

{Why are you searching for it in such a... primitive way?}

"...which spell is going to make it easier for me to find something?"

{What is this 'something' you are looking for?}

"I'm not sure. Maybe a person, a monster hiding somewhere, or just some trinket that fell off and got half buried in the sand."

TIZ fell silent for a moment, but soon her thorny message window gave the answer that I needed.

{Try using the same spell you used to scour the map, but try to limit the range}

"...limit the range..."

{Just focus on the extent of the area you are looking for. With your current Mana... Perhaps a kilometer should be enough}

"I'm not going to collapse after casting the spell, right?"

{As long as you are not careless or forceful with your approach}

I had no idea what she meant by careless or forceful by casting spells, but this was something I could only execute with the Enlightenment system, so I could only trust the system would not stab me in the back.

"...first, focus my senses to my surroundings..."

I folded my legs as I sat on the sandy ground and breathed out, taking a posture as if I were meditating. I tried to feel the coarse sand beneath my body and spread my consciousness to feel everything around me. Remembering the sensation similar to a sonar detection system, I tried to control the 'ripple' so it did not spread too far from me like before.