It only took a couple of weeks for Ella and the gang to reach the desert. Each night beneath the stars was more time for her to explore Naela's body and a chance for her body to be explored. Ella had no idea that certain parts of her were hot spots, but Naela found them fast. The wyvern had a way of making Elanore sing.
Getting busy with her wyvern wasn't the only thing she did in her free time. Every day, she had Naela go out to hunt for herself and the wolves, and each day that happened Elanore spoke to her items. Not only that, she was trying to find a way to make Naela's dagger special.
Though, no matter how many items she found in the woods, none of them fit the bill for what she imagined. And she'd found plenty. The vampire was already starting to form a list of things in her inventory again.
At the very edge of the desert, the grass started turning into sand. Trees became sparser and dunes spread out in front of them. Elanore was lucky that her new body seemed to be immune to weather. Naela didn't have a problem with the heat either, but the wolves were suffering. Each of them panted, refusing to say outright that it was bothering them.
"You two have taken us far enough," Ella said, scratching beneath Duke's chin. "Why don't the both of you take a break inside of my inventory?"
Before either one of them could protest, she wrapped her pink mist around them, and both were sucked inside. Elanore broadcast her voice to a cauldron and shelf inside of her inventory. Both of you, take good care of them. They are going to be your cute little subordinates.
She received a smug answer from both items. Each of them seemed to take their new jobs as overseers very seriously. Why was that? Ella imagined that it was something like an evil minion being given control for the first time. She smiled wryly and asked them to play nice.
"Mistress?"
"Sorry, I had to make sure that my minions understood the pecking order."
Naela grinned before taking Ella's hand in her own. "What order am I in, mistress?"
"You are at the top, naturally."
"Just like in bed, mistress?"
Ella's face heated. "Hey! That is foul play. Let's focus on the objective instead."
In either life, Ella had never been to a desert before, so this was a first for her. She could tell that the dunes beneath her boots were hot. In the distance, waves spread out over the horizon, creating a mirage. The blistering sun didn't stop some monsters from living here though.
Before long, a group of large black scorpions started crawling over the sandy hills. "Bleh! I hate bugs. Is this desert really full of them?"
Elanore readied her staff, but a hand stopped her.
"Please, allow me to take care of them, mistress." The wyvern insisted upon it with a stern expression, so Ella didn't argue.
Naela raised her hand towards the sky, and a large pink dragon of flames formed in the air. It was a serpent eastern dragon, and it coiled above the poor scorpions. She slammed her hand towards the ground, and the dragon did the same. It roared as if it was alive, and hit the ground, burning all of the scorpions to a crisp.
Elanore watched with widened eyes. "Did you learn a new spell?"
"I have been practicing," Naela said. Though, her brief smile faded, and she mumbled in the next breath. "Still not good enough."
Elanore sighed and gripped Naela's hand tighter. "Hey, you don't have to worry about competing with me, you know?"
"It's not you, mistress."
"Was it that elf again? You came here with your party, right? We should really share more with each other."
Naela managed a nod. "I think so as well. I don't want to hide anything from you."
"How about this, then? We can do a story time beneath the stars."
"Would that get in the way of our other activities, mistress?"
Elanore felt her cheeks redden. "We can move those to every other day. We have been going at it a lot more since we left the city."
Naela smiled. "I will look forward to it. You still need to tell me all about your previous world, mistress. I am interested in learning the origins of some language you use. Like what are these trains and cars? What was the other thing, Sky Scaper?"
Ella chuckled. "That's right, and you will continue to teach me all about this world. You've been a good guide so far, and I love you."
The maid grinned. "I love you, too. I never thought I would feel this way."
Before the two could continue in their own world, a new challenger approached. This one was a gigantic lizard creature. Elanore performed her [Inspect] on it.
Race: [Postosuchus]
Age: 11
Sex: Male
Level: 45
Health: 230,000
Stamina: 201,472
Mana: 78,211
What? As in the one of the origins of crocodiles?
Elanore realized something while the creature was running at them. This world had a lot of Earth's dinosaurs. Naturally, the game had those dinosaurs as well, but there, it was a part of the game's world building. Here, it was simply a fact of life. It made her wonder if these creatures had been transported her from Earth somehow.
Naela didn't ask such questions. She stepped forwards once again, running straight towards the crocodilian. A spear of pink flames formed in her hand, and she launched it towards the monster.
The flaming spear ripped through the creature's mouth and out of its head, killing it instantly and burning its flesh.
"Hmm, not good. This one will be overcooked, mistress."
"Yeah, I don't care about that. Can you just get me the mana core, please? And thank you."
Naela ripped the core from its body and handed it to Ella.
The vampire cleaned the blood from the core's surface before pocketing it. "If you didn't want to burn it, you could have used your claws or something, right?"
"That would mean more work for the mistress. If I use my claws to rip it apart, you will have to cast your cleanse on me."
"Uh, didn't you just pull the core from its body?"
Naela gave a smug smile and showed Elanore her hand where there was no blood. "I have developed a new technique."
The wyvern coated her hand in a thin layer of pink flames, while Ella watched on in awe.
There was a small part of Ella that felt slightly envious of the wyvern. Everything Naela did was from her own hard work, and that was what led to this situation. I will just have to be better!
"Mistress?"
"Nothing! You are really amazing, you know that?"
"Really? I think the mistress is much more amazing than I am."
Elanore stuck out her tongue and hopped ahead of the wyvern. "We will just have to agree that we are both amazing!"
The vampire wondered if chugging energy drinks in a delusion to be reincarnated counted as hard work. Maybe that was all some goddess looking down at me with pity? A forsaken goddess, perhaps?
After going over the top of a hill, they arrived at the first change in scenery. Elanore stared at it. A tunnel?