The Ruined Death Knight

"Sasha! Can you help us out here?" A shirtless full of sweat man called out as he and his colleagues struggled to raise a rock in the building that they were building.

Hearing her name, the girl wearing a pure white robe with golden strands and holding a staff with a light blue crystal rushed towards the two men.

"Coming!"

Hasting her steps, her golden hair that was tied as a ponytail together with eyes of the same color as the crystal looked mesmerizing to the onlookers.

"How can I help you two?" She asked the man with a calm voice and refine voice which made her look more mature.

"Ehm...is it possible to raise this rock there for us?" The man asked while scratching his head in embarrassment.

Looking at the rock and the place where it needed to go, she nodded towards those two.

"Yeah, give me a second." Saying that she put forward her staff and started casting.

A few seconds later, the sands from the ground rose and elevated the rock towards where it needed to go.

With the sand carrying the rock going back to the ground, Sasha looked towards the two-man.

"Is it fine like that?" Sasha asked in a calm tone.

Frozen in amazement from what just happened, when the two of them heard her voice, they came back to their senses.

"Ah, yes, yes. You are a lifesaver, Sasha. Without you, I couldn't imagine how this village would still be standing on its own."

"Haha~you have overestimated me." Laughing with an awkward smile, she bit the two farewell as she moved on.

Not long after she heard her name being called once more for seeking her help.

"I am coming!"

Running towards to help out with her sand magic, she couldn't help but think of how this village was progressing at such a fast pace.

Having finished helping another group, she stared at the huge building looking like an ancient temple or tomb that worked as this village landmark.

`Well, calling it a village is a bit much, but...´

Seeing everyone working together with no conflict to be seen was bringing her some hope in this forsaken desert that everyone lived in.

This place back in the day was named the hollow dungeon by explorers as they were no treasures or monsters to be found. Considering that the mana around the place was barely enough to call it a dungeon, the name hollow dungeon was quite suited for it.

But now that hollow place was slowly turning into a village capable of flourishing.

"Chief Sasha! We might need your guidance for this part here!" Another woman called out for her assistance.

"You don´t need me to call me like that!" Sasha said with her cheeks getting slightly red.

And the name of that village was none other than `Sashia Village´, at least that's what everyone decided to name it as such, as they considered Sasha as their village chief.

Even though she personally didn´t like to have such a grand title.

Everyone still called her that way.

As she was the most combined for that title.

With her being a 3rd-tier magic caster capable of light magic to heal wounds and for what she was most famous of, her sand magic. Her skills were crucial for everyone's day-to-day lives.

Nonetheless, she managed to convenient a merchant from coming here to trade his goods with them, making the village grow without showing any signs of stopping.

"Sigh, I am tired..." Sasha sighed as she stared at the sun going down to let the darkness of the night takes his place.

Sitting on top of one of the boxes resting, a fairly thin man with a tall build and black hair walked towards her.

"Hello, Ms. Sasha, may I sit beside you?"

"Or would you rather be called chief Sasha?" The man said with a wry smile on his face.

"Stop calling me like that, Marco. I already heard that from everyone else..." Sasha replied with a growth in the end.

"Hahaha, sorry, I couldn´t help it since I've been hearing everyone praising you and all."

"For a merchant, you seem to have quite the free time if you can hear such useless stuff." Sasha rolled her eyes on him.

"I-"

"You know, I never actually planned for this place to become so big. Originally I came here with some other Explorers because my grandma told me about this place when I was a small girl learning magic. She told me that this place is special that holds relics of the past."

"But as you might know, the place was hollow, neither relics nor something special as my grandma told me. Worst of all, we got caught up with a month-long sandstorm. If it weren´t for that huge building over there keeping us safe, then this village wouldn´t have existed."

Hearing that, Marco nodded his head.

"You're right, with the sandstorm being fairly common, creating a village without the people getting swept away is impossible. Wherever the village is created or the people are burried alive, fate decides it. But with this huge building already in place and the area being around other villages not far away, us merchants and explorers don´t have to play with the dice of fate."

"And for that, I thank you for creating this place Sasha, without you, many people would have died," Marco said while lowering his head slightly.

"Sigh, stop it, I just kept this place together with the help of my magic. That´s it." Sasha said with a sigh.

"And that´s already good enough. Who knows what this place would have become if bandits took control of it. I wouldn´t be able to sleep soundly knowing that every trip lies the danger of some bandits chasing my goods and looks." Marco said with an execrated face.

"I mean, with you sand magic, none one dares to make a move and everyone behaves."

Hearing her magic being praised, the boring look that Sasha had vanished.

"If you have to thank anyone then, that would be my grandma. As she was my teacher on the ways of magic." 

"Even the sand magic that you use?" Marco asked interested.

"Yeah, she was a great woman and a much greater magic caster than I am. You could say that she was my role model. Everything that I know about magic comes from her. I still remember when she raised giants made out of the sand, where I in turn am only capable of this..."

Pointing her staff to the ground, the sands shifted and started raising into the form of a humanoid sand soldier.

Marco from the side, even though he had already seen those things before, he was still amazed by the sight of the sand soldier wearing armor and a voulge made out of the sand.

"Compared to the giant that is 20 times the size of this, I still am quite lacking," Sasha said with a bitter smile on her face.

`No, Sasha. You are wrong. For the age of 20, a magic caster such as yourself comes only once every few centuries, if not at all. It´s just that your grandma is a monster of different scales.´ Marco thought but not said out loud, knowing that it was quite rude calling someone's grandma a monster.

Even if it´s the truth.

"Your grandma must have been impressive then." Marco decided to say instead.

"I bet though that you will be able to reach her level in no time. After all, you are quite young compared to your grandma. I wouldn´t mind betting a bag of gold coins in you suppressing her in the future." Marco said joyfully.

"Hmpf, just a bag of gold coins? Isn´t that you not having confidence in me? At least bet you whole carrier while being at it."

"That´s it..."

Seeing his awkward face, Sasha couldn´t help but laugh at him.

`Though the work around the village is quite tired some. Times like this aren´t too bad.´ She thought while looking at Marco´s face.

While those two were enjoying there chatting with each other, a man who was walking not far away from them looked through the distance and noticed something.

A dark golden light lightens up as fast as it disappeared through the distance.

The man who saw rubbed his eyes and looked towards that direction, only to see no such light.

"Did I push myself to the point that I am seeing stuff?" The man asked himself.

But as he was to turn his head to the other side, he saw a massive sandstorm like a wave coming directly coming towards them, the Sashia Village from the same direction where the light appeared.

After glancing at the far-away sandstorm for a few seconds to make sure he wasn´t seeing things, his face paled as he noticed that the sandstorm was real.

"Everyone! A Sandstorm is coming! Go the landmark!" The man yelled before running away.

Hearing that, many looked around and noticed the sandstorm coming their way.

"Dammit, I heard that a sandstorm passed through his area, but to think that it will come here too! Sasha! We need to move away!" Marco called out to Sasha.

Nodding her head, she standing up to leave.

But the longer she stared at the sandstorm, the bigger her frown turned.

"This isn´t a normal sandstorm...." Sasha mumbled as he followed Marco with her staff in her hand.