Chapter 95: Double the Aura
Endless yellow sands stretched toward the horizon, with a burnished golden sheen under the blazing sun.
This was the signature golden sand of the Great Desert of Sarcoma. At a glance, the sand looked like real gold, explaining its moniker as the Golden Kingdom.
In truth, this had nothing to do with mineral wealth. Many years ago, a mage had cast the legendary Terraform spell on Sarcoma, irreversibly altering the desert's atmosphere. As sunlight fell, it left behind a dazzling brilliance on the sand.
All that effort was for aesthetics alone.
Sand was still sand. Once taken out of Sarcoma, it was no different from ordinary desert grit.
In fact, the desert was so blinding during the day that its inhabitants were forced to wear specially made sunglasses. Without them, they might go blind in minutes from the golden glare.
Deep beneath this gilded desert lay countless underground ruins, labyrinthine in scale, said to be remnants of a bygone civilization.
Despite Sarcoma's centuries-long excavation of these ruins, they had uncovered only the tip of the iceberg. Yet even the relics already recovered were enough to sustain the kingdom in lasting prosperity.
In some sense, the entire economy of the dwarven kingdom of Sarcoma was built on grave-robbing.