Ryuji looked all around him. Tall dunes were the only things stretching around the whole land. The sky was blue and the sun shone brightly. A little too brightly maybe. The air was warm and was trying to absorb all the water from his mouth.

Right now, Ryuji was fine and just trying to take in the information about his surroundings. However, He knew one thing. Survival in desert was hard. Infact, he actually didn't know much about it. Other than the fact that the desert was unforgiving and scarce in resources.

Any opportunity to get food or water that arose in a desert needed to be taken. But why was he thrown here, of all places? He didn't know. He was still confused about why was he not in hell after everything that went there. It was extremely confusing and didn't make sense at all.

It's not that Ryuji isn't happy about being out of hell, it's just weird. It was weird for a story to be able to not just revive him somehow, but also help him make two new soul Cores, And then also pick him from one dimension and throw him in another. Even if he wasn't sure about what his story did, It just didn't make sense.

But Ryuji didn't have time to think that much. He was still in his best state, and a desert was supposed to be unforgiving. He needed to start acting as soon as possible and not waste his energy trying to come up with theories.

Ryuji's first thought was to check what the Remnants he had were. He didn't have any tools he could use in this barren place, and without them, survival could get hard. Being stuck in such a place was the last thing Ryuji would've thought of. But anyways, he needed to make do with it.

Ryuji thought of summoning the runes, and then they appeared:

Remnants: [One's Resolve], [Blamed Scholar], [Maroon Blade]

Looking at all the runes one by one, he summoned the first one's details.

Remnant Name: [One's Resolve]

Remnant Type: Armour

Remnant Rank: Embered

Remant Tier: II

Remnant Description - ["This Armour was made for a tribe raised for killing. Whenever your resolve to kill someone will grow, So will this armour's durability"]

Ryuji read the runes with a satisfying smile.

'An Armour? That's neat. Let's summon it and check what type of armour it is.'

Ryuji summons the armour, it's a red leather armour that covers most of his body except his head. It has a surface that is smooth to look, but rough to touch.

The armour fit him perfectly, as if it's been made for him specifically. Though not impenetrable, The Armour was much better than being defenseless. But in this barren place... He definitely didn't need it right now. So he dismissed the Armour back. It started dissolving into a rain of sparks, until it eventually disappeared and went back to his Soul Cores.

After a while, Ryuji summoned the [Blamed Scholar].

Golden sparks started appearing around his fingers and a golden lantern slowly started forming in them.

And as soon as the Remnant finished forming, a blinding light engulfed Ryuji's eyes and he got stunned for a second. He instinctively brought his hand in front of the Blinding light, but it was almost not enough all the time.

He even tried to move the Lantern in different directions, but the light that came out of the Lantern seemed to be aiming for his eyes specifically all the time.

Slightly irritated, he dismissed the Lantern and summoned it's runes:

Remnant Name: [Blamed Scholar]

Remnant Type: Tool

Remnant Rank: Embered

Remnant Tier: II

Remnant Description - ["The Blamed Scholar made a Lantern named after his Nickname and replaced it with all the lanterns in the village to slap anyone who called him that in their face."]

Remnant Enchantment: [Slap In Your Face]

'What the hell kind of tool is that?! And what is that enchantment?!'

Ryuji looked at the weird string of runes again and summoned the description of it's Enchantment.

Slap In Your Face - ["Whoever stands close to this Lantern will be slapped in their faces with a blinding light."]

Ryuji's eyes twitched with bewilderment, Afterall, he expected Remnants to be serious and important to this world, But this was Bizzare! Who the hell was the Blamed Scholar and why did he create such a Bizzare tool?! And why did Spider give him such a useless Tool!

But Ryuji could just sigh even though he wanted to slap whoever this Blamed Scholar was in his face. He just wished that the next remnant is not a useless Blade, but a Weapon he could use. He really needed a good weapon. Ideally a sword, but he could make do with any kind of blade.

So, wishing himself Luck, Ryuji summoned his third Remnant, [Maroon Blade].

A short sleek saber appeared in his hand after a few seconds of golden light and sparks shimmering in his hand. It's handle and Loop Guard was Maroon in color with the blade itself being slightly shiny red. Ryuji had never used a saber in his life before, but he could make do with it. It was enough for him.

He immediately summoned it's runes to look at it's description.

Remnant Name: [Maroon Blade]

Remnant Type: Weapon

Remnant Rank: Embered

Remnant Tier: I

Remnant Description - ["This blade was formed from the metal on an Abyssal's Armor and hence, is very durable"]

'Simple, and to the point. Let's not waste any more time then.'

Ryuji had already dismissed all the other Remnants, since he'd definitely not need them in a dead land. Or at least that's what he believes. Plus, he didn't want to get too hot inside the armour and lose too much water due to sweating. Letting any water waste in the Desert was like begging death to come to you sooner. And Ryuji was certainly not in the mood for that.

He looked around for a bit, Thinking of which way to go. Ryuji had always had a good intiution. Whenever he'd be in a situation where he needs to make a tough decision, or a decision where he knows nothing about the choice in front of him, he usually went with his gut feeling. But well, Ryuji doesn't like to call it his "gut feeling" for some reason. He just calls it his "feeling". And right now, he felt that he needed to go to his right.

Judging by the position of the sun, It was still early in the day. Probably around 7-8. It was concerning that it was so hot even during just 7-8 in the day. He didn't want to imagine what it would be like during the afternoon... But he was stuck here, so he'd have to experience it even if he didn't want to in just a few hours.

His Core had been accumulating Essence all this time. He could feel it filling up almost to half of it's capacity. It wasn't bad, it had been a few hours ever since he received his Soul Core afterall. Only if that Oblivion Core wasn't there... His Core might just have been full by now.

As all those thoughts went through his mind, Ryuji started walking towards the Direction he felt the most pulled towards. He had learnt the initial position of the sun today, and he'd continue to observe it for the whole day after this. That way, he will never forget what direction to go in. He wasn't sure the sun of Elysium worked in the same way Earth's sun worked, but right now it was the only reference point he could refer to.

The sand of the desert was hellish to walk upon. The dunes were almost like small hills towering very high. He hadn't heard of such tall dunes in his entire life. Though tall, all of them had variations to them too. Some were tall, spanning kilometres in height, some of them were short, reaching only a few meters. While some of them were devastatingly high, reaching at least 5-10 kilometres in height, and that was just a rough estimate.

On his way up through the dunes, Ryuji realised that he should learn about this Aspect as soon as he can. It sounded simple when one looked at it normally, but controlling a Lost Flame... Seemed interesting to him.

Currently he was trying to climb a dune that was a few hundred metres in height. He wasn't yet tired, and he had essence to spare. So, After reading about his Aspect once again, Ryuji raised his hand and thought of summoning the flames.

He felt a slight amount of power flowing out of his Soul Core into his arms, and a small black flame enveloped his hand. A slight Neon Green glow outlined the Flame dancing in his hand.

'S-So cool...'

Ryuji immediately dismissed the Maroon Blade and enveloped his right hand with the Black Flame too. The Green outline made it look especially menacing.

He inwardly willed the flame to get bigger, and the Flames grew. Enveloping the whole of his arms with it. Surprisingly, His clothes didn't burn at all, and Ryuji didn't feel even slightly hot.

Infact, he felt warm and comfortable enveloped in the Black Flames. He even felt stronger as the Soul Essence touched his muscles. And the part of his skin that the Black Flame danced on got as strong as stone.

"Whoa... That is just too cool."

But Ryuji wasn't necessarily gonna fight using his hands all the time. He was gonna use a weapon, Most definitely a sword. And right now he had the Maroon Blade with him. After a few seconds of thinking, he stopped the flow of Soul Essence through his body and the flames disappeared. The slope had gotten steeper, and walking on it had gotten a bit hard. This dune was still one that was just a few hundred metres high, but walking through a desert was an especially hard task. If not for his Awakened body, he'd have been breathing heavily by now.

He summoned the Maroon Blade in his right hand again and it slowly materialized into the Red Saber he knew. He lifted it up and inspected it for a while.

Then, He slowly let his Soul Essence flow into the Saber through it's hilt, and then activated his ability. The Saber immediately changed it's color, turning dark black. A dark flame with green outline started enveloping the Saber's blade in it's embrace and then engulfed it all. Suddenly, the blade seemed sharper... And even more lethal.

"This is way more versatile than I expected."

A satisfied grin appeared on Ryuji's face and he dismissed his sword back.

By the time his Saber disappeared, Ryuji was sweating and had lost a lot of water. He was even a bit thirsty. Not too badly, but enough to make him worried.

He had to do something about food too...

By now Ryuji was on top of the dune. He could see really far into the distance now. The desert was vast and incomprehensively large. More and more dunes stood in front of him. The only thing that attracted his attention the most was... Another Dune that was too big. Standing at least a few kilometres in height. The horizon was hidden due to it's towering peak.

As long as that thing stood tall, he wouldn't be able to look past it. And if he wants to have a chance of getting out of here... He needs to get on top of it.