Insects

"Should be around here, right?"

Soren descended slowly from the sky. He gazed across the barren Gobi Desert and murmured, "I remember the War of Golems started somewhere around here. It only spread elsewhere after those Golems went berserk."

"Hm?"

"Someone left tracks! Quite a few of them. Looks like an adventuring party!"

Tracking [Portfolio]!

As the deity who held the Tracking Portfolio, Soren spotted the marks on the ground at a glance.

The tracks were over a day old, and windblown sand had buried most of them. Even a Legendary Ranger might have gleaned little from them. But that was no obstacle for Soren. From traces nearly swallowed by the sand, he could determine the party's size and even the classes of some of its members.

"Sixteen people in all!"

"Judging by the depth of these footprints, this person must weigh over five hundred pounds. The prints are too small for a large creature, so unless I'm mistaken, it's a tall human. No human would leave prints this deep unless he was carrying a lot of gear. Otherwise, he must be a capable Heavy Warrior."

To carry that much weight day after day, Soren figured the man had to be at least a high-level Warrior.

"These tracks are so faint!?"

With his Tracking Portfolio active, Soren picked out even subtler traces. "A Halfling didn't leave these. Even they don't tread this lightly."

"A Monk, perhaps?"

"Looks like a party from the Eastern Realm!"

Strong.

Numerous.

From the Eastern Realm.

The clues in the tracks began to align with Soren's memories. Drawing on his Tracking Portfolio, he followed the party's route as though turning back time.

His Tracking Portfolio let him work backward from the marks they had left behind.

Though the sand had buried nearly all of them, Soren