The Author's POV

Chapter 27: Dungeon [3]

Using my sword to turn over the body of the monster that I just killed, I speculated that it was some sort of sandworm variant.

Everything from the top and bottom resembled a worm, however, its mouth once opened resembled a four-petal flower. But unlike flowers, it was anything but pretty.

If one looked closely, once the worm-like monster opened its mouth, chainsaw-like teeth sharply protruding from the edges of its mouth would meet your sight.

Its exterior which was as hard as titanium had some sort of mucus-like substance excreted from its body.

-Tshh!

Using my finger to pick up some of the mucus, I felt a stinging sensation on my finger prompting my brows to involuntarily frown.

'Could this mucus be the reason why they can travel in the sand like a fish swims in the ocean?'

Examining the mucus up close, I took a look at the area where the worm was, and from there I could instantly understand how the worm was able to move freely in the sand.

The mucus that the sandworm-like creature excreted had some sort of acidic property which slowly eroded the sand around it, enabling it to move freely in the sand.

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'Fascinating…'

Wiping the mucus on my finger with the sand, I placed the corpse into my bracelet.

Taking my phone out, I opened the monster encyclopedia and quickly scrolled down the list.

After scrolling for a bit, I finally found a monster that matched the description of the monster I killed.

==========================

Name : Sand sprout

Rank: F-D rank

Description : Monster that is typically found in desert regions, and is around the size of an adult arm. If caught off guard, with its razor-sharp teeth the sand sprout can easily tear off the limbs of its prey, rendering them immobile. Has extremely durable skin that is as tough as titanium, and excretes a strong acid measuring at around a ph of 1.

Weakness : Mouth, the only area that is not protected by its tough outer exterior.

Location : [Everlasting sunset], [Dunes of sorrow],[Lord's wrath],…

==========================

"ph 1?"

Raising my brow, I looked at my finger, which previously touched the mucus-like substance.

Fortunately, apart from my finger being slightly red, there seemed to be no abnormalities.

'It looks like consuming the [Seed of limit] helped my body become stronger…considering that an acid of ph1 is nothing to me anymore…'

Putting my phone back in my pocket, I continued venturing deeper into the dungeon in hopes of finding the boss of this area.

During the journey, for every monster that I killed and knew nothing about, I would look through the monster encyclopedia app on my phone in hopes of finding more about them.

-Screeech!

-Phfttttt

Without even looking at what attacked me, I stabbed my sword to the right and once I felt my sword become heavier, I tapped my bracelet.

"38…"

So far, the most dominant monster present in this desert-like place was the sand sprout, and since I have fought about a dozen of them, I could more or less predict their movement now.

First, if you paid close attention, right before they attacked, you could feel a slight vibration beneath your feet. With this slight vibration, I could approximately determine when they were going to attack.

Moreover from what I observed, they never attacked the front, which meant that they would only attack my right, left, or back.

Knowing this, whenever I feel a slight vibration coming from beneath the sand, I could reduce my scope of concentration and react faster.

Secondly and most importantly, for some odd reason whenever they attacked they would always let out a loud screech.

Because of this, judging the precise position of where they are going to attack was easy.

However, even though they were extremely fast, even if they did screech before they attacked, due to their tremendous speed not everyone could react in time, falling victim to their ambush.

But once you knew their pattern, they were essentially the easiest monster to deal with.

"huh, what's that?"

Squinting my eyes, a couple of kilometers from my location I could see a couple of silhouettes that looked like humans.

They seemed to be in some sort of mess, as they were all not moving.

"Party wipe?"

It wasn't that uncommon for parties to be wiped inside of a dungeon, as a lot of things can go wrong in one.

"Should I help…"

To be honest, I didn't have any obligation to help as everyone was on their own inside of a dungeon…but from the looks of it the party has at least 5 people, so what could cause them to be in this situation?

Let's calmly think this through…

Could they possibly be trying to arouse a passerby's pity, and then suddenly attack them when they let their guard down in hopes of stealing their loot?

Hmm…Probably not.

First off, considering where we were, chances of finding anyone nearby was extremely low so this sort of scheme wouldn't work here.

Even if it was like that, I didn't think they could beat me…

Slap!

Slapping myself hard on the cheek, I continued staring at the people in the distance.

I almost reverted back to my arrogant self.

There were five people in total, furthermore, since they were in an F rank dungeon, they were all most likely either F rank Heroes or Villains.

Although I was confident in my strength, I shouldn't be confident to the point where I could defeat five F-ranks without coming back unscathed.

The more I observed the more I was sure that they weren't trying to rob people, as they genuinely looked like they were in distress.

Now the real question was whether I should help them…

If I did help them then it would mean that some of my supplies would be cut short as I would have to share some of it with them, but that aside there's one thing that's been bugging me since the beginning…

Why haven't they called for help yet?

Although from a distance it looked like they were all dead, if one looked closely, they were all breathing.

Moreover, some of them were even moving, albeit lightly.

I was sure they would've had no problems sending a distress signal and wait for help.

But why weren't they?

This situation was very odd.

Part of me wanted to just leave and ignore them, but my instincts were telling me that if I were to leave right now, I may come to regret it later on…

"Ah…screw it!"

lightly sighing, I jumped down the sand dune I was on and slid my way towards where the party was.

"Screw it, even if it's a trap I'll just escape"

Although I had my suspicions, it was better to be safe than sorry…

More than me wanting to help them, it was more about figuring out what had happened.

There was simply no way a party of five F ranks could be reduced to this state in an F rank dungeon.

Even the boss monster would have a tough time against five F ranks.

As I edged closer to their location, there were evident signs that a battle had taken place. Typically the sand in the desert was shaped in little waves, however, here the sand was all over the place as craters could be seen everywhere.

Judging from the state of the surroundings, a big fight had taken place. However, oddly enough, there were no monster carcasses around the area.

Normally when fighting against a monster, you would see signs of blood everywhere or some sort of sign that a fight against a monster had taken place.

But as I observed closely, apart from some red blood, presumingly coming from the party members, there wasn't anything that suggested that they were fighting against a monster.

The more I thought about it, the odder the situation was…

Actually, now that I thought about it, why were they still alive?

Normally, once you fought against a monster, there were only two endings.

Either you die or they die.

Nothing else.

But here, although the party was injured, they were still alive.

Did this mean that they weren't fighting monsters but another group?

But even then, why leave them alive?

Something strange was definitely happening here, and if I wasn't careful enough I could get implicated in this as well…

Arriving before the group, I noticed all of them staring in my direction with blank eyes, but even though they seemed to be able to sense me, they didn't seem to be able to speak nor process what was happening.

No, rather than the fact that they didn't seem to be able to think, it was more like they were too dehydrated to think. This further added to the numerous questions that had piled up in my mind.

How long had they been like this?

To be dehydrated to the point of not being able to speak, how many days have passed since they had been attacked?

The more I looked at this situation, the more questions emerged in my mind.

Arriving before the party, I quickly headed to the individual that was nearest to me.

Wearing a massive armor that resembled a rhinoceros, I tried to flip his body which was facing sideways.

Gripping the massive plates of metal on his forearm, I tensed my quads and tried to flip his body over. Feeling the enormous weight of the armor, I silently cursed at the fact that I had chosen to help him first. Not only did it resemble a rhinoceros but it also weighted like one!

Judging from how much I was struggling, I presumed the armor was at least a hundred kilograms.

-Clank!

Finally, after struggling for a bit, I managed to flip his body upwards.

Kneeling down on one leg, I quickly lifted his helmet off his face to get a better look at him.

"Dry lips, void, and dilated eyes…the situation is much more dire than I originally thought."

Checking his conditions, everything pointed to the fact that he was extremely dehydrated.

Not only was his skin extremely dry, but his muscles constantly twitched, showing how serious the situation was.

Seeing that I didn't have much time, I quickly tapped my bracelet twice and a water bottle appeared before me.

Placing the water bottle in his mouth, I slowly watched as he struggled to open his mouth.

Although it seemed like he knew that a water bottle was placed in front of him, because he was too dehydrated, his brain had already started shutting down.

Seeing this, I tilted the water bottle and let the water fall into his mouth.

"Gulp…gulp…gulp…"

Initially, as the water fell into his mouth, he took slow gulps, but as time passed the light gulps slowly turned into big gulps, and slowly but surely, his eyes which had lost clarity returned to their normal state as he frantically drank the water.

Watching him greedily drink the water, I let out a wry smile and turned to the others.

Looking at them, they seemed to be in similar conditions to the guy who I had just helped.

Because I only had one water bottle, I could only wait for him to finish before helping the others.

Fortunately, because the water bottle could store up to 50 liters of water, I didn't have to worry about running out of water.

"Kh…th-a-nnngg"

"Shh…eat this while I'll help the others"

Regaining some of his strength, the guy who I had just helped tried to speak, but I immediately shushed him and gave him some jerky to eat.

Although I wanted to know exactly what had happened, he was still in a bad state.

Right now the main priority was helping the others, I could find time to talk to him once everyone else was fine.

Taking the water bottle from him, I went to the next person and a similar scene repeated before me.

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