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.
'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.
"Thank you"
Sitting next to each other, the party members which were on the verge of death moments before, were now happily munching on some jerky.
I was honestly quite shocked by how fast they recovered. Considering the state they were in when I found them, their recovery speed could be described as 'godly'. I mean, it only took them a little bit over 10 minutes before they were able to sit up straight and comfortably eat and drink the food that I gave them.
Then I realized, I was no longer back on earth.
Though I have reincarnated in this place for about 3 weeks, I was still not accustomed to this world's common sense, and rightfully so.
I mean, how can I adjust to this world's common sense after only having been here for three weeks?
It's not like I can rewire my brain to accept the fact that people could heal immediately when back in my previous world, in which I lived for 32 years, serious cases of dehydration would leave a person hospitalized for weeks.
I was now genuinely curious whether all the people who got reincarnated felt the same way I did.
Well leaving that aside, it seems like I was running low on supplies.
In terms of water, I still had quite a lot as my water bottle could hold up to 50 liters of water, but I was running quite low in terms of food.
I had only bought a couple of kilograms of food supplies, thinking that it would last me about a week, and rightfully so, as who would've been able to predict such a situation?
Moreover, since I was planning on staying here for at most 3 days, I didn't feel the need to bring more than a week's worth of food.
What makes matters worse is the fact that the monsters present in this dungeon couldn't be eaten.
Generally, monsters could be eaten but that depended on which monsters.
Some of the monsters which were found in some dungeons could be eaten, and when eaten could boost up a person's stats, however, that was only for a small minority of monsters, as most of them are inedible due to their meat being poisonous.
...and unfortunately for me, all the monsters in this dungeon were inedible.
"Guess I have no choice..."
Taking out a small black box from my bracelet, a slid the cover up and a small red bottom presented itself before me.
Right above the button, there was a small screen that showed fluctuating wavelengths, indicating the signal strength.
This black box, also known as the 'Safe box', was a device that is given to every member before they entered a dungeon.
By pressing the button, the black box would send a distress signal to the nearest dungeon guardian.
Once the dungeon guardian received the distress signal, they would report it to the dungeon operators, which would then swiftly send a rescue team to come to their aid.
The consequence of pressing the button was of course a loss in the deposit, but seeing how mentally exhausted the party was, I could only sacrifice my deposit.
When I was saving them, I did look for their safe boxes, but they were either damaged or malfunctioning.
...Probably from the fight they just had.
In the end, I was left with no choice but to use mine. At most I could just ask them to refund me since I was not using it for myself...
Taking one last look at the members who although physically looked okay but were anything but fine mentally, I decisively pressed the button.
-Click
-Ding! -Ding! -Ding!
As soon as I pressed the button, the black box started emitting rhythmic sounds that spread across the surroundings.
"Huh? strange..."
Initially, after pressing the button, everything seemed normal as the black box kept constantly beeping.
But it was only after seeing the weird looks the party was giving me that I noticed something strange.
Frowning, I took a look at the black box in my hand, and to my surprise the small screen that showed the wavelengths was flat.
Taken aback, I tapped on the back of the black box multiple times, as I wondered whether it was malfunctioning.
"It's no use"
Shaking his head, the first member whom I saved, the one who wore the bulky rhino-like armor spoke up.
"It was also like this for us"
Turning my attention towards them, I couldn't help but frown.
"Then why didn't you tell me beforehand?"
So in the end, the real reason why their safe boxes didn't work wasn't because they were damaged?
Smiling bitterly, the bulky member couldn't help but scratch the back of his head as he said "We still had a bit of hope that maybe the batch of safe boxes we received were malfunctioning and that maybe yours would work...but it seems like this is not the case"
Looking at the other members, who seemed to have lost all hope, my frown deepened.
"I see...there's this one thing that has been bothering me for a while, but what exactly happened to you guys? --Huh?"
As I was asking them about what had happened, which was my goal since rescuing them, I noticed them flinch in horror as soon as I posed the question.
Soon after, their body went rigid, and their eyes became hollow.
Startled, I stood up and looked around me.
"Hey! Hey!"
After making sure there wasn't anyone around, I went in front of them and tried to wave my hand in front of their faces but it was to no avail. Their complexion turned deathly pale as their teeth soon started chattering.
Soon, as if they were in a trance, they each simultaneously looked at the sky and started speaking nonsense.
"Please...no...I don't wan-...."
"No..no..Ah..AHHHHHH"
"Death....demon..."
"Lucy...I will be late for di..nner...wait for..papa"
"Lord..savior"
Although they were all speaking nonsense, one word specifically caught my attention.
"Demon.."
Turning my attention towards the person that said those words, a brunette young girl with two pigtails and clothing that were proof of her mage status, started spasming on the ground.
Soon after she started spasming, all the other party members showed a similar reaction as bubbles started coming out of their mouths.
"Oy, what's going on here?"
Startled, I immediately moved towards them and tried slapping their faces a couple of times to get a reaction from them...but it proved ineffective, as their pupils quickly disappeared alongside their pulse.
"Dead...dead...dead...fuck!"
Swearing out loud, I dropped on the sand and dazedly stared at the red horizon.
It wasn't their death that shocked me the most, but it was how they died and the last words that the girl said before dying.
"Demon..."
There was only one type of curse that could cause someone to die just moments after they recovered...
'Mindbreaker'
An especially vicious curse planted by demons.
It now became apparent that this was the work of a demon, as they were the only species that were capable of implanting this type of curse inside of a human.
Moreover, I believe that the only reason they were still alive was not because the demon let them go...no, it was because the demon wanted to torture them by making them suffer from dehydration and starvation.
"Sick fucker! Ahhhh!"
-Pa!
Punching the sand with all my force, fine granules of sand started falling from the area I had punched leaving behind a small crater.
Although it may perhaps be due to the shock of me witnessing people dying in front of me for the first time in my life, my emotions were in a state of disarray.
I could hardly think clearly, as the images of the party dying kept repeating in my mind over and over again.
The little details that I had missed prior to their deaths started replaying in my mind, such as the expressions they had before they died, and the last words they were struggling to say prior to their death.
'And here I was hating protagonists in novels who sympathized with deaths...'
Bitterly laughing, I thought back to the time that I used to leave hate comments on novels where the protagonist sympathized with the deaths of unrelated people.
It was only after experiencing this for the first time that I realized how bang on the authors were when depicting the raw emotions one felt when death occurred before them.
It was only now that I started realizing how cruel and fragile life was.
Since reincarnation in this world, I had mentally prepared myself for these kinds of situations, but...it is only after having experienced this first hand that I realized how daunting it is to see someone die before you.
After collecting myself, I took their identifications and everything I could find on their bodies before burying their bodies underneath the sand.
"huuu..."
Taking a deep breath as I calmed myself down, I realized that my decision in helping them was a good one.
...the main goal in helping them wasn't because I was a good two shoes...no, I frankly didn't care about them, the only reason why I was upset was because I saw people dying in front of me for the very first time...something that I had never been exposed to back in my past life.
Either way, the reason I helped them was because I wanted to know what had happened to them and fortunately, I had accomplished my goal.
Demon.
A demon was lurking inside of this dungeon...
Taking one last look at the burial site, I turned around and left the area.
Knowing that there was a demon here, I decided to go back to the entrance.
There was no way I was going to stay here any longer.
...
-Clank!
-Screeeeech!
"Haaah!"
A loud screech followed by a loud shout resounded across the surroundings as the silhouette of a small human could be seen fighting against a gigantic creature that looked to be the size of a small building.
The loud shout and screech were soon drowned by the sound of metal clashing against a hard surface as the small figure slashed towards the enormous creature.
"Huff...huff...huff"
Wiping the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, I stared at the enormous worm that was before me. Its features which looked like an enlarged version of a sand sprout became even more apparent as its figure emerged from the sand. The enormous razor-sharp teeth, which layered on the top of its four petal-shaped mouths bore down on me as its massive body dove towards my direction each time it attacked.
It's been precisely twenty minutes since encountering this creature, and because of its sneaky attacking method where it would continuously dive in the sand as soon as it attacked, and added with its enormous body, I was left totally helpless against it.
Previously, when I fought against sand sprouts, I would always target their mouth which was their weak point. However, because the boss monster was an enlarged version of the sand sprout, even though I wanted to attack its mouth the option was no longer feasible as my sword was like a small toothpick compared to the sheer size of the monster.
"Fuuuuu..."
Letting out a long breath, my right hand which was gripping on my sword that was sheathed in its scabbard suddenly clenched, and as I unsheathed it, a beautiful arc appeared in the air as I suddenly jumped backward.
-Schreech!
Without even bothering to hide its presence, the large worm arrogantly appeared from beneath me. Its large mouths which were riddled with sharp razor-like teeth opened widely as its enormous frame slowly appeared from beneath the sand.
-Clank!
-Crank!
Initially, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of my sword clashing against the hard surface of the worm causing me to lightly frown in annoyance, but my annoyance soon turned into delight as a small cracking noise could be heard from the hard surface of the worm as fine miniature threads that spread like cobwebs started appearing on the tough surface of the worm.
"Finally...my hard work has paid off!"
Delighted, I started attacking more fiercely.
10 minutes prior to now, I realized that if I were to continue to pointlessly attack the worm I would only find myself becoming food for the monster as I would eventually run out of stamina. Therefore, seeing that my current method was not working, I started devising a strategy.
Due to the sheer size of the monster, attacking its mouth was no longer an option. But, just as much of an advantage its size was, it also had a critical flaw.
Its speed...
It was incomparable to actual sand sprouts who shot like bullets from beneath the sand.
Not only were they faster, but they were also much harder to detect as their small size allowed them to reduce the number of vibrations they could create when moving underneath the sand.
Taking advantage of its reduced speed, I started attacking the same place continuously, in the hope of finally cracking its seemingly impenetrable exterior.
Finally, after 10 minutes of continuously attacking the same spot, a small crack appeared on the surface of the worm causing me to rejoice.
"Now it's time for the roles to reverse..."
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