Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When Dumby placed one foot on the desert’s surface, it sank into the sand almost instantly.
It was as if it had stepped into a pit. Sand began flowing into the depression created by Dumby’s foot, threatening to swallow it whole like, a whirlpool.
Dumby viciously stamped its left foot on the sand, raising a huge plume of it into the air.
Both its feet were now stuck in the sand.
Flamy hovered down and hooked its claws into Dumby’s shoulder blades. With all its might, it flew up and plucked Dumby out of the sand.
Dumby looked at the desert that had almost swallowed it alive in bewilderment.
“The desert’s not the same as solid ground. You’ll need some time to get used to it,” said Gao Peng, trying to stifle a chuckle.
The desert sand was loose and almost fluidlike. In order to avoid sinking into the flowing sand, some level of control over one’s weight distribution beneath one’s feet was necessary, even more so for familiars of a wider girth.
Flamy circled overhead, cackling in the air as it watched Dumby flounder on the sand.
Da Zi had also taken off and was now zipping to and fro through the air, like a purple streak of lightning.
After a few tries, Dumby gradually learned how to properly walk across the desert surface. The trick was to bend its body slightly forward and tiptoe each step.
Suddenly, a gray sand snake slithered out from the sand beneath its feet.
It lunged at Dumby with lightning speed and sank its fangs into Dumby’s ankle!
After writhing about in the air for a few moments, the snake slunk back into the sand, leaving one of its broken fangs behind…
It was noteworthy that the Desert Ruler was a monster composed purely of sand. Its movements wouldn’t be impeded in the desert.
While Dumby could still walk normally across the desert, it would have a hard time maintaining its balance on the loose sand if it tried to exert itself.
As Dumby was now a Lord-tier monster, it could unleash a lot of destructive power with every move. Dumby also had a rather slender physique. It would probably sink itself into the flowing sand if it so much as sneezed.
A confrontation with the Desert Ruler was the last thing they needed right then.
Gao Peng’s face grew solemn. “Let’s not go too deep into the desert. We’ll just walk around here for a bit.”
Gao Peng and the others turned back and began walking along the desert’s periphery.
Gao Peng had been to the Dali Desert once before. However, the desert of back then was a lot different from the one they were walking through right now.
The air smelled of sand. From time to time, clumps of sand particles would hit them out of nowhere. Even though it was already November, the sun still shone high in the sky. The desert heat was almost unbearable.
“The sand here is… angry,” said Dumby slowly as it came to a halt.
“Angry?” asked Gao Peng.
“When a Lord-tier monster has been in a place long enough, its presence have an effect on the environment around it, including the air,” explained Dumby.
Gao Peng nodded. He remembered how cool and clean the White Dragon’s lake had seemed. At first, he had chalked it up to natural causes. Thanks to Dumby’s explanation, he now knew that this had been brought about by the White Dragon’s presence.
Sand was regarded by most as a flexible element. However, Gao Peng had never heard anyone call it angry.
He figured that whatever Lord-tier monster was in the depths of the desert, it must have been an ill-tempered entity.
Suddenly, the sounds of clashing could be heard somewhere in front of them. As sound couldn’t travel far in the desert air, the fight couldn’t be too far away from them.
Flamy flew higher up into the air and said, “Gao Peng, someone’s fighting off monsters up ahead.”
Gao Peng quickly led his familiars up a sand dune. On the other side of the dune, he could see someone clashing against a pack of wild monsters with his familiars.
These wild monsters didn’t share one unifying feature other than the fact that they were all brown and made of moving sand. Some of them looked like misshapen porcupines with sand spines squirming across their backs. Others looked like snakes slithering across the sand. A few of them had even sprouted seven arms on the sides of their bodies, baring fangs and claws at their prey.
There were at least 40 of these Sand Monsters in total.
The Sand Monsters had surrounded a ten-man party and their 20 or so familiars, who were now backing away slowly from the sand creatures.
Standing at the head of the party were their more defensive familiars, which were able to absorb the Sand Monsters’ attacks without sustaining too much damage thanks to their thick skin and muscle. It was thanks to their familiars’ line of defense that the party was still able to hold out against the Sand Monsters’ attacks.
A couple of cactus-like familiars were standing close to the party. They were around 16 feet tall and had their spine-covered arms stretched out in front of them defensively.
[Monster Name]: Savage Toothpick Cactus
[Monster Level]: Level 18
[Monster Grade]: Normal
[Monster Attribute]: Wood
[Monster Weakness]: Fire
They swung their arms out like baseball bats and sent a flurry of spines flying towards the Sand Monsters.
When the spines landed on the Sand Monsters’ bodies, they froze for a moment. Then they regained control of their bodies and continued advancing towards their prey.
Evidently, piercing-type attacks had little to no effect on Sand Monsters.
Gao Peng gazed coldly at the fight below. What he had now was an opportunity to observe the Sand Monsters’ collective behavior in a fight and their reactions to various attacks up close.
He had noticed that the cactus’ spine attacks had only caused the Sand Monsters to itch. He figured that only blunt attacks would have any effect on them.
A Black Steel Rhinoceros viciously charged at the Sand Monsters, its feet sinking into the sand with every step. When it collided against one of the Sand Monsters, the single tusk on its snout pierced through the Sand Monster and knocked what appeared to be a yellow heart out of its body. The Sand Monster trembled for a moment, then it collapsed to the ground.
Sand particles were now undulating around the yellow heart on the ground…
[Monster Name]: Sand Monster
[Monster Level]: Level 12
[Monster State]: Mortally injured (Unconscious)
[Monster Attribute]: Sand
[Monster Weakness]: 1. Ice 2. The sand core in its body can be destroyed. 3. Chopping off any part of its body will considerably reduce its overall power. It needs a lot of time to heal itself, which is done by absorbing sand from its surroundings.
The heart-like object must have been the Sand Monster’s core. A Sand Monster could be rendered unconscious if one forcibly removed its core from its body.
Gao Peng made a mental note of this.
Some of the Sand Monsters had gotten their arms ripped off during the battle. They picked their dismembered appendages up from the ground and slowly backed away from their prey. Then they held their arms to the stumps on their bodies.
A few minutes later, their arms were reconnected to their bodies. However, their movements now seemed even more rigid.
Suddenly, an idea dawned on Gao Peng. He willed Dumby, who was standing beside him, to touch his Heart of the Bloodseeker through the gaps of his ribcage.
Dumby’s heart began throbbing against his fingers…
This strange rhythm was pulling on every Sand Monster’s sand core, causing them to shrink inward!
Thump, thump, thump.
The Sand Monsters were slowing down.
The Sand Monsters’ bodies began to twist and turn as Dumby’s heart throbbed even more quickly. Their limbs were bent at impossible angles, as if they were all trying to do a robot dance at the same time.
Then there was the sound of breaking glass in the air.
All the Sand Monsters beneath Gao Peng had exploded into plumes of sand!
