The sun beat down with aggressive intensity; its rays and the shifting sands made every step a chore. The air was so dry that a single breath felt like it was parching the throat from the inside out.
"Dammit, not again! And a Sandworm of all things? Scatter! Don't bunch up, or its charge will take us all out at once!"
Following the leader's command, three members of the four-person party fanned out, positioning themselves to encircle the Sandworm that had just burst from the dunes. The fourth member, still hauling a massive backpack, kept his distance. He nocked an arrow to his bow, eyes narrowed as he looked for an opening.
This party was among those who had accepted the request from House Silwa to subjugate the Spear Frog Anomaly Species. Naturally, they possessed a commensurate level of combat power. While they usually operated around B20F—not quite the elite of Exil, but comfortably in the tier just below—they were more than capable.
As members of such a party, even the man acting as their porter was expected to contribute. He did more than just haul gear; he provided ranged support with his bow. He lacked the precision and power of a dedicated Archer, of course, but his ability to provide covering fire was invaluable. For a party where the other three members, including their Thief, functioned as the vanguard, even minor harassment from a distance made a world of difference.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Raising a roar to fix the monster's attention on him, a man swung his pole-axe down at the Sandworm's rear. The creature began to pivot toward the sound, but at that exact moment, an arrow from the porter struck home. The projectile merely lodged itself in a non-vital area of the Sandworm—which exceeded 5m in length—but the pain was enough to make the beast snap its gaze back toward the porter.
"Shigyaaaaaaaa!"
In the next instant, the Thief, who had masked his presence to close the distance, slashed his longsword in a horizontal flash across the creature's flank. While most Thieves preferred daggers, in this party, he was a primary damage dealer.
"Uooooooooh!"
The follow-up came from the party leader, a Warrior wielding a spear. He delivered nearly 10 thrusts in rapid succession to the opposite side of the torso, his strikes sharp and lightning-fast. The spearheads buried themselves deep in the Sandworm’s hide, sending jolts of agony through its frame.
Writhing from the onslaught, the Sandworm tried to turn back toward the leader, but its fate was already sealed.
"Shigyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The man with the pole-axe put his full weight behind a final, crushing blow. In the next heartbeat, the Sandworm’s torso was torn asunder—not so much sliced as pulverized into two distinct pieces.
The monster let out a final death rattle before falling silent. Even so, the men remained wary, keeping their eyes on the unmoving remains and the surrounding dunes for any further threats. Only after several minutes had passed did the suffocating tension finally begin to lift.
Ever since descending to B11F, they had been harried by monsters almost non-stop. The leader turned to the porter, who was now approaching with his bow lowered.
"How are we for carrying capacity?"
"We're fine for now. But if we keep getting jumped like this, we'll hit our limit fast. We should stick to stripping only the high-value materials from this Sandworm."
"I agree. If we have room on the way back, we can pick up the bulkier stuff later. Everyone, start with the magic stone and the Proof of Subjugation Part!"
"On it."
The man with the pole-axe slammed his weapon into the Sandworm's hide to split open the belly. The porter and the leader joined him to assist with the material stripping.
However, less than five minutes later, the Thief—who had been standing guard—let out a warning shout.
"That sound... Tch, stop the harvest! We've got company from above! Skull Eagles... two, no, three of them!"
"Dammit, how annoying! Everyone, battle stations!"
They abandoned the Sandworm carcass immediately, readying their weapons against the avian monsters diving from the sky. These creatures were a grotesque sight; their entire bodies were composed of bone, save for their heads.
"Dammit, I’ll never get used to these things! Most of their bodies are bone, they have 'skull' in the name, yet they aren't Undead. What a nonsensical creature!"
"That's because they're monsters!" the leader barked back.
The porter raised his bow and loosed an arrow, knowing every little bit helped as the party plunged back into the fray.
"Heh. I suppose an oasis is a natural sight in a desert, even inside a dungeon."
"Guruuu!"
While other parties were busy struggling through one encounter after another, Rei, Elena, and Seto had reached a desert oasis. Their journey thus far had been surprisingly quiet; compared to the other groups, their encounter rate with enemies had been remarkably low.
...At least, it had been until now.
An oasis appearing suddenly in the middle of a wasteland was a magnet for life. For the monsters of this floor, it was the ultimate watering hole, and there was no chance it would be vacant.
"...They're here."
"Yes."
Rei muttered as he readied his Death Scythe. Beside him, Elena reached for the handle of her whip-sword. Seto crouched low to the ground, wings tensed and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
"Gyagya! Gyagyogyogyo!"
"Gyagaga, gyogyagyogyo!"
"Gyogyo!"
"Gyaggyaggya!"
Several monsters emerged, letting out those all-too-familiar, high-pitched screeches. Rei, Elena, and Seto all recognized them instantly. In terms of sheer fame, these creatures occupied the top tier of the monster world.
"Goblins, huh?" Rei muttered, caught slightly off guard.
"No, they are Goblins, but not the ordinary kind."
Rei looked closely at the nearly 10 Goblins surrounding them and immediately noted the discrepancies. Ordinary Goblins had green skin, but these were brown—or more precisely, sand-colored. Furthermore, while typical Goblins made do with clubs or rusted blades, these creatures held sharp longswords and daggers. They even wore leather armor fashioned from the hides of animals or other monsters.
Elena looked at the pack with interest. "They are likely a high-ranking species."
"Yeah."
A lone goblin was a pathetic opponent; even a commoner with basic training could usually kill one. However, they bred at a terrifying rate and matured quickly, giving the species the foundation to adapt to even the most hostile environments. Of course, only a tiny minority ever successfully evolved to suit their surroundings.
"Gyagigigigi, gyagyagya!"
The creatures chattered in their own tongue. Rei and Elena couldn't understand the words, but the intent behind the pointed blades was clear enough.
"So, they want to rob us? Using the people who are here to strip materials as a source of materials themselves... I suppose you could call that efficient," Rei noted.
"Heh. Bandit Goblins, then," Elena said. "What is the plan?"
"You don't even have to ask. They're a new species to me, so naturally, I'm going to kill them."
Since these monsters weren't in Zephyle's knowledge or any monster dictionary he'd read, a faint smile played across Rei's lips. Elena let out a small sigh at his enthusiasm, though she had no intention of letting them go either. She drew her whip-sword from its sheath.
"Guruu!"
Seto took a short running start and leaped into the air, flapping its wings to circle around and cut off their retreat from the other side.
"Gii, gyagyagyagya!?"
"Gigigigigii!"
"Gyagaga, gyogyojii!"
The Goblins seemed momentarily confused that their prey wasn't cowering; if anything, the humans looked ready to hunt them. However, a shout from the leader of the Bandit Goblins seemed to reassure the pack, and the confusion vanished. Even with a Gryphon like Seto looming over them, they showed no sign of flight. High-ranking species or not, they were still Goblins at heart.
(Are these things an Anomaly Species, too? No... probably not.)
As far as Rei knew, an Anomaly Species was typically a unique individual, like the Sword Bee queen, the Stone Puppet, or the Spear Frog they were currently hunting. It was unlikely for a whole pack to be anomalous. Still, something felt off.
(Pleiades and the others didn't mention Goblins being on this floor. That's a bit suspicious... Well, whatever. I’ll just kill them and bring the bodies back to find out. If they turn out to be an Anomaly Species, the success reward will be higher. And since there are so many of them, it won’t be hard to keep a couple of magic stones for myself while adjusting the corpse count to keep the guild happy.)
Deciding that his first priority was to clear the nearly 10 Bandit Goblins, Rei swung the Death Scythe in a lethal opening move.
"Flying Slash!"
The shockwave erupted from the great scythe. Having absorbed the magic stone of a Sand Snake, the skill had reached Level 3. While the number of slashes remained the same, the scale, power, and velocity of the attack had all seen a significant boost. The crescent-shaped blade of compressed air tore through the atmosphere toward the Goblins.
"Gyogyagyogyo!"
The goblin in the lead tried to bring its sword up as a makeshift shield, but it was far too slow. The slash severed its arms before cleaving through its torso. The vacuum blade sliced through the leader's leather armor and body with ease, and then continued on toward the Goblins standing behind it without losing a shred of momentum.
"Gyagyagyagyat!"
"Gyogyagyagyo!"
Two more creatures shrieked as their arms were lopped off. The first goblin's blood and viscera sprayed across the sand, while the two behind it collapsed as their severed limbs hit the ground. The desert sand drank the blood instantly, but the remains of meat and organs stayed scattered across the dunes.
"Haaah!"
Elena followed Rei’s lead, unleashing her weapon. Infused with magic power, the whip-sword assumed its whip-like form, its segmented blades lashing out to tear through the Bandit Goblins. With surgical precision, the tip of the blade pierced through one goblin’s forehead, ending its life in a single stroke.
"Gururururuuu!"
Before the Goblins could even process that half their number had been wiped out, Seto loosed a Water Ball. Two spheres of water, each 30cm in diameter, slammed into the remaining Goblins. Upon impact, the pressurized water shattered everything it touched.
The goblin hit in the head had its life snuffed out instantly. The one struck in the torso stared down at its own midsection in a daze for a few seconds. It reached out to touch where its flesh should have been, only to find a hollow void. It stared at its own entrails scattered across the sand with a look of utter disbelief before the light of life finally faded from its eyes.
The Bandit Goblins had clearly never expected such a one-sided slaughter from opponents they had viewed as easy marks. They screeched in chaotic terror, yet for some reason, they didn't flee. Instead, they launched a desperate counterattack against Rei and Elena.
Only two remained unscathed; the rest were battered and bleeding, their movements sluggish. Even so, they ignored Seto and lunged for the humans, perhaps reasoning that a person was a more manageable foe than a Gryphon.
It was a fatal miscalculation. Within seconds, the last of the Bandit Goblins fell silent, their corpses left to rot under the scorching desert sun.