Starting from Zero

Book 4, Chapter 24

Monster

            As the Warrior said, the terrain isn"t niceto horses. Or nightmares. Night Shade soon began to have trouble lifting hishooves. We could only choose paths that looks more solid. All the camel riderswould run past us at ease. Now I know why they"re called the ships of thedesert.
　　
　　    EventuallyI had to de-summon Night Shade and walk on my own. I can move faster this way!

           Thesun feels terrible but I must admit the scenery here looks quite equisite.
　　
　　    Myfeet suddenly sunk. d.a.m.n it, quicksand!

           "Rosa!"

            Poom. A tentacleshot out of the surface while lifting up a lot of sand. Looks like the softarea is quite suitable for Rosa to move around.

            The tentacle pulled me tosafety.  I"m seeing fewer players now, probably because the deeper part can bemore dangerous.
　　
　　    "Helpme!"

            I heard a faint cry. But it"s coming from...underground? It soundsm.u.f.fled.
　　
　　    Ifollowed the voice, ran over a small dune and saw it"s source. An a.s.sa.s.sin isstruggling in the sand. He wears a strange shaped mask which covered his face, so I can only see his eyes and a small portion of his mouth. I have no idea what he"s wearingbecause he"s immersed under the sand. Only one of his hand and the head arevisible now.
　　
　　    "Relax!!"I jumped off the dune. "Don"t move! It will kill you faster!" (*)
　　
　　    Heheard me and stopped moving. I ordered Rosa to stretch a tentacle towardshim. Even Rosa can"t enter the quicksand area so we can only pull him from faraway.

            "Catch it!"

           He grasped the tentacle and we successfully pulledhim out.
　　
　　    "Thank--thanksfor that! I thought I"m done for." He sat on the ground and breathedheavily. "I"m [Merciless Heart], a Killer. Just call me Merciless. May Iknow your name, maam?"
　　
　　    "I"mZiri. Male. Don"t call me maam or I"ll throw you back in there."

            I didn"ttell him my cla.s.s. He can guess on his own. I don"t like lying anyway.

           "But a.s.sa.s.sinsusually don"t level up in deserts?"
　　
　　    Hedidn"t question me, probably because he believed I"d throw him into the sand forsure.

           "I"m not leveling." He stood up. And woah this guy"s tall. That"sat least 180 centis. He looks good too. But that body doesn"t look reallystrong because of those a.s.sa.s.sin tights. Jealous. I"m only 172, I look miserablewhen standing beside him.

           "I got a quest which needs me to kill some monsters here anddiscover the hidden desert road."
　　
　　    "Thatsounds fun. What"s the reward?"
　　
　　    "10thousand crystals, an egg and a champion badge." He didn"t keep any secret."But it"s a unique quest. If I accept it then no one else can. You canteam up if you wish. The quest said I"ll need a lot of helpers. It will notgive us any extra reward so I tried coming here alone."
　　
　　    "IfI join you I will share the loot you know?"
　　
　　    "Yousaved me, let"s consider it a thank-you. Besides if I die thequest will fail."

           He sent a team request without waiting for my answer.

           Interesting.I accepted it.
　　
　　    Myquest recorder beeped. Yup, I got the quest too. The destination is not far. We"llreach it soon according to the map. The description didn"t say much so I canonly ask Merciless again.

            "What monsters are we fighting?"
　　
　　    "Ithink they"re called [Army Bugs] or something." He shook his head. "I don"t knowwhat they look like yet. this is only the third time I actually come to adesert."
　　
　　    "Really?"

           So he wandered here without knowing what he"s doing? I got the feeling thatthis will not be easy. Considering the rarity of companions eggs, this questmust be really difficult. And the money reward is not bad either. It evenmentioned that a team is required. So it either involves something that needs alot of teamwork, or a strong boss which is impossible to face alone.

           And hestill came on his own! I should have asked for more information before I joinedhim. Shoot.

           "Did you ask for any information around the place before youcame?"
　　
　　    "Why?I can just come and see for myself." 　　
　　   

           Dang!A total quest noob!

           I can"t quit now. I saw the penalty for failing the quest, I"llneed to pay a lot of items plus losing a level. f.u.k. I should have used mybrain more.
　　
　　    "We"rehere!" Merciless stopped abruptly.
　　
　　    "Huhwhat?" I"m still worrying about the bad outcome in my mind. "Already?"
　　
　　    "Overthere." He pointed to a burrow located on a sand dune ahead.
　　
　　    Wecarefully approached the burrow and poked our heads inside. Nothing, it"s alldark. 

            Sssssss!

            Something caught our attention behind us, and we jumpedwhen we looked back. It"s a pale brown colored monster that looks like a crab. Luckilyit"s also shocked to see us. It must be intelligent. I"ve noticed from previousexperience that intelligent monsters can sometimes get distracted or surprised,while dumb ones just charge at people without thinking.

　　
　　    Idrew my sword and moved to the monster. I"d hope to keep my ident.i.ty a secretbut protecting my life is more important.

           I swept at its legs instead ofattacking its body, since that sh.e.l.l looks pretty hard. Cutting its thin legsis a better choice now.
　　
　　    Mysword easily broke six of its legs. Obviously it never learned how to standjust using two legs so it collapsed down with a BONG.

           "Run!!"

            Idragged the dumbfounded Merciless and ran away. He recovered soon and ran evenfaster than me. But neither of us made it to safety.
　　
　　    Agiant wave of sand was pushed into the air. The dune disappeared, and now morethan 300 monsters are standing at the place. They"re bigger than the one wejust met. They look like those hairy tarantula spiders found in forests, eachone is no smaller than a water buffalo!
　　
　　    Mercilesstook out his dagger. "Careful now. [Desert Tarantula], level 507. They don"tusually stay in big groups but we must be really unlucky today."
　　
　　    "...Doyou know that monster I just cut?"

            I already identified it. And I know thiswill end badly the moment I heard the name of these monsters.
　　
　　    "Whatwas it?" 　　
　　   

           "[DesertTarantula Queen]!" 　　
　　   

           "Huh??But they look so different!"
　　
　　    "Toobad then! It"s the truth!"

            I"m already thinking up plans. Using Lucky tostrike from above may be a good idea.
　　
　　    Butsomething else went wrong before I can make the move. The ground shook. Then ablack, smooth, half-sphere shaped object appeared behind the spiders. And Irecognized it! That mirror-like back...Iron Beetle! So they can live in deserttoo??
　　
　　    Thesmall b.u.mp raised quickly, followed by its body. Then a second, a third IronBeetle.

            Now this is serious trouble. We wandered into a monster nest.
　　
　　    "Whatthe h.e.l.l are those??" Merciless doesn"t know about the beetles.
　　
　　    "[IronBeetle], level 650, with insane defense! You aren"t gonna damage them!"　　
　　   

            "Nokidding? What about that thing behind us?"
　　
　　    "Behindus??"

            I turned back and, sat on the ground. The burrow we saw iscompletely gone. An Iron Beetle, three times larger than the other ones, isstanding there! I don"t need to use my skill to know that it must be an IronBeetle King!

            "I got an idea!"
　　
　　    "Whatis it??" 　　
　　   

            "Werun!!"

            I run ahead while Merciless reacted a bit slower. The beetle kingbreathed a green flame beam, Merciless simply disappeared.
　　
　　    Ikept running. My private chat came up.

            "Ziri? I was killed!"
　　
　　    "Iknow! That thing"s at least 700, insta-killing a squishy cla.s.s is too easy for it! Now leave me alone I"m trying to survive here!"

            I cut the chat.The spiders are already hot on my tail. I can"t get away without Night Shade!

           "Lucky!"

            I jumped onto his back. The ground is a killing zone!
　　
　　    BeforeLucky can take off, a white object flew towards us. It hit Lucky but didn"t doany damage...? 

           But it locked us onto the ground!

 　　
　　  That"s a lump of spider silk. Countess silk wires are attached behind Lucky"sbody, and a group of smaller spiders are pulling on them, keeping us in place!
　　
　　    "Everyonecome out!!" I summoned all of the companions and servants. I can"t getaway so I have to fight it!
　　
　　    Phionaquickly cast a fire wall, separating the monster group from us for the moment, whileburning the web away. I called the Phantom Knight leader over and began toa.s.sign tasks.

            "Take your knights and block those Iron Beetles. Phiona, useyour AoE fire skills inside monster crowds. Loong"er, can you do something toprevent the beetle king from moving?"
　　
　　    "Ican use my sealing spell but it will only last for a short while." 　　
　　  

            "Doit then! Lock up the monster king. Phantom come with me. Rosa, disrupt theirmovement, and pick out the small spiders when you can! Dart, run around themonsters and distract them. Night Shade... stay far and support us with yourspells. Lucky attack with me! Let"s do it!"
　　
　　    Phionacancelled her fire wall and began to use ma.s.sive burning skills. Blue flamecovered a huge area, causing the spiders to run amok.

           "Lucky, dragon fire!"That"s a perfect skill when the enemies are stuffed together.
　　
　　    Luckyreleased a fire beam and cleared out a straight path across the monster group. ThePhantom Knights took the chance and sprinted through the monsters. They can"tuse their horses now but they"re already fast on their own.

           When the path gotfilled up by monsters again, the knights are already closing in on the otherIron Beetles. I took off my wizard robe. No need for that now.

            I drew my doubleswords and jumped into the spider horde 
　　
　　    Luckywent airborne and helped me clear monsters nearby, I moved towards thelegless spider queen while killing anything in my path. The tarantulas realizedmy intention and all moved to intercept, which only helped Lucky to get morekills with his dragon breath. Each flame beam would kill or hurt a dozen spiders.
　　
　　    Abigger spider jumped from the horde. I"m defending myself from all the otherones in front of me and I don"t have time to block this one!

           I hope I"m aspider now. If I have eight legs--gah!
　　
　　    Ithrust the dragon tooth sword in my right hand into a spider"s maw. Green fluidcovered my face. The sword is stuck in the corpse. I simply gave it up, aimedmy hand at the falling spider and released my dragon cord.

           Pssh! The spider issplit into half. Another wave of green blood showered me from head to toe.

           Ispun around while waving the dragon cord in a full circle, creating a series ofgreen fountains around me. I just realized the cords are better weapons now! But it"s not perfect. Cutting stuff with the cords will consume my MP. That circleattack did kill a lot of spiders but it only left me with less than 20 MP!
　　
　　    Anotherspider jumped towards me. I can"t use the cord now so I used a Soul Chaser boltinstead. It"s a waste but I don"t have choice now!

           The bolt went through thespider. I shot another bolt, a common one this time, and hurt another jumpingspider.
　　
　　    WhenI"m trying to finish off the second one, a giant force pressed me onto theground. A tarantula got onto my back!

           But it soon disappeared. I turned to seeLucky"s tail just did a perfect homerun. He tried to sweep away more spiders. Itdidn"t work well because there are too many!
　　
　　    Aftersome stressful fighting I noticed my burden is being relieved somehow. The spiders aremoving away?

           I looked around and saw the Phantom Knights coming towards me. TheIron Beetles are all corpses!
　　
　　    Rosasneaked under the spider queen and wrapped his tentacles around it. Poof! Theentire body of the spider was dragged underground. I don"t know if that"senough to kill it because I don"t have time to check. My EXP bar is already flyingdue to all the kills.
　　
　　    Theknights reached me. These spiders are completely defenseless against them dueto the big level gap. They are killing these bugs like primary schoolersplaying with ants. Compared to them, I"m in pretty bad shape. Cuts and holesare everywhere on my body and my HP and MP are already at bottom. I don"t carrymuch healing items on me since my companions can share their HP with me. Now Iregretted it. I need to at least keep some stock.
　　
　　    "Watchout behind!"

            I saw the Beetle King breaking out of Loong"er"s spell. Myalert is a bit late, three Phantom Knights running in the back are knockedflying by the giant monster which is even bigger than Lucky.
　　
　　    TheirHP nearly got emptied. I immediately un-summoned them. Servants can"t get revived, Ican"t lose them!

           The other seven knights scattered apart, the Beetle Kingcharged straight towards me. And it obviously doesn"t tell enemies andallies. Some spiders on the way all got squashed.
　　
　　    Beforeit can reach me, Lucky charge over and parried its giant body. Lucky is thensent flying and rolled on the sand for some distance. It"s too strong!

           "Loong"er!Help!"
　　
　　    Sheflashed above us.

            "[Thunder], level 10!"

            A thick lightning pillar hitthe beetle on the back. It didn"t do any significant damage!
　　
　　    "Master!Rosa killed the spider queen!" Phantom spoke.

            All the other tarantulasescaped faster then they came. That"s at least a relief. I got two whole levelsin the fight. I don"t know the exact number but the sand around us is totallysoaked in green.
　　
　　    TheBeetle King is the only monster left. I took the chance and scoped it with myStar Gaze.

            [Gold Beetle], level 900.

            Attack 1,200-2,300,

            Defense 5,000,

            Speed100,

            HP 10,000

            MP 5,000.

            Attacks carry poison effect.

           Talent skill [Strong AcidSpit], damage 120, causes continuous damage for 1,200 seconds.

            PhysicalResistance 50%,

            Spell Resistance 45%.

            ???

            That"s a f.u.c.king tank!!

            Theskill looks deadly. And what the h.e.l.l are those question marks? There"ssomething even Star Gaze can"t detect?
　　
　　    That"sthe only breather I can get. The beetle is charging again.

           "Phiona!"
　　
　　    Phionaswept down and dragged me into the air. The beetle raised its head, a ruby-likeobject on its forehead flashed before a red beam of light hit Phiona.

            Wecrashed on the sand again. What the fuc was that, laser weapon?? 　　
　　  

            Theremaining Phantom Knights threw their lances. Unlike against Iron Beetles, the lancesonly produced metal sounds without piercing the hard sh.e.l.l. 　　
　　   

            "Phiona,are you alright?"

            She can"t stand up anymore. I had to un-summon her. Ohf.u.c.k you Merciless. You might as well call yourself Brainless!! This is no soloquest. You need to bring an entire guild to do it!
　　
　　    Complainingis not going to help. I need to get out of this!

            I asked the Phantom Knightsto form up. They"re the only reliable force now. The beetle"s HP bar was chippedaway quite a lot. So the lances aren"t completely ineffective. Level 900 meansit"s only 50 levels higher than the knights. Seven knights will still causesome solid damage to it.
　　
　　    Theknight leader charged ahead first.

           But the beetle got another secret weapon!

           Aftera clash, the leader flew backwards which took all the other six members tocatch him. Apart from six legs, the beetle has an extra pair of fore limbs asweapons!