Mercenary: Derick Walker — 2

Giant Scorpions were, by nature, fairly threatening monsters. Their movement speed wasn't particularly impressive, but they could roam the sandy floor as if the desert were their own backyard. For an adventurer exploring a dungeon, that same sand was an obstacle in its own right — swift action simply wasn't possible on a surface like this.

The creature's outer shell was extraordinarily hard, greatly reducing the force of both physical blows and magic. Its raw offensive power wasn't especially frightening, but the potent neurotoxin secreted from its tail demanded genuine caution.

It had a decisive weakness, however. And that weakness turned the bastard into fodder. Remain ignorant of it, and you'd have a real fight on your hands. Exploit it, and the thing was nothing at all.

"Luna! Sera! Attack its leg joints!"

A typical monster's weak point was the head. The Giant Scorpion's head, however, was twice as hard as the rest of its body. It seemed to have evolved that way specifically to keep its weakness from being exploited — but even with that rock-hard skull, its true vulnerability had never disappeared.

Its real weak point was the leg joints. The only part of the Giant Scorpion's body without a carapace.

Luna held both swords level and moved to the Giant Scorpion's flank. Even treading that difficult sandy floor, her movements were magnificently unrestrained. From where I stood, her speed hadn't diminished in the slightest. Its tail lashed toward her, but Luna was far faster.

If Blade Dance was a wide-area technique encompassing a full three hundred and sixty degrees, Slasher Cutter was an outstanding frontal assault. Its hitbox was narrow, but in terms of instantaneous damage, it utterly surpassed Blade Dance. Luna's crossed blades sheared through the Giant Scorpion's first right leg. The exposed flesh of the joint couldn't withstand her strike.

Sera took the left side. The Giant Scorpion, reeling helplessly from Luna's attack, didn't even register Sera's movement. With Agility approaching two hundred, her swiftness was a match for Luna's. In a coordinated assault, the two of them stripped the Giant Scorpion of two legs in an instant. I wasn't about to just stand there, either.

A sphere of pitch-black formed in my upraised hand, then swiftly took the shape of a sleek arrow. Darkness Control was an ability that served as a symbol of the Demonic, so I couldn't freely use it in the real world — but here, I could wield it without restriction.

The arrow of darkness I loosed punched into the Giant Scorpion's second left leg. After piercing the joint, the Darkness Arrow flew on and vanished against the carapace of its third.

Among all attributes, Darkness possessed the most devastating destructive power. The force of Darkness Arrow easily surpassed the Holy Arrow I normally used.

Clack-clack! Clack-clack!

Whether it was panicked at having its weakness exploited, the Giant Scorpion busily worked its remaining legs in an attempt to retreat. Not a chance, you stupid bastard. You're already a bicycle with a missing wheel. Run if you think you can.

Luna and Sera hacked off every last remaining leg. In an instant, the Giant Scorpion looked like a well-cooked lobster. All that was left was to beat the helpless bastard into the ground. No matter how outstanding its defense, nobody lasts forever under a beating.

"Buhihit! Might as well get some skill practice in."

I peppered it with Darkness Arrows like I was working a punching bag. The thing held out at first, but under the concentrated barrage it couldn't endure, and that upright tail went limp and drooped.

Still, lasting nearly ten Darkness Arrows was genuinely impressive. And that only worked because I'd focused every shot on a single point. If the thing had been moving, I might have spent an entire night trying to kill it. Lucky for us.

Luna dismantled the Giant Scorpion. The carapace sold for a high price, but fully breaking the thing down would take forever. We settled for cutting off the tail.

The neurotoxin in the tail fetched a considerable sum. It was a shame we couldn't take the carapace, but it couldn't be helped. Besides, everything we obtained from dungeon exploration was going to be handed over to the guild anyway. What mattered to me right now was the dungeon's final reward: the Dual Blades, and nothing else.

Giant Scorpions continued to block our path. But Luna and Sera had already learned the method of combat, and they cooked the things before I even had a chance to step in. Each took a side — right legs and left — crippled the beast, then stabbed out its eyes for an instant kill.

So there's a way to kill them without smashing the shell. My slaves really are sharp. Teach them one thing and they figure out ten.

Thanks to that, we hunted Giant Scorpions at a remarkably fast clip. At this rate, this single expedition might be enough to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠make me an E-Rank Mercenary in one go. Going from F-Rank to E-Rank didn't require that many promotion merit points to begin with.

Like Dungeon Hunter ranks in the real world, mercenary ranks demanded exponentially more merit the higher you climbed. And just as Rank 1 in reality wasn't granted by points alone, S-Rank Mercenary wasn't a grade you earned through merit points either.

The same way you had to satisfy multiple conditions to claim Rank 1 in the real world, becoming an S-Rank Mercenary required filling your merit quota and then clearing a specialized quest. That was a long way off, though, and I didn't even know if I'd pursue S-Rank Mercenary status, so it wasn't something to worry about now. Truth be told, the mercenary profession wasn't a particularly good one, aside from a handful of advantages.

At any rate, we advanced with unstoppable momentum. When we'd killed our sixth Giant Scorpion, a massive vibration shook the earth beneath us.

"This is...!"

Sera exhaled, her face tight with tension. This tremor wasn't something a Giant Scorpion could produce.

The Sand Eater.

This monster, resembling a colossal earthworm lined with saw-toothed fangs, was effectively the boss of the Road of Tribulation. The "tribulation" in Road of Tribulation referred to this very creature. An absurd abomination that swam through this vast sandy desert as if it were the ocean, devouring any organic matter on the surface. Its instant-kill attack had no mercy in its judgment, so it demanded particular caution.

"Wherever the sand starts to sink — that's where it bursts out! The moment you see quicksand, get out of there immediately!"

Fortunately, its instant-kill had a long wind-up. The sand where a Sand Eater was charging its finishing move would rapidly drain away. Then, after about ten seconds, it would erupt with its massive maw thrown wide. If you knew the tell in advance, dealing with it was simple.

Ssssssshhhhh...

The sand beneath Sera's feet began to slowly collapse. She startled, then slipped out of the zone with an agile bound.

"Prepare to attack!"

The moment it burst out was the moment to strike. Using its instant-kill simultaneously exposed its body above ground. Attacking at that window was the method for taking it down. Typical of a low-level dungeon monster, the strategy wasn't difficult. And knowing it in advance made it even easier.

KRAAAAAAAHHH!

Its enormous body surged from the earth with a powerful roar. It easily exceeded five meters in length, and it was as thick as my cock. It looked like a tunnel worm boring straight into an enemy's main base. The sinister bastard. It reminded me of the underhanded tactics North Korea favored in my novels.

"Attack!"

I loosed the Darkness Arrow I'd already nocked. Luna and Sera closed in, unleashing Dual Blade strikes and claw attacks.

"Kiiiieeeek!"

The Sand Eater wasn't a monster with extreme defense like the Giant Scorpion. Fitting for a creature that treated the vast earth as its home and specialized in cowardly ambushes. A hard carapace would only hinder its movement. Once exposed, the thing was just a punching bag.

"Kiiiieeeek!"

It slipped back into the hole it had come from. But it wouldn't give up on us. The earth-shaking vibration was still right beneath our feet.

Ssssssshhhhh...

This time it was Luna's side. The instant the quicksand formed, Luna kicked off the ground and escaped. The Sand Eater's instant-kill attack punched through empty air.

"Attack again!"

Blood was flowing from the spot we'd struck earlier. The damage was definitely landing, but the thing was so massive we couldn't kill it in one go. The Sand Eater thrashed two or three more times, but knowing its attack pattern, we cooked it with ease.

"Its movements have gotten incredibly sluggish! I think it's about to die!"

"Don't let your guard down! It still has its last desperate struggle left!"

The final struggle most boss monsters possessed. It came accompanied by an extremely dangerous attack, so it demanded great caution. The Sand Eater's last stand was plenty threatening as well.

Shhhhhhhh—! FWOOSH!

The Sand Eater erupted from the flowing sand just as it had before. This time, however, it wasn't just the torso — its entire body sprang from the ground like a slice of white bread popping out of a toaster. Its last desperate attack was to crush us beneath that brutish bulk. Simple and crude, but an effective blow.

"Dodge!"

I'd already put plenty of distance between myself and the sinking sand, and the agile Luna and Sera easily avoided its thrashing thanks to my warning. A failed last stand inevitably left its body exposed outside the sand.

We unleashed our attacks on the revealed body. My Darkness Arrow, Luna's Slasher Cutter, and Sera's Rapid Claw tore the Sand Eater to shreds. It let out a final death cry reminiscent of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a dairy cow's bellow, then died spectacularly.

"Wooowaaah~! We killed it! We killed this giant monster!"

Sera cheered, throwing her arms up in celebration. It really was a goddamn huge monster. Given that it had an instant-kill, one wrong move and we'd have been dead. Still, once you saw through its weakness, it wasn't a difficult opponent. In a way, it was the same type as the Giant Scorpion.

Luna and Sera began the work ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of dismantling the Sand Eater. There was only one byproduct we needed from it: the heart. It was a little amusing that this worm-like bastard even had a heart, but regardless, a Sand Eater's heart was an expensive item. It was used as an alchemy material.

Having carved out its heart like hyenas, we continued our journey. There were a few more petty attacks from Giant Scorpions afterward, but we repelled them all with ease. By now, Giant Scorpions weren't even obstacles.

We spent a night on the Road of Tribulation. And the next day, we finally stepped into a new region. A vast oasis spread out before us.

"Wow~ The water looks so fresh. We're finally somewhere new."

Encountering that green vitality in this desolate desert filled me with a swelling rush of emotion. The sky was blue too, of course, but the blue of water had a flavor all its own. We'd packed plenty of drinking water, so we hadn't suffered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from thirst — but walking into that dry sand-wind was genuine hardship, and the oasis's freshness was a welcome relief. We couldn't let our guard down completely, though. This was still, after all, part of the dungeon.

"What kind of enemies are here?"

"Corrupted Water Spirits. Stay alert. They're cruel killer-spirits that drag any living thing approaching the oasis down into the water."