Chapter 146 (1/2)

Chapter 146 — Giant Sand Golem

The desert level’s freezing cold night finally came to an end as the “horizon” glowed with the rising “sun”. I cooked Bloody Horn Bull steaks for my companions for breakfast but I settled for onigiri rice balls with wakame seaweed and sardines I made for myself. After filling everyone up with more isotonic sports drink we headed off into the hot desert again, to where Fer said the level boss should be waiting for us.

Like the day before we encountered Giant Sand Scorpions and their lesser scorpion mobs as well as Sand Worms but they were easily defeated by Fer and Dora-chan. I collected the drops quickly and we pressed on. We stopped briefly for lunch, tonkatsu rice bowl using the Orc meat I had collected from drops earlier in the dungeon, topped with a light shoyu steak sauce dressing and grated veggies. I bought some high-quality ice cream from the Net Super to finish off the meal.

“Oh, this cold food is delicious.” Fer said, “I was getting tired in this heat but this is really helping.”

“So cooooool~” Dora-chan announced. “I can feel myself reviving, yay!”

“It’s cold and sweet and delicious!~ I want to eat more!” Sui-chan demanded. Yeah yeah, I opened up Net Super and bought more ice cream for the three monsters, and myself of course. The desert heat was intense now even through Fer’s Barrier and the cold ice cream really hit the spot.

After taking a short break and topping up with more isotonic sports drinks we pushed on through the seemingly endless desert. As usual Dora-chan was flying ahead of us, scouting out any dangers.

“Hey, a big snake monster’s coming!” Dora-chan reported telepathically. We looked ahead where Dora-chan was flying and spotted the threat he had warned us about. Sure enough a really big snake, maybe three metres in diameter and impossibly long was slithering towards us in an odd wriggling manner. What was it?

[ Death Sidewinder ]A-rank monster.

So how would we fight this A-rank monster? I thought to myself. Maybe Fer could-

“I’ll get it! ” Dora-chan suddenly announced, diving towards the giant snake. Zash! Dora-chan’s Wind magic sliced off the Death Sidewinder’s head in a single strike and that was that.

“Amazing, Dora-chan.” I congratulated him as he performed his usual celebratory aerobatics. The Death Sidewinder’s drop was a magic stone, a Poison Sac and its skin which I put away in my Item Box before we started off again. We ran into more Death Sidewinders as well as Sand Worms and Giant Sand Scorpions as we progressed. The monster fights only really slowed us down because I insisted on waiting for the dead monsters to disappear so I could collect all the drops. The fights themselves only took a second or two.

As Fer had predicted the “sun” started to disappear below the “horizon” before we got to the level’s boss so we spent another cold night huddled together in the darkness waiting for the “sun” to rise again over the sandy desert landscape. After breakfast and more isotonic sports drinks we headed off again, collecting more monster drops on the way. As we crested a rise in the sand dunes Fer slowed to a stop.

“There’s something up ahead, I can detect…” Fer wrinkled his nose. “It’s got to be the level boss. We arrived here quicker than I thought. There’s still plenty of time till nightfall so we should just fight him now.” As Fer finished speaking the level boss rose from the sand in front of us.

“Gruuahh!” came an ear-shattering roar from the monster, an enormous humanoid figure made of… sand? What– it had to be twenty metres tall, what was it?

[ Giant Sand Golem ]S-rank monster.

This level’s boss is S-rank just like the bosses of the last few levels? I wasn’t surprised but it would have been nice to face a lesser opponent, just once.

“Dora, Sui, let’s go-” Fer commanded, bounding towards the Giant Sand Golem as I leapt off his back. Safety first, and I’d just get in the way after all. Even my Mithril sword would have little or no effect on such a monster, I decided.

Dora-chan wrapped his body in powerful Fire magic, eye-blindingly intense even in the desert sunlight as Sui-chan leapt out of her leather bag and pyonged across the sand towards the level boss, following Fer and Dora-chan.

“Hyaah, chaaaarge!” Dora-chan shouted, flying like an incendiary bullet into the Giant Sand Golem’s torso. He punched his way through the monster’s body, leaving a gaping hole that I could see all the way through… which immediately filled with sand again leaving the Giant Sand Golem intact and undamaged.

“What?” Dora-chan looped back and blasted his way through the Giant Sand Golem’s head this time but to no avail as the destroyed area filled up with sand again.

“Dora, don’t bother. Its entire body is made of sand. Any holes will be repaired as soon as you make them.” Fer said, circling around the monster. The Giant Sand Golem was standing on an endless desert of dry sand, it could probably suck up as much material as it would ever need to repair itself no matter how much physical damage Dora-chan and Fer could inflict on it. It was dry sand, though…

“Water-! Dora-chan, Sui, soak the Giant Sand Golem in water!” I shouted. If it’s wet then maybe it can’t regenerate itself properly from the dry sand all around.

“Oh yeah, water!” Dora-chan said, his Fire magic disappearing as he hovered above the Giant Sand Golem.

“Sui understands, aruji-” Sui-chan added. Dora-chan and Sui launched Water magic attacks on the Giant Sand Golem, Dora-chan’s Water Bullets and Sui-chan’s Water Balls punching into the immense figure and solidifying the sand it was made from. When it had absorbed as much water as I thought we would need I shouted to Fer.

“Fer, use your Lightning magic now!” The monster’s body was sodden and damp, that should-