The Author's POV

Using my sword to turn over the body of the monster that I just killed, I speculated that it was some sort of sandworm variant.

Everything from the top and bottom resembled a worm, however, its mouth once opened resembled a four-petal flower. But unlike flowers, it was anything but pretty.

If one looked closely, once the worm-like monster opened its mouth, chainsaw-like teeth sharply protruding from the edges of its mouth would meet your sight.

Its exterior which was as hard as titanium had some sort of mucus-like substance excreted from its body.

-Tshh!

Using my finger to pick up some of the mucus, I felt a stinging sensation on my finger prompting my brows to involuntarily frown.

'Could this mucus be the reason why they can travel in the sand like a fish swims in the ocean?'

Examining the mucus up close, I took a look at the area where the worm was, and from there I could instantly understand how the worm was able to move freely in the sand.

The mucus that the sandworm-like creature excreted had some sort of acidic property which slowly eroded the sand around it, enabling it to move freely in the sand.

'Fascinating...'

Wiping the mucus on my finger with the sand, I placed the corpse into my bracelet.

Taking my phone out, I opened the monster encyclopedia and quickly scrolled down the list.

After scrolling for a bit, I finally found a monster that matched the description of the monster I killed.

Name : Sand sprout

Rank: F-D rank

Description : Monster that is typically found in desert regions, and is around the size of an adult arm. If caught off guard, with its razor-sharp teeth the sand sprout can easily tear off the limbs of its prey, rendering them immobile. Has extremely durable skin that is as tough as titanium, and excretes a strong acid measuring at around a ph of 1.

Weakness : Mouth, the only area that is not protected by its tough outer exterior.

Location : [Everlasting sunset], [Dunes of sorrow],[Lord's wrath],...

"ph 1?"

Raising my brow, I looked at my finger, which previously touched the mucus-like substance.

Fortunately, apart from my finger being slightly red, there seemed to be no abnormalities.

'It looks like consuming the [Seed of limit] helped my body become stronger...considering that an acid of ph1 is nothing to me anymore...'

Putting my phone back in my pocket, I continued venturing deeper into the dungeon in hopes of finding the boss of this area.

During the journey, for every monster that I killed and knew nothing about, I would look through the monster encyclopedia app on my phone in hopes of finding more about them.

-Screeech!

-Phfttttt

Without even looking at what attacked me, I stabbed my sword to the right and once I felt my sword become heavier, I tapped my bracelet.

"38..."

So far, the most dominant monster present in this desert-like place was the sand sprout, and since I have fought about a dozen of them, I could more or less predict their movement now.

right before they attacked, you could feel a slight vibration beneath your feet. With this slight

from what I observed, they never attacked the front, which meant that they would only attack my

from beneath the sand, I

and most importantly, for some odd reason whenever they attacked they would always

of this, judging the precise position of where they

attacked, due to their tremendous speed

you knew their pattern, they were

"huh, what's that?"

kilometers from my location I could see a couple of

sort of mess, as they were all not

"Party wipe?"

to be wiped inside of a dungeon, as a lot of things can go

"Should I help..."

of a dungeon...but from the

calmly think

arouse a passerby's pity, and then suddenly attack them when they let their guard down in

Hmm...Probably not.

off, considering where we were, chances of finding anyone nearby was extremely low so this

it was like that, I didn't think they could

Slap!

the cheek, I continued staring

reverted back to my

people in total, furthermore, since they were in an F rank dungeon, they were all most

in my strength, I shouldn't be confident to the point where I

observed the more I was sure that they weren't trying to rob people, as they genuinely looked

question was whether I

would be cut short as I would have to share some of it with them, but that aside

they called for help

it looked like they were all dead, if

were even

problems sending a distress

But why weren't they?

was

but my instincts were telling me that if I were to

"Ah...screw it!"

down the sand dune I was on and slid my

if it's a trap

suspicions, it was better to be safe than

than me wanting to help them, it was more about

no way a party of five F ranks could

have a tough

location, there were evident signs that a battle had taken place. Typically the sand in the desert was shaped in little waves, however, here the

a big fight had taken place. However, oddly enough, there were no monster carcasses around the

see signs of blood everywhere or some sort

presumingly coming from the party members, there wasn't anything that suggested that they were

I thought about it, the odder the

I thought about it, why were

fought against a monster, there were only two

die

Nothing else.

party was

this mean that they weren't fighting monsters but another