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Before we had reached the village of Stoneville where Ariant and Eriant lived, I had contacted Sol right after Luminous, and what I had heard was not something very… good.
"Sol! Are you there?"
"Kireina! I am… Where are you?! Where's everybody?!"
"I don't know! Elfina seems to be unconscious somewhere, I hope she didn't just got buried in the sand!"
"Can you tell me where you are to regroup with you?"
"I am moving to the Stoneville village! If you ever find any people or place, ask about that place to find me!"
"Got it…! Ah, shit he's really chasing me!"
In that moment, I had heard Sol seemingly being in a hurry.
"What's going on?!"
"That damn blue skinned guy I found inside a dungeon! He's somehow controlling a bunch of monsters! He's really bad news!"
"A bunch of monsters? Wait… Don't tell me he's a Genie?"
"Genie? I don't know but he's seriously bad news!"
"Sol, hurry and find me, I'll be waiting for you!"
"A-Alright!"
And after that, the call ended cutting abruptly. I am just hoping that Sol is alright. If he really encountered that damn Genie then that means really bad news. That guy is a monster on the loose. Even Luminous encountered it before and was almost swallowed by a sandstorm.
Whoever he is, he doesn't seem to be obeying anybody and is working on his own. Perhaps he's really some sort of ancient entity from this world that suddenly awakened? Goddamn it! Was this the perfect time for him to wake up?! Just when I am in the middle of a quest in this desert?!
"GRUOOOHHH!"
The groan of five large walking cactuses resonated, as we quickly ran towards the Stoneville village the moment we spotted it with the Desert Elf twins. The two of them had new weapons I've given to them from the weapons I had stored inside my Inventory, mostly all of them were just dropped items from the Dark Labyrinth.
…Which I had imbued with Ego Fragments I collected with the help of Black's [Predation] when I was hunting many monsters in the outskirts of Floresse's territory.
"H-Help me!"
Suddenly, one of the Desert Elves protecting the village walls was attacked, grabbed by a giant walking cactus as its entire body suddenly split in half, showing a monstrous interior filled with a gigantic jaw, with many sharp as hell fangs and several tongues in the shape of a colorful flower!
"GROOARRR!"
The Walking Cactus groaned viciously as it was about to swallow him entirely. I had no idea these motherfuckers were this strange looking!
"HYAAAA!"
"RAAAA!"
However, Ariant and Eriant heroically jumped into battle! Activating the power of their Ego Swords, in seconds, the sands surrounding them heard their call as they danced, crystalizing into glass and firing projectiles at the Walking Cactus.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
"GURORO?!"
The creature immediately dropped the guard it was about to devour as it looked back, only to see two blurs of golden light and two slashes hitting its soft, spongy body.
SLASH!
SLASH!
"G-GURORO…?!"
CLASH!
Both of the Monster's halves fell into the ground while still struggling to process what happened, but in resume, you got sliced in half faster than your head could even process, buddy.
"T-Those are…!"
"Ariant!"
"Eriant!"
The soldiers fighting seemed to immediately recognize the wonder twins.
"You two are back! After all this time!"
"Please, help us!"
"The cactuses have suddenly begun attacking us! They're hundreds!"
"Got it guys!" Ariant said charmingly.
"Leave it to us! We won't let anybody destroy our home!" Eriant roared.
Flames quickly emerged from their bodies as the two twins danced across the battlefield, wonderfully combining their magic with their sword techniques, using the fire to warm up the sand their weapons controlled and generating large and sharp glass projectiles to distract the cactuses, making them look back at them instead.
They immediately changed the tide of battle in this area of the walls, the soldiers that were getting killed were swiftly rescued as they were healed by White who flew around using her Skills to create a Domain of healing where people left the wounded and almost dead people, whose wounds swiftly began to close and their vitality even restored.
[Party Member] had slain [Walking Cactus (B Rank)] x1]
[You earned 25000 EXP]
[Party Member] had slain [Walking Cactus (B Rank)] x2]
[You earned 50000 EXP]
[Party Member] had slain [Walking Cactus (B Rank)] x1]
[You earned 25000 EXP]
[Party Member] had slain [Walking Cactus (B Rank)] x3]
[You earned 75000 EXP]
[Party Member] had slain [Walking Cactus (B Rank)] x1]
[You earned 25000 EXP]
…
A single Walking Cactus gave around 50k EXP, but because I only get half from the kills of party members, I was only earning 25k. Nonetheless, that was still an amazing gain!
Ding!
[Party Member] had slain [Walking Cactus (B Rank)] x3]
[You earned 75000 EXP]
[You have Leveled Up from Level 10 to Level 11]
[All your stats increased]
[You gained Stat Points and Skill Points]
I was also earning EXP while doing nothing at all but sitting and looking for three minutes since everything began, it was honestly quite addicting, but we really needed to move our asses and fight by ourselves!
"Alright you guys, let's move!" I said. Leaving White in charge of healing while she simply earned EXP from the backlines or by healing others (which was a thing due to her priestess and healing-oriented subclasses), we moved forward with Aquamarine, Black, Silva, and Bubu!
"The best way to get this done is… by bringing our own army! Skeletons, Golems, move forward! Fire Salamanders, use Fireball from afar!"
Silva immediately summoned dozens of Skeleton Knights and Fortress Golems, alongside Fire Salamanders who were still effective long-ranged attacks. The golems worked as the tanks, moving forward and spamming [Harden] to enhance their defenses, the Skeleton Knights attacked in front as well using their [Sword Mastery] and [Parry], while the Fire Salamanders spammed [Fireball] from afar, bombarding countless Walking Cactuses!
The soldiers quickly brought themselves to their knees as they saw the might of my monster army!
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