Chapter 109: The Sand Worms[3]

Izel stood above me while staring at my pierced body.

"You’re still alive."

I raised an eyebrow at Izel’s words. "And what were you expecting?"

She placed a hand on her chin as if thinking.

"Maybe you turned into a pile of minced meat."

I almost laughed at her words.

"In that case, you would’ve been next."

With that, essence moved through my body and healed my wounds.

I pushed myself up and stood before the worm’s mouth... in fact, the battle had only lasted a few minutes before it ended.

I approached the open maw and extended my hand inside to retrieve the sword I had used to hold on there.

The other one was still keeping the worm’s jaw from closing, and cracks had spread across its surface, so I didn’t retrieve it and left it there.

It would break with the slightest clash in the future... well, it doesn’t matter anyway. I have plenty of these cheap swords in my ring.

"I think we should get moving. The fight caused a lot of noise here, and other things like this might come," Izel said as she watched me pull out my sword.

She was right.

But I hadn’t sensed anything in my range yet, so I took a few moments to think before speaking.

"No... running won’t be useful now. I’m sure we’ll encounter many of these worms along the way... so we should make full use of this battle we just fought."

With those words, I placed my hand on the worm and began absorbing essence from it, replenishing my reserve, and even trying to raise my Rank.

It seemed Izel was convinced. She stepped closer and did the same.

I felt essence flow into my body quickly and in large amounts... this was better and more efficient than absorbing essence stones.

But that was mainly because the beast was stronger and of a higher Rank than them.

Absorbing the essence of this lesser beast might equal around four or five mid-level essence stones.

And I had already passed the halfway point toward Rank 3, so there wasn’t much left.

Perhaps moving quietly through the desert and avoiding fights as much as possible was the best and safest option we could take now.

But.

When have I ever made the smart decisions?

While my hand remained on the worm, absorbing essence without pause, my sense spread around us, scanning for anything that might attack.

At the same time, I was examining the body of this dead beast.

Izel noticed that. "What are you doing?"

I answered while still inspecting the area around its head... or its mouth.

"I’m looking for any weak spot that could be its weakness... after all, I can’t always jump inside their mouths, or use most of my essence to kill them."

She nodded in understanding, then began searching with me as well.

She was adapting to the situation faster than I expected, maybe because of what happened before we jumped into the gate, and that was truly good.

Especially for what I plan to do from now on.

Honestly, I’ve started to feel like I’ve lost my edge since leaving the lab.

It’s true that I trained and trained in the Axis without stopping, and with absorbing essence stones I became stronger and even close to Rank 3 in record time compared to anyone.

But in the end, it wasn’t enough to do anything... and I wasn’t satisfied with my progress either.

And now, trapped in this world where I doubt there are even humans, with hundreds of thousands of bloodthirsty beasts.

No matter how I think about it, this was a suitable environment for growth.

To become stronger.

So I knew that running and always avoiding fights and danger wouldn’t help us... not when it always comes to us anyway.

Reaching the meeting point might take a few days, and during those days, I think we’ll fight several of these worms, or anything else.

Now that I know the type of beasts here, avoiding them will be easier for me with my sense.

But who said I would do that?

Avoiding battle won’t get me anywhere, won’t make me stronger, and won’t help in returning.

So, from now on, I plan to fight every battle I can win here.

If these things attack us trying to hunt us, I’ll hunt them and use their corpses to raise my strength.

I looked at Izel as she absorbed essence from the worm. ’Things might be harder for her.’

It’s true that Izel is strong, but she’s still only at Intermediate Rank, so things will be harder for her.

But that’s fine. This will be an opportunity for her to become stronger.

Minutes passed, and the essence within the sand worm’s body was depleted.

I removed my hand from the corpse, then began moving around its body, searching for any weak point.

I touched its hardened scales while staring at the end of its body on the surface of the sand. There was a hole in its belly with blood and entrails leaking from it.

That was the result of my final attack.

"Should I dig to see the rest?" I muttered, wondering if I should extract the rest of the worm’s body.

While I was thinking, Izel called out to me from the other side. "I think you should see this."

When I heard her, I jumped over the beast’s body and landed on the other side.

I approached Izel, who was near its jaw. "What did you find?"

As soon as I asked that, Izel pointed to a small slit I hadn’t noticed.

It looked about thirty centimeters long and tightly sealed.

I drew my sword and inserted it into it, then moved it to pry the slit open... it looked like a fin or a fish’s gill.

And more importantly, it was directly above the beast’s head.

I smiled as my sword sank deeper inside.

"I think things will become easier with this."