Chapter 77 - Thirty-Second Floor (2)

"You." Ret looked at Androssi and the rest. "Will have to track down an Ammos Fidi, obtain its heart, and bring it to me. There are a total of four of them that live in my domain. That's the only clue you get from me. Now off you go."

The Guardian was aware that Merrie is a Guide, so he didn't provide the group with any more information about Ammos Fidi.

"You can stay in my domain, but you are not allowed to help them with their Tests!" Ret said to Rider.

"That's okay! I only want to meet the creatures in your domain!" Rider replied to him.

"And you." Ret turned towards Lumen. "Will come with me."

The Guardian teleported Lumen to a place that was surrounded by giant sand walls.

"Your Test will be a simple, but yet challenging one. For the next three days and nights, you will have to face off against the creatures of my domain. You are not allowed to take any brakes!" Ret stated.

'Not again.' Lumen thought. He already knew that he couldn't continuously fight for such a long time from the previous Test. But that was also because he wasn't able to harvest the life force of the Bone Hydras.

"A quick question. Those creatures will be living beings, right?" Lumen asked the Guardian.

"Humph. I'm not like Bonerakard! All of the beings in his domain are created from his body! While the creatures in my domain are given life by the dense Shinsoo produced from me!" Ret responded with arrogance.

"That's all I needed to know." Lumen let out a sigh of relief. "I'm ready to start."

"And start, we shall! Come forth, my servants!" The Guardian's voice echoed throughout his domain.

In a moment, around a dozen large yellow scorpions with rock-like carapaces came out of the sand. A green liquid was dripping from their stingers as they stared at Lumen. They looked terrifying, but Lumen had sensed that they are weaker than Rankers. They snapped their pincers a few times before letting out a screech. "Skreee."

Quickly, they charged towards Lumen. He raised his hand, formed a Baang with his black fire, and shot it in a wave towards the incoming scorpions. The black fire engulfed and erased them from existence.

'This feels good.' Lumen thought as he received the life force of the slain scorpions. Knowing that all the creatures that he kills would provide him with life force, he was confident that he will be able to pass the Test.

Twenty sand golems emerged afterward. Their entire body was composed of sand, and they had a blue gem stuck in the middle of their ċhėsts. Without making a sound, they jumped towards Lumen.

He could have killed them just as easily as he killed the scorpion, but he decided that this would be a good time for his pets to get some fighting experience since he had sensed that, like the scorpions, they are weaker than Rankers.

Lumen pulled out his black jar and summoned his three pets.

Berserker and Saber each let out a roar, trying to outdo the other, while Archer wiggled in the air.

Swiftly, Berserker used his tail to strike the incoming golem. The dinosaur accurately hit the blue gems in their ċhėsts, and the golems crumbled to sand.

After destroying them, Berserker turned towards Saber with arrogance in his beady eyes. 'It's obvious I'm the stronger one.' The dinosaur thought.

However, Saber ignored him and licked her paws without a care in the world. Berserker's antics didn't disturb her the slightest.

'Stupid cat!' Berserker stomped his feet in the sand and turned around, anticipating more enemies to come.

Twenty-five golems and twenty-five scorpions emerged from the sand, but before Berserker or Saber could react, the golems were all pierced with a spear through their blue gems, while the scorpions were stabbed with multiple spears.

"Roar!" 'This is my time to shine, what are you doing, you annoying snake!' Berserker turned towards Archer with anger in his eyes, while the winged snake was doing barrel rolls.

Seeing Berserker, Archer stuck his tongue out and did his weird wiggling dance.

While the two were doing their staredown, fifty more golems and twenty-five scorpions emerged from the sand. Before they could react, Saber had already reached the enemies. Using her sharp claws, she was able to destroy the golems' gems in a quick manner, while also swiftly dealing with the scorpions.

Fifty golems and fifty scorpions emerged afterward. Lumen's three pets immediately dashed towards them and started a competition on who can kill the most.

Six hours later, over a thousand creatures emerged per each wave, and his pets were starting to get tired. They had already killed over thousands each. From now on, it was Lumen's turn.

"Good job. This is enough. Go back and rest now." Lumen told them.

'I'm the bestest snake ever!' Archer started wiggling in the air since the snake was the one that killed the most amount of enemies. Unlike the other two, he could create hundreds of weapons and use them to destroy the sand creatures.

Lumen brought out his black jar and returned his pets back to it as the sand creatures were charging towards him.

'I wonder, how much would I be able to increase my body strength with the amount of life force I can harvest here.' Lumen thought as he formed a massive Baang of black fire.

While Lumen was fighting the waves of sand creatures, the rest of the group was following after Merrie's lead.

The Guide had sensed the location of an Ammos Fidi and was leading them towards it.

"Stupid sand," Vespa complained and fluttered her wings to remove the sand from them.

The small girl had removed her blue coat and was wearing a blue tank top and a pair of blue shorts, revealing her pale skin. The desert was too hot for her to keep wearing her blue coat.

"Let's just deal with this as soon as possible," Androssi said. She also wasn't a big fan of the desert. Like Vespa, Androssi was also wearing a black tank top and a pair of black shorts, revealing her stunning woman features.

Very few could resist staring at her beautiful figure, but the men from the group knew better. Should Androssi catch them gawking at her, they would end up in a world of pain. She would allow only one person from their group to stare at her.

The rest of the group had similar outfits, with the women wearing more revealing clothes, showing off their stunning features.

"Just a bit more. I can sense that the creature is near." Merrie told the group.

The Guide continued leading them, and they climbed on top of a sand dune when they were finally able to see Ammos Fidi.

The moment the group climbed on top of the sand dune, Ammos Fidi's head turned towards them.

"ROAR!" It roared at the group and revealed its sharp fangs while spewing yellow saliva towards them.

A wind barrier formed in front of the group and stopped the saliva from reaching them.

Laure was still sleeping while being carried on Aleksai's back, but he had sensed an attack coming towards them. His instincts kicked in, and he had created the wind barrier without even waking up.

The yellow saliva was repelled, and it dropped on the sand, where it slowly started dissolving it.

"Great, another poisonous creature," Androssi remarked.

"Um, it's actually venomous and not poisonous because it spewed it at us." Leesoo corrected her, and she turned towards him with narrowed eyes.

"I don't remember asking you," Androssi said while cracking her knuckles.

"Guys, this is not the time to argue, prepare to face off against the Ammos Fidi. It doesn't look like it will willingly give its heart to us." Merrie told the two.

"Grow." Anak decompressed Anoph's size, and the needle easily reached the snake.

In response, Ammos Fidi bit down the weapon, stopping her attack. However, the B8-Ranked needle wasn't a simple weapon.

"Drink, Anoph!" Anak called out. From the opening at the tip of the needle, a proboscis came out and latched onto the flesh of Ammos Fidi's mouth. Anoph then started suċkɨnġ large amounts of bloods from the giant snake.

"ROAR!" Ammos Fidi roared out and started shaking its head. With its great strength, it managed to throw Anoph and Anak, who was holding the needle, high into the air.

Anak jumped on top of Anoph, and the two insect wings on its handle started flapping.

"Grow!" Anak commanded, and the needle grew even larger. She rode Anoph like a skateboard and drove it towards Ammos Fidi.

The snake learned its lesson from the previous time and didn't attempt biting the needle. It turned around and used its tough golden scales to defend from the attack.

Anoph hit Ammos Fidi and pummelled it into the sand. However, it didn't manage to pierce through the tough scales and only left a small scratch on them.

"This won't be easy," Merrie said as she observed Anak's attempts at killing the beast.

"We will have to work together to handle this one," Leesoo stated while already making plans on how to slay Ammos Fidi.

"Well, start thinking about how we could kill it while we keep it busy," Androssi said and dashed towards Ammos Fidi, with Hatsu and Vespa following behind her.

Meanwhile, Rider was walking aimlessly in the desert when he noticed a city made of sand buildings, and he quickly dashed towards it. When he neared the sand city, two humanoid-creatures made of sand walked out of it. They were both holding yellow stone-like spears in their hands.

"Halt!" One of them stated.

"Who or what are you?" The other asked.

"Hii! I'm a skeleton, and my name is Rider!" He proudly answered. Rider loved telling people his name.

"What are you doing here?" They asked while carefully observing him. They had never seen a creature like him.

"My friends are taking on the Tests given by Ret-Yodda. But he said I can't take the Tests with them and only allowed me to roam around his domain." Rider replied.

"His name is Ret-Yohda, not Ret-Yodda! Remember that!" The sand humanoid declared, but he was also surprised that the Guardian had allowed this creature to just roam around its domain.

"I'm sorry! He said his full name only once. I will remember it, I promise." Rider replied.

"You are forgiven." They said.

"What are your names?" Rider asked them.

"I'm Shi Sha."

"And I'm Sho Sha."

The two answered him.

"Shi Sha and Sho Sha. I got it." Rider replied and thought. 'Ok, let's do this!'

He slowly started walking circles around them, and the two sand humanoids looked at him in confusion.

"What are you doing?" They asked.

"I'm trying to befriend you! This is how people make friends. Don't you know this?" Rider replied.

"Really?" The two sand humanoids looked at each other and replied. "We didn't know that."

Afterward, they started walking circles around him as well, trying to befriend him.

"Yay! I made new friends!" Rider exclaimed when they did that.

"We welcome you to the Sha city, Rider. Come, let us, Sand People, show you around." The two told him and brought him inside.

A few hours later, Rider had befriended all the Sand People in the Sha city.

"It was good meeting you, Rider." Shi Sha told him as the skeleton was leaving the city.

"You too, Shi. I'm going to visit the other three cities now. I can't wait to befriend them as well!" Rider exclaimed and made his way towards another sand city.

The Sand People of Sha had told him there are three more cities like theirs. Shak, Shroe, and Shri. Rider was planning on visiting all of them and befriending the people there. (ED: Author-san has a very good naming sense if you can tell)

"I can't believe we've lived all our lives without even knowing how to befriend others," Shi told his fellow Sand Person.

"Me too. Thankfully, the nice skeleton told us how." Sho replied as the two watched Rider dash towards another sand city.