Chapter 11

Chapter 11

‘This is nice!’

Zeon thought as he chewed the jerky.

It was jerky made from a Great-Horned Hyena.

The desert was a place where moisture could hardly be found at all.

The chunks of meat wrapped in his clothes had been robbed of all their moisture and shriveled up. They had become edible jerky.

The slight gamey smell was a flaw, but it was bearable enough to eat.

What mattered was that he no longer had to starve.

There was plenty of jerky, and whenever he felt hungry, Zeon chewed a little at a time. He could not eat abundantly, but even this was enough to obtain the nutrients needed for growth.

The only disappointing thing was drinking water.

Since he had to rely on morning dew every day, he had no choice but to suffer from thirst constantly.

At first, it was agonizing to go all day without drinking water. But as time passed, he gradually learned how to conserve moisture.

He held back from relieving himself as much as possible and did not open his mouth. Even the moisture lost through sweat was precious, so when he used Sand Walk, he restrained the movement of his upper body to the extreme.

Later, he even minimized the movement of his legs.

Because of that, from a distance, it looked as though he was standing still while the sand carried him on its own.

Later, even Deioden grumbled.

“You crippled bastard, you have gained a fairly useful Skill. Some people are walking their bones off, and yet you are crossing the desert comfortably.”

In the desert, Zeon’s ability was absolute.

It had not been long since he awakened, so his grade was still low, but if he continued awakening his potential one piece at a time like this, then at least in the desert, he would eventually display absolute power.

Thinking that the world was truly unfair, Deioden moved on.

All without knowing that Zeon was thinking the exact same thing as he looked at him.

Zeon raised his head and looked into the air.

‘Moisture? Is there a water source nearby?’

Though faint, he could feel moisture in the air.

The old him would never have noticed it. But after awakening and following Deioden around, his senses had become extremely sharp.

His sharpened senses did not miss the desert’s faint moisture.

Zeon looked at Deioden.

Whether by coincidence or not, Deioden was heading toward the place where the moisture felt strongest.

Zeon gave a bitter smile.

‘There’s no way it’s a coincidence. If even I noticed it, there’s no way that monster wouldn’t......’

The word monster was not enough to describe Deioden.

Deioden’s strength surpassed imagination to such an extent that Zeon even wondered if they were truly the same kind of human.

He thought that perhaps even the abilities Deioden had shown until now were only the tip of the iceberg.

‘I really want to know where that man’s limits are.’

He felt that Deioden’s limits might be the limits of the human species itself.

A short while later, a large sand dune appeared.

The sand of the dune was swept away like waves by the blowing wind.

‘This dune was made recently.’

The desert seemed as if it always remained the same, but in truth, it constantly moved and changed from moment to moment.

A dune that had existed until yesterday could vanish in an instant, and a new dune could be created.

Perhaps because he had awakened as a Sandmancer, Zeon could tell various pieces of information simply by looking at the outer appearance of the sand.

After they struggled over the huge sand dune, an astonishing sight appeared.

A massive pond filled with water had appeared.

It was definitely an oasis.

“Ah!”

Zeon let out an exclamation.

At the thought that he could drink water to his heart’s content, he ran toward the oasis without thinking of anything else.

Until now, he had endured his thirst well, but when he actually saw the sight of water filling the place, he lost his self-control.

“Tch!”

Deioden looked at Zeon, who was blindly running toward the oasis, with an expression of contempt.

Zeon reached the oasis in an instant.

He thrust his head into the water and gulped it down like a madman.

The water rushing in and filling his mouth made him happy.

As he drank water frantically, he saw something giving off a soft light.

Deep in the water, there was a sphere glowing gently like a lamp.

Zeon forgot even the fact that he had his head submerged in the water and stared at the spherical lamp.

He watched blankly as the lamp drew closer.

His eyes had lost focus, as if he had been bewitched.

At last, when the lamp drew near his face,

“Come to your senses, you crippled bastard!”

Together with the curse, Deioden grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him away.

Unable to overcome Deioden’s strength, Zeon tumbled backward.

That was when it happened.

GUSH—!

Suddenly, something enormous burst through the water and surged up.

It had a massive body that looked as though it could swallow even a Great-Horned Hyena in a single bite, and a huge mouth that took up more than half of that body. On the antenna-like spine attached to its forehead hung a round, large lump of flesh.

What Zeon had mistaken for a lamp was that round piece of flesh. A soft light glowed within it.

Deioden said,

“It is a Sand Angler. It lures prey with the lamp on its forehead and devours them.”

“Ah!”

Having barely saved his life by a hair’s breadth, Zeon watched with a dazed expression as the Sand Angler fell back toward the surface of the water.

If Deioden had not saved him, he would have been eaten in one bite.

Taking out Crayon, Deioden said,

“Bastards like you, who get a little used to things and start acting out, die early. Do you understand? Cripple!”

“......”

“Answer!”

“Yes!”

Deioden was not listening to Zeon’s answer.

That was because his body had already shot out over the surface of the water.

He swung Crayon toward the Sand Angler, which was trying to dive beneath the surface.

BOOM!

When Crayon struck, a pillar of water shot up as if a bomb had exploded.

Feeling fear, the Sand Angler tried to flee into the depths of the water. But Deioden did not let it go.

“Haaah!”

Deioden entered the water with Crayon leading the way.

SHAAAK!

Deioden shot forward at terrifying speed, like a torpedo.

At that instant, the Sand Angler gave up fleeing, turned its body, and tried to swallow Deioden. But that was the Sand Angler’s mistake.

SQUELCH!

Crayon and Deioden pierced straight through the Sand Angler.

The enormous Sand Angler stopped breathing and floated up to the surface.

Deioden grabbed the Sand Angler by the tail and walked out of the oasis.

THUD!

Deioden threw the Sand Angler’s enormous body at Zeon’s feet.

“Hup!”

Zeon stepped back in shock.

It felt as if the Sand Angler might attack him at any moment.

Even in death, the Sand Angler’s majesty had not vanished.

It was hard to believe that such a gigantic creature lived in an oasis.

Putting Crayon away, Deioden said,

“You can assume that every oasis occasionally found in the desert has one of these living in it. It uses its lamp to lure idiots like you and eats them in one gulp. So do not shove your head in carelessly just because you see an oasis in the desert, you empty-headed bastard!”

“Yes!”

Because he was guilty, Zeon answered weakly.

“Skin it.”

“What?”

“Have your ears gone deaf too? I told you to skin it. The Sand Angler is a Grade C monster. Its belly skin is soft and elastic, so if you make a robe from it, it will perform excellently. So cut it off and make a robe.”

“Do you need a robe, perhaps?”

“Not mine. Yours, cripple! How does your intelligence keep dropping? It is not as if your head has been hit by Petrification Magic.”

“Ah!”

Only then did Zeon understand what Deioden meant and hurriedly flipped the Sand Angler over.

Its back was dark brown and covered in rough protrusions, while its belly skin was black and smooth. However, it was extremely tough, so the dagger did not cut into it well.

In the end, Zeon had to inject mana into the dagger before he could cut out the belly skin.

“Haa! Haa!”

By the time Zeon finally cut out all the belly skin, his entire body was drenched in sweat. But the work was not over yet.

Now he had to make it into the shape of a robe.

There was no way he had a needle. Even if he did, there was no way it would pierce the belly skin of a giant monster like the Sand Angler.

After thinking for a long while, Zeon took out one of the Sand Angler’s bones and carved it into the shape of a needle. For thread, he thinly cut the Sand Angler’s back shell and used that instead.

Fortunately, Zeon was quite good with his hands.

It was his first time making a robe, but after struggling and putting in effort for half a day, he managed to make something roughly similar.

While Zeon was making the robe, Deioden dismantled the Sand Angler’s corpse.

There was nothing to throw away from the Sand Angler’s meat.

It had almost none of the poison usually found in monster meat, and its taste was good too.

Among all of it, the best part was the gallbladder now in Deioden’s hand. He threw the gallbladder, which was the size of an adult’s torso, to Zeon.

“Eat it!”

“What? You want me to eat it raw?”

Zeon looked dumbfounded.

“Yes! For a weakling like you, it is the best thing there is. So eat it without leaving a single bit.”

“......”

“If you do not eat it, you will die by my hand.”

“I’m eating. I’m eating it.”

Zeon knew that Deioden was always serious.

With his face twisted deeply, he tore into the Sand Angler’s gallbladder and ate it.

As if to prove it was a gallbladder, it was horribly bitter.

‘Damn it!’

Zeon grimaced with his whole face.

The only fortunate thing was that he did not need to chew the gallbladder into small pieces. When he tore off a bite and put it in his mouth, it melted and went down his esophagus. And he did not feel full either.

Even though he ate the entire gallbladder, which was the size of an adult’s torso, Zeon’s stomach remained the same.

“How strange! Ghk!”

Zeon, who had been muttering, suddenly grimaced.

That was because a terrifying heat suddenly rose inside his stomach.

“Kraaaagh!”

At the tremendous pain he had never imagined, Zeon collapsed and rolled across the ground.

“Hmph!”

Deioden pretended not to see Zeon and cut off pieces of Sand Angler meat.

WHOOSH!

Flames bloomed from his hand and cooked the meat thoroughly in an instant.

Deioden chewed the well-cooked Sand Angler meat and looked at the oasis.

“This too will disappear soon.”

An oasis in the desert was like a mirage.

One day it would suddenly appear, and then it would vanish again.

It did not disappear completely, but moved through the shifting sands of the desert to an unexpected place.

Humans could not predict that change.

The owner of the oasis, the Sand Angler, had died, but another Sand Angler would appear.

A Sand Angler always laid eggs in the oasis where it lived.

When the ruler of the oasis died, a young Sand Angler was born on its own.

In that way, the cycle of life was never broken.

However, to grow as large as the Sand Angler Deioden had just caught, it would have to wait well over a hundred years.

“Kraaaagh!”

Even now, beside him, Zeon was screaming and rolling across the ground.

Deioden muttered with a pathetic expression,

“Crippled bastard!”

---

Zeon regained consciousness the next morning.

“Huh?”

When Zeon opened his eyes, he was startled.

That was because vitality he had never felt before was circulating through his entire body.

That was not all.

His body was packed with muscle.

It was not muscle swollen like a balloon.

Zeon’s original build itself had been on the thin side.

But that entire thin body had changed into muscle.

Each strand of muscle was clear and tough, as if woven from wire.

Zeon was so shocked by his own change that he could not speak.

When he looked to the side, he saw Deioden sitting and eating Sand Angler meat.

Zeon asked,

“What happened to me?”

“It seems your body responded well to the medicine.”

“Then the Sand Angler’s gallbladder was medicine?”

“A medicine so precious it has no equal under heaven. There is nothing like it for reinforcing the muscles and bones.”

“Thank you. For giving something so precious to me.”

“Hmph! What choice do I have when I have to drag around a weakling like you? Eat this and get ready to leave.”

Deioden threw a chunk of meat to Zeon.

Zeon first put on the robe he had made yesterday.

The moment he wore the robe, he felt a cool chill.

The Sand Angler’s skin was perfectly blocking the desert heat and releasing cold air.

“Ah!”

At the effect he had never imagined, Zeon let out an exclamation of surprise.

Deioden said,

“We will stay here for the time being and eat the Sand Angler meat.”

“You mean we are going to eat all of it?”

“It is difficult to find meat with this much nutrition in the desert. So we must eat every last bit.”

“Understood.”

Zeon nodded.

Now he felt as though he could believe Deioden even if he lied and said that beanstalks grew in the desert.

Zeon ate the Sand Angler together with Deioden.

It took only four days for the enormous Sand Angler to disappear, leaving only its bones.

They truly ate every last bit, leaving nothing but bones.

At that moment, as if by a lie, the oasis also vanished.

The two left the oasis without any lingering attachment.