Chapter 93: [Arc 2] Extra Chapter 4: The Failure Group and the Death Walkers

At the time when Garami and the group were talking in the Grandmaster's office:

The nameless lake, a.k.a, the former location of the Water-Knot of Glavras.

"Brak, what the heck's this?" - Goran

As if I would know. But saying that out loud would lower my dignity as the party leader, so it's better to stay quiet. 

We're at the place where we found that Dungeon six years ago. The entrance was located in a large boulder at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and inside it was a cavern filled with tunnels, water, water-attribute monsters that looked like they mutated from the former wildlife of the area, and a strange creature that I'm not sure would be right to call a monster.

We tried to find the Dungeon many times after that, even the Grandmaster participated in the search, but the more knowledge about the Dungeon we obtained, the more difficult it became to find it. And one day, at the same time as the announcement of the death of the Disaster of Water rung out through the world, we all remembered all the details about the Dungeon. Even people who hadn't been there could guess where it was. None of this search party's participants had any doubts the Dungeon would be here.

Or, that it was here at one time. Now, a large blue-colored crystal stands in its place, as a sort of gravestone, or maybe a monument to honor a hero? Despite its beauty, what is making us not believe this scene, is...

"WATER! TONS OF WATER!" 

The wasteland which should have no water sources now had a lake filled with just that. It's like all the water of the Dungeon was converged into the blue crystal in the middle of the lake. Is what everyone thinks, but our team knows that it's just like that. Our elven magician and Researcher, Lester, has the [Appraisal] skill and has with effort, blood, and sweat, managed to get it up to LV6 on his own after we failed in that Dungeon.

You can use an Appraisal Lens with the same effect up to LV8, but there's a limit to the use, and there's not always you will get the information you want. Even more so when trying to appraise something with a high rank. Or when an annoying barrier is in the way.

"Open up already!" 

"Give us the water!"

The whole lake's covered in a dome-shaped barrier, which blocks any attempts from getting the water. I have a sub-class called Spirit Caller, a special Tamer-line class that allows me to summon spirits, as well as hearing the "voice" of creatures with a certain amount of intelligence. It's good to have when predicting what the opponent's planning to do, but it's not working so well on undeads and animals who only moves on instinct or grudges.

Another great part of the class is that it allows me to "hear" objects with a certain amount of aether in it, understanding how it works and all that. The other members of my party keep on telling me I'm not using it as a Tamer-class at all, but whatever. It's saved me more times than I can count, and even now does it proves its worth.

"Hey, Brak. You said this barrier was made with the same properties as some sort of metal-Magitech that created the barrier?" - Lester

"That's what it told me. Why?" - Brak

"...[Appraisal] has told me this barrier has the same properties as several legendary metals, such as Orichaclum, Hihiirokane, Adamantite, and much more." - Lester

"WHAT?!"

All the adventurers in the area, us included, couldn't believe the bullshit that Lester just told us. Each of those metals is at B+ rank as cheap, used scrap-metal. And if the Magitech who created the barrier has the same properties as those metals... who in the world could create such a monstrosity? Even calling it an S rank would be too kind.

Lester was assaulted by the complaints from the other adventurers, so I decided to play it cool and leave it to him and Miliana. As I walked away from the lake, I wrote in the investigation report that the Dungeon was destroyed, and a lake had taken its place.

"Is that all you're gonna tell them at the Guild?" - Goran

"Our job was to investigate the Dungeon, not the lake, nor transporting the water back to the Guild. Nothing is telling us to investigate the lake, nor that strange barrier either. Sticking our nose into something involving whatever that made that thing's gonna make us regret it." - Brak

"Yeah, this thing has the same smell as the Dungeon had back then. Poor Terd stopped being an adventurer after that..." - Goran

"Don't worry about it. He always said he wanted to open his own tavern, not to mention an inn." - Brak

"True. He's become a winner in life." - Goran

That failure in the Dungeon did make us lose an important member of our party, but it also gave us an important lesson: never get cocky. If that strange demon didn't save us back then, we would have been annihilated by that mutated turtle monster.

That is something the other adventures fails to understand, as they have rushed up to their current ranks 

"...What do you think happened to that ball of goop?" - Goran

"Who knows? Maybe it evolved into that Reha Zera that killed the Disaster of that Dungeon?" - Brak

"If that Grey Demon did all that, then I'm gonna give Lester a huge kiss on his face." - Goran

...Better feign ignorance if it did do that. Grey Demons, lesser or not, are all simple forces of destruction, incapable of forming rational thoughts, but this one saved us, so maybe... No, that would be too stupid. I'm getting tired of thinking about it. Better to stop.

---

Our walk took us to a small hill with a rock sticking up on the top. Goran said it would be the perfect viewing point for looking after Sand Walkers to have for lunch.

"Ha-ha! Hey Brak, look at this." - Goran

I turned to where Goran was pointing to and saw... some strange illustrations made on the large rock. They looked like those cartoons the Migrants talks about.

One of the rows showed a scorpion being found by what appears to be a monster, for then being served as that monster's dinner in the next illustration.

The second row was longer and started with the same illustration as the first, but this time the scorpion had some skull-like picture on it. When the monster tried to catch it, the scorpion stung it. The final illustration showed the monster dead, and the scorpion waiving its claws with a happy face.

"This looks ridiculous, right?" - Goran

"...Goran, this is made with spider threads." - Brak

"Ha-ha...ha? Threads?" - Goran

"And this second row, it's telling the reader that having a power related to the skull-mark will allow scorpions to kill their opponents by stinging them. What power do you think does that, and where have we seen someone with both that power and uses threads?" - Brak

"...You don't mean..." - Goran

"...It's just a possibility, but you should start brushing your teeth more often now." - Brak

"NOOOO!!" shouted Goran, attracting the attention of the others. Still, the Grey Demon from that time saved us because it wanted Goran's belt with dried fruits, so is there a reason why it would teach scorpions its strategies? It could be someone else who did this, but there's a scary close similarity between the cartoon and what happened in the Dungeon.

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"Oi! Is everything alright there?" 

"Nothing happened. Goran just hit his toe on the rock." I told the adventurers who checked up with us. Better keep that promise a secret, for Goran's and Lester's sake. 

"Not that, but that!" - Miliana

Miliana pointed towards something behind the next dune... what the-!

"A Desert Anaconda?!" - Brak

The largest serpent species in the Deadlands, a D rank monster, and it was laying there, half-eaten and abandoned. Skeletons don't feast on the living, and there shouldn't be any creature strong enough to pray on this snake so far out here. Was something lured here by the new water source, only to take out its anger on the snake when it understood the water was outside its reach?

As we stared in wonder on the snake-corpse, something moved in the sand. We hid behind the dune and saw many small scorpions appearing from underneath the sand, or from small caves made by the rock formations. 'Small' may have been the wrong wording, as they're on the size of a housecat back at the city.

"Oi, ain't those Sand Walkers?" - Lester

"Don't tell me they were the ones who killed the Desert Anaconda. That's impossible." - Adventurer A

...Just as impossible as a Grey Demon defeating a mutated turtle monster. I looked at Goran, who had the face as if swallowing something bitter. I'm thinking the same thing pal. 

"Those ain't only normal Sand Walkers." - Brak

The others didn't get what I said all of a sudden, but they got it when they saw the scorpion that climbed on top of the snake corpse: it had a sickly green brood on its tail, a characteristic that ordinary Sand Walkers don't have.

"He's right, that's a Death Walker!" - Lester

"You mean, that scorpion monster with a deadly venom in its stinger?" - Adventurer A

"And the other scorpions probably have a poison skill or two to boot." - Brak

A quick [Appraisal]-roude confirmed my theory, which only made the other adventurers fall into a small panic. Monsters picking up skills is an unknown situation for them. I bet I, no, our whole party would act in the same way, if this happened six years ago. Hmm...

"I got an idea. Lester, how many more monsters can you tame?" - Brak

"Three more, why?" - Lester

"Alright, and who else can tame monsters here? And the amount possible to tame?" - Brak

A total of five hands rose, with 16 slots available. Goran took up the Tamer class as well, as he had ordered the tamed owl and mouse that Lester had to do some work for him in the past. Probably trying to cover up that promise he made on the spur. Relax pal, I'm not gonna tell anyone about that.

I asked for paper and pen from Lester, as well as the sweets that Miliana had taken with her for the trip. I then wrote a message on the paper, then walked towards the scorpions.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" - Adventurer A

"Thinking outside the box." - Brak

The scorpions noticed me and stayed alert. The Death Walker that had been on top of the Desert Anaconda jumped down and went to the frontline in hope of scaring me away. Taking a better look at it, I see that it has some triangle-ish mark on its back. This guy looks like the leader of the nest. It has the guts to be so anyway. 

I threw the biscuits I had gotten from Miliana in front of them. They were on guard from it, but they smelled the sweetness from the biscuits and came a little closer to it. Then I showed them what I had drawn on the paper: a cartoonish drawing, not that different from the one on the rock, that showed the scorpions enjoying more food if they came along with us.

The scorpions looked at the drawing for a second, then they grouped as if holding a meeting. The adventures behind me let out a surprised gasp, but that didn't stop the scorpion council's meeting.

After a little while, the scorpions turned to me again, with starry eyes, nodding their heads as much as they could.

"Well, get to the taming." - Brak

The five Tamer-adventurers, plus Lester and Goran, was flabbergasted a moment but understood when I showed them the drawing to them.

"Then, you wanted us to add these guys to our party, as they can defeat even a Sand Anaconda?" - Lester

"Better than having them waste their talents here, or worse, be a threat to mankind in the future." - Brak

And becoming an enemy of my savior's students just feels wrong. They look smart enough not to get into trouble in town, so it should be alright. As long as they get fed.

When we packed our stuff to leave, I noticed that the leader scorpion, the one with a triangle mark on its back, had partnered up with Lester. It noticed that I was looking at it, and it made a drawing of something in the sand. This is...

"...Sorry. Frogs are hard to get these days." - Brak

Don't look so shocked. And why frogs?

Greydra

Kigal-Note/Monsters/Arachnids: Sand Walker

Sand Walker, a Sand-attribute scorpion monster ranked G+. There also exists a smaller version of it, the G- ranked Lesser Sand Walker.

A Sand Walker is a monster that travels the wastelands. They have no special skills to talk about, but they have the knack in camouflaging themselves in their preferred territory, without the use of skills.

Their flesh has a distinct taste of chicken and is completely poison-free, a rarity amongst scorpion-monsters. Caravans are always on the lookout for these monsters, in hope for a rare delicacy on their travels.

This does not mean that Sand Walkers cannot learn Poison-attribute skills, it's just that they do not think of the idea unless someone else tells them about it. A Sand Walker that has poison-skills can evolve into the F+ ranked Death Walker. Those without it can evolve into the Sand Giant Walker, who is ranked E-. 

Any members of the Sand Walker family is exceptionally intelligent, and they can become great familiars or pets for adventurers. A well-disciplined and well-taught Sand Walker can become an exceptionally great hunter, with a nest led by a talented individual being capable of hunting down even D ranked monsters.

Garami's comment: Give a scorpion a frog, and it will be sated for a day. Teach it poison skills, and it will have food for the rest of its life.

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