Chapter 103: Desert Ruler
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Some people believe this is the power of the fortune of nations. Don’t you think that’s fantastic?” Director Chen laughed. “They believe that places people lived would naturally suppress change. That theory explains why most highways were not destroyed: cars often went through them. The fewer people visited a place, the more that place changed.”
“Fortune of nations…” Gao Peng no longer had the strength to complain. He thought and thought, and could not help but give it to these people for their ludicrous and mind-boggling theory. However, whether the theory was really ludicrous or not, who would be able to tell?
In the end, he continued his research and experimentation. Gao Peng managed to scrape up three hours of experiment equipment familiarity training.
Director Chen finally discovered the weakness of the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms. The weaknesses of monsters still had patterns and could be tracked. Earthworms before the Cataclysm were afraid of losing their fluids, as well as all kinds of high-temperature settings.
The results here were similar. Gao Peng glanced at the weakness Director Chen discovered. It was not much different from the weakness he saw in his own data frame.
“Come here and take a look. This is the real reason behind the escape of the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms,” Director Chen said as he called Gao Peng over.
In front of Director Chen was a projector. He plugged the USB drive in and the projector shone brightly as visuals slowly emerged.
There were the sounds of sand and wind and the scene was well lit. It was probably taken in the afternoon when the sun was at its highest.
The yellow desert seemed incredibly dry. A gust of wind came and blew up a storm of sand, all seen from an eagle’s eye view. There was also the sound of a rotating rotor, which meant the footage was probably recorded via an unmanned drone.
On the screen two bright flares appeared and landed in the middle of the desert.
They were two mounted missiles.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions came from the center of the desert. A large swath of sand flew all around. Black smoke appeared and when it dispersed, one could see streams of sand flowing slowly into the two huge holes left behind.
Then the scene suddenly changed. It shifted to another camera that used remote shooting. On the screen, an unmanned drone floated in the sky of the desert.
Then, long lines that looked like quicksand flew out from the desert. They exploded into the air with terrifying speed, creating long and dark silhouettes.
The unmanned drone did not even have time to attempt evasion before the quicksand cut it into pieces and cast it from the sky.
A short moment later, the quicksand in the middle of the desert began moving. Before long, it started gathering in the middle, becoming taller and taller, standing up in a manner that defied physics. It looked like there was something supporting the quicksand from within.
Layers upon layers of sand flowed downwards like unearthly streams of water. In the end, the creature condensed itself and turned into a humanoid monster over ten meters tall. The body was made up of sand and it did not have legs, connected instead to the desert like a statue. The area where its body came into contact with the desert had an earth-colored halo that slowly expanded outwards. It was almost like a sand-based water elemental.
The monster seemed to have noticed another unmanned drone further away. It slowly turned its head around and no emotion could be felt from its empty eyes. The two pitch black holes seemed depthless.
[Monster Name]: Desert Ruler
[Monster Level]: Level 41 (Lord)
[Monster Grade]: Excellent
[Monster Attribute]: Sand/Earth
[Special Characteristic]: Sand Combination (Effect One – Passive effect: When the Desert Ruler is in a desert environment, a sand monster will form naturally where Desert Ruler presides. The sand monster completely obeys the command of the Desert Ruler. Moreover, when the Desert Ruler is injured, it can devour the sand monster to heal its wounds.
Effect Two: The Desert Ruler can devour large amounts of sand/sand monster to increase its combat ability. Its combat strength will increase proportionately to the amount it devours; however, the enhanced strength will weaken as time passes.
[Monster Skills]: Sand Control Level Three
[Monster Weakness]: 1. The Desert Ruler has a Heart of the Sand Spirit within its body. Destroying the Heart of the Sand Spirit will greatly weaken the Desert Ruler; 2. Ice.
It was the strongest monster Gao Peng had ever seen. It was also his first time seeing the attributes of a Lord tier monster.
“Is this the monster that scared away all the Shatuoman Man-eating Earthworms from Dali Desert?” Little Wang mumbled to himself with his eyes wide open.
“Another Lord tier monster…” Little Wang’s sentence quivered. “Moreover, it’s a Lord with such rare elements.”
Director Chen patted Little Wang on his shoulder. “It’s fine. Sooner or later, we will completely chase these monsters away.”
It was only later, during a conversation with Director Chen, that Gao Peng discovered Little Wang’s parents were killed by a Lord tier monster around a year ago. Nothing of their bodies was left behind.
“The army named this newly discovered monster the Desert Ruler,” Director Chen said solemnly.
Hearing Director Chen speak of the monster’s name, Gao Peng’s heart jumped. Where in the world did the monster name in his data frame come from?
At first, he thought that the names were based on his perceptions; he later found out that he was wrong. It was just that sometimes, he saw the names of some monsters when he couldn’t find them in any books or data.
It was as if his data frame had some sort of foresight ability…
Hold on a second. Foresight? Gao Peng seemed to grasp something about himself amidst his confusion.
“Dali Desert is close to Chang’an City. There are only 200 kilometers in between. For a Lord tier monster, it’s a short distance. Under normal circumstances Lord tier monsters rarely, if ever, leave their territories because if they continue to evolve they become legendary Emperor tier monsters. To them it is a long evolutionary process, so Lord tier monsters normally select an environment that suits their evolutionary needs before accumulating power to await evolution.
“Only amazing areas beneficial to their evolutionary process are able to attract them away from their territories,” Director Chen paused and continued, “However, how could one allow an outsider to sleep beside one’s bed? We will not actively provoke the Desert Ruler. However, we definitely need to have something that can help us deal with it! This is the intention of the army, as well as the government.
“We absolutely cannot put the safety of millions of citizens of Chang’an on the mood of the monster,” Director Chen said solemnly.
“We don’t have any materials. You can’t expect us to churn something out of thin air, right?” A researcher said, vexed.
“The army caught a few small sand monsters at the periphery of Dali Desert. In appearance they look similar to the Desert Ruler, so they might be helpful in inspiring ideas. The sand monsters are currently being transported over. They should be here soon.”
As soon as the last word was spoken, the elevator door opened with a ding. Several army soldiers walked out from within. Behind them they wheeled a sealed metal box.
Crashing and slamming noises emerged from within the box from time to time.