<Episode 22>

“Ria?”

The Crown Prince and Jaeger also stopped and turned to me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I heard something just now.”

“A sound?”

Everyone, including the Crown Prince, reacted as if they hadn’t heard anything.

‘Did I mishear?’

But I had my reasons for being so on edge.

If it’s related to the Sacred Zone, I had thoroughly researched even the information not mentioned in the original story.

Of course, that included the trap that was retrieved a few years ago, and I had heard news that a month ago, monsters appeared in the farthest Abira Desert, one of the trap’s backgrounds, designating it as a controlled zone.

Moreover, the spatial traps could even simulate an ant in real-time.

This meant that if monsters appeared in the Abira Desert, they could also show up here.

As I contemplated whether the information I knew was common knowledge or not, I ultimately shook my head without sharing it. I decided to dismiss it as a mishearing.

How long had we been trudging through the heat?

It was then that I saw a large sign that read “EXIT,” mocking us as if to say that if we couldn’t see it, we were fools.

“We’ve arrived quickly.”

Just as I smiled in relief, I heard a faint sound of sand shifting.

At that moment, a peculiar vibration was felt.

The Crown Prince and Jaeger each gripped their spear and sword, respectively, and stood on guard.

“Something is coming.”

Swoosh—!

As if waiting for those words, a red, sharp stinger pierced through the sandcastle mound.

Soon, sand poured down, and as it scattered, the red chitinous tail revealed the form of a scorpion monster.

I looked up at it, and it was easily over 3 meters long.

‘…Damn, I felt like things were going too smoothly.’

I activated the deactivation magic on my hammer and swung it once.

“Everyone knows, right? We must not release aura or mana even in the trap.”

If the spatial trap explodes, we’d be trapped.

The Crown Prince twirled his spear with one hand and smiled.

“Of course. It’s just a red scorpion that roams the desert. This will be a good warm-up.”

Jaeger stepped in front of the Crown Prince, unsheathing his sword sharply.

“There’s no need for Your Highness to step in.”

“Hey, Duke. Are you trying to make me feel left out? Good things should be shared.”

I glared at the two heads standing in front of me.

One of them seemed to be having a blast while the other was on the brink of fainting.

I grew anxious as I kept an eye on the monster.

“Do you know the weakness of the red scorpion monster?”

According to the monster encyclopedia, the red scorpion is a mid-level monster that can pose quite a challenge.

The Crown Prince turned to me with a puzzled expression.

“Does it have a weakness? I just killed it.”

It seemed like he was quite confident, considering he had been summoned as a commander for monster hunts several times.

Pii–!!

At that moment, the red scorpion came charging through the sandstorm.

The red scorpion swung its pincers down at us.

Thud-!

“Tower Master!”

I tumbled over, clutching the immobile Sien.

Coughing in the dusty sand, I turned to see where we had been.

“Is everyone okay?!”

The lack of response made me anxious.

‘Damn, I should have mentioned its weakness.’

It was then.

Sien, who was underneath me, grabbed my wrist and coughed.

As he raised his upper body, he looked somewhere with a shocked expression.

“Don’t worry about them; they’re just having fun rampaging.”

“Excuse me?”

Whoosh—!

At that moment, a strong wind blew away the sand.

Only then did I realize the meaning of Sien’s words upon seeing the revealed scene.

Piiiii—!

Jaeger was mounted on the back of the scorpion monster, repeatedly stabbing it with his sword.

‘How is he penetrating that tough exoskeleton without any aura?’

Even more surprising was what was happening behind him.

The Crown Prince was hanging onto the stinger of the rampaging scorpion monster, writhing in pain.

Just as the poisoned stinger was about to pierce the Crown Prince’s head, he stabbed it with his spear.

With a cracking sound, as the blue blood splattered, the Crown Prince pulled out his spear and yanked off one of the monster’s legs with his bare hands.

Thwack—!

Again, blue blood sprayed like a fountain.

Then he grinned and pulled off all the remaining legs.

Watching this scene unfold, I steadied my hammer and got into a combat stance.

The scorpion monster, now left with just its pincers, trembled pitifully.

‘How did I end up meeting such crazy people… Next time, I’ll make sure to be careful with my opponents.’

Boom—!

Before long, the scorpion monster couldn’t endure any longer and fell into convulsions.

I approached them along with Sien.

“You’ve already taken care of it without giving me a chance to step in.”

“Indeed. I should’ve seen your skills in hunting monsters, my lady. Isn’t that right, Duke?”

Jaeger shot me a cold glance as he brushed the blood off his sword.

He adjusted the backpack he had set down and said, “This was a good opportunity to make excuses for carrying weapons.”

“…I could have caught it if I wanted to.”

“Well then, go ahead and try.”

Jaeger gestured toward the quivering scorpion monster. It seemed to still be alive.

‘He just wants me to finish it off.’

I was actually planning to collect something, so I approached the scorpion monster.

“Look closely; the weakness of the red scorpion monster is its tail.”

I pulled out a pair of gloves and a vial from my pouch.

Crack—.

I smashed the tip of the tail with my hammer, causing the red scorpion monster to foam at the mouth and take its last breath.

I shrugged and smiled at Jaeger.

“Pretty easy, right?”

He raised an eyebrow, squinting at me.

Ignoring him, I broke off the fallen stinger tip and placed it into the vial with my gloved hand.

Then the Crown Prince looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“My lady, why are you collecting that? Does poison affect zombies?”

“Not really, but you never know. There might be a time I need to use poison.”

“Just hearing you say that makes me uneasy. What do you plan to do with it?”

I ignored the Crown Prince’s words, closed the cork on the vial, and gestured toward the signpost.

“Let’s go.”

Before more monsters appear.

I moved ahead of the men. After walking for a while, we approached the signpost. Below it, there was a dark hole that looked like an exit.

Swoosh—.

I heard a sound as if sand was slipping away from somewhere.

I glanced down, unsure.

I confirmed there was nothing wrong and tilted my head when suddenly the feet behind me sank into the sand.

Huh?

As I blinked in surprise, my body tilted.

The other leg was also being sucked into the sand.

‘Could it be…?’

I hurriedly turned my head and spotted a desert mole buried in the sand, its eyes peeking out.

Kuaoo—!

The mole cried out and disappeared into the sand.

Ah, I had forgotten.

The monsters that appeared in the Abira Desert weren’t just scorpions.

“Damn it!”

I wasn’t the only one feeling urgent.

The other men were also being sucked into the sand.

The Crown Prince steadied himself with his spear, while Jaeger stepped on his sword to keep himself up, but the depth just kept increasing.

‘Speaking of which, where’s Sien?’

I turned around in a panic. Sien was being pulled into the sand without resisting.

“Wow, Ria, am I going to die like this?”

‘What are you doing, acting so nonchalant!’

I rummaged through my pouch, quickly looking for a rope.

I stretched out my arm holding the hammer and hooked the end of the post.

I gripped the hammer with both hands, swung one leg free, then stepped on my knee to pull out the other leg.

Finally freed, I hurriedly tied the rope to the post.

“Catch it!”

I threw the rope toward Sien, who was closest to me.

He caught it and threw it to Jaeger, who quickly passed it to the Crown Prince.

As soon as I saw that, I braced my legs and pulled the rope with all my might.

‘Agh, damn it!’

It hadn’t been long, yet it felt like my face and neck were about to burst.

I leaned back and pulled as hard as I could, and Sien began to come towards us.

He climbed up, wrapped in the blanket.

Once he reached the top, he sat down, breathing heavily, his face pale. For a moment, he looked at my hands in surprise.

It was because the taut rope had scraped off the skin.

“Ria, your hand is bleeding…”

“Just help me out already!”

As Sien wrapped the rope with the blanket and joined in, it became easier, but the two men still hadn’t managed to get out.

As Jaeger climbed, he looked at us and grabbed the sword he had stuck into the sand.

“I can’t let this happen. I’ll cut the rope, so you two escape first—”

“Ugh. Just try cutting it!”

It felt as if my body was burning, my vision was spinning, and my hands were stinging.

While I was struggling to save myself, how could they just leave me behind?
TL/N: Please believe me raws were like this if you feel it repeated i directly copied from kkp