15 The stone surfer
‘Ugh, ouf, ouf… This is impossible!’
Moving through the sand was extremely difficult. Rolling was only dragging the sand from the front and throwing it back. If I rolled too fast I would sink into the sand instead of moving forward. Therefore, my speed in that damn place rivaled that of a turtle with a broken leg.
‘I am in the worst possible scenario. I move very slowly and there is no place to hide.’
Luckily I had not met a single monster since I incurred into this floor, although that was worrying me more than relaxing.
‘I feel that a disgusting five-meter worm with a mouth full of sharp teeth is going to come out from under the sand anywhere… I have to find a better way to move!’
And that wasn’t the worst problem of all. Mold earth became completely useless. It was a magic capable of moving the earth at will, but not of gluing it! No matter how much the sand moved to build something, it would crumble again as soon as I stopped using it.
If I created a hole, the sand on the sides would collapse and fill it again. If I picked up a spike to make something similar to the trap I placed in the jungle, it would collapse even earlier.
‘I want to cry, I want to cry a lot… Give me back my lacrimal glands, shitty god! I shit on you! I shit a lot!’
I imagined that the level of difficulty would increase when going to lower floors, but I did not expect that much.
‘I knew from the first moment that I would regret going down. Why am I such an idiot?! I should have waited to level up and learn more skills.’
My skills increased a bit, even so, I still didn’t have any skill to move apart from roll. I seriously considered looking for another one. After all, it was very easy for me to learn skills thanks to not getting tired and being able to train non-stop.
‘Do I really have nothing to help me? Maybe I could use something I’ve already learned in a different way to move. Let’s see…’
I opened my status and reviewed in detail the different sections that made it up.
‘Yes, maybe the best will be focusing on learning how to fly… Wait, maybe I don’t need to…’
And as I began to think about whether there was some skill that I could learn relatively quickly to move decently through the desert, I had an idea. Apparently, God got tired of having more of my shit falling on him and enlightened me.
***
‘Wiiiiiiiiii.’
After thinking about the solution and practicing the method, I was already doing stupid things, as usual.
‘Who wants a sea having sand?!’
[Magic “Mold earth” is now at level 2.]
‘Perfect!’
I will explain the situation a bit. In the middle of the desert, the sand was rising like waves in the sea. And in the middle of these waves was I, a stone surfing and enjoying like a child going to the sea for the first time.
‘How I didn’t think about it before?’
I was having fun at a level where I forgot I was in a dangerous dungeon and while playing without care I came across the first thing other than sand for the first time… a cactus. It was the typical boring cactus that comes to mind when saying cactus: a trunk with two arms, full of spikes.
‘In case the sand didn’t make clear that this place is a desert, this finishes all doubts… Oh shit!’
I was completely clueless, but in another moment of divine enlightenment, I reacted and sped away. It wasn’t a cactus, it was a fucking monster!
A terrible blow sounded next to me and pushed the sand at the same time as me, enough to blow me a couple of meters away from that camouflaged monster.
‘The hell, what is that thing?!’
[Boxing cactus: A monster identical to a cactus which attacks all who approach it mistaking it for one. Like all plant monsters, unless its core is destroyed or its roots are damaged, its HP will never reach 0.]
Status:
Name: -
Kind: Cactus | Race: Boxing cactus
Level: 36
HP: 723/723 | MP: 357/357
————————————————
‘As I thought, this place could not be completely clear of monsters.’
I stood in front of it, at a safe distance so that it couldn’t reach me. Its arms were moving vigorously as if trying to reach me despite not getting the least bit closer.
‘Hey, damn thing, do you think you are very brave attacking people treacherously?! Come on, come here now that I’ve seen you if you have balls. Ah, right, you can’t. You’re just a shitty cactus that can’t even move from where was planted!’
But then, one of his arms stopped moving and pointed directly at me… Without hesitation, I raised the sand in front of me. My view was completely blocked by the sand… from which a multitude of needles came out, stopping only a bit centimeters from where I was.
‘This bastard can attack from a distance…’
I let the sand crumble to the level of my vision, enough to be able to look over and see that cactus without completely losing cover. It was shaking non-stop, probably angry that it didn’t catch up with me as it expected.
‘Okay, okay, so you can shoot. And what about it? I’ve survived monsters more dangerous than you.’
Plant monsters were too difficult to kill, if not impossible. Everyone I encountered so far I had completely ignored, that cactus would not be the exception, but I would not leave without returning the favor of interrupting my fun.
‘I can’t beat you, that is very clear to me. If I get close, you will break me into pieces. If I don't get close, you will keep shooting, and unless I burned you, you wouldn’t die even if I cut you, right? My mana cannon is also useless.’
I looked around, surveying the place again. The desert was a completely flat pile of sand. Sand, sand, and more sand scattered everywhere.
‘Now that I look at it… Tell me, don’t you think this desert lacks dunes?’
As if sensing what I was thinking, the cactus stopped moving again.
‘What are you afraid of? After all, you can’t die unless I break your core or attack your roots, right?’
And after a short while, I left as I arrived, surfing on the sand. Behind me, where that cactus once stood, one could only see a huge dune.
‘I hope you die crushed by the sand. Mmmm, maybe I should go back to the first floor, but… Where are the stairs?’
As I had been wandering without care so much, I was completely lost. If the jungle was huge, this desert was immense. Normal that it was difficult to find monsters. Apart from the lack of food, the zone was so big that it would need thousands of monsters simply to fill a tiny area.
‘I see, the difficulty of this floor is not the enemies or the hidden dangers, is the possibility of dying from hunger and thirst by getting lost in it.’
Of course, I didn’t notice it, but for anyone else, that environment would be hellish. It was actually a favorable situation for me. A floor with few monsters and scattered was translated into a floor of easy difficulty… medium… Well, let’s leave it something less difficult.
‘In other words, this is a floor where the real test is to find the stairs without dying of exhaustion in the attempt.’
Happy with that, I started my search while humming a song. Maybe it would take days to find the stairs, but I would take advantage of it to continue raising my skills and preparing myself for a later challenge. That encounter with the cactus had made it clear to me how useless I still was….
[You have gained 11025 experience points.]
[Your level has risen to 12. Because of your kind, the stats can’t go up.]
… Or maybe not.
‘What? It really died? How? I can’t believe it. Hahahaha, fuck you damn useless cactus… Wait a minute, I buried someone alive… The pressure of the sand crushing its body, the lack of oxygen… I don’t even want to think about what the poor guy suffered… I’m horrible… I’m the worst…’
I stood in the middle of the sand, thinking about the cruelty I had just committed…
‘Time to hunt cactus!’
Luck was on my side again. At least that damn stat that seemed to be negative had reversed its sign. Not only was the floor easy, the enemies too.
‘Fuck it, what I want is to level up and be able to advance to the next floor safely. I will not make such a mistake one more time.’
For the rest of the day, the number of dunes in the desert increased considerably.
‘Okay, another buried cactus. Let’s see how we go. Status!’
Status:
Name: Peter Gravel
Kind: Magic stone | Race: -
Level: 12 | Experience: 3995/25929
HP: 70/70 | MP: 106/140 | Mana well: 312/400
Stats:
Vitality: 0 | Strength: 0 | Agility: 0
Intellect: 10 | Magic power: 20
Abilities:
- Mana bomb: 1
- Mana cannon: 2
- Mana control: 2
- Roll: 4
Special abilities:
- Help: 3
- Mana well: 2
- Parasitize: 3
Hidden abilities:
- Trump
Magic:
- Earth:
-- Mold earth: 2
Titles:
- Inner aggressor
- Racist
- The bomb
- Thinking stone
- Wandering stone: 2
————————————————
‘25929 of experience… Ha, ha, ha, I don’t even want to imagine how much will cost me to get over level 30. It doesn’t double every level, but almost. Being so difficult to level up, how do people become stronger? Facing a monster of your own level and grade gives at most 100 experience points. Wait, don’t tell me… Helpy, how strong would a person of level 30 be considered?’
[Extremely strong.]
‘I knew it… I’m in a fucking extreme difficulty dungeon! But being that way… aren’t these enemies very easy to defeat?’
[They underestimate you for being a stone.]
‘That motherfu… No, better this way.’
What Helpy said did not seem to be wrong, but something did not make sense. Those monsters had been attacking me with practically brute force, without relying on skills. Didn't they have or didn't bother to use them precisely because I was a simple stone? I had no way of knowing the truth ...
[You have gained 10404 experience points.]
‘Perfect, another cactus died. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ok... I'm starting to embarrass myself …’
