Versatile: Alternate World

Chapter 449 The Beast Of The Rust

I have no idea how many weapons are being destroyed since the weapons are still coming at us in huge numbers. If Guts is having fun, Lina and I are having a hard time. Not only does it consumes too much of our stamina, but it is also taking too much of our attention on our surroundings very heightened. If we didn't even increase the vigilance we have around us, it will be just a matter of time before the weapons will kill us if we remained to be like this.

"How are we going to close this portal, Lina?! I don't think this portal has the same kind of sealing procedure compared to the other portals!"

"Apologies Master but even I don't have an inkling on what to do to close this portal permanently. We didn't discuss this kind of portal before."

"Then all we can do is hope to find something that might have something to do with closing this portal. Since the weapons are not respawning after it was destroyed, I doubt this place has infinite weapons!"

I pulled another 5 scrolls and tear them apart from one by one, zapping, exploding, and burning them all but their numbers are just overwhelming.

But just when I thought there is nothing else but these weapons, in my peripheral view, I noticed something moving on the ground. It's moving along under the "sand" and seems to be waiting for good timing to come out and show its fangs. Is this perhaps a hidden monster or something like that?

My curious side got the better of me and changed the weapon form of my Versatile Weapon and changed it to its pistol form. It remained under the "sand" so I still have no idea what it was but I am certain enough that there was something moving underneath it. It was quick but I am adept at catching enemies that are fast catch that catching in the blink of an eye is close to impossible.

"Stop hiding and come out!"

BANG!

I didn't know what happened but I felt like I hit something. I am just not sure since I aimed it on the sand and it seems the bullet passed through the sand.

Then, all of a sudden, the weapons stopped moving. Even the weapons that are actively fighting against Guts stopped and fell to the ground, returning to their lifeless object selves.

"What?! I am not done having my fill fighting! What the heck man! Don't leave me hanging like this!"

There is something wrong in his head. He is not just a battle junkie, this is a battle maniac and always ready to go for the kill. But I am not focusing on him. I can feel underground the strong movements that are happening due to the movement of the monster. I can also tell that the monster underground is quite big due to how the "shape" seems to shape out underneath. I am not exactly sure how big but I can say that it is quite big. It doesn't seem to be like a sandworm, since it doesn't move like a long-bodied monster, but it has a bit of a plump body. Not entirely sure how plump but it is plump enough to tell that it has a roundish body. Perhaps it's a sort of a rat?

"Lina, ready yourself, something big is coming."

Perhaps Lina can't detect it, she looked at me with a confused stare.

"Oh? Do you mean something big is coming to welcome us? Hell yeah! Where is it?" Guts started looking around with a huge grin on his face.

And speaking of the devil, the monster that is hiding underground burst out from the ground, and instead of a rat, what appeared is a mole, armed to the teeth. It has sharp claws that look more like sharp swords while the fur of the mole is quite shocking since it is using the feature of its relative, the porcupine, and not only that, its skin is not made from normal skin but it has rock features that made it have an armor made from rock.

[Weaponized Mole of the Rust]

Level 231

HP: 500,000,000/500,000,000

Trait: Rock, Metal

I almost shuddered when I saw the amount of HP it has. The amount is pretty absurd to the point that it is no longer something a normal boss would possess, more like its HP is similar to a raid boss already. No scratch that, the Raid Boss doesn't have this thick HP pool.

"Yeah! Come on! Let's fight, baby!" the moment the monster appeared, Guts immediately leaped into action.

Lina facepalmed so hard that her forehead turned red after doing it and grit her teeth.

"Master! Let's go!"

Guts immediately engage in battle and the two are fighting. We quickly joined in the fight to put pressure on the mole. The mole is also at a higher level than me so in one single hit, I am immediately dead therefore, I have to be careful. I also needed Lina to avoid its attacks as much as possible too.

As for Guts, I don't know. He didn't have an HP bar like most NPCs do and his attacks are quite strong alright. We barely have any kind of attacks that deal too strong of damage and Guts is already taking most of the damage parameters out of the three of us. I am ashamed that even with a weapon that is forged by the gods and has already consumed one of the weapons of the seven deadly sins, our damage is lower compared to Guts who is fighting the boss barehanded.

But the mole is also not giving Guts the open time to fight back, using its sharp claws, it tried drilling through the ground and giving a surprise attack on Guts. As for Guts? He is taking it head-on without breaking the big smile on his face.

"Yes! Yes! More! Give me more! HAHAHAHAHA!"

In all honesty, our presence there is more like a nuisance. We are not contributing to the damage numbers and the boss is not even acknowledging our presence. It was more focused on Guts and honestly, our presence is no longer needed there.

"Master, are we still needed? It seems like we don't even need to fight it. We can't even make a single scratch against it."

"Yeah. We already made some damage contributions, let's focus our attention on closing the portal itself. With Guts fighting it, I doubt our help is even needed. Let's figure out if we can close the portal in any way aside from fighting a boss that seems close to impossible in defeating."

...

Yes, in the end, we stopped fighting the enemy. As much as I wanted to have some sort of help with Guts, our presence there will just make the battle a lot more annoying. And since he is already enjoying it, perhaps we shouldn't disturb his enjoyment.

When we got far from Guts and the boss, Lucia started speaking.

"Master! I am detecting something northwest from here! It seems to be some sort of clumping mana. Perhaps it has something to do with the portal? It has similarities in properties and I think it is worth investigating,"

"Can you detect any living beings aside from me, Lina, the boss, and Guts, Lucia?"

"None, Master. I can say that is safe to proceed."

I nodded and followed the direction that Lucia mentioned along with Lina. The farther we are on the battlefield, the more I slowly realized what the "sand" actually was. No wonder it kinda reminded me of the soil from Mars because they are exactly the same thing. The "sand" is none other than the rust that has accumulated in this place for so long.

The smell also is kinda irritating now that the wind started blowing and even if I am wearing the wolf mask, it still didn't help much that even the wind smells like rust.

Just like what Lucia told us, there are no enemies in the vicinity at all. It was very quiet and it is kinda new to the feeling that a place that was very hostile earlier would transform into this kind of quiet place.

It took a bit of time and a bit of Lucia's guidance before we reached a very small cave located underground. I used a flare to check whether the cave is deep or not and realized that it isn't even that deep. It was just a regular shallow cave that some people can use to shelter themselves from the troubles that occur in this place like storms and whirlwinds.

"Should I take a look inside?" Lina asked.

"No, let's go inside. We are not sure what is going on so it is better to go together rather than go alone."

Lina nodded and she evoked [Light], allowing us to illuminate the dark place of a cave. One step into the cave and boom, the feeling of the heavy mana that seems to be forming as a maelstrom appeared. We have found it.