Alexia

A couple of weeks pass as I teleport Ethan everywhere until he finally decides he has enough fire affinity magical ore. And to my surprise, he actually offers to let me continue teleporting him around the Dimensional Block for training even if he has nothing left to do here. But I reject the offer. Mostly because I’ve spent the last two and a half weeks with him in closer contact than I would prefer.

And while my time in the dungeons alone might be affecting me, spending that amount of time alone with anyone is too much.

It’s a good thing he isn’t all that talkative. At least, not after we finished talking about games for the first few days.

After splitting up with Ethan with the dragon most likely heading back to our own Dimensional Block with all of the ore he’s gathered thus far – which is a lot – I continue teleporting through the endless desert, occasionally grabbing a monster or two that are too weak to do anything and teleporting them with me. A process that, while terrifies the monster in question, does help with the progress of raising the skill.

Now that I’m alone again the next week or so passes quietly without much occurring other than Quantum Displacement’s level gradually increasing.

As soon as I get the System Message about the skill increasing to level 17, I stretch a little bit and glance at a peculiar looking city nearby. One that I noticed not too long ago didn’t have anyone inside of it.

Just a completely abandoned city seemingly for no reason.

But that’s not the only thing I find strange right now. The wind has completely vanished, and the sands appear to be growing hotter as well.

Most importantly though, the monsters are running away. Not just from me, but from the direction of the area around the city.

That can’t be a good sign.

I narrow my eyes before deciding to go ahead and begin teleporting away from the city. Just in case.

And it doesn’t take long before my decision proves to be the correct one when a massive worm shoots out of the ground. One spanning even longer than the Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #108, with spikes running across its body and a circular mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.

Yep. There it is.

The Cataclysm Class monster of Dimensional Block #109.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Was wondering when I’d run into it, considering how long I’ve been teleporting across this Block.

I close my eyes for a second from my spot located barely within visible sight of the creature before focusing my senses on it. And what I find is a Tier 3 monster’s energy source.

So I open my eyes again, watch it perform a large arc over the abandoned city before it lands back down and goes beneath the sands again, then I finally turn around and begin teleporting away.

While it isn’t possible for me to determine something’s exact level just from the strength of their energy course, I can at least tell what their Tier is now. And fighting a Tier 3 Class S right now would be little more than suicide.

And I don’t particularly feel like dying, so Imma leave.

Just seconds later after I begin teleporting, I hear a loud roar coming from the giant worm. So I glance backwards at it again where I find the giant thing now simply surfing across the surface of the sand, chasing after something I actually hadn’t noticed before. Some sort of undead wraith thing. A Class A species of undead specialized in stealth.

Guess that wraith didn’t get the memo about not identifying Cataclysm Class monsters.

I watch for a few seconds as the giant worm chases the wraith until I turn around and continue teleporting away.

The people in Dimensional Block #108 quickly learned not to identify the giant draconic Cataclysm Class monster when the thing would eat large chunks of whatever floating island the one who identified it was on.

Interesting that this giant sand worm seems to be more aggressive than the dragon though. Since the dragon doesn’t generally attack the islands even as it passes by them. Unless someone attacks it, it’s hungry, or someone identifies it, that is. At that point it’ll attack whoever attacked or identified it, or just take a chunk out of a nearby island for food.

Then again, it is still a sort of dragon after all. So maybe it shares the apathetic outlook the other dragons have too.

Considering how, if I’m guessing correctly, the residents of that city evacuated after seeing signs of the Cataclysm Class monster’s approach, this sand worm really doesn’t seem friendly. Those signs being the temperature, wind, and the other monsters.

Another roar echoes out from behind me, making me glance back to see the sand worm rushing across the sand parallel to me. But the thing doesn’t seem to notice me. That or it just doesn’t care about me.

Instead, it’s just charging across the sands in the direction of another city I remember seeing before.

I purse my lips for a second before slowly teleporting after it, keeping a vast distance between the two of us. And after several seconds of following it, the moment the city enters my sight, the giant worm dives back under the sands, leaving no traces of its presence aside from the rumbling of the sand around me.

Despite that I still manage to keep track of it through its energy source, and I narrow my eyes as I find it approaching the city that is currently full of people. Many of whom are all evacuating, running as far away from the city as they can.

But the majority of them are too late, following which the giant sand worm shoots up out of the sand, gobbling down the entire city in one fell swoop. Then it dives back down into the sand again, making me sense a small surge of strength come from it. Likely due to the many people it just ate.

That thing is absolutely more aggressive than the dragon.

I frown as I watch the sand worm’s energy source begin going deeper and deeper into the sand until it leaves my range of senses entirely simply by going underground. Which leads me to believe that its den is underneath the sands.

This Dimensional Block… can’t be a pleasant place to live.