Dungeon Predator

The way in which they lured out Monique remained much the same.

Whenever Grano passed him a piece of treasure, Kang Oh would place it into his inventory.

Kuaaah.

The yellow Sand Monster, Monique, surged forward once more.

He'd once again transformed the sand into two arms and a face.

"If our plan works, then we have to take him down ASAP," Kang Oh said.

"We will, so please focus on the fight," Grano said, his feet dipped in the oasis' water.

"Will I get a bonus this time?" Eder grinned and said.

'This guy!'

Kang Oh furrowed his brow.

‘He's asking that now of all times!?’

If he could, he'd tell him, 'I won't give a penny more', but if he wanted to reduce the amount of treasure lost and kill Monique as quickly as possible, he needed Eder's Cursed Ground's Domain to reduce Monique's defenses.

Therefore, he needed to coax Eder.

"Yeah. I'll give you a bonus," Kang Oh said.

"How much?"

"10 gold."

"That's it?"

"How about 20?"

"..."

Eder turned his head as if Kang Oh didn't have the power to negotiate.

"30 gold."

"Should I just use my mace?"

"40 gold."

"I'll add in my shield."

"Ahem. Fine, 50 gold! If you ask for any more, then I'll slice you to pieces with my demon sword," Kang Oh glared and said.

"Understood. Let's go with 50 gold."

Eder smiled in satisfaction.

He could make money this way by traveling with Kang Oh. Not only that, but it always felt great to take money from him. 

"You. Do your job right. I'll be watching you."

Kang Oh gritted his teeth.

"Of course."

Then, Grano yelled, "He's coming! Concentrate!"

Monique's sand hands aimed for Kang Oh and Eder simultaneously.

Kang Oh and Eder tried to counterattack, but, as expected, it didn't work.

"Mr. Grano! Now!" Kang Oh yelled.

Grano picked up a gold elephant statue from within the oasis and threw it at Monique, coating it in a Water Prison.

Monique's face rushed towards the water surrounded treasure.

Once he'd canceled the Water Prison, the holy water-soaked gold elephant plopped in front of Monique's face.

Kang Oh, Eder, and Grano closely observed Monique. What decision would he make?

Kuu.

Monique hesitated and sounded agonized.

It seemed like his inner greed and his fear of the holy water were clashing.

Kya!

Ultimately, he surrendered to his greed.

His sand face devoured the falling treasure.

Guaaah!

Monique writhed in pain, and red shards of light fell from his body.

'It worked!'

Kang Oh, Eder, and Grano's eyes simultaneously gleamed.

"Now!" Kang Oh yelled and swung his demon sword.

He was aiming for the back of Monique's hand. The sand began to spread at the area he was aiming for.

However, Kang Oh could clearly see that the sand dispersed at a slower rate.

Ultimately, Kang Oh's sword slashed through the back of Monique's hand.

'I can feel something!'

It was a completely different sensation from before.

Whack!

The sand was cut through, spilling red shards of light. The holy water coating his demon sword was working wonders.

Kang Oh grinned. He'd finally gotten a proper hit in.

'Then next is...'

Kang Oh took out a bottle of holy water from his inventory.

"Hahp."

Kang Oh forcefully threw a bottle of holy water at Monique.

Crack!

The bottle broke, spraying out its content onto Monique.

He didn't hear Monique scream, and there were no red shards either.

At some point, Monique had gotten a hold of himself and had regained his full evasive ability.

'I think it lasts for about 5 seconds.'

In exchange for a piece of treasure, Kang Oh's party gained 5 seconds to attack. Once that time had passed, Monique had regained his full abilities.

'In any case, this method will work.'

He was sure that they'd be able to defeat Monique.

"Mr. Grano. The next piece of treasure!"

"Yes."

Grano enclosed a snake ornament (with red rubies embedded in its eyes) in a Water Prison and flew it over to Monique.

"We have about 5 seconds once he consumes a piece of treasure. Focus everything you’ve got during those 5 seconds," Kang Oh said as he evaded the sand hand.

"Ok," Eder replied as he blocked Monique's attack with his holy water-coated shield.

Grano prepared a spell with his off-hand. At the same time, he was controlling the Water Prison with his orb and the hand holding it.

Kuah!

Once the treasure enclosed in Water Prison came over, Monique shrieked.

Monique fired clumps of sand from his mouth like bullets.

"Careful!"

Kang Oh randomly dodged the clumps of sand as if he were playing a shooting game and dodging bullets.

Eder covered the upper half of his body with his shield. However, he wasn't able to block all of the projectiles.

Bam.

A clump of sand stuck to the top of Eder's foot.

"Ugh."

The clump of sand was a lot heavier than he'd expected. It felt like there was a heavy rock planted on top of his foot.

Eder dropped his mace to the floor and attempted to tear off the clump of sand with his free hand.

However, the sand had become as hard as concrete, preventing him from tearing it away.

"I can't get the sand off!" Eder yelled.

"Use the holy water!" Kang Oh dodged a clump of sand and yelled.

Eder followed his orders.

He took out a bottle of holy water from his pouch, opened the lid, and sprayed it onto his foot. Once the holy water made contact, the sand dispersed on its own.

"The holy water works!"

Eder readied his mace once more.

He recklessly blocked Monique's attacks, but protected himself with his shield and struck down any incoming sand clumps with his holy water-coated mace.

"The treasure is falling down," Grano yelled.

The Water Prison was released and a snake ornament fell.

This time too, Monique consumed the snake ornament and writhed in pain.

Kang Oh, Eder, and Grano simultaneously attacked.

Thud.

Eder stomped onto the floor.

Black lines spread around him. He'd cast Cursed Ground's Domain: Ruined Ramparts!

Because Monique's attack power wasn't much of a threat to them, Eder didn't use the Rusty Sword curse.

He also didn't use any other curses.

It was better to get another attack in within the 5 second time span rather than cast another curse.

Eder swung his mace.

Heavy Blow!

His mace, coated in the holy water, glimmered and struck Monique's arm.

Boom!

As a result, the skill created a small explosion.

Red shards spurted out from Monique like a fountain; they could clearly see Monique's yellow sand body begin to fall.

Meanwhile, Grano shot a giant holy water sphere at Monique.

The water sphere burst right in front of Monique like a water balloon.

A rain of holy water fell onto Monique.

Guaru!

Monique was in agony. Red shards exploded across his body wherever the rain made contact.

Rather than swing his sword again, Kang Oh instead chose to throw a bottle of holy water at him.

Thump!

He'd hit the mark this time.

The bottle cracked and wet Monique's sand body.

Red shards of light spilled from his body, and the soaked areas fell to the ground as well.

After the success of their attacks, Monique got a hold of himself.

Whoosh.

Monique's appearance suddenly changed. The sound of sand being swept up resounded throughout the oasis.

"What is this?" 

Eder furrowed his brow.

"The second phase," Kang Oh muttered.

"I'll prepare the next piece of treasure."

Grano picked up a piece of treasure made of gold.

Meanwhile, Monique had finished with his transformation.

Before, he'd been a tsunami of sand with two arms and a face, but now, he'd become a hydra with three giant snake heads.

Kya. Kyaoh. Kyaru!

The three heads shrieked simultaneously. Of course, that wasn't all he did.

He spat out spheres of sand from the three mouths.

They were larger than 2 meters in diameter!

"We have to dodge these no matter what. They're really heavy," Eder yelled.

The clumps of sand, that had been the size of a fist, were heavy enough, but how heavy would these be!?

Kang Oh followed Eder's advice. He was ready to run anywhere.

Thump!

The first sand sphere came for Kang Oh. Kang Oh threw his body away, allowing him to dodge the sphere.

The sphere struck the gray sand and exploded, spreading clumps of sand everywhere.

Even Kang Oh couldn't dodge them all, as he had flung himself away. 

Two clumps of sand stuck to his arm and leg.

[You have been hit by an Avaricious Clump of Sand. Your movement has been slowed.]

[You have been hit by an Avaricious Clump of Sand. Your movement has been slowed.]

Fortunately, it didn't damage him. However, his body felt a lot heavier than before.

Kang Oh quickly took out a bottle of holy water from his inventory and sprayed it onto the clumps.

[The clump of sand has been removed.]

[The clump of sand has been removed.]

[Your body has become lighter.]

"Hoo."

Kang Oh regained his breath. However he couldn't afford to rest anymore, since the next sphere was coming right at him.

Kang Oh threw his body to the side once more.

Eder was in a similar situation.

The only difference was his shield; it certainly made things easier. If he dodged the spheres and protected himself with his shield, then he could minimize the damage.

What's worse, the sand spheres came for Grano as well. However, he created a Water Wall made of holy water, erasing the spheres from existence.

In any case, Monique's three-headed sphere barrage was difficult to deal with.

It was like they were on a battlefield where cannonballs were raining from the sky. The hectic situation continued for some time after that.

* * *

Kang Oh was a veteran gamer that had experienced all sorts of hardship in-game.

Though his body moved crazily, his mind was calm.

As he dodged a sand sphere, his sharp eyes remained fixed on Monique.

'As I thought.'

Kang Oh noticed that Monique was dwindling in size.

'The skill uses his own HP.'

The power behind the sand spheres was monstrous, so much so that Kang Oh's party couldn't even hope to counterattack.

However, there was no way a skill this powerful wouldn't have any drawbacks. After all, there was nothing free in this world.

"His body is shrinking, so he won't keep shooting sand spheres at us forever. Be patient until then!" Kang Oh yelled.

Eder and Grano had definitely heard him.

Kang Oh's party discarded any notion of offense and focused entirely on defense and evasion.

They say that opportunity lies behind danger.

The time between its projectiles slowed more and more until it stopped shooting the sand spheres completely.

"Now!"

Kang Oh rushed towards Monique.

Grano and Eder instantly realized what Kang Oh was getting at.

Eder wetted his mace and shield with holy water and dashed towards Monique.

On the other hand, Grano flew a piece of treasure enclosed in Water Prison towards Monique. At the same time, he prepared a powerful one-shot skill.

A short while later...

Treasure soaked in holy water fell from the sky, and one of the snake heads consumed the treasure.

Monique looked like a hydra now, but his natural instincts hadn't changed. They had an opportunity now that he'd consumed a piece of holy water soaked treasure.

However, there was something different this time.

His other two heads that hadn't eaten treasure attacked Kang Oh and Eder.

The giant snakehead charged towards Kang Oh.

Kang Oh didn't dodge the attack; instead, he rushed towards the snake head.

"Haahp."

Kang Oh swung downwards with his demon sword.

Tempest Tiger!

The golden tiger rushed towards the snake head.

Bam!

The tiger-shaped aura and the snake head clashed head-on.

As a price for consuming the holy water soaked treasure, Monique had lost his evasive ability.

Moreover, Monique's sand body didn't possess much defense in the first place.

The tiger aura tore the snake head in half and the huge impact caused Monique to shake.

At that moment, Grano's spell struck Monique.

Torrent!

He shot six water cannons at Monique. Not only that, but they were also water cannons made of Monique's weakness, the holy water.

The combination of Tempest Tiger and Torrent didn't allow Monique to regain his bearings.

Kang Oh seized that opportunity and attacked once more. 

His sword passed through Monique's fat hydra body.

'As I expected.'

Though 5 seconds had passed since Monique had consumed the treasure, his body hadn't yet regained his previous evasive ability.

In other words, he had become much weaker. Kang Oh pressed his offensive with even greater ferocity.

Before Monique got the chance to regenerate his severed snake head and regain his evasive ability, Kang Oh successfully attacked for a second time.

While Kang Oh and Grano were inflicting significant damage to Monique, Eder had been swinging his mace and dealing damage on his own.

Soon, Monique got a grip and counterattacked with clumps of sand, rather than sand spheres.

However, it didn't matter.

After that, the same thing happened again.

Whenever Monique consumed a holy water soaked treasure, Kang Oh's party would use everything they had during Monique's moment of weakness.

Ultimately!

The Avaricious Monique returned to nothingness.

[You have defeated Avaricious Monique.]

[Avaricious Monique is a unique boss monster.]

[Avaricious Monique drops equipment bearing his name.]

[You have defeated a unique boss monster. Fame has increased, and combat-related side stats have increased.]

[The Oasis Tainted by Greed has regained its original name: Oasis Where Wisdom Dwells.]