Chapter 43 43: Desert Scourge

After passing through his first "Blood Moon," Drake had completely established himself in Tokonosu City.

Over the next few days, he spent most of his time exploring Terraria.

However, he would also occasionally spare some time to go to Tokonosu City for the joyful activity of "shopping for free."

After all, the entire city had already become a "dead city."

Rather than letting the things in the shops be buried by time and dust, it would be better to let them contribute some remaining value.

According to his previous plan, Drake very purposefully looted several jewelry stores and successfully seized a large number of gems.

Although only certain types of gems could be [Appraised] as materials under Terraria's rules, they were free, after all.

Not taking them would be a waste.

As for later exploration missions, Drake handed them over to Saeko Busujima, Rika Minami, and the others.

With their combat ability, plus Shizuka Marikawa's medical support, there should be no safety issues.

Even if an accident happened, they could be revived anyway.

Drake assigned both Saya and Saeko the role of "Merchant."

That was right. Once the number of contractors increased, he discovered that roles could be assigned repeatedly.

Multiple contractors could hold the "Merchant" role at the same time.

However, some contractors possessed contract skills, and when they held specific roles, they would gain additional effects.

At the same time, Drake also gave them passage rights to the Terraria world, but they were unable to enter the main world where he himself belonged.

This could also be considered insurance to prevent the gods of Orario from discovering the existence of transmigrators.

After finishing these matters, Drake placed all his energy on the powerful enemy he was about to challenge.

...

The surface desert area of Terraria.

On a wide battle platform paved with wooden planks, Drake gazed at the sand dunes below and held his breath in focus.

The next moment, a gigantic sandworm covered in brownish-yellow exoskeleton armor suddenly burst out from the yellow sand and charged straight at Drake!

[The Desert Scourge has awoken!]

"It's here!"

Feeling the vibrations coming from below, Drake's nerves tightened.

He continuously shifted positions on the battle platform.

Accompanied by a piercing shriek, the Desert Scourge burst directly out from where he had originally been standing, its enormous mouthparts tearing the wooden planks apart.

"Bosses in the game don't destroy the arena… Whatever."

Drake fired his grappling hook while raising the Superheated Thermionic Beam Cannon and continuously shooting.

The Desert Scourge was made up of multiple "segments," and those segments could take damage multiple times.

Because of that, piercing attacks, spells, and weapons were extremely effective against worm-type enemies.

The "phase laser spheres" of the Superheated Thermionic Beam Cannon had powerful area-of-effect damage.

They could reduce the Desert Scourge's health at an astonishing speed.

However, the latter was not stupid enough to stay in place and wait for death.

After breaking through the wooden planks, the boss twisted its body and dove back down, escaping the killing range of the laser spheres.

When it burst out from beneath the desert again, its body surface was already covered in a shell condensed from sand.

Every time it whipped its enormous body, waves of sand-and-stone projectiles came rushing toward him.

Accompanied by howling winds, it almost made it impossible to keep his eyes open.

"No wonder you have to fight it in the desert."

"This place is basically the Desert Scourge's home field."

Before this challenge, Drake had actually already attempted it once.

Although he had prepared very thoroughly and used every buff potion he had, Drake still could not avoid the fate of being defeated by a first-time encounter.

Fortunately, after forming a contract with Shizuka Marikawa, the duration of the death penalty had been reduced by half.

He only needed to spend half a day in Orario before he could return to Terraria again.

And this time… Drake had summoned the Desert Scourge with absolute determination to win.

Unlike King Slime, the Desert Scourge was the first boss of the "Calamity" Mod.

It could not naturally spawn and could only be summoned with the "Desert Medallion" item.

Crafting this item required a material called "Stormlion Mandible," which dropped from "Stormlions."

In order to gather enough Stormlion Mandibles, Drake had spent no small amount of time exploring the desert over the past few days.

The feeling of being exposed to wind and sun made him feel like he was roleplaying a construction worker.

Aside from Stormlion Mandibles, however, Drake also gained an unexpected harvest while causing trouble for the Stormlions.

"Squeak squeak~"

While Drake dodged the sand-block barrage rising from below, two small Antlion babies fearlessly launched a charge.

And the target of their charge was the Desert Scourge, whose body was thousands upon thousands of times larger than theirs!

Although the result of the charge was, without question, that they were knocked flying…

At the instant of collision, large amounts of electric sparks burst from the two Antlion babies.

They dealt fairly decent damage to the Desert Scourge.

Meanwhile, the Antlion babies straightened their bodies without a scratch and continued attacking.

"Pretty motivated, huh?"

Seeing the heroic performance of the two Antlion babies, Drake's fighting spirit also ignited.

"I can't fall behind either."

These two Antlion babies were minions he had summoned with the "Stormjaw Staff."

Their duration was infinite, and the Antlion babies would not die. They could keep fighting continuously.

They also possessed a certain level of intelligence and could actively search for enemies and attack them.

This kind of summon was practically something all summoners dreamed of.

But in Terraria, this was standard for all summoning weapons.

Boom boom boom!!!

While taking the chance to drink mana potions, Drake did not remain idle. He continuously threw grenades toward the desert below.

These grenades were not the precious collection from Rika Minami's house, but items bought from the "Arms Dealer shop."

Each one could deal up to 60 ranged damage, but they were easy to accidentally hurt oneself with, so he rarely used them in normal combat.

As for now…

The Desert Scourge's body was huge enough that he could hit it even with his eyes closed.

After a series of muffled thunder-like explosions, two slightly smaller "Desert Nuisances" burrowed out from the flying sand and dust.

Meanwhile, the Desert Scourge seemed to have vanished completely.

Seeing this scene, Drake immediately understood the situation.

"It's already low on health and has entered its enraged state!"

"I might actually clear it this time!"

As long as he killed these two "Desert Nuisances," he could force the low-health Desert Scourge out of the sand!

The Desert Nuisances attacked in a similar way to the Desert Scourge. They charged and fired barrages of sand and stones.

However, both their damage and health were only at the elite-monster level, so they were relatively easy to handle.

If it had been the previous Drake, he might have been flustered for a while.

But after the Sword Princess's strict training, he could now block and dodge in a proper, practiced manner.

At the very least, the boss before him was far less terrifying than Ais when she got serious.

After expending some effort, Drake finally blasted the two constantly attacking Desert Nuisances into pieces.

Just as he had predicted, once all of its underlings had died, the Desert Scourge could no longer hold back and revealed its true body!

"Good chance!"

While the Desert Scourge wriggled its body and gathered momentum, Drake fired repeatedly.

Phase laser spheres bombarded the Desert Scourge's body one after another, as if mana did not cost anything!

In pain, the Desert Scourge endured Drake's attacks and charged upward, wanting to bite the human before it in half!

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