Volume 3 Chapter 170: When The Rocky Mountains Move

The sand cruiser continued its journey toward the deepest reaches of the Endless Sand Valley, its magical propulsion system producing a steady hum as it glided across the increasingly uneven terrain. Golden dunes had gradually given way to broad expanses of exposed sandstone, jagged ridges, and enormous rock formations that rose from the desert like the weathered remains of some ancient civilization. The farther they traveled, the more hostile the landscape became, until even the familiar sight of sand stretching toward the horizon seemed to have disappeared beneath a wilderness of stone.

Behind them, the surviving Ganzame could still be seen moving through the dunes. Their dark dorsal fins occasionally broke through the surface, tracing wavering lines across the sand as they followed the cruiser from a considerable distance. However, unlike their earlier pursuit, the sharks no longer attempted to charge directly at the vessel. Whenever the cruiser approached one of the enormous basins ahead, they would slow down, circle cautiously, or disappear beneath the sand altogether.

Rio had noticed the change almost immediately.

Standing near the front railing, she watched the distant fins with narrowed silver eyes. The Ganzame were still predators, and there was no reason to assume they had suddenly lost interest in their prey. Something else was influencing their behavior. Whatever waited in the deepest part of the valley had convinced even these aggressive creatures to exercise caution.

That alone was enough to confirm that they were approaching the right area.

Rio shifted her attention toward the landscape ahead, studying the enormous depressions in the sand and the strange patterns of exposed stone scattered throughout the basin. Some of the depressions were so deep that their bottoms were difficult to distinguish from the surrounding shadows, while others extended across the terrain in long, irregular curves. They looked less like natural geological formations and more like the impressions left behind by something immensely heavy.

She remembered those signs from her previous life.

The deeper tracks. The exposed sandstone. The unusually large stretches of rocky terrain surrounded by smooth, undisturbed sand.

There was no mistaking them.

They had finally reached the hunting grounds of the Ouzame.

Rio's expression grew serious as she examined the basin. She had known where to look, but knowing the general location and identifying an individual creature were two entirely different matters. Ouzame spent most of their lives buried beneath the sand, leaving only portions of their enormous bodies exposed. Their natural camouflage was so effective that an inexperienced adventurer could travel directly over one without ever realizing that the ground beneath their feet was alive.

In fact, that was precisely what made them so dangerous.

A sudden movement caught Rio's attention.

Directly ahead, a vast formation of exposed rock stretched across their intended route. Its surface was broad and uneven, covered with jagged stones, shallow depressions, and patches of dark mineral deposits. Several ridges rose above the surrounding terrain, their weathered edges resembling the remains of a collapsed mountain range. From the cruiser's current position, the formation appeared to be a natural plateau that had been exposed by the shifting sands.

Rio stared at it for several seconds.

Then her eyes narrowed.

"Ryota. Stop the cruiser. Right now."

Ryota turned his head toward her from the steering station. He took one look at her expression and immediately understood that this was not the time to ask questions. During their journey together, he had learned that Rio rarely issued an urgent command without a reason, and the particular tone she had just used suggested that she had noticed something he had not.

"Understood."

He adjusted the steering controls and reduced the magical propulsion output. The cruiser's steady hum gradually weakened, and the vessel began to lose speed. Its hull rocked gently as it crossed a shallow ridge before Ryota guided it toward a relatively flat stretch of sand. A few moments later, the cruiser came to a complete stop several dozen meters from the rocky formation.

The sudden silence made the surrounding desert seem even more enormous.

Rio remained at the railing, her gaze fixed on the terrain ahead. She was not interested in the rocks themselves. Instead, she watched the subtle movements occurring around them: the faint ripple that passed through the sand near the formation's left side, the handful of loose stones that shifted almost imperceptibly, and the thin stream of sand that slid down from one of the higher ridges.

Each movement was small enough to escape an inexperienced observer.

Taken individually, none of them would have meant anything.

Together, however, they told Rio everything she needed to know.

The formation was not a mountain, nor was it an ordinary stretch of exposed sandstone. What they were looking at was part of a living creature, and the creature was currently buried beneath the desert.

A faint smile appeared on Rio's face.

"There you are."

Behind her, Memory leaned over the railing, following Rio's line of sight. She squinted at the rocky formation, shifting her head slightly as she tried to determine what had attracted Rio's attention.

"What is it?"

Rio raised a hand and pointed directly ahead.

"That."

Memory followed the direction of her finger and examined the terrain. She could see jagged stones, uneven ridges, and an enormous expanse of weathered sandstone. There were even several patches of dark material scattered across the surface, although she had no idea what they were supposed to signify. No matter how carefully she looked, however, she could not find anything that seemed worthy of Rio's sudden alarm.

After several seconds, Memory turned back toward her.

"...What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"The thing in front of us."

"I know that, but what thing?"

Rio pointed at the formation again, as though the answer should have been obvious.

Memory stared at the rocks before turning toward her with an expression of growing disbelief. "That's just a bunch of rocks!"

Akari had also approached the railing. She leaned forward slightly, her violet eyes carefully scanning the uneven terrain for any sign of the monster Rio had apparently spotted. She searched the exposed ridges, the gaps between the stones, and the surrounding sand, expecting to find an enormous fin or a pair of glowing eyes hidden among the shadows.

Nothing appeared.

There were no jaws emerging from the desert, no towering body rising from beneath the sand, and no obvious indication that a monster was waiting directly in front of them. The formation looked completely ordinary, at least by the standards of the strange landscape they had been traversing.

Akari eventually straightened and glanced toward her sister.

"...Sis, I don't see anything either."

Rio's smile widened slightly.

"Of course you don't."

Memory blinked several times, looking increasingly unsettled by the answer. "What does that mean?"

Rio folded her arms and turned her attention back toward the rocky terrain.

"That formation is the Ouzame."

For a moment, the entire cruiser fell silent.

Akari stared at Rio as though she had just spoken in a foreign language. Memory's mouth slowly opened, but no sound emerged. Even Ryota, who had been standing beside the steering station, turned away from the controls and looked toward the enormous formation with an expression of complete disbelief.

"...What?"

Rio calmly pointed toward the exposed ridge.

"That's the creature's back. Most of its body is buried beneath the sand, so what you're seeing is only the portion that extends above the surface."

Nobody responded immediately.

Memory looked toward the formation, then back at Rio, and then toward the formation again. She repeated the process several times, as if she expected the answer to change if she examined the situation from a different angle.

Finally, she raised a trembling finger and pointed toward the rocks.

"THAT IS A MONSTER?!"

"Correct."

"THAT ENTIRE THING?!"

"More or less."

Memory's face gradually lost its color.

She had known that Ouzame were enormous. Rio had already explained that they could reach the approximate size of a three-story building, with backs long enough to rival an entire soccer field. Those measurements had sounded impressive when described in the safety of their previous discussions, but they had remained abstract figures in Memory's imagination.

Now she was looking at one.

The creature was not standing upright or dramatically emerging from the sand. It had not opened its jaws, displayed its teeth, or revealed the full extent of its body. Instead, it was lying beneath the desert as casually as a buried rock formation, allowing its enormous back to blend into the surrounding landscape.

Somehow, that made the sight considerably more terrifying.

There was no clear boundary between the monster and the terrain. The ridges she had mistaken for weathered stone were actually parts of its body, and the dark mineral deposits scattered across its surface might have been growing between its scales. The more she considered the creature's hidden proportions, the more difficult it became to estimate just how much of the desert was covering it.

For all she knew, the rocky formation was only a small fraction of the Ouzame's actual size.

Memory slowly pulled Bubbles against her chest.

"...We're going to die."

Akari turned toward her. "Memory—"

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"

Memory wrapped both arms around the little blue slime and hugged it so tightly that its round body began to flatten against her chest.

"Pyu?!"

"I'm sorry, Bubbles!" Memory cried, burying her face against the creature. "I promised we'd go on adventures together, but I didn't know our adventures would involve a mountain-sized shark! I didn't even get to accomplish anything important before we came here!"

Bubbles struggled desperately to free its face from her embrace, wobbling from side to side as it attempted to escape the increasingly suffocating hug.

"Pyu! Pyu!"

Rio watched the scene for several seconds. She tried to maintain a serious expression, particularly because they were standing in front of one of the most dangerous monsters in the region. Unfortunately, Memory's desperate apology and Bubbles' increasingly pathetic attempts to escape proved too much for her.

A quiet giggle escaped her lips.

She immediately covered her mouth, but the effort did little to hide the way her shoulders shook.

Memory lifted her head and glared at her.

"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!"

Rio took a breath, attempting to regain her composure. "Sorry. It's just..." She glanced at Bubbles, whose body had now been compressed into something resembling a blue cushion. "...You might want to loosen your grip before you accidentally turn your own summon into a pancake."

Memory immediately looked down.

Bubbles stared back at her with an expression that somehow conveyed profound disappointment despite lacking anything resembling a human face.

Memory released it at once.

"Sorry, Bubbles!"

The little slime bounced onto her shoulder and shook its entire body indignantly.

"Pyu!"

Akari sighed, although the corners of her mouth twitched with poorly concealed amusement. "You're overreacting again."

Memory whipped around so quickly that Bubbles nearly lost its balance.

"OVERREACTING?! AKARI, THAT ROCKY TERRAIN IS ALIVE!"

"I know."

"IT'S A GIANT SHARK!"

"I know."

"AND WE'RE PARKED RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT!"

Akari paused. She turned toward the Ouzame, examined the enormous rocky ridge for a moment, and then slowly looked back at Rio.

"...Actually, that's a good point. Why isn't it attacking us?"

Memory thrust a finger toward her triumphantly.

"SEE?!"

Rio finally lowered her hand from her mouth and straightened. Although the faint amusement had not completely disappeared from her expression, her eyes had returned to the enormous creature ahead.

"Relax. The Ouzame hasn't shown any signs of attacking us."

Memory stared at her in disbelief.

"...Yet."

"Yet," Rio confirmed.

Memory's shoulders slumped.

"THAT DIDN'T HELP!"

"I wasn't trying to make you feel better. I was answering your question."

"YOU COULD AT LEAST TRY!"

Rio gave her a small, apologetic smile before turning toward the formation again. "Listen carefully. Unlike Ganzame and Namizame, Ouzame aren't pursuit predators. They don't waste energy chasing every creature that enters their territory. Instead, they remain buried beneath the sand and wait for something to approach them."

Akari's expression grew more attentive. The joking atmosphere faded as she considered the implications of Rio's explanation.

"So they don't attack unless something gets close enough?"

"Exactly." Rio gestured toward the sand surrounding the enormous back. "Ouzame can detect vibrations traveling through the ground. The movement of a sand cruiser, the footsteps of players, and even the impact of a creature landing nearby can alert them to the presence of potential prey. Once something enters their effective range, they move in for the attack."

Ryota looked down at the cruiser beneath his feet, suddenly paying considerably more attention to the vehicle's magical propulsion system.

"...So the engine vibrations could attract it?"

"They could, yes. That's why I told you to stop the cruiser."

Ryota glanced at the controls, then back at Rio. He seemed relieved that he had followed her instructions without hesitation. If he had continued moving toward the formation, he might have brought the vessel directly into the creature's attack range without realizing it.

Rio continued her explanation. "The important thing to understand is that the Ouzame doesn't need to see us to know we're here. It can feel our movements through the sand. If we approach carelessly, it might attack before we even realize it's awake."

Memory slowly raised one hand.

"...Question."

Rio turned toward her. "Go ahead."

"If it can sense vibrations, does that mean it's already detected us?"

"Almost certainly."

Memory's face went pale again.

"...And it hasn't attacked?"

"Correct."

"...Why?"

Rio pointed toward the ground between the cruiser and the creature. "Because we're still outside its effective attack range, and we've stopped moving. It knows something is nearby, but we haven't given it a reason to come after us."

Memory stared at the Ouzame for several seconds before slowly lowering her head.

"...So we're safe as long as we stay here?"

"For the moment."

Memory immediately pulled Bubbles close again, although this time she was careful not to squeeze it.

"Pyu..." the slime murmured, sounding resigned to its fate.

Akari, meanwhile, continued studying the enormous creature. Unlike Memory, whose imagination had already carried her to several different varieties of impending death, Akari had begun to feel a strange sense of curiosity. The Ouzame was undoubtedly terrifying, but the way it blended into its surroundings was fascinating. She found it difficult to imagine how something so large could remain hidden beneath the desert, let alone move quickly enough to ambush its prey.

She looked toward Rio.

"Then why are we stopping here? Shouldn't we keep our distance?"

Rio nodded. "Normally, yes. We should never provoke an Ouzame without a good reason."

She paused, allowing the words to settle before continuing in a more serious tone.

"And don't underestimate its speed. Its size might make it look slow, but that's a dangerous assumption. An Ouzame can accelerate with incredible force, and over a short distance, it can easily outrun a sand cruiser."

Ryota slowly turned toward the vehicle.

"...Even this one?"

"Even this one."

He looked at the steering controls as though they had personally betrayed him.

"...I suddenly don't like our transportation anymore."

Rio ignored the comment. "If an Ouzame becomes aggressive, we cannot assume that we can simply drive away. Provoking it and then trying to escape would be a terrible idea. We need to avoid triggering an attack unless we're prepared to deal with the consequences."

Akari nodded slowly as the pieces fell into place. The Ganzame they had encountered earlier were dangerous, but at least their attacks had been relatively easy to read. Their dorsal fins betrayed their positions, and their movements through the sand offered some indication of the direction from which they would strike.

The Ouzame presented an entirely different problem.

It could remain beneath the terrain until the moment it attacked, leaving its prey with almost no warning. The ground itself was part of its camouflage, and the very landscape they were standing on could conceal a threat capable of overwhelming their cruiser.

Akari looked at the rocky formation once more before turning toward her sister.

"...So, what's the plan?"

Rio's smile returned.

"Good question."

She raised her hand and pointed toward the right side of the basin. Beyond the first Ouzame, another broad formation of exposed rock stretched across the sand. Its uneven surface formed a long ridge, with jagged stones and dark mineral deposits scattered across its back. From their current position, it looked remarkably similar to the creature directly in front of them.

Memory followed Rio's gesture.

At first, she felt a brief surge of relief. Another rocky formation did not necessarily mean another monster, and she was more than willing to accept the possibility that this particular stretch of terrain was completely harmless.

Then she noticed Rio's expression.

The silver-haired girl was smiling.

It was not the gentle smile she used when reassuring frightened companions, nor was it the playful expression she wore whenever she found an opportunity to tease Ryota. This smile was different. It was the expression Rio adopted whenever she discovered an opportunity that other people had overlooked, the look of someone who had already begun connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of information into a plan.

Memory's relief vanished.

"...Rio?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you smiling like that?"

Rio pointed toward the second formation.

"Because that's another Ouzame."

Silence descended over the cruiser once again.

Memory slowly turned toward the second ridge. She examined it for several seconds, then looked back at the first Ouzame and finally returned her gaze to Rio, as if she were attempting to confirm that she had heard the answer correctly.

"...There's another one?"

Rio nodded. "Yes."

Memory stared at the desert, her expression becoming increasingly vacant.

"...There are two of them?"

"At least two that we've spotted."

For several moments, Memory remained perfectly still. Then, with the slow deliberation of someone whose spirit had been thoroughly defeated, she crouched beside the railing.

"I want to go home."

Bubbles bounced onto her head and settled there like a tiny blue helmet.

"Pyu..."

Akari could no longer completely suppress her amusement at Memory's reaction, but her attention soon returned to the two enormous formations. If both were Ouzame, their presence raised an important question.

"Wait," she said, looking between the creatures. "If they're both Ouzame, won't they attack us if we approach either one?"

"Not necessarily."

Rio folded her arms and studied the distance separating the two creatures. From their current position, she could see how the exposed ridges occupied different portions of the basin, with a broad stretch of terrain lying between them. Neither creature appeared to be moving, but she knew better than to interpret their stillness as inactivity.

"Ouzame are extremely territorial," she explained. "Unlike Ganzame, which can pursue prey in coordinated packs, Ouzame generally prefer to maintain control over their own hunting grounds. They don't want another large predator competing with them for the same food or territory."

Akari's eyes widened slightly as she began to understand what Rio was suggesting.

"...You mean they'll fight each other?"

Rio nodded. "Quite often, yes."

She gestured toward the two rocky formations. "When another Ouzame enters its territory, a creature may treat it as a rival instead of simply ignoring it. If the rival refuses to leave, the two can end up fighting over territorial dominance."

Ryota turned toward Rio with growing suspicion.

"...Wait a minute."

Rio glanced at him. "What?"

He pointed toward the two formations, then back toward the cruiser as though checking whether the vehicle had somehow carried them into a completely different expedition.

"Are you saying our plan is to make two giant sand sharks fight each other?"

Rio smiled.

"Exactly."

Ryota stared at her. He looked at the first Ouzame, then at the second, and finally back at Rio. His expression suggested that he was trying to determine whether she was joking, although he had already learned that the most dangerous plans she devised were often the ones she presented with the greatest confidence.

"...And how are we supposed to do that without getting eaten?"

Rio's smile widened.

"That's the part we need to figure out."

Memory shot upright so quickly that Bubbles nearly toppled from her head.

"NOPE!"

Everyone turned toward her.

Memory hugged Bubbles protectively and shook her head with enough force to make her hair sway around her face.

"I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR EITHER OF THOSE THINGS!"

Rio tilted her head, apparently considering the objection with complete seriousness.

"Even if I tell you we can do it safely?"

"YES!"

"Even if there's rare ore involved?"

Memory froze.

For a brief moment, the fear on her face struggled against another, far more practical concern. She slowly turned toward Rio, her expression wavering as she attempted to determine how much danger might be justified by the promise of valuable materials.

"...How rare?"

Akari immediately covered her face with one hand.

"Memory!"

"What?! I'm asking a reasonable question!"

"You were just saying we were all going to die!"

"WE STILL MIGHT! I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH THE ORE IS WORTH BEFORE WE DO!"

Ryota let out a tired sigh from beside the steering station. "I can't believe we're negotiating with our own survival instincts."

"Speak for yourself," Memory replied, still watching Rio expectantly. "My survival instincts are perfectly reasonable. They're telling me to leave."

Rio laughed softly, allowing the exchange to continue for another moment before returning her attention to the basin.

The first Ouzame remained motionless beneath the sand, its enormous back exposed like a natural ridge. The second lay farther away, equally still, its body hidden beneath a separate stretch of desert. From the cruiser's position, neither creature seemed particularly interested in what was happening around it.

Yet Rio knew that appearances were deceptive.

Both Ouzame were alive. Both were capable of sensing vibrations through the ground, and both were almost certainly aware that something had entered the surrounding area. The fact that neither had attacked suggested that the cruiser remained outside their effective range, but it also meant that the group had little room for careless movement.

The challenge was clear. Rio needed to draw the two territorial predators into conflict without provoking either one into attacking the cruiser first. If they could make the Ouzame focus on each other, their attention might be diverted long enough for Crowned Era to approach the mineral formations growing between the creatures' scales.

That was the opportunity she had been searching for.

The plan was dangerous, and there was no guarantee that the two monsters would behave exactly as she expected. Nevertheless, fighting an Ouzame directly would be an unnecessary gamble when the creatures' own instincts might provide a better solution.

Rio rested one hand against the railing and began studying the space between the two enormous backs. Her gaze moved across the sand, measuring the distance, examining the terrain, and searching for a way to manipulate the creatures' movements without placing her companions directly in harm's way.

After a moment, she smiled again.

"All right. Let's work out how to make two giant sand sharks hate each other more than they hate us."

Ryota released a long, weary sigh.

"...I knew this expedition was going to be dangerous."

Akari glanced toward the distant formations, then toward her sister, who was still holding Bubbles as though the little slime were the only thing keeping her anchored to the world.

"...And I thought the Ganzame were bad."

Memory tightened her arms around Bubbles, staring at the enormous creatures with an expression of profound betrayal.

"I miss the Ganzame."

Everyone turned toward her.

Memory hesitated as she realized what she had just said. After everything the pack of sand sharks had put them through, she had never expected to find herself longing for their return. Yet compared with the thought of standing anywhere near a mountain-sized predator, the Ganzame suddenly seemed almost comforting.

"...I can't believe I just said that."

Rio laughed, the sound carrying across the otherwise silent cruiser. She soon turned back toward the two rocky formations, her amusement giving way to the focused expression of a player preparing to tackle a difficult encounter.

The Ouzame danger zone had only just begun, and they had not yet collected a single piece of the rare ore they had come to find. Before they could mine the mineral deposits growing between the creatures' scales, they would need to overcome the enormous predators without becoming their next meal.

Fortunately, Rio had never been the sort of player who accepted a dangerous situation at face value.

If the Ouzame were territorial, then their instincts could be turned into a weapon. If they considered one another rivals, then the group might not need to defeat either creature themselves. They only needed to create the right circumstances and ensure that the monsters directed their aggression toward the proper target.

It was a risky idea, but it was also their best opportunity.

As Rio continued examining the basin, the two enormous creatures remained still beneath the sand, their rocky backs blending seamlessly into the desert landscape. From a distance, they looked like nothing more than a pair of ancient mountains.

Soon, however, Rio intended to make those mountains move.