Using Gacha to Increase My Companions and to Create the Strongest Girls’ Army Corps

Chapter 82 – Sandworm

After traveling a decent amount of time from the Royal Capital via Magic Carpet, we arrived at the Angori Ruins.

[So these are the Angori Ruins eh.]

[The building doesn’t look as “ruined” as I imagined.]

This desert area that we are in clearly looks separated from the regular plains, as though there’s a boundary line.

And in that desert, is this pyramid-like structure which looks like it was made by piling up stones of considerable size.

The vertex is a square instead of a triangle, with a hole there that seems to be the entrance.

Are we supposed to enter through there?

There are multiple other structures around, which look like roofs supported by round pillars; if you told a stranger this place was made by humans they might even believe you.

What if, this place was really made by humans? It does have the vibes of actual ruins though……

[Now then, let’s call Shisuha and the others first.]

[Here’s hoping nothing happened back at home…]

In order to summon Shisuha and the others here, I took out a Beacon and set it up at where I was standing.

This place is quite far from the Royal Capital, but there shouldn’t be any problems since I installed 1(Beacon) along the way as a relay.

But I’m not going to just summon them so suddenly, I’ll call their Transceiver first.

『’Ello, Shisuha here.』

[Oh, it’s me.
You haven’t done anything to Luna…right?]

『What do you take me for, I won’t cause problems every time! Honestly…..
So, do you need anything from me?』

[We are doing the B rank promotion request now, but I want Shisuha and Luna to come with.
I can summon you girls easily with the Beacon.]

I called Shisuha’s Transceiver with my smartphone, and she picked up quickly.

Phew… It would be bad if she did something to Luna, and caused her to be out of commision.

『I’m good to go as I have finished my current chores.
Luna-san however is still in bed, so I’ll wake her up now.
This might take some time, so I will contact you when we are ready.』

[Got it.
There’s no hurry though.]

She did say it might take some time, but it shouldn’t take too long.

I do feel a little bad due to how sudden this is, but this is for the Gacha, it can’t be helped.

[How was Shisuha?]

[Ah, she said she did housework normally.]

[Hopefully she has learnt her lesson considering how many times she’s been bitten.]

After finishing the call, Noru and Estel spoke to me with an uneasy tone.

I don’t blame them for feeling uneasy from Shisuha’s usual antics.
But Shisuha was doing housework normally this time.

Should we change our opinion of her? If she really has changed for the better, it will become fine to have her and Luna watch the house when there’s the need.

30 minutes later.

[It’s so hot here… Aren’t they taking too long?]

[Uu… it’s been quite a while alright…]

[They are taking quite some time if it’s just for changing clothes…]

[Should we move to the plains for the moment?]

We can’t enter the Ruins yet, so we are waiting somewhere nearby where there are no monsters around.

It’s unusually warm probably because we are in a desert, the 3 of us have just been waiting for the call as we drank water from our bottles.

I thought the call would come shortly, but they have yet to call.
What are they doing?

As we discussed whether we should beat the heat by moving to the plains, my smartphone vibrated.

They have finally called back.

[Oh, you sure took your time.]

『…..Heihachi.
Apologies for the delay.』

[Ooh, Luna.
What happened to Shisuha?]

The smartphone notification showed the incoming call was from Shisuha’s Transceiver, but it was Luna on the calling end.

Why is it Luna though?

『…… Stuff happened.
We are ready though, you can summon us whenever.』

After a short pause, Luna muttered that “Stuff happened”.

She sounded strangely apologetic.

What did she mean by “Stuff happened”? Did something happen to Shisuha?

I’m curious, but it’ll be quicker to summon them as they are ready.

I brought up the Beacon controls on my smartphone, and summoned Luna and Shisuha to where we are via party movement.

[Ah, a… O, Okura-san…..]

I transported Shisuha and Luna to our location by relaying through multiple Beacons.

And what appeared was Luna carrying Shisuha on her shoulders.

Eh… why? She sounded fine and dandy when I called her earlier, what happened?

[How did things turn out like this…]

[Her eyes are almost fully rolled back.]

[Did she do something unnecessary when waking you up?]

Shisuha was laid down on a rug, her face was pale and her whole body was convulsing.
Those are the typical symptoms she has after getting bitten by Luna.

At least she’s able to converse which means the effects aren’t too strong, but it seems impossible for her to move on her own.

[Erm, Shisuha woke me up normally.
But I ended up biting her.]

[W, why did you do that?]

[Out of reflex I guess, I may have gotten too used to biting Shisuha.]

Estel was curious as to why Luna did it, because apparently Shisuha woke her up normally.

And Luna’s answer was surprising if anything.

The reason it’s surprising, was because she did it because she got used to doing it.

Her answer left me and Noru speechless.

Luna herself understands what she did was pretty bad, that’s why she has been apologetic the whole while.

Shisuha gets a Panacea to recover in the meantime.

[Shisuha, are you okay?]

[Ye, yea…]

[Shisuha, I’m sorry for what happened.]

I pulled out a bottle of Panacea from my smartphone and fed Shisuha the contents.

After consuming it, her complexion quickly improved and she returned to her usual state.

Luna lowers her head and apologizes to the now recovered Shisuha.

Uーmu, she(Luna) may not like her(Shisuha), but she properly apologizes for her mistakes.

I do think this happening was Shisuha’s own fault, Luna reacting the way she did was blatantly due to Shisuha’s usual antics.

The way she apologizes without making excuses is commendable.

[That’s all done and past! More like I want you to bite me more…..
Ufufu.]

Shisuha gives the apologetic Luna a big hug, and elatedly gives her headpats.

Luna, who was getting hugged, groans as she gets smothered by Shisuha’s chest.

She can’t get angry now, so she’s doing her best to endure it…

As a man, I’m a little jelly of her getting hugged by Shisuha.

[Luna.
The sun’s still up but are you good to go?]

[Uu, n, no problems.
Rather, can someone get her off me already.]

I asked Luna if she was bothered by the daylight, but it seems that there are no problems.

She was more annoyed at Shisuha who was still hugging her.
So we helped extricate her from Shisuha’s clutches.

[Whew… Now then, what kind of request is it this time?]

[The request this time is to survey the Angori Ruins.]

Shisuha looked a little disappointed when we pulled her off Luna, but it looks like she enjoyed herself enough as she didn’t particularly complain.

Now that we can finally have a proper conversation, I pointed in the direction of the building and told Shisuha and Luna about our goal today.

[Hoo, the Gacha eh.
I have yet to experience it so I’m pretty interested.]

[Exploring ruins is also quite the exciting prospect.]

Luna showed interest in the Step-up Gacha, while Shisuha seemed more interested in the ruins.

I too am a little excited about exploring the place, but we sadly can’t afford to spend too much time there.

[Honestly I wanted to take my time exploring, but the Gacha just had to pop up at the same time.
We will be conquering the ruins as quickly as possible.]

[This place is supposedly meant for C rankers, our full party is sorta overkill.]

[Now that Luna is with us, we’ll be done in no time.]

This sort of request would normally be for B rankers, so I feel a little bad to bother Luna since she’s not even an adventurer.

Desperate times call for desperate measures so they say, I’ll be counting on Luna’s strength to conquer the ruins without fail.

Also Shisuha is still F rank, the completion of this request won’t bring her up to B rank.

However, Wizzy-chan also said that if we successfully complete this request, the guild will give her special considerations when she reaches C rank, so there shouldn’t be a problem.

[First, let’s confirm the monsters around the ruins.]

[There are lizard-like things and birds.]

[I wonder where the Sandworms are?]

We started walking toward the most prominent pyramid-like building to kick off our exploration.

Even if you look around, you can only see ocher lizards about 1m in size that walk on fours, and giant eagles perched on rocks.

Those are the usual C rank monsters, and are not the target of this investigation.

Our target is the Sandworm, a B rank monster.
We haven’t seen any of them so far……

As we were walking around with those thoughts, the sand under our feet suddenly began to tremble, and the sand a slight distance away from us swelled up as it approached us.

[I, it’s coming from below! Be careful!]

The swelling in the sand grew larger as it approached us, before finally revealing what’s under.

What appeared had a giant worm-like body covered in ocher skin, and a number of long, thin legs growing from its torso.

Countless teeth line its round mouth, you’d turn into a pincushion if you got swallowed, I doubt the average person would survive.

It’s not as big as the Behemoth, but it’s large enough to easily swallow a human whole.

S, so that’s a Sandworm… As expected of a B-rank monster.
It looks intimidating.

However, we have hunted numerous other B rank monsters.
We should be able to take it down with relative ease.

The Sandworm intimidates us by opening its mouth widely at us, I unsheathed Excali-bar and took my stance.

It’d be horrible to get swallowed by it, so let’s focus.

Shortly after I got ready, an extra large rock from behind me flew towards and into the widely opened mouth of the worm.

The worm writhed its giant body in pain as it tried to spit out the rock, but the rock exploded before it could do so and its head was blown into pieces.

The headless body convulsed for a short while, the worm then turned into particles of light and disappeared leaving behind a large fang.

[If you open your mouth that much just to threaten us, that’s just telling me to shove something in it.]

[Muu, I didn’t get a chance to attack.]

[…..
Enemies with large bodies are just big targets for Estel.]

[You didn’t need to instagib it y’know…]

When I turned to look at Estel, she already had her Grimoire and staff in hand.
Only Estel can pull off stuff like this.

Luna was ready to attack with her spear too, but she looked a little dissatisfied as the target was obliterated before she could do so.

To think it was defeated before I could even check its stats… I was hoping we’d get to fight a strong monster in a while, this felt anticlimactic…..

[Let’s clean up the Sandworms around the ruins for now, we’ll go into the ruins after that.]

[But wouldn’t it be a pain to wait for them to come out?]

[Leave that to me.
E~i.]

There was still some distance to the pyramid-like building.

We’d run into some number of worms in that time.
It’s true it may be a little annoying to have to stop each time.

When Noru mentioned that, Estel said to leave it to her, and stuck her staff into the sand with her usual energy.

Then the ground began to shake strongly, and the sand was undulating like waves.

[Look, they all came out at once.
Fufu, Onii-san, what do you think?]

[O, oh… well done.]

After the ground shaking, the Sandworms began to jump out from their hiding spots, flopping and convulsing like fish washed ashore.

…..Did she send shockwaves through the ground and attacked the worms? Estel-san’s too stronk…..

Estel, who created this spectacle, approaches me with a smile that says “Praise me”.

Though this may not be how I was imagining things to turn out, I complimented her and we went around mopping up the unearthed worms, as we headed towards the pyramid-like building.