Surviving in my Own Unpublished Failed Novel

[The Player Party has successfully cleared the 24th Floor of the Tower of Growth!]

[Generating rewards...]

[...has received...]

[...has received...]

[The Player Party has arrived at the "Waiting Room."]

'That's hilarious.'

Russell inwardly said. They just finished raiding the 24th floor of the Tower. It was the same; there were Sand People as ordinary troops, and a Commander, though not the same one as Commander Cargan from the 21st floor.

Russell looked at Rumia and Elizabeth and remembered what had transpired on the 24th floor. But first, from the 22nd to the 23rd floor, the honorable battle was evoked again though it was Jiho who fought the commander on the former floor, while it was Elizabeth who fought the one on the latter floor.

The higher the floor, the more refined the swordsmanship of the commander they fought, and it was Rumia who evoked the honorable battle — that turned out to be not-so-honor.

"Ugh-! I don't know what to say, really!"

Rumia grumbled. What happened was that Rumia couldn't fight head-on the commander of the 24th floor. With that said, Elizabeth, who didn't want Rumia to receive the Failure Penalty that's unknown to them at this moment, interfered and backstabbed the commander. What's more, the Tower of Growth recognized it as an act of survival thus allowing it to happen since it never stated that interfering was forbidden in any way.

Simply, the Tower acknowledged that sometimes, one's honor must be thrown down to survive.

Russell, who never expected such a development, controlled himself from laughing at the ludicrous development, though not major that would detrimentally affect the entirety of the story to the point that predicting something turned out to be an impossibility.

"Haha! I can't let my bestfriend fail you know."

Elizabeth teased Rumia with a wide, captivating smile on her face. Though her expression was that of how cheeky she was.

'My anxiety soared that time.'

Russell, sitting on the grey single bed at the end of the plain grey-walled waiting room, thought as he heard Elizabeth's words. If Rumia lost at that time, it would certainly be a great deviation in the story of his unpublished novel.

"Excuse me, everyone! Let's do trades now. We still have a few minutes left before proceeding to the next floor."

Samantha politely initiated. After some time, the trades for those who wanted to trade something ended. It was a fair trade since those who traded received something more relevant in their profession.

"By the way, don't forget what I told you for a while now.

"I don't know what awaits us on the 25th floor, but we're advised to not hold anything back."

Anya firmly said just after the trade session ended. They're circling each other while sitting on the solid grey floor.

"But we can guess that it's something related to the 21st to the 24th floor. Well, it's what happened on the previous floors."

Everyone nodded at her words. Raya and Yara, on the other hand, just listened carefully to Anya's words before glancing at Celine — the one they were asked to protect, with unknown expressions.

After a few minutes of tidying themselves up, checking everything necessary, and wearing some of the reward equipment some of them acquired or traded with, the entire party proceeded to the next floor.

***

[The Player Party has arrived at Floor 25 of the Tower of Growth!]

[Quest Objective: Kill the Sand War General, Dykuma!]

[Duration: 100 minutes]

[Due to the merged Player Party, the overall strength of Dymuna would be double.]

'That's a fine warning.'

Russell thought as they arrived at a desert war land, no signs of plant life could be seen around, rather there were only desert valleys, small desert mountains, bones of various structures, and scattered dilapidated equipment — both were washed through the sands of time.

Normally, the System barely mentioned the change in difficulty when Rumia's Party and Samantha's Party merged, but this time, it was different as the System notified everyone that the overall strength of the Boss Monster would be double. The duration given to end this floor also increased by fivefold than usual compared to the lower floors bosses.

At that moment, similar and unchanging, a crack was formed in space, at least more than fifty meters away from them. The eyes of the entire party had a look of awe at the phenomena because the crack was getting larger and larger, and it was emitting glistening brownish particles of light. Moreover, as the crack's size increased, a big foot first stepped on the desert war land, but what shocked most of the party members except for Russell was that this foot didn't resemble those of the Sand People which had normal human feet, but was structured with the sand.

"Isn't that a robot?"

Rumia whispered, but her voice seemed to echo throughout the desert war land. What came out of the crack was a gigantic rusty, brown-metalled robot.

After at least ten to fifteen seconds since the crack in space appeared, the entire body of the fifteen-meter robot stood mightily in front of everyone. Soon after, they found a woman, belonging to the Sand People, sitting on top of the gigantic robot, who was enclosed by a glass similar to those of a virtual reality capsule. This woman has mid-length brown hair, brown eyes, and a mix of brownish and yellowish skin similar to sand.

After a few seconds after the woman and the gigantic robot's appearance, the System's message regarding the information of the Boss Monster then screened in front of them.

Name: Dymuna

Title: Sand War General

Race: Sand People

Family: Sand God's Follower

Rank: D

— STATS —

Strength: 699

Swift: 699

Fortitude: 699

Intelligence: 699

Magic Power: 699

It was confusing at first since the System had told them that the strength of the Boss Monster doubled, but this Boss Monster's rank was the same as the previous boss floors.

Then, the System quickly answered the confusion on their faces as another System message screened in front of them.

[Ancient Sand Weapon]

A weapon of war that had killed countless lives throughout its creation.

Rank: Ancient

Classification: Artifact

— Effects:

[Sand Cannon] - Fires a magical blast by utilizing the blessing of the Sand God.

[Sand Bomb] - Fires a magical bomb by utilizing the blessing of the Sand God.

[Sand Barrier] - Shielding itself from infiltration and attacks by utilizing the blessing of the Sand God.

[The power of the Ancient Sand Weapon is extremely degraded and is now equivalent to the B rank player.]

Russell's deep blue eyes widened at the change that transpired. What actually doubled was the power of the Ancient Sand Weapon because, in his unpublished novel, it was the same as Dymuna, the one in control of the enormous artifact. Though it was nerfed inside the Tower of Growth, similar to some Boss Monsters like the Horror Murloc, and Commander Cargan.

"Scatter!"

Samantha's voice reverberated, cutting off Russell's thoughts of apprehension.

The gigantic robot was bipedal, had two hands, well-structured body — all metallic. There were two

large cannons attached to its shoulder, and at that moment, it seemed to suck the entire desert as sand gathered and coalesced in those cannons. A brown light emanated from it, then fired at the spot from where the party was standing on guard.

Boom-!

The entire ground shook and split open as though quicksands were instantly created.

***

"I finally see the reason why your father said that we should go all out on the 25th Floor."

Jiho muttered, alert at possible incoming attacks.

"We need to chip away the gigantic robot first because of the Sand Barrier, then restrain it. But it's equivalent to B rank, we would surely die if we get hit by that."

Anya replied, making an appropriate suggestion.

"You're probably right. Our two tankers won't be able to withstand its attack."

Jiho spoke, looking at one of the tankers that were with them — Murktan, the Brute Enforcer.

With Elizabeth's help, the entire party which was untidily scattered was now split into two.

Russell and Freya, moving along with them, were silent. They were talking through telepathy as they heard Anya's suggestion, talking about the plan to drop down an enormous cross at the head of the gigantic robot.

"Excuse me. How about the other tanker, Marokh? Isn't his specialty regarding sand?"

Though he knew full well, Russell spoke with uncertainty. It's a temporary measure that would only be possible if Marokh was assisted in defending.

"You're right. He creates a shield using soil, but he's from Bhaskara, so he's probably used in molding sand as a shield than normal soil."

Anya seriously consider the feasible suggestion of Russell, while Murktan, although feeling somewhat envious to take up the role, agreed with Russell's suggestion.

At this moment, they were hiding in a desert valley, while Samantha on the other side, was taking and dodging the sand cannon blast in the open field with Elizabeth's help. The ancient weapon seemed to take some time to fill in the cannons with sand, giving them time to at least regularly breathe.

"But how do we tell them? It seems we're going to be noticed if we move openly."

Jiho asked, curious about how to proceed.

"Uh, about that. I think I can help."

Freya interjected. Amelie and Amery were on Rumia's side this time, hiding somewhere else. Freya then sent a message through telepathy and told the two about what they had discussed. Freya basically and indirectly admitted that she could use telepathic communication, though it wasn't a big deal for renowned and rich people to possess such a skill. Jiho didn't know about the selling of the Micro-Strayed Dungeon rights, which Anya came to know from his father, so she didn't think much of it.

Anya didn't possess a telepathic-related skill because of the sole reason — the eyes that were with her when she was alone seemed to mumble indecipherable words. The System strongly warned her before upon receiving her power that using telepathic communication would make the end recipient or the message receiver go mad.

<Alright then. I'll tell Elizabeth and Rumia.>

Amelie responded. After some time, Freya and Russell received a negative response.

<Marokh said he can't tank it, since his rank is a few tiers lower than that ancient weapon.>

Freya delivered Amelie's words to the group.

"Tell him that he doesn't need to completely tank up the blast, but just alter it slightly to weaken it."

"Also, tell him that I'll support him in the front."

Murktan followed up with Anya's suggestion, which Freya delivered.

Seconds later, with a feeling of apprehension, Marokh finally agreed.

Informing everyone of the plan, they showed themselves in front of Dymuna, and for the first time, the Sand War General spoke.

"I admire your valor, but there's only the futility of life and the tranquility of death on the battlefield."

***

With cold sweats in this hot desert war land, the sound of the charging Sand Cannons entered the ears of the party. The sand, every time the ancient weapon used it, was sucked through the cannons.

The plan was to wait for the sand cannon blast, and let Marokh, the Sand Tanker manipulate some of the blasts, turning it into a gigantic Sand Shield. Then, when the weakened blast hit them, the fighters of the party would coordinately attack the enormous artifact since it would take some time to fully charge the Sand Cannon, allowing them to counterattack.

It would be easier to use Elizabeth's teleportation to go inside the capsule where Dymuna was sitting, controlling the ancient weapon, but with the Sand Barrier, she couldn't teleport inside it until the layers of the barrier were completely destroyed or somehow nullified.

But the plan had a flaw.

At that moment, they heard something metallic that was opening at the back of the ancient weapon, then seconds later, something quickly flew out of it, passed through, and seemed to tore apart the vibrating air.

It was the Sand Bomb.