Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 1 Day 13 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

Nic tumbled into an underground cavern alongside a wave of sand, fighting to escape being buried as it cascaded in from above. A blow shot towards him from the shadows and on blind instinct he raised his shield, the collision rattling his arm in its socket as a scorpion-sting jabbed against the tortoiseshell barrier.

A thing shot from the shadows, clawing at his face. Nic evaded by dropping onto all fours and shooting to the side, escaping as long, clawed fingertips lashed at the ground where he’d been. As he leapt back up and turned to face the foe, this is what he saw:

Multi-faceted eyes like a fly. A long, skinny humanoid body covered in black-spotted yellow chitin. A scorpion’s tail. A centipede’s flicking red tongue. And lifting from the creature’s shoulders, a pair of looped jaws like a bear-trap.

Trapjaw Sand Devil. G-Class (Abberation) // Demi-Sentient. Born from the endless wastes resulting from Logos’ conquest of the Outer Delta Sphere, these creatures were granted the privilege of being sent to countless worlds, gaining sentience in reward for slaying the warriors of Integration. Beware, for despite lacking cultivation they fight well above their class.

It slid towards him, moving on backwards bending cricket legs.

Nic didn’t hesitate. Lifting his shield-claw he conjured the spirit, frost racing across the cave’s floor as the phantom boar rushed down at the sand devil. It met it head on with a slashing downwards blow from its tail, striking the phantom in the skull. The boar’s momentum and weight carried it forward to toss the devil aside like a ragdoll, but the blow had been fatal- the phantom dissolved quickly after.

It didn’t matter. The devil was off its feet, and by the time it climbed back up Nic was on top of his foe. His punching dagger struck down brutally. Yellow blood sprayed as the claw raked over the beast’s face and severed the tongue. His shield-claw swung in, striking with the blunt backs of the curved tusks and sending the beast sprawling back.

Nic sprayed poison mist out as well, but it hardly seemed to have an effect. The yellow armor absorbed it with ease.

The beast rolled and came at him on all fours. The trap-jaws slammed at empty air as Nic darted back. The tail whipped down and met his shield again.

But it had put Nic back on the defensive.

He was forced to weave and dodge as the beast’s tail continued to strike, the blur of sinuous chitin-covered death. The armor made his hacking counterstrikes ineffective while the sheer speed was able to press him back towards the cavern’s edge. Slowly but surely the enemy was gaining the upper hand as each block rattled Nic’s defenses.

Shifting suddenly, Nic spat adhesive across his shield. The devil was fast and strong- but not smart. It struck again, and its tail stabbed against the adhesive only to be stuck in place for a fatal instant. Without hesitation Nic summoned forth the tiger spirit. While Nic held the beast in place by its tail, feet straining against the cavern floor, the tiger emerged in a coil of flame and leapt forward to rake at it with terrible claws.

Desperate, the devil slashed and grasped with its own claws but the tiger spirit was far more ferocious. In moments the beast was on the ground being torn apart. At the same time Nic struck over and over with his claw to break away the chitinous armor of the tail until he’d severed the stinger at the end, leaving it clinging to his shield.

It was a brutal, messy ending to the fight, but the beast died- and that was what mattered. Yellow blood clung to the floor as the tiger spirit dissipated.

Nic gasped and panted, sinking to his knees. The underground cavern was cool but there was slimy sweat all over his body. That had been too close.

And the beast was only considered G-Class. It confirmed something terrible. Beasts in the Dungeon were far, far stronger than outside.

Settling down he began to cultivate to calm his nerves. Eating a piece of raw yellow meat from the beast and a fruit from his pack was enough to satisfy two of the requirements to boost his cultivating rate, and his time in the poison grove would be enough to satisfy ‘rest in a toxic environment’ for a few hours more.

But his eyes still boggled and Nic nearly choked as he opened the cultivation map.

Essence 4,339 / 5,000

+ 18.55 per Minute

(2.062 Base)

500% Local Modifier

+ Devoured an F-Class enemy (200%)

+ Consumed a G-Class treasure (100%)

+ Rested in toxic environment (100%)

18! His base rate had risen enormously and he could only guess it was from absorbing the Shard. And the Dungeon’s local modifier was even more insane than outside. The air was thick with Essence that swirled towards him with every breath, wanting to be absorbed.

In just the few hours he’d spent trekking through the desert his cultivation base had almost filled to the brim.

And like anyone who ran into an unexpected windfall, Nic was eager to blow through it just as quickly.

Cultivation Base (Unranked)

V Physical Strength (Locked)

III Mental Acuity (52/4,000)*

Spiritual Clarity (7/500)*

Regeneration (786/10,000)

His basic cultivation options were effectively maxed out at this point, since Mental Acuity would double in cost and Spiritual Clarity required a special form of Essence to increase. His regeneration might be good to improve- in fact, waiting until he needed it seemed like a bad idea.

Poison Mist Shard (F)

Creates and controls poisonous mist from Aura. Excellent attacking Shard, capable of piercing many defenses and inflicting ongoing damage.

Increase Toxicity (1,149/5,000)

Add Aura Efficiency (0/5,000)

Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Poison Devouring (0/10,000)

Mist Armor (0/50,000)

Thanks to its steady growth through use, he had enough to increase the killing power of poison mist. He could also work towards unlocking a secondary slot or whatever ‘Poison Devouring’ would give him. The first was likely the best since it was immediately within his reach. To conquer this Dungeon he would need killing power the present him was simply lacking.

Adhesive Touch (G)

Creates adhesive threads of pure Aura. A low-quality shard of marginal utility, but with clever hidden uses suited to a dexterous combatant.

Base Enhancement (584/1,000)

Secondary Slot (0/10,000)

Permanency (0/10,000)

Buying the secondary slot for Adhesive Touch had an appeal. It would turn his most lackluster skill into a powerhouse that summoned waves of tar and mud by combining with the Drowning Shard to form Mire-Caller. Until he did that however, there was little point in raising anything else about the Shard.

Totemic Petroglyphs (F)

Creates tools of bone, rock, and leather that contain the spirits of the fallen, calling them to your aid. A high-quality magical shard.

III Base Enhancement (1,566/2,500)

I Add Essence Efficiency (0/2,000)*

Additional Secondary Slot (0/50,000)

Summoning Limit (0/50,000)

Spirits of the Earth (0/10,000)

Base Enhancement was actually more than halfway to leveling by sheer use, and the rest of the abilities were far away. Summoning limit would likely allow him to call on more than one echo, while what Spirits of the Earth did was a mystery. He was intrigued that he could add a third Shard and modify the effect further, but that wasn’t a concern for today.

His immediate itch was to add a Secondary Shard slot to Adhesive Touch and attempt to form Mire-Caller. But- his poison breath had been completely shrugged off by the sand-devils. If his main killing tool grew useless due to his lack of investment, he’d have screwed himself by focusing on shiny new additions.

So he pushed energy into the nodes of his throat where the Poison Mist shard hid. He could feel the Essence the Shard drew in grow more and more congealed, full of evil and toxic attunements. The cost of the next rank shot up by 1,000 and Nic grinned as he felt the Shard hum with new strength. He couldn’t wait to try it out.

His meditations done, and many of his wounds sealed up by Regeneration, Nic rose to his feet and began to explore the environment. The cave was made of dark red stone and full of slimy insects wandering in the shadows.

They tasted delicious.

A hollow crevice in the stone led forward. Nic squeezed himself through. There was an entire network of caves beyond and Nic moved through them like a ghost; creeping and crawling on all fours he evaded the notice of another sand devil lurking in the dark, and one that appeared to be sleeping-

He winced. No. It was being eaten by dozens of larval sand-devils. It seemed the newborn ones had a nasty cannibalistic streak.

The next chamber was something different. A huge, cathedral-sized ruin sat in the center of the cavern, its single rising tower scraping the ceiling.

The room was crawling with sand devils. They fought for territory and mated in bestial ignorance. They climbed over the ruins, swarming. The constant shiver of insect motion was somehow disgusting to behold, and Nic flattened himself against the wall to escape being detected. Down here there was nowhere to escape. Being caught would mean death.

His heart beat hard in his chest as a sand devil flitted by. They came in dozens of different shapes; some had scorpion tails and overbuilt jaws, others moved on six legs, still others were long and lithe with fluttering wings.

“He- llo.”

Nic’s heart froze. He looked down to see a stone head sitting on the ground, overgrown by green-black mosses.

“Are yo- u here to cu- re this pla- gue?” A mechanical voice asked.

“Shhh!” Nic whispered desperately. In the distance there was an enormous grinding sound. Tremors shook through the cavern and brought dust cascading down from the ceiling. It was like the sound of a train going past, and it swallowed the stone head’s reply.

“Just- shhhh!” Grabbing the head in his hands, Nic slid it under his arm.

With each chamber he slipped through in the dark a distant rumbling grew closer. There was an entire labyrinth down here and he could only use the shaking of the earth as a guide to give his wandering some direction.

Until he came to an enormous sprawl of tunnels. They were smooth-walled, as if something had rushed against them thousands of times and ground them smooth.

And the earth shook violently underfoot.

Nic backed up as a stampede of crawling legs rushed through the tunnel. An enormous centipede slithered and rushed like a train, filling the cavern wall-to-wall with its bulk. At the end of its body, where a head should be, the creature split into dozens of half-formed humanoid upper torsos. They were glued together like conjoined twins, forming an enormous tangle of limbs and flesh that pushed along the floor using its endless assortment of arms and hands to walk.

Sand Devil Monarch. G-Class (Abberation) // Demi-Sentient. Born from dozens of larval Sand Devils fusing together, this ungodly beast first emerged during Logos’ conquest of the Outer Delta Sphere. After devouring numerous G-Class soldiers it was captured and given unto the gods of the System as tribute. The beast’s power defies the limits of a mortal beast with no cultivation, marking it as an Aberration. Guardian beast of the Scales of Sand.

Nic flattened himself against a wall as the creature stampeded past.

It didn’t even notice him.

Dozens of squirming larvae were left behind as the beast rushed past. They reeled on the floor, drenched in slime.

“The gre- at one.” The stone head’s faltering voice declared. “Once we worshi- pped her as a god. But her hung- er and greed overwhe- lmed us. Our devotion on- ly brought us ruin. Su- ch is the fate of those who turned away from the li- ght of the Sun God...”

You have discovered

Lore Fragment of the Scales of Sand

200 Essence Awarded

Discover four Lore Fragments to bind and weaken the Guardian ‘Sand Devil Monarch’

Nic stared at the passing horror of the centipede Monarch. Then down at the stone head in his grip. “Ancient history is real nice, but do you happen to know the way out of here?”