Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 3 Days 21 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

Nic prepared to start out across the sandy base of the valley. With the sun descending he only had so much time, but he still had to move cautiously. His danger sense was feeling out dozens of threats moving deep beneath the surface. Following with his basic perceptions he could even see the sand twitch slightly as something burrowed or swam below.

He drew his bow and nocked back an arrow, while circulating his aura into the broad Sandrider Blade strapped to his back. He used the blade to lift a column of sand and slam it into the ground, creating a disturbance like something large had just moved across the surface.

Then another and another to create a trail like footsteps moving across the dunes.

Instantly he felt the points of danger start to converge. The sand fountained up into the air as an enormous jeweled beetle with a single heavy horn erupted from below.

Valley Pharoah Beetle. F-Class // Demi-Sentient. Able to swim through sand like water, this enormous creature is clumsy and awkward above the land but becomes a deadly predator below. Beware the immense power of its rising horn and the resilience of its armor.

Without pause Nic launched his arrow, the point heavy with a combination of adhesive spit and Poison Mist. It stabbed into the beast’s side and failed to crack the shell - but the poison still began to sizzle and eat through its armor.

The beetle turned and prepared to charge, but Nic made a spear of sand shoot from the ground into its side. The shot didn’t wound the beast - and the next three didn’t either - but altogether they managed to prevent it from diving back into the sand or building up the momentum to attack. In the same time Nic had lifted another arrow into place and fired.

This one hit the softer shell around the beast’s throat and Nic watched it flinch in pain, staggering. Two more arrows sliced into its face before it struggled down and began to slide into the sand with its Shard-powers, trying to swim through the earth like water.

Nic simply used the Sandrider Blade to push it upwards, the earth below seething like boiling water as the two auras collided.

It was a good hunting strategy - his powers neatly countered the beast’s abilities, and he could control the battle well enough to keep the beetle’s greater strength and size from coming to bear.

The only problem was, a thrashing, dying beetle was sending ‘prey’ signals to the whole valley.

Another beetle erupted from below. An enormous sand-tick followed, latching onto the wounded beast and beginning to drain its blood. A tarantula. A strange reptilian monster with cricket-like wings and chitin-covered legs, its long scaly neck ending in a crocodilian head that sported a brutal set of mandible to augment the already-powerful jaws.

In moments the sand was a churning pit of blood as they fought for the wounded, and were wounded in turn, becoming the new prey.

Nic had already disappeared. Dashing along the walls to escape the immediate fray, he dropped down onto a ‘bridge’ of hardened sand he lifted above the desert floor. Although it couldn’t hide the shocks of his footsteps completely, it spread them out enough for the commotion of the battle to hide them as he dropped to all fours and scurried across the valley basin.

In the future this place could be an ideal hunting ground. The beasts were unintelligent, the terrain favored Nic, and best of all, they had Shards to harvest. If he could keep the feeding frenzy from erupting and stealing his prey he’d be rich in a matter of days.

But his blatant hunger for Essence and credits would have to wait.

---

As Nic explored through the valley basin several things became clear.

One was that this place had once been full of life. Desiccated ruins stood on all sides. Corpses were exposed when the wind blew sand away from their hollow eyes.

The second was that the real prize of this zone wasn’t meant to be the golden treasure above, but the golden insects down here. They landed on every surface, crawling, skittering, taking flight on gilded wings. They were the lure of the valley basin, the true reward. Uncursed but precious. And because Nic was the first one here, there was an abundance yet to be picked clean.

Burial-Gift Scarab. Unranked // Mindless. These beautiful things are born in tombs from the swirling energy of artifacts left for the dead. They bear a rich Essence and their shells are good materials for upgrading weapons. Ingredient in common F-Class medicines.

Nic snatched one up with his tongue as he crept by a broken well, a flash of pink stealing it off the ruined lip of stone. It crunched sweetly in his mouth as fiery motes of Essence - just over a hundred - flared through his body.

Unfortunately, there was just no time to collect a true bounty here. The sun was getting dangerously close to the top of the valley, turning red as it sank through the sky. He’d be back-

But for now, Nic had the first of his goals in sight.

At the core of a ruined town was a statue of a hippo-headed goddess, bearing a bundle of wheat over one shoulder and a long spear in her hand. Time and wind had worn away her finer features but it was still clearly the same figure as the one within the temple.

At the base of her statue was a dry lake, the earth cracked open with tiny fissures across a surface of long-dried white mud. A single sword plunged into the earth and sand swirled up in a spiral around the rusted blade.

It reminded Nic of the Sandrider Blade he carried on his back.

He advanced, already prepared for a fight. There was no way pulling the blade out would happen without one. And sure enough, as Nic approached the ribbons of sand swirling around the blade began to combine into one, forming the shape of an ancient creature.

Dark bandages covered every inch of its body except for the face, which was concealed by a golden mask. Its chest had been torn open and the points of its ribcage gleamed like teeth.

River-Drinker Spirit. F-Class (Peak) // Undead. Ancient and hungering, this spirit represents the boundless thirst of one who died in the deep desert. Beware its ability to shape the dunes against you, or take the form of blood-stealing pests, for the River-Drinker is a cunning foe that fights by exhaustion.

Nic accelerated forward, zipping across the ground. He drew his hatchet in one hand, the second armored by his boar-shield -

The creature extended a hand and blades of sand exploded up from the ground. Nic tried to dull them with his own control, but the creature’s will was like iron and his own aura couldn’t penetrate the incoming attack.

He met it head on and the razor-sharp spikes lashed against the front of his shield. One whipped across his shoulder to open a deep gash. One stabbed low into the meat of his leg. Nic hurtled through the pain and blood to deliver a blinding-fast slash with his hatchet.

The mummy was gone.

It dissolved into a thousand buzzing mosquitoes as soon as he reached for it with his blade. They poured past Nic with the sound of a thousand wings, a droning whine filling his ear-holes as they screeched and plummeted past to reform behind him into the dark, desiccated corpse.

It raised its fingers and a new wave of sand attacks burst from the desert.

Nic evaded this time, pushing the sand underfoot to launch him to the side as he flung his hatchet in a long, spinning arc towards the mummy. It dissolved, smearing through the air as a swarm of insects to reform inches away as the axe buried itself in a low stone wall instead.

Snarling, Nic drew his tiger-claw into his hand and lunged for the enemy. Again, the earth erupted into attacks from below, and this time Nic twisted between them- the spirit’s moves were predictable and dull-minded enough for him to slip through as spike after spike burst from the sand.

But while it’s mind might have been slow-

It’s movement was not. It dissolved again, breaking apart into a swarm of droning mosquitoes. Nic’s mouth snapped open and he sprayed Poison Mist into the swarm, instantly killing off a huge swathe as the dark smoke billowing in jets and plumes from his mouth turned them to poisoned mush.

The rest fled, screaming off into the distance before reforming-

The mummy was missing one arm. It growled, a low and whining sound like an injured animal. Its remaining hand raised.

A column of sand lifted into the air and dropped back down. Thump.

And again. Thump.

Nic knew immediately what was happening, but with the distance opened between them-

He wasn’t going to get there in time to stop it. Thump.

The mummy was calling up the beasts of the valley just like Nic had. One by one, huge insects began to push out of the sand, drawn by the vibrations above. Even as Nic charged forward an enormous jeweled horn scythed through the sand towards him, cutting through the earth like a shark’s dorsal fin cuts through water.

Nic barely had time to brace before the horn stabbed upwards and the sand exploded, erupting as the beetle lurched up from below. The impact carved a huge chunk out of his shield and knocked him off his feet, sending him crashing, rolling, stumbling across the sands. His whole arm was numb, the joint scraping and groaning itn its socket.

The mummy lifted its hand and a spear of sand pierced him through the back of the leg.

Nic sank, surrounded on all sides. But he wasn’t done yet.

Not by a damn long shot.

As more spears of earth leapt from the ground he conjured the shield granted by the Plate of the Sun God’s Dictate, the page of hammered bronze he’d won from the ascended sand devil. It was a shining, gold-bronze barrier that leapt up and briefly surrounded him, preventing the weak attacks from breaking through.

The beetle made a creaking, groaning warcry and lowered its horn, readying to charge forward. Nic didn’t have any doubts the barrier would break in a heartbeat against that kind of force.

But Nic had other plans. Sliding the cursed peach pit from his pocket he thrust it down into the earth. From the instant it touched the sand it began to grow, splitting open to reveal tender green shoots. The scent that filled the air was intoxicating-

And designed to drive beasts mad with hunger.

Even the River-Drinker was stopped dead in its tracks for a moment, stunned by the ancient fragrance of sweet blossoms and ripe fruit. A smell that hadn’t filled this valley for hundreds of years.

For a moment a fragile peace held as the sapling began to grow, pushing up from the seed. In seconds it had swelled from a single pit to a small tree of curled white limbs.

Nic was at the center of a ring of enemies, staring hungrily at that tree. He reached down, slowly, and unhooked one of his last two spore-lobs from his belt.

Then the beetle roared and began to charge-

And all hell broke loose.