The forest and the rocks blurred under Arthur’s feet as he ran away from the broken dungeon’s cave. A few hours had passed since he had entered the cave, so the sun had gone down, and the twin moons shone their light instead. Arthur slowed to a stop when he saw the ocean in the distance. The terrain changed to a mix of rocks and sand. Arthur felt the egg behind him shifting. He brought it down and set it down on top of an ice pedestal. Arthur cast [Detect Life Aura] and found only crabs and fish.

The egg started to rock back and forth while ice began to form around the egg. Arthur took a step back and sat down on the rocks. Soon a second layer of ice formed and then a third. The egg pulsed with mana and activity. Then with a crack, the ice stopped condensing and broke apart. Arthur felt his connection to the egg grow as the dragon finally hatched. A large crack formed only the silver egg and the hatchling's claws poked out.

It took a few minutes for the hatchling to escape its egg and Arthur just watched. the baby dragon had blueish grey scales and was about five feet long has it stretched its body. the hatchling walked slowly to meet Arthur and sniffed him before returning to the sand. it had no interest in him and began playing with the sand and water but never directly jumping in.

“Hello little one,” said Arthur as it approached him.

The hatchling kicked up the sand and rolled around while chasing the scattering crabs on the beach.

“Maybe I should name you sandy because you are more interested in it than me,” said Arthur.

Arthur felt the tether to Sandy grow with the declaration of her name. Arthur’s connection felt like the dungeon’s power he had held earlier. Sandy returned to him now eating the broken shell. Arthur wished Sylvia had told him more about being a dungeon and about taking care of her child. He knew that he would need to start getting her more food soon but for now, he watched.

Sandy returned to the beach full of food and energy. She returned to digging up the sand searching for the crabs. They would try to scatter, and she would pounce on them with her claws before eating them. Her tail’s sway increased whenever she caught a fresh batch of crabs. They were barely larger than her paw, so they were perfect for her. Occasionally they would snap at her with their claws causing Sandy to jump back before remembering she was unhurt.

This practice continued until sunrise when Sandy returned to Arthur’s side a promptly passed out all tired for the day. Arthur looked her over and patted her head before creating a [Bubble Shield] around her. He made it self-sustaining for the next few hours so that she would be safe if something came searching.

Arthur returned to the mountains and began scanning for beasts. Arthur was unsure of exactly what she would like to eat so he collected and carried a few options for her. The first was a large animal that had no mana core, so it was easy to catch. The next was an ice mana beast fish that he scouted while walking along the beach. He used [Shape Water] to catch it off guard before skewering it. Finally, he found a large fire beetle going through the more heavily wooded area. The beetle tried to run away but Arthur was too fast and crush its carapace by force.

Arthur brought all three offerings back to Sandy and her beach. While Arthur hunted he could still feel his connection to her as if he was right next to her. It was the same feeling he had when he lost part of himself. Arthur could feel her sleeping quietly and undisturbed. He dispersed the bubble around Sandy which caused the smells of the meat to waft towards her. Sandy’s eyes opened quickly in response, and she darted over to the food. She sniffed all of the options before digging into the fish first as Arthur had suspected. Next, she ate the animal carcass and then ignored the fire beetle entirely. Arthur sighed as he activated his magic the beetle’s body disintegrated into mana. Arthur learned that he could use this ability when he deconstructed the things within the old dungeon. The mana returned to him and entered his core. He felt Sandy’s eyes on him, and he directed some of the mana towards her. She ate up the mana and absorbed it into her core.

The second night with Sandy was quiet. After eating her fill, she laid down and only practiced her hunting skills against the crabs later in the night. When the sun rose again she grew tired and fell asleep once again.

Over the next few days, Arthur watched as Sandy grew bigger and ate more food until she had grown another two feet longer. Sandy was happy to be nocturnal and Arthur stayed active all day. On their third day after he had brought food, Arthur took Sandy with him while hunting. She had grown bored of the crabs on the beach and she had gotten too big for them to be worthwhile food.

Arthur followed the trail he had made over the past few days and Sandy stayed behind him and to his side. She was less playful when she realized that he was going to hunt for things. She didn’t want to scare off her food after all. The pair of them eventually stepped off the trail and Arthur followed a new path between the bushes towards the river. It came from the top of the mountain and let out into the ocean a few miles from their beach. Arthur kept his [Detect Life Aura] active while hunting and found a group of a dozen birds he recognized playing in the water.

Arthur told Sandy to stay but she insisted on following but did grow quieter in her movements. Arthur rounded the corner and heard the birds playing in the water. The purple-streaked shriekers moved around near the water oblivious to Arthur. He charged up his spell and then overcharged it further. [Chain Lightning] ricocheted off the first bird and to the others and the water causing them to burn. Then Sandy did something Arthur could not have predicted. She ran forward and lightning shot out of her mouth and struck one of the fleeing birds. Arthur’s metaphorical jaw dropped when he saw her attack. She turned to him and seemed to grin in delight at her actions before she started opening up her meal.

Arthur brought over the dead birds from the water before they got away and began to pile them up for Sandy to eat.

“When did you learn that? Can you show me what else you can do?” asked Arthur.

Sandy paused her eating and looked over at him like he was interrupting her meal. She walked to him and pounded her front paws into the ground. Around the impact, a small circle of frost formed and shot out around her. Next, she activated an ability, and her scales began to change. The blue hue in the scales faded and they became gray before emitting a fog reminiscent of Arthur’s own spell. He mimicked it at activated [Darken]. Sandy grinned at him before returning to her meal.

‘Interesting. So, you don’t have just ice powers. I assume that it changed in part because of my interaction with you and dungeon influence though I wonder if there were any other factors involved. Regardless of you will probably grow stronger than Sylvia with my power. I wonder what other effects my power has brought to you. I suspect your large appetite and growth are part of it as well, but I can’t be sure.’

Sylvia continued to dig into the food and when she was done Arthur brought them back to the beach to rest. Nothing had come to bother them on the beach so far, so Arthur was inclined to stay in the familiar spot instead of moving around a bit more.

Arthur was ultimately unsure of where he wanted to go next. He didn’t know if Zoe or the dwarves had sent people to search for him or what they were doing now. He assumed that they were on their way back on the boat but was unsure of what they would do next. Kendra was injured heavily and would need lots of help. He did what he could to keep her alive and wished he could do more. Arthur also felt a bit of guilt for not being able to see Ethan. He likely had no idea what went wrong and wouldn’t know for at least a few more days but no more than a week. Arthur’s thoughts continued to wander and bounce around as he watched Sylvia sleep during the day. He did not leave her side until the sun went down again.

Over the next few days, they continued to hunt together, and Sandy grew steadily until she was twelve feet long. As she grew her control over her magic grew as well. She regularly began spearing enemies with icicles or shocking them with lightning. Her darkness ability seemed to help obscure her and blend into backgrounds as she hunted though Arthur was sure that there would be more to come.

Arthur had begun letting Sandy hunt on her own during the nights while he practiced his own magic. He kept an eye on her through their link and felt her change in emotions as she stalked her prey. After Arthur saw how Sandy used her darkness magic to blend in a hunt better he began investigating his own darkness magic. Though he only knew one proper darkness spell he had watched Sandy and Ethan enough to try his own tests. Arthur activated [Darken] and let it coalesce in front of him in a ball. Then he began manipulating it like he would a ball of water. The sphere followed his mind and shifted forms. After a minute of those tests, he returned it to ball form. Next, he tried condensing the dark grey sphere into a small shape. The sphere initially resisted before shrinking by a quarter. The color of the sphere in turn grew darker. Arthur could feel the darkness gaining more of a physical presence. He tried launching it like he would any other spell projectile. The [Dark Bolt] launched towards the sand and forced sand upwards and around in a crater. Arthur watched as the [Dark Bolt] ate at the sand and turned it to dust before dissipating.

Arthur recreated the spell a second time and fired into the sand causing the same effect. Please with his work he moved on. The next spell idea that Arthur worked on was a [Darken] themed [Obfuscate]. First, he created the [Obfuscate] spell in his mind before creating the [Darken] spell on top. [Obfuscate] was usually meant to disperse only his magical aura from sight but if he could add the darkness element to it he could obscure himself from light as well. Arthur began attaching the elements of darken and darkness to the obfuscate spell. As Arthur worked through the modifications he went closer to the trees and shade. If this spell worked like he thought it would require him to not be exposed to more sunlight or moonlight than he already was. After a few more minutes of tinkering, he had created a working prototype. It felt less finished than the [Dark Bolt] spell but he knew it was ready enough to not explode on him.

Arthur activated the spell. The fog of darkness spread out from his core before settling over his exterior briefly and moving on. Arthur shifted his vision to an exterior view of himself. Arthur could feel the [Darken]’s fog infused with a new property one born from the [Obfuscate] spell. The light around him bounced around in a bubble trapped within the fog destined to go nowhere. As Arthur inspected it he noticed some flaws in it mainly that if a beast was observant it would notice that the area around Arthur had gone dark. Any predator would likely see the strange occurrence and be on guard and wary. It however was a good step and could help Arthur get closer to some mana beasts in some scenarios. Another flaw he would have to fix later is how noisy he was. Like a giant metal box in the eyes of beasts, his footsteps would make far too much noise so he would have to integrate noise reduction into the spell. For now, he named the spell [Hide in Shadow] version 1. Simple and to the point.

Arthurs thoughts were drawn to other applications of darkness that weren’t shadows, but he abruptly stopped. He felt his connection to Sandy and her feelings change rapidly. She had been feeling happy and excited presumably about a fresh kill but was now feeling unsure, cautious, but most importantly fear. Arthur shot up and looked around and focused on the feelings and connected to her location through them. He could feel her about two miles away. Arthur activated [Control Winds] and ran.