Rakna forced his eyes closed as the pillar blinded him. When he opened them again, the landscape of the town had changed into one of a smaller and more modest one. It was closer to a village from what he could see.

He stepped back from the pillar that was still there then glanced at the passersby. Although he had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, none of them were paying attention to him. It was then that he sensed something. His ears twitched and he sniffed the air.

“This is…” Rakna muttered and looked up at the sky. His eyes squinted and he flash-stepped to stand above the village. He looked to the horizon with his hands in his pockets and hummed.

“A sandstorm,” he noted as he saw the large tide of sand approaching in the distance. ‘Is this what the simulation is about? But what is there to do?’ He wondered. ‘Sandstorms can be troublesome but they’re not anything too dangerous. It’s not like I can stop it either.’

“{You could use Neptunia on it, no? The rain and wind would placate the sand,}” Higure suggested.

“A sound idea. But the issue here is that I need to find out what I need to do to pass the Trial,” he said and looked at the village’s habitants below him. They finally seemed to have noticed the storm and were rushing into their house.

Rakna sighed and activated Fabled Sight. He scanned the entire area with perfect precision and mused for a moment. Ultimately, he took out one of his hands from his pocket and channeled his mana to the tip of his index finger.

“[Scripture,]” he intoned and started writing runic characters in midair. The first he wrote was the one for Magic. The second was Magnification. The third one was Range, which he continued to write at least ten times in a row.

It was important to know that runes could have several identical characters composing them. It would boost the effectiveness of that particular concept to higher levels, but it would also take more and more mana to activate.

“{What are you going to do?}”

“For now? Secure this village. Then, I’ll go investigate that sandstorm directly. There must be more to it than what we see,” he said and combined the characters into a rune. He then grabbed it as if it was a physical object and held onto it tightly.

“{Spell Amplification Rune? What are you going to use that on?}”

Rakna grunted and transformed into a werewolf to receive the boost in mana. He flash-stepped back to the ground and placed his fist clenching the rune on the ground. Something near his chest glowed as the necklace he had equipped a while ago was used for the first time.

“[Eruption,]” he uttered and a great deal of mana flowed out of his circuits into the earth. It then spread all around him and swept over the entire village. The ground started quaking and a fissure abruptly opened around it, making sand fall into it. From under it, a large wall of stone emerged at high speed and gradually began to cover the village like a dome.

Right before it could close on itself, Rakna flash-stepped outside and landed on top of the dome he had conjured. “That’s one thing done,” he commented and deployed his wings. He flew off in the direction of the sandstorm and fearlessly dived into it.

His golden eyes pierced through the tempest as he flew in circles. ‘Nothing?’ He thought. ‘There is no way. I must be missing something…’ He raised an eyebrow and Fabled Sight happened to catch an odd detail. He stopped flying and turned fully toward it. He focused deeply, his whirlpool-like eyes narrowing menacingly.

He stared at the blowing sand for a full minute and eventually took on a shocked expression. The feathers of his wings released a silver mist and he rushed back to the village that should normally have been swarmed by the storm already.

When he arrived, he spotted several cracks across the dome he had erected and they were still multiplying. The cause was the volatile sand that was condensing into solid forms to hit it. Rakna quickly cast Appraisal on the storm that surrounded him.

❮ ◈ ❯

Name: ---

Age: 100 | Level: 100

Race: Grand Sand Storm

Racial Traits:

- My World Is Sand: A creature without ego, core, or drive. They are made of grains of sand and the longer they live, the more they accumulate until they become massive congregates of sentient sand.

Note: This a Wilden with the classification of Calamity. It cannot be killed unless every single grain of sand that composes it is destroyed or isolated. They have whimsical behavior without any identifiable pattern. They tend to ignore individuals but are always set on destroying settlements with groups of people.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna’s eyebrow twitched. ‘Is this really a Trial for the Tenth Plateau?’

* * *

Somewhere, a little girl was laughing maniacally. “Hehehehe! That’s for being mean to me!” She yelled and continued laughing until she accidentally choked and started coughing.

* * *

‘Why do I feel like a brat is at fault?’ Rakna asked mentally as he tried to come up with methods to get rid of this ‘creature’. He tapped his temple a few times as he watched the dome of stone getting slowly destroyed. ‘Let’s start with Neptunia,’ he decided and flew up until he was out of the storm.

He extended his hand and conjured his cold energy. “[Neptunia,]” he intoned and the trident made it into his grasp. He whirled the weapon and threw it at the sky. It rapidly reached an adequate height and disintegrated to attract the dark clouds.

In no time, the wind picked up and thunder roared. When the rain started falling, the Calamity had a reaction and Rakna watched wide-eyed as a portion of the sand composing it rose to the clouds and literally tore them apart.

‘…all right.’

“{Plan B?}” Higure asked.

‘Plan B,’ he responded and paused. ‘What’s plan B?’

“{Aquarius?}”

‘Unlikely. Let’s say that we summon a massive blanket of water, even if that would hit this thing, it’s not guaranteed that it would kill it.’

“{Then what? You can’t blow it up, can you? The village is in the middle. This Trial might be about defending the village from this disaster.}”

Rakna didn’t respond and activated his two other sight abilities. Cross Sight showed him the focal points of each grain of sand; which was the closest thing to useless. As for Soul Sense, he hoped that it would have shown him where he could direct his Soul Scourge but he promptly discarded that idea when he saw how large the Calamity’s soul was.

‘There’s no way I can destroy this… it’s a higher level than me and the sheer size probably comes from the accumulated power over the years,’ Rakna thought. ‘However… this might work.’

After making his plan, he plunged inside the storm again and extended his arms in both directions with his eyes closed. He opened his mouth and uttered two words, “[Soul Drain.]” The second he triggered his skill, he felt himself being put under a burden by the power he was absorbing.

❮ ◈ ❯

+5 MP / +5 STA

+5 MP / +5 STA

Soul Drain has leveled up!

---

The magnitude of the drained power exceeds your limit. The strength of your soul has overcome the strain. Your maximum MP and STA have permanently increased by 1!

---

Soul Drain has leveled up!

Soul Drain has leveled up!

+8 MP / +8 STA

+8 MP / +8 STA

+2 Max MP/STA

+2 Max MP/STA

…

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna didn’t even have time to read the notifications. He simply focused everything he had into draining the soul of the sandstorm. Thankfully, this creature was extremely vulnerable to it since its soul was simply out in the open.

The storm had no mind or ego. The soul, which is normally placed in a shell formed by both the physical body and a spiritual presence, was free and exposed for this creature.

However, it wasn’t dumb enough to not notice what was going on. Almost as fast as Rakna started draining its soul, the sand began to target him instead of the earth dome. The werewolf released his Aura in full to fight back and redirected the energy he was draining into Reinforcement. His fur became entirely white and when one of the compressed sand strikes managed to nearly tear his arm apart by destroying his shoulder, it was rapidly healed by star energy.

Rakna winced as the blows continued. Not because of the pain but the voices that were gradually getting louder and louder. His aura and eyes flickered to red as Ireful Shell was roused. Although he was technically healing himself the second that he got injured, the curse was still triggered by the damage.

‘Come on… faster,’ Rakna grumbled internally and snarled as he tried to stop Obsidian Blood from activating. It’s not like he was scared of it, but there was simply no point in switching his psyche for this. He had been warned by his uncle many times before that while still a part of him, it would only serve to degrade his mental stability.

From Arimane’s own words, the more Obsidian Blood was stirred, the more haphazard it would become. For now, it only happened if he received a huge shock, either painful or emotional. But in the off chance that he abused it, one day, he could live in the fear of changing at every second of the day, which would only serve to damage his brain.

‘Though the volcanic star would have been quite handy to deal with the sand,’ he thought regretfully and growled as some sand pierced through his gut before getting healed right away.

Naturally, this was a tactic he could only use because he had an external source of power. If he was relying on his own mana, he would have already died a gruesome death, with grains of sand killing him from the inside out.

After nearly five minutes of repetitive draining and maiming, the sandstorm finally began to die down and lose all of its impetus. Rakna could finally let go of the breath he was holding and closed his eyes tighter until there wasn’t any trace of red in them.

An additional minute later, the sandstorm was no more and had completely become part of the desert. Rakna returned to the ground with Flash Step and retracted his wings. He reverted to his therian form and groaned.

“That was a pain in the ass,” he complained and started smoking as the system windows cropped up into his vision.

❮ ◈ ❯

Lv.100 Grand Sand Storm killed!

The difference between your levels amounts to 49!

2450 additional experience awarded!

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

+6 Free Points

+0.5 STR, STA, INT

Requirement for level up updated.

Current progress: 54/560

---

You have gained the title Calamity Hunter!

---

Tenth Plateau: Simulation Trial Completed!

You will be extracted from the simulation shortly.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna skimmed through the text in front of him before he was transported out of there in a flash of light. When he left, he wasn’t there to see the landscape as it was invaded by cracks in the very surface of reality until it was erased without a trace.