Sand. Everywhere, sand. The grinding hiss overwhelmed every other thought or feeling as Sam was carried down the hallway. The ramp steepened, almost becoming a chute. Lights flashed overhead, speeding by at a breakneck pace.

  Sam’s focus was fixed on the door, precariously balanced at the head of the wave. Siel clung to it like a life raft, hand outstretched, trying desperately to pull him on board. His feet barely touched the ground as he strained to reach, fingers tantalizingly close to some semblance of safety.

  Instead, they drifted farther apart as he tripped over the uneven stone, unable to maintain the momentum. He summoned his spear, but it was already too late. The gap widened as the sand continued to rise, climbing up past his neck.

  “Sam!” Siel let out a ragged scream as she summoned a length of vine. She twisted the rope into a loop and tossed it, somehow securing it around his neck. His eyes went wide as the makeshift lasso tightened around his throat.

  “Be careful not to—” his words were cut off as sand filled his mouth, but he managed to grab the vine, lessening the strain on his neck.

  Together, they were able to pull him onto the door, where he clung to the side like an oversized barnacle. They locked eyes as the door continued its descent, neither daring to speak lest they disrupt the precarious equilibrium.

  After what felt like minutes, the ramp finally levelled out, and shot them out of the hallway like a round from a cannon. Sam caught a brief glimpse of glittering waterfalls and towering palms before he slammed face-first into a rock.

  Siel managed to leap clear, but he could hear her curse as she became tangled in the overhanging branches.

  Sam peeled himself off the rock, head spinning from the impact. Sand continued to stream around him, but it lessened by the second, eventually resolving into a slow trickle.

  He shook his head, trying to clear the ringing from his ears. [Battle Healing] worked to fix his minor concussion and set of cracked ribs. The damage likely would have been worse, but the impact was lessened by his enchanted armour.

  He slowly pulled himself up onto the rock, breath catching as he took in his surroundings. He was sitting at the edge of a cliff overlooking a massive grotto.

  Overhead, light poured from a distant opening, revealing a city encircled by a fast-flowing river. Five waterfalls fell from the cliff walls, creating a near-impassable ring of water. Sam could make out a set of bridges connecting the tiered cliffs to the city—though they looked as though they'd seen better days.

  The entire thing was made of sandstone, with buildings that easily stood five stories tall. A grand promenade ran down the center, flanked by temples and halls carved with reliefs of gods and monsters.

  At the end of the promenade was a massive square, dominated by a towering obelisk. The scene reminded him of the opening ceremony. The obelisk wasn't made out of crystal, but it carried the same sense of power.

  The city was surrounded by cliffs on all sides, and he couldn't see any other entrances. He supposed someone could try climbing out of the hole in the ceiling, but it seemed like an excellent way to get yourself killed.

  “You alright?” he yelled up at the sylvan, trying to keep a smirk off his face as he watched her cut her way clear of the mess of brambles, branches, and vines.

  “I am alive, which is more than I expected,” she replied, shaking her head. “Next time, lead with the hammer.”

  “Yeah. I'll be honest, I did not expect that to work.”

  “Neither did I, but I am not complaining.”

  Sam climbed to his feet and began the rigorous task of shaking the sand from his clothes and armour. He ended up walking behind a tree, unequipping and re-equipping it all to try to get rid of it.

  He was unsuccessful.

  He had to resist the urge to make a Star Wars prequel reference when he returned to see Siel pouring a seemingly unending stream of sand from her boot. Instead, he couldn't help but laugh when he thought back to the vine lasso.

  “How did you learn to do that?”

  “Do what?” she asked, moving on to the other boot.

  “The thing with the vine, the lasso. That's not something I expected you to know how to do.”

  To his surprise, she blushed. She took a long moment before answering, seemingly intent on getting every last grain of sand out of her boot.

  “We used to catch toads,” she responded at last.

  “Catch what? Sorry?” Sam replied, wondering if he'd misheard.

  “Toads. We caught toads. They have glands that secrete a strong, natural painkiller, but it loses its efficacy after the toad dies. So we got very good at catching them alive.”

  “Huh.” Sam didn't know what else to say, and Siel wasn't overly forthcoming with the details. He filed it away in his mental folder labelled ‘Interesting Elf Tidbits’. “So what do you make of this place?” he asked, standing on the edge of the cliff to get a good look.

  “I think we don't have a lot of time,” she said, glancing at her tafla. Just under nine and a half hours remained on the quest timer. “This temple is massive. I assume the plaza is the square with the obelisk. I have no idea what these tokens are, or how we’re supposed to use them to escape.”

  “So not great,” Sam concluded.

  “We need to get down there and investigate,” she said with a surprising intensity.

  “I mean, yeah, but worst comes to worst, we just fail the quest and farm whatever monsters we can find.”

  Siel turned and gave him an incredulous look. “Fail the quest?” she said, eyes going wide. “What do you mean, fail the quest? This is a Challenge Dungeon. If you lose the quest, you die.”

  “You what?!” Sam exclaimed.

  “You die,” she repeated, shock written all over her face. “How did you not know?”

  “I didn't do the tutorial, remember?”

  “Even still,” she replied, shaking her head as she set off to look for a path down the cliff. “Did Arther not mention it to you?”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “No, no, he didn't,” he said stiffly, making a mental note to give the Warden an earful the next time they saw him.

  “So wait,” he said, scrambling after her. “How does the Dungeon kill us? Is it instant death? Poison gas? Unlimited waves of enemies? How does it work?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” she said dryly. “I simply recall that it was mentioned in the tutorial, and that the Arbiter said not to attempt one unless you're absolutely confident.”

  “Lovely,” he replied, following her path down the cliff.

  The humidity rose as they approached the bottom of the cavern. The sound of the waterfalls was like the roar of some massive engine, and it reminded him of the time he’d visited Niagara Falls as a child; luckily, without all of the shitty tourist attractions.

  Siel smiled at herself as she flitted among the trees that clung to the shore of the river, occasionally disappearing in the thick clouds of mist.

  Feeling a slight pang of concern, Sam activated [Arcane Eyes] to keep track of her. While he was expecting there to be monsters on the prowl, he had not predicted that one of them would be mere feet away.

  “Look out!” he yelled, leaping backwards and summoning his spear. A massive set of jaws slammed shut inches from where he’d been standing. The force of their closing blew rancid breath straight into his face, and did the job of clearing out the mist enough to show him just what they were fighting.

  A Hippo. A giant, purple hippo.

  The sight might almost have been comedic if it weren't so terrifying. The words from a half-watched nature documentary flashed through his mind, and he recalled the stats on just how many people were killed by hippos each year.

  The number was not encouraging.

  He thrust with his spear and was shocked when his arm met real resistance. The hippo’s thick hide allowed for little penetration, confirming what they'd suspected about the Dungeon. He inspected it for good measure.

  [Tawareti Guardian - Bronze - Rare]

  The first protector of the Temple of Bast, Tawareti Guardians are some of the most feared monsters of the Endless Sands.

  They had indeed stumbled across a Bronze Challenge Dungeon. Sam grinned despite himself. This was their first real opportunity to push themselves after ascending. The battle against the other Warriors had been tough, but they’d still completely outclassed their opponents.

  This was an enemy that he was going to have to use every ounce of strength and guile to overcome. The beast moved faster than it had any right to, and with a grace that belied its size.

  He danced backwards among the trees on the river’s bank, glad at least that there only appeared to be a single monster. Normally, he’d want to push himself, especially if there was spira involved, but he wasn't confident that they could fight more than one of the beasts.

  It was roughly the size and shape of a U-Haul van, with jaws that could likely crush rocks if put to the task. Never once did its eyes leave him, even as he dashed behind rocks and through bushes.

  Despite not feeling any active spells, he did notice that [Apostate] was active. After his third failed attempt to get behind the hippo, he surmised that it must be some sort of tracking skill.

  “Be careful,” he said to Siel, catching a glimpse of her in the trees. “This thing is scary dangerous. All it needs is one attack, and it's game over. It can follow you even if it can't see you, so don't give it an opening.”

  “Understood,” Siel replied, loosing an arrow into its flank. Sam watched as the [Creeping Arrow] began its task, as it attempted to burrow into the Hippo’s flesh. It made it all of five seconds before it burst into flame.

  A gout of purple fire shot out of the wound, burning the arrow and vines to a crisp and simultaneously cauterizing the injury.

  Upon closer inspection, Sam noticed that it had many such scars. Clearly, it had fought off other parties before theirs.

  The more he stabbed, the more he realized that his attacks were doing almost nothing. Like the ogre, the hippo was simply too physically resilient.

  [Longinus Strike] and [Platebreaker] failed to accomplish much beyond being a mild annoyance. It seemed the hippo channelled its mana deep beneath its layers of armoured fat, which made sense if the goal was to avoid disruption.

  “I know this is crazy, but what if you tried taming it?” he asked, glancing over to where Siel was perched, loosing arrow after arrow into the hippo's bulk.

  “No,” she responded, continuing her barrage. “I want something to complement Mjolna.

  “What do you mean? In terms of skills or…?” he let the question hang as he was forced back behind his shield. The hippo had resorted to taking a bite of river rocks and launching them at him every time he got too far away.

  “Yes,” she replied, voice strained. “I need a monster that complements her skills, as well as my own. We don't need another tank, not even one that hits as hard as this.”

  Sam couldn’t argue her logic as he launched a flurry of attacks, switching back and forth between hammer and spear. The weapons flowed together in his hand, and he managed to disable one of the hippo’s knees before being forced back, and losing a chunk of his shoulder in the process.

  “Fuck!” He screamed, rolling aside, narrowly avoiding the hippo as it fell to the ground. “I think you may need to use the big guns,” he said to Siel, regaining his feet.

  “Way ahead of you,” she replied, the grin apparent in her mind even through the telepathy.

  The words gave him pause, and he risked a second to take a look around before refocusing on the monster. In the distance, he thought he could make out the impression of a shape in the mist, but the hippo's jaws gave him no time for a second glance.

  He didn't hear Molly’s hooves until the moment before the boar struck.

  The Familiar charged out of the mist like a battering ram, her tusks glowing the purest silver. Sam only caught a glimpse of them before they were thrust into the hippo, knocking it back down onto its injured leg.

  Sam let out a whoop as he used [Arcane Eyes] to confirm what he already suspected: Molly was using [Lunar Blade]. Only, rather than using it on a knife or sword, she'd somehow cast it on her own tusks.

  It was additional proof that Siel’s upgrade worked as they suspected. The ability for her Familiars to use her skills, and if they could use each other’s, would be a massive boon. She’d only be able to have so many summoned at a time, but it was still an incredibly powerful skill. By the time they got to the upper rings, she’d be nearly unbearable…or so he hoped.

  The [Tawareti Guardian] let out a monstrous cry as Molly gored it again, nearly lifting it off its feet.

  Sam stepped forward, reliant on Molly to be enough of a distraction. He spun his hammer in his hand and brought down the war spike directly between the hippo’s eyes. It took three strikes, but the third crumpled the skull like a ball of tinfoil.

  A loud chime sounded in his ear, and he collapsed backwards in the mud, immediately putting pressure on his injured shoulder.

  Molly let out a series of victory oinks, striking a pose on the corpse of her fallen opponent.

  “Great job, girl,” Sam called, throwing her his second-to-last [Giant Redcap Mushroom]. The boar snapped it out of the air with a triumphant squeal.

  Siel came over and gave the boar a pat while storing the corpse. She let out a small laugh, glancing across the river to the temple.

  “What is it?” Sam asked, pulling himself to his feet.

  “Progress,” she said, holding up a flat, gold coin. On one side, it features an image of a hippo; on the other, the outline of the obelisk.

  Sam grinned as he opened his talfa.

  [Quest 1/3 - Exit the Grand Plaza]

  Find your way through the Temple of Bast, where she is the one who stands above all. Exit the Grand Plaza by claiming the sacred tokens.

  Tokens: 1/4

  [Time Remaining: 00:9:18:27]

  [Reward: 2,500 Spira]

  “Well, alright,” he said, rolling his neck. “One down, three to go. What way do you want to go next? Should we head to the obelisk?”

  Siel shook her head, piercing eyes staring off through the mist. “No. I don't think we should enter the city until we have all four tokens.” She pointed off into the distance. “I can see life over that way—a powerful aura.”

  Sam nodded, “Okay, what's the plan?”

  Siel set an arrow to the string and gave a fierce grin. “The plan? We hunt.”