Nate felt the spatial energies ripple around him like he was being forced through a tube before he passed out the other side, landing on compacted sand. Farsight of the Runic Artist activated, informing him of the nature of the Dungeon.

  You have entered a Dungeon!

  The Assessment Period will begin now. You have five minutes to choose to leave the Dungeon before the entrance will be sealed.

  Dungeon Name: Desert of the Kiin

  Dungeon Tier: Rare (Mid)

  Dungeon Challenges: 4 + 1 Bonus Challenge.

  Exit Conditions: Complete 1 Challenge.

  Dungeon Limitations: Dungeon Waves will be released every hour. Every fifth wave will include a Challenge.

  Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

  Nate made the Dungeon notification available to everyone else. While they had a read, he looked around at the barren landscape. There was nothing to see in any direction except rolling sand dunes against a blue sky with whatever passed for a sun in this Dungeon beating down on them.

  “Looks normal to me,” said Null, getting the conversation going. “The first wave will arrive in just under an hour. Last time we did this Dungeon the waves started out small. Each successive wave should increase the number of enemies. Then, after each Challenge, it’ll add a new monster to the mix. By the last wave we will be fighting a tonne of enemies with four different monsters mixed in. It’s usually some sort of insect.”

  “What about the Bonus Challenge?” asked Kiri.

  “Never found it.”

  Kiri glanced at Nate and he gave a nod, “It’s probably underground.”

  “See what you can find?” he sent to Frick mentally, sensing his Familiar vanish beneath the dunes as the spirit went searching for their enemies.

  Returning his attention to the group, he could see that Britt already looked like she was suffering under the heat of the sun and sand. Her steel armour apparently lacked any sort of temperature regulation, unlike his robe. He considered what he could do to make it more comfortable for her, as based on the Dungeon’s description, they would be here for at least twenty hours.

  Before he could start going through a list of ideas, Kiri piped up with an amused grin, “So, Rune Fort?”

  “Rune Fort,” he agreed with a laugh.

  “Wait. What’s a Rune Fort?” asked Null, his question coming a second too late.

  Nate had known that this was the most likely form the Dungeon would take. As he had learned in his Dungeon Knowledge subject, Dungeon layouts rarely changed much. It was mana intensive to remodel these worlds and the System, or Dungeon Curators in service to the System, spent their mana on acquiring new Challenges, in the form of monsters, or rewards for those who completed said Challenges. That meant Nate had known it was going to be a desert biome, and while the Dungeon Waves form of Challenge might have changed, he’d still prepared the appropriate runes in his robe.

  Earth, Reinforcement and Shaping were combined in a runic array as he activated Conceptual Runic Creation, Conceptual Runic Artistry and Conceptual Intent. With his intent he guided the sand, compacting it into one solid block and reinforcing it as he shaped the entire thing into a small fort that was little more than a three metre tall tower in the shape of a cube. He added some crenelations to protect their legs and a ladder indented into the side for Britt. There was a suspicion in the back of his mind that Null might just be able to jump and reach the top. Britt’s armour was definitely going to work against her if she tried the same thing.

  With an arm wave, he pointed at the relatively ordinary looking building, “Rune Fort.”

  Britt and Null smiled in amusement.

  “That’s one way to do it. We can just stand at the top and unleash hell, I guess. It’ll be good for me to not have to worry about getting surrounded. What about Britt, though? She doesn’t have any long or mid-range Skills,” queried Null, walking forward and running his hand over the fort.

  Nate raised his hand to stop the man but then frowned when Null’s touch had no noticeable impact on the structure.

  Null grinned at Nate’s reaction, patting the side of the Rune Fort, “I managed to evolve it. I can retract it to just below the level of my skin now. There’s a slight risk to doing so but it has some added benefits.”

  Nate focused on his sphere of awareness, sensing the truth of Null’s words. The swordsman's nullification sphere really had retracted all the way to his body and, for the first time ever, Nate could sense the man's chiselled physique.

  “That’s good. I had been a little worried you would innately break it down since it’s reinforced with mana. As for Britt, I planned ahead!”

  Britt brightened and then started bouncing with undisguised glee as Nate produced a wand. It wasn’t anything special – a rare wand that had a rune made up of the Fire, Projectile and Power Sigils. With his many Imbued Intents from his Conceptual Intent Skill, the wand would function more powerfully than an equivalent enchanted item, shooting bolts of superheated flame. The mana cost was appreciably higher, but then, they were in a Dungeon, so of course he had a couple of mana-gathering arrays ready to keep them stocked with more mana than their reserves could ever hold.

  Britt took the small wooden wand from his hand, marvelling at it before she aimed away from them and experimentally flowed mana into the wood. The resulting blast of flame glassed a small area of sand away from the fort.

  “That is so awesome!” she gushed, “but wow, that’s quite a drain. Mana Reserve isn’t one of my higher stats.”

  “I’ve got enough mana gems to keep you topped up for the whole run. I might add a roof to the top of the Fort as well. Give us a bit of shade.”

  “Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Four challenges. So one reward each,” commented Null.

  “Five,” corrected Kiri.

  “We're going to try and find the Bonus Challenge?” asked Null, surprise written on his face.

  Frick chose that moment to return, bursting out of the sand with a small flex of My Will, My Way. His Familiar did love being melodramatic.

  “Found it,” exclaimed the little blue goblin with a toothy grin. “It’s underground, like you thought. Giant-ass scorpion. Only level forty-five though.”

  Kiri looked at Nate and he nodded, launching into his idea.

  “The three of us,” he explained, including Null, Britt and himself with a wave of his arm, “will finish setting up the fort. Kiri and Frick will go deal with the Bonus Challenge. We’ll keep the fifth reward from the Dungeon to sell to the Guild and split the proceeds.”

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  When everyone nodded or voiced their agreement, he quickly continued on.

  “There is one other thing I wanted to ask. Does anyone mind if I collect all the processed mana from the Dungeon waves and we split it at the end of the run?”

  He had wanted to stockpile some processed mana for his experiments and Conceptual Automation. The problem with that plan was that his processed mana gathering arrays weren’t picky. They would grab every bit of ambient processed mana they could get their hands on. Sure, there would be some leakage. Their Class Cores were ultimately also processed mana gathering arrays, and so some of the ambient processed mana released from killing the Dungeon monsters would make it into everyone in the area. That was just the nature of mana distribution fields when there were multiple forces acting on them. That said, his arrays would take the lion's share of any processed mana and he didn’t want to act without first consulting the group.

  “I’m fine with it,” replied Null, with Britt nodding her own agreement. “How are you going to collect it though?”

  Nate produced his Epic-tier processed mana gathering array from his spatial storage, along with four empty processed mana gems, just waiting to be filled.

  “Wow,” whispered Britt. “That must have been expensive. Is this what you’ve been spending the gold and mana you’ve been making on?”

  “Oh, no. I made it,” he explained, rubbing the back of his head. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that they were in the dark as to the extent of his crafting capabilities. They thought his Primary Class was Runecaster after all. A belief made more prevalent by how he used runes, which to them might even just look like he was casting spells. They had never really seen the extent of his crafting, beyond his art.

  Null came over to look over the gems, though Nate sensed no identification Skills in use.

  “Well, if you say they’ll work, I believe you. Let's do it.”

  With everyone agreeing to the plan, Frick vanished into the desert with Kiri following a moment later, no doubt tracking Frick’s soul energy. That meant it was time for him to get to work on finishing the Fort. They were stuck here for the next twenty or so hours, but there was no reason they couldn’t be comfortable while doing so. After all, a Mid-Rare Dungeon really wasn’t much of a threat to him.

  *************

  Kiri sighed, slightly put-out. She had hoped for more of a challenge, but Nate had been right. They really were beyond the point where a Rare Dungeon could give them much of a challenge. The carcass of the gigantic black scorpion rested on the floor. The fight had barely lasted more than thirty seconds. She had honestly expected more. The beast had seemed to focus on self-enhancement coupled with a stinger that could shoot acid or poison. She didn’t know which and honestly, she wasn’t even sure exactly what the difference was between the two.

  Historically, the biggest challenge she had found in their Dungeon forays, was durable opponents. When she had been an Arcane Archer back in Helmfirth, that hadn’t been a problem for her. That Class, while far weaker than her current ones, had Skills that specifically enhanced the penetrating power of her arrows. The best part had been that the capability had been linked to her Dexterity. So far, her Reborn Soul Slayer and Reborn Soul Dancer classes had yet to offer her similar Skills. To make up for that shortcoming, she had started investing Stat Orbs into her Strength Stat. To further enhance it she had asked Nate to help her with a Soul Engraving that boosted her Strength. Then to cap it all off, Nate had crafted her new dagger for her. While he hadn’t managed to add any sort of effect for penetration to the item, it was still a Legendary material. The metal was sharper and sturdier and driven by her newfound strength and insane speed, had been more than enough to crack open the carapace of the scorpion.

  The System message was flashing in front of her, waiting for her to make a decision.

  You have completed a Dungeon Bonus challenge!

  Dungeon: Desert of the Kiin

  Challenge: Defeat Hriss’kath’iin.

  Challenge Rewards (Select One):

  1. Skill Tome

  2. Spell Tome

  3. Wealth

  Wealth was often considered the worst option, given it was generally quite random. It was always worth something, but how much it was worth varied wildly. It was a gamble. A gamble she was likely going to have to take, though. The Dungeon would curate the rewards for her and a Skill or Spell Tome suited to her would likely not be worth as much to the Adventurer’s Guild. That was simply due to how different her Classes were from most adventurers. She supposed she could instead try and convince the team to let her sell it to the Auction House. With her contacts there she could probably get them a better deal than the Adventurer’s Guild would have given them anyway. So, gamble on wealth, or gamble on the Auction House?

  Auction House, she decided, selecting Spell Tome. Nate had explained that they used Spellforms to learn new Sigils, so maybe she’d get lucky. The tome dropped before her and she scooped it up, making it vanish into her Empowered Soul Sanctuary. It was such a stupid name for a Skill. She was just going to call it what it really was. Her Soul Palace. With a thought, she began using Soul Shift to return to the team. She wanted to know what she had gotten, and from what she could tell, only Britt and Nate had identification Skills.

  *************

  For the tenth time, Nate considered trying to divide his attention four ways just so he could make a runic array to block out the incessant noise. It was like the sound of nails on a chalkboard and it was driving him mildly crazy. He was seriously wondering if it was some Skill the insects had or just the natural noise they made. For the tenth time he forced the idea away. A fourth split would give him a headache and while the noise was putting him on edge, it wasn’t interfering with his crafting.

  After the first wave of enemies, and more importantly, the team's first experience with Nate’s Rune Fort, the group had agreed that Nate only needed to get directly involved if something drastic happened. Nate had added four additional runes that could be activated using mana gems. One sat at each corner of the top of the Rune Fort and spewed out a hail of earthen spears, an old favourite, with the added improvements of being reinforced and sharpened with his ability to imbue his Intent into the runes. He had decided to call them rune cannons, after Frick’s rude suggestion that he call them ‘Rocky Penetrators’. Kiri had punted the little goblin out of the tower for that comment.

  With the joking and antics, the team had started treating the entire Dungeon like a holiday, wiping out wave after wave, each one containing at least a hundred insects. Frick had been loving it. Given free reign to use My Will, My Way, he had taken to turning himself into a giant goblin and stomping on insects. If the Spirit wasn’t capable of letting all the ichor and goo slough off him by simply dropping his corporeal form, Nate would’ve been forced to hose him down more than once. It was an amusing reminder that for all Frick’s help, and the fact that he was a Spirit, the little goblin was in fact made up mostly of the memories of goblins.

  Britt, Null and Kiri had mostly used the rune cannons, only reverting to their own Skills, or wand in Britt’s case, when the insects occasionally managed to start scaling the walls of the Rune Fort. Nate had only been needed once, when it turned out the Challenge for the second wave had been a giant beetle capable of wielding earth magic. It had tried to tear down his Rune Fort, matching its own control of earth against Nate’s runes and sigils. The contest had been short-lived, with Nate able to overwhelm the control of the Rare-tier Earth Mage monster with his superior Sigil for Earth and what he suspected was more Magic Power, at least when he was utilising a runic array. It had been Null that put an end to that monster. The swordsman had used the lesser of his two boosting skills, his nullification aura blooming out, showing off the swordsman's capabilities as an anti-mage. He’d blasted through stone turned to dust, the mana of the beast unable to contest him, before the scorpion was cleaved in half by what Nate suspected was a new Skill for the swordsman. It had looked like he’d been able to extend his blade's range, while maintaining the nullifying power of his mana.

  Now, after almost twenty hours, they were finally ready to face the final challenge. Everyone had agreed to let Britt handle it alone, after the Stalwart Defender had asked for the opportunity to try and advance her Skills by facing it in single combat. The other three would play clean-up duty for the horde of insects, which now included four types. Kiri had conveniently named them Chargers, Spitters, Jumpers and Boulders. The last were capable of spreading their wings like big shields to try and protect the advance of the other insects, particularly the Spitters.

  Nate used the time to continue working on his latest experiment. Evindal healed people using a mix of the Concepts of Life and Time. His healing mentor was also capable of using the Concepts of Life and Soul to restore a person. But, while healing was of interest to Nate, his focus was as always, his art. The first step on that path was combining the Concept of Life with his art in some way. His current experiment involved trying to add the Concept of Life to one of his paintings. So far, the results had been poor, but he suspected that was because he was missing an ingredient. He just needed to figure out what that ingredient was. Reassuring himself that he had time, he got back to work, trying to ignore the incessant screeching of the insects as Britt prepared for battle. Sending out his Farsight Sphere of Awareness, he planned to keep an eye on his kind-of-girlfriend. This might be the worst date ever, but that didn’t mean he would let her come to harm. He just had to make sure he didn’t also coddle her and stifle her development. With his mind drifting back to his art, he settled in for the final confrontation of the Dungeon.

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