The hot desert air scorched Sam’s throat as he pulled his spear from the corpse of an oversized crocodile. A horde of them had crawled out of the water as they’d approached the spring, and he’d nearly lost a few toes to their snapping jaws.

  The small pool lay at the bottom of a deep ravine, further shaded by a grove of towering palms. They looked identical to palm trees from Earth, only the fronds were a shocking shade of blue. It gave the whole area an eerie glow, as if the entire place was inside some massive fish tank.

  The crocodiles themselves were Iron, but some of the strongest monsters they'd encountered yet. Sam got the feeling that if they pushed a little higher, they’d start hitting Bronze, and that was where the real challenge began.

  Siel had awoken from her trance rejuvenated in a way that Sam hadn’t yet seen. Her energy was infectious, and she could barely contain herself as she described the ascension. She said she’d been able to commune with her goddess, getting word straight from the Lunar Throne.

  After a few minutes, the details of the conversation had become hazy, despite her desperately trying to hold on to the threads of memory. She’d relayed as much of it as she could, but the largest takeaway had been that the meeting was likely to be a repeatable experience.

  While Sam had no deity to visit, it seemed that Siel would be permitted to glean insights from her goddess each time she ascended. It was a massive boon.

  Arther confirmed that the experience was fairly common but often required specific conditions. In Siel’s case, they suspected it had to do with the proximity to the full moon. As long as she had access to moonlight, there was a solid chance she’d be able to connect.

  Sam’s thoughts were dragged back to the present as he was forced to leap sideways to avoid the end of a crocodile’s spiked tail. Unlike their Earthly counterparts, [Eversand Crocodile]’s had a row of jagged spikes running down their backs and the length of their tails.

  The crushing jaws were already a lot to contend with, and Sam had taken a few deep puncture wounds to his arms and chest. His [Runic Warrior Chestplate] did a decent enough job protecting him, but even it couldn't stand up to the force of the impact.

  They needed to start finding Bronze items—and fast. Arther had said that Bronze Dungeons should have already started opening. They needed to delve as many as they could as fast as they could before the rest of the Spire caught up.

  They’d spied a few distant shapes that morning that could have been other Warriors, but so far the barren south had been just that: barren. The Endless Sands truly lived up to their namesake.

  They’d stayed as close to the cliffs as possible, avoiding the open expanses. Arther’s words of warning about pitfalls and scorpions still hung like a cloud in their minds.

  Sam stabbed downwards, hissing as his spear skidded off the top of the crocodile's scaly hide. The beasts had a few weaker points beneath the joints, but the ancient predators were well adept at protecting them.

  Siel was racking up quite the body count as Sam led the crocs on a merry chase around the edge of the oasis. Each pull of her bow let out an audible creak, and the twang of the bowstring was almost concussive in its force.

  They needed to find her a new bow, and quickly. If she kept using it how she was with her newfound Bronze strength, Sam was fairly certain the thing would snap in two.

  “Are you sure you don't want to just try taming one of these?” Sam yelled over the battle’s grunts and growls. “They seem pretty damn strong to me. Crocodiles are basically an apex predator on my planet, and these ones are even scarier.”

  “Yes, I am sure,” she replied, flitting between the palm trees with supernatural agility. “I am able to tame a Bronze beast at this level. I would not waste it on an Iron, no matter how powerful.”

  “Fair enough,” Sam muttered, swapping to his hammer and wading in alongside Molly, who looked like she was having far too much fun.

  She was standing in the shallows and playing ‘whack-a-croc’, stomping down with her massive, armoured hooves. She’d land a maiming blow on one of the thrashing monsters, then follow up with a fierce stab from her tusks, goring the injured beast.

  It hasn't taken much effort for them to explain to the boar that Siel’s skills were now on the table. The Familiar seemed to intrinsically grasp the concept and had nearly gutted Sam by accident when she’d activated [Lunar Blade] on her tusks.

  The silver crescent wasn’t nearly as bright as the one Siel could summon—but it was still powerful, and more importantly, it gave the War Boar some much-needed reach.

  Sam couldn't help but grin as he watched her finish off the final crocodile, oinking triumphantly as she ground its corpse into the mud. He debated stepping in to stop her, but thought better of it, taking advantage of the distraction to quickly store the rest of the corpses. He’d tried fried alligator once when visiting family in Texas, and he was keen to see if he could replicate the recipe.

  “That was a good fight,” Siel said, climbing down from her perch among the fronds.

  “It was. It really feels like we have a rhythm down. I still think you could be doing more with your vines, but on the whole, I think we're in good shape.”

  “They are harder to control when I cannot fully see my target,” she replied, frowning.

  Sam stored his armour and sat down on the bank, directing [Battle Healing] into his various injuries. “Are you not using [Nature’s Eye]? Pretty much any monster we encounter out here should be easy to spot.”

  “I am, but it’s difficult to maintain while also using [Huntress Vines] and [Focused Precision].”

  “Huh,” Sam responded, not considering the implication of channelling [Divine Skills], [Martial Skills], and [Enhancement Skills] all at the same time. He pulled up his tafla and searched through his new expanded skill trees, searching for one he’d spotted earlier.

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  “Do you have access to something like this?” he said, gesturing at the screen.

  [Battle Acuity - Bronze - Common - Upgradable]

  Increases reaction time and ability to split focus. At higher tiers, it can be used to complete complex parallel tasks, juggling multiple skills.

  Cost: 3,500 Spira

  She leaned forward and quickly scanned the description. She pulled up her own tafla and cycled through it, nodding when she came to the [Enhancement Skills] tab. “I do, though it is not identical. Mine actually grants me a boost to my Enhancements while using a Nature skill.”

  “Damn,” Sam replied, wishing his skill gave him a dedicated combat boost. “That might be one to consider if somehow we actually look like we’re getting ahead on the gate toll. Otherwise, it might be a first purchase on the next Ring.

  “Agreed,” she said, reaching out to cast [Nature’s Touch] on Molly’s injured legs. “Though we’ll need to factor in whatever skills I may also want to purchase for my next Familiar.”

  “Right,” Sam said, biting his lip. “Is it common to get two Familiars on the same Ring? Heck, is it common to get two Familiars at all?”

  Siel took a moment to consider that. “I'm not sure. There are some classes that specialize entirely on utilizing Minions, Summons, and Familiars. The latter, I believe, are the most uncommon, as they require you to spend spira to purchase skills. My [Primal Tamer] title allows me to tame a new Familiar each time I ascend. I got it for being one of the first to tame a beast during the War.”

  “That must have happened fast,” Sam replied, thinking back to his own first few days on the Ring.

  “It did, but only because I had a plan. I knew exactly what I wanted to do years before I was ever chosen. After the opening ceremony, I immediately rushed to Dianae’s shrine and then set out into the wild. I encountered a few potential companions, but the choice was made for me when Mjolna here decided she wanted to kill me.”

  “She what now?” Sam said, raising his eyebrows.

  “She was a [Rare] monster when I stumbled across her den. I was forced to kill a few of her brood, and it drove her into a frenzy. We both pushed the other to the brink of death, and that allowed me to use my [Tame Beast] skill. It was the closest I've come to dying yet…well, before we met the Wyrm Titan.”

  “So you have to battle the monster and get it close to death in order to tame it?”

  “Not always, but that's generally the easiest. The skill simply says you need it to submit to you, and most do that through combat.”

  “Gotta catch’em all,” Sam muttered to himself as he re-summoned his armour and weapons. “It makes sense. It’s just bizarre to me to think of Molly as anything other than…Molly. She’s a big ol' softy. Hard to think of her as just another monster.”

  “It is,” Siel agreed, withdrawing her hands as she finished healing the boar. “It makes you wonder what other monsters would be like if you gave them a chance. Perhaps the scariest ones would really be the kindest. It's hard to tell what these creatures truly are beneath their programming.”

  “I just assumed that all of them were naturally bred to be aggressive killers,” Sam said as they set off past the pond and farther up into the ravine.

  “How would that work?” Siel replied. “You can't have an entire ecosystem of carnivores. These populations are artificially sustained by the Arbiter. I’m not sure if they're bred at some other location and transported to the Spire, or if they simply create them fully grown from nothing.”

  “Huh,” Sam said, realizing he’d never really given it much thought. He'd studied biology; it certainly should have been something he’d noticed.

  The day continued on with them occasionally being ambushed by packs of jackals that roamed along the tops of the cliffs. They’d debated trying to climb up to get the high ground, but the terrain was simply too treacherous for the multi-ton boar.

  Instead, they’d been forced to defend sporadic attacks by the killer dogs, who also leveraged sand magic in their assaults. They’d create miniature cyclones that would blind and sting if left unchecked, and then use them as cover while they pounced from among the rocks.

  Sam was able to use [Arcane Eyes] to determine each [Dust Devil]’s apex and easily disrupted them with a well-placed [Longinus Strike]. The hounds would often howl in frustration, but it was the easiest way to draw them down to the floor of the ravine.

  They netted quite a bit of spira as the days passed, but Sam still couldn't help but feel like they were going too slowly. His eyes burned from constant use of his vision skill, and on the morning of the third day, his diligence was finally rewarded.

  “There,” he said softly, gesturing with a short nod. “There's a ton of mana coming from that cave. I don't think it's a monster, it's too stationary.”

  “I cannot see anything, but I trust you,” Siel replied. Her perception enhancement was entirely focused on detecting life force, which meant it wasn't useful in sussing out traps or magical loot. Sam was glad that they each had a different specialization; it made him feel useful when the rest of his senses were completely outmatched by the sylvan and her bonded companion.

  They entered the cave, weary of any sudden movements. Despite not being able to see it, Siel could still feel the torrent of mana pouring from the entrance. She shivered as they stepped inside, and Sam almost wondered if he should use [Apostate] just to make the terrain more palatable.

  The cave itself rose about thirty feet high and was made from the same dull sandstone as the rest of the cliffs. Its most distinctive feature was the rows of Egyptian-looking obelisks that spanned its length, leading to a door set into the wall across from the opening.

  The obelisks were completely covered in hieroglyphs. While many had been worn away by time, some were still intact. Sam was frustrated to find that [Child of Babel] was no assistance in translating the symbols. He noticed that one repeated quite frequently, copied across every pillar of stone.

  The image was that of a woman with the head of a Cat. Sam wasn't familiar enough with the Egyptian gods to make a guess at who it was, but he was certain that she belonged to that Pantheon.

  [Challenge Dungeon Discovered: The Trial of Bast]

  ??????

  “Are you seeing this?” Sam asked, dismissing the notification. “What on Earth is a Challenge Dungeon?”

  “Derek mentioned them once. He’d been told by his Warden. I guess they're smaller Dungeons that are usually time-based. Often consisting of a series of trials.”

  “So what does that mean? Will we be on the clock to finish it? Since when is that new?”

  Siel chuckled, “True. We are living with a timer hanging over our heads every minute of every day. What's one more?”

  “Exactly!” Sam replied, stepping forward, being exceedingly wary of traps. “So if this Dungeon is a three-skull, that must make it Bronze, right? They adjust those based on difficulty, and it’s higher than the last one I did.”

  “I'd assume so, “ Siel said slowly. “That would make sense given what Arther said.”

  “Awesome,” Sam said, raising his shield in front of him. “Let’s see what kind of monsters this place has. It could be a good time to find creature number two.”

  “That it could, but we need to be strategic,” Siel responded. “If we want to take maximum advantage of the [Skill Network] upgrade, then we need to find beasts whose skills complement not only my own, but also Mjolna’s.”

  “I still can't believe that's how it works,” Sam said, shaking his head. “That seems insane. So you're saying on the sixth ring, all seven Familiars will share skills with not only you, but with each other?”

  “Dianae confirmed our interpretation. If I bond a second Familiar now, I will not only be able to channel its skills, but it will also be able to channel Mjolna’s, and vice versa.”

  “You're going to be absolutely terrifying.”

  “Only to our enemies, I hope. But there's only one way to find out for sure.” She nodded at the door set into the rock.

  “Let's see what the Dungeon has in store.”