The Crypt of Fiendish Worms was an endless, stone-walled labyrinth. A dark, deadly place with the occasional dim lighting from the luminescent moss lying around. It was a veritable stronghold, filled with vicious monsters that seemed to rise out of every shadow.

And now, the stone walls came to a close, eventually leading into a deep, underground forest of some sort.

Lukas had always had a healthy respect for forests, aware of their contributions towards controlling global warming and providing oxygen. But having gone on several countryside tours with his grandfather, he had also experienced the other side of the coin— the feelings that came from wading through the thick, dank foliage-filled jungles with insects and predators.

And eventually, he came to a very simple conclusion—

Forests were scary.

It had already been dangerous walking through the dimly lit dungeon, lifeforce and makeshift whip be-damned. But to walk through an underground forest? Thick roots rose from the floor entwining, mutating into new and alien plants forming enormous clusters that looked alive and creepy.

It was something out of a nightmare.

He really couldn’t see much, if at all. There were a plethora of sounds assaulting him, from the rustling of the leaves and roots to the movement of animals somewhere inside this enormous fauna-filled forest. Invisible things kept touching him, from the remnants of spider webs to fallen twigs to leaves— they were all encroaching into his personal space.

It felt claustrophobic.

The ground shifted every now and then, forcing him to constantly keep lifeforce running through him. Sometimes, the elevation was low, and other times it was high. Stones tripped his feet, and vines and thorns and broken branches obstructed him every step of the way. If something large and nasty were to come after him right now, he’d have no choice but to stumble around in the dark in a feeble attempt to escape.

Most likely, he’d immediately fall down and have some sharp thorns or twigs dig into his flesh.

And that was him being optimistic.

“You ignore the fact that this allows you a perfect opportunity to continue your training, mortal.”

“You’re as positive as ever.”

Having finished his lesson about the nature of lifeforce with Inanna, he was now down to practicing simple methods that used lifeforce to augment his body. It was what would help him unlock Level 2 Internal Lifeforce Manipulation, which dealt with bodily processes.

With that in hand, he could augment his brain’s ability. Nothing significant, but it was a good step. The first of many to come.

“Replicating the spell I performed upon you will require decades of your mortal life to learn. Focus on augmenting your brain first. The rest will soon follow.”

“Anything that gets the job done.”

Inanna scoffed, but didn’t reply to his comment.

Lukas composed himself and began to focus on the one thing he could do at the moment.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Rinse and repeat.

Breathing was the most natural instinct anyone could have. Easier than locomotion, more natural than feeding, less tiring than mating. And if repetition was the mother of learning, a vehicle through which his body could develop fixed patterns of employing lifeforce, then breathing was the best process with which to practice.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Everytime he inhaled, lifeforce flooded into his lungs, enhancing the entire process. A little more oxygen than he normally took in was carried in.

Everytime he exhaled, a little more deoxygenated air left his lungs than normal.

Lukas did this, over and over and over. Constantly, for the past couple of days.

Every waking moment was spent doing this one thing repeatedly, and he was already feeling its effects. Whatever Inanna had done to him, it had cleared his mind of its issues. There was no longer any pain, any histrionic mental imagery lingering at the edges of his mind. He hadn’t had a single nightmare since then— if anything, his mind felt clearer, sharper, more perceptive.

His resident goddess has brought his mind back to sanity. And the effects of increased oxygenation to the brain and rest of his body kept it that way.

It felt wonderful.

But Lukas Aguilar wasn’t one to be easily satisfied.

“How long will it be before I can do this subconsciously?”

“You’ll know.”

Inanna had a gift for speaking vaguely.

“When?”

“After you gain the skill.”

It nearly matched the prowess of her sarcasm.

The darkness stretched out endlessly, in every possible direction. It seemed to engulf his very thoughts, studying his fears, his courage, his knowledge. The Continual Light trinkets worked perfectly, glowing in the inky blackness like beacons, but instead of showing the way, they made Olfric feel even more alone than before

Vulnerable.

It was as if the darkness lay around the edges of the trinket’s field of light, waiting with a practice silence as it laid ready to lay claim to whatever part of the world the light could not reach.

And here, with him holding the light, it marked him as visible.

As prey.

He took another tentative step forward.

No bremetan life. No thriving population of animals. No signs of life.

Nothing.

Other than the darkness, all he could feel was the damp and biting winds. Desert winds were dangerous on a good day, and in an accursed place such as Namzuhuu, they were potentially lethal. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility to fall asleep and wake up covered in hoarfrost, with one leg turned blue from oxygen deprivation.

Yes, the desert was a scary place, and nobody knew it better than Olfric Bergott.

The light from the trinkets reached his face, but they failed to shine even a sliver of brightness inside his slowly dimming heart.

“Olfric?” one of his teammates spoke up. A red-haired fellow, with decent sword-skills and a good head on his shoulders. “Are you sure this is the right way to go?”

Olfric remained silent as he kicked the sand beneath his feet. The waves of golden particles hissed across the dunes, creating an eerie effect that made the hairs on his arms rise up. There was no right way to go. The only right way would be one that led him out of this awful place, not further into it.

This is the last time I put myself in a situation like this.

Traversing through the dreaded sands of Namzuhuu in search of an anomaly close to Cyffnar’s borders. The idea in itself was hilarious to begin with. No wonder only five groups had agreed to go ahead with it, out of the seventeen that had showed up to the Guild Hall.

If only he had the good sense to see it earlier.

Olfric bit his tongue.

Erratic thoughts and clattering teeth were a bad combination.

…

Oh, who was he kidding? The moment he’d seen that bitch hanging around Banksi of all people, ready to go on a mission under the Governor’s banner, he knew there was no way he would be staying away from the mission.

Regardless of how lethal it was.

“The locators aren’t working,” he heard someone say.

“Do you think it’s the desert’s curse?” Maude asked. She was a purple-haired young priestess, the only female member of his team. Despite being a bremetan, she knew her place on the social ladder, and she was quite skilled at treating maledictions. In a barren wasteland like this, her usefulness skyrocketed.

Maude was also, quite frankly, a superstitious woman, and in a world where one could actually meet Gods and Goddesses with the right connections, that was saying something.

Not that he could blame her. Here in this endless desert, one which only showed itself to the living in the dead of night, unadulterated terror was the only commodity in supply. Fear kept adrenaline coursing through one’s body, kept the heart pumping. As an accomplished spiritist, all Olfric wanted was to either run for the hills, or make a stand using every bit of power at his disposal.

But as cool and dominating as that would be, performing a powerful water-based spell inside the desert would bleed his kami dry. So he was left with but a single option.

Keep moving, praying all the while that no one killed him.

His group had started the mission with eleven adventurers. They were down to four now— the rest were lost to the uncontrollable wiles of the cursed desert.

Olfric shook his head. No point in thinking about such things. Scary things were scary, after all.

Tanya. Banksi. Mission.

His mind repeated those words like a mantra, to make sure he never forgot about the truly important things in life. About why he chose to risk life and limb to come this far.

Suddenly, something slithered in the dark.

Olfric felt sudden nausea as the saliva in his throat thickened and his heart began to beat like an unruly bastard. Waving his Continual Light closer to the sandy floor, he began to look around as he suppressed the frenzy that took hold of his mind. For reasons he couldn’t explain, something about creepy-crawly insects always got to him. And here in the middle of the desert, the barest breeze was enough to conjure images of great worms slithering across the dunes, their mucous membranes leaking acid and puss— it was quite a miracle he hadn’t already died of a heart attack.

“Olfric—”

“Shut up!”

“Ol—”

“Shut up!”

“But—”

He wouldn’t have it. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

“...Fine!”

Olfric stayed silent for a moment, before pressing against the sand at different points with his shoe.

Still no sign of movement.

He exhaled, before finally speaking up, his voice little more than a murmur in the breeze. “What is it?”

“I think— I think we’re being followed,” Zephyr, the red-headed fellow answered, his tone colored with trepidation.

Olfric paused. “By wha—”

DHUSH!

The sudden noise made him want to find a tall tree and climb it for safety. But his instincts, honed by years of experience, brought his kami’s name to his lips, and a spell ready in his mind. His fear, on the other hand, wished for him to run for the proverbial hills, back to the Bergott Compound where he’d be safe and protected from the demons of the darkness.

Fear’s just a cocktail of brain chemicals, Olfric told himself.

It didn’t abate his shivering one bit.

“What— what was that noise?”

“I don’t know,” Maude murmured, holding her light trinket closer to her face.

“Where’s Zephyr? He was just here a second ago!” exclaimed Alamir, the fourth and last member of his group.

“What?!”

“He was right there,” Alamir babbled. “I looked away for just a second, and now he’s gone.”

Olfric cursed as he looked around at his surroundings, but he was met with nothing but darkness and desert for miles in each direction. Nothing but empty space.

Where are the enemies hiding? Are they invisible?

He flicked a ring of mana out radially— a simple test to detect any invisible enemies in one’s vicinity.

“Maude, Alamir,” he barked, focusing on his mana. “Prepare for combat.”

…

“...Maude?” Olfric called out again. “Alamir?”

The chill of the desert had never felt more despondent than in the silence that greeted him. He was alone. Alone and vulnerable.

“Where are you?!” he roared out into the darkness. “You’re all cowards, hiding in the darkness, picking us off one at a time!”

Still nothing.

His mana didn’t detect anyone in his radial vicinity, so they weren’t invisible as far as he could tell. And in the middle of Namzuhuu, there was nowhere to hide for miles on end. Which left…

Olfric’s eyes widened as they shot towards the desert floor.

A face and two arms emerged from the sand beneath him. Staring right back at him was a strange brown creature.

Non-bremetan.

A hybrid.

Without warning, it clawed at his legs and began to drag him beneath the dunes. Olfric reflexively kicked out at it, but slowly halted his movements as a drowsy feeling engulfed his mind.

Some kind of venom, he belatedly thought.

He should have felt fear at what would be done to him. At what happened to his party. Maybe even sorrow, too. And yet, as he thought of the strange animals’ beady eyes staring at him from beneath the vast sands, all he could feel was a deep-seated disgust.

I fucking hate bugs.