It was a slow slog between capturing the Sand Swimmers. They amassed more than thirty spirit essences. It was a torturous effort. They fought against fatigue and pain more than death in the beginning.

  Inevitable, though, was death, unfortunately. It struck them too suddenly.

  They had gotten used to the routine and too confident in their ability.

  A second Sand Swimmer jumped out too quickly and caught onto a leg. His screams still echoed through the empty caves of dunes in their ears.

  They tried hard to ignore them.

  They focused on getting both Parker and Asha to level three. It was a hard move, but they believed that this would make things easier. At the end, they had only two spirit essences to draw Stat cards.

  Parker looked around, unsure, but someone groaned.

  "Just use it, man. We've already invested so much."

  Another person laughed weakly. "We've gone too far already, man. No one's going to resent you, we just hope you'll help us too."

  There were some faces he had seen who looked dissatisfied as Parker absorbed essence—more so when he argued that, since Asha was close, they should rely on her. Parker had argued especially hard with two people.

  It was a brazen choice, considering how hard they had fought for the essence.

  But with enough people on their side, and the awkward way Asha tried to shrink into the corner, they convinced them that it was a long-term investment.

  Parker nodded, his eyes still hesitant, as he informed them, "It's just… When I went to sleep, I had this dream that I was swimming through sand. I was so hungry all the time, and I could feel the world shifting and moving around me. I felt so weak, like my head was heavy and nauseous. I couldn't think."

  One of the people he had disagreed with, Pierre, earlier looked dumbstruck.

  "You dreamt you were a Sand Swimmer? Because of the essence maybe?"

  Parker nodded. "I feel I've become a lot stronger, at least with how beat up I am. And I can't explain it, but I feel I'm a lot better at grappling. I don't know—it's easy for me to notice."

  Paul looked very tired, his honey-brown eyes watching out of the cave indifferently.

  "I mean, we're stealing the lives of these animals. Maybe we're carrying them with us too."

  Everyone fell silent as the thought settled in. Carrying them on with you—it felt like something abstract. But absorbing their literal essence made it physical.

  One of the guys broke the silence.

  "Paul, my brother, are you a tree-hugging stoner or something?"

  Paul ignored him. Pierre laughed self-deprecatingly.

  "Well, I'm glad I didn't absorb them then. I hate those sand fuckers."

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  Everyone nodded, agreeing. They had so much experience with the stubborn, dangerous creatures that the last five hours felt more like five years.

  Paul turned to Asha, who was studying the spirit essence attentively. She always redrew the symbols that they had on them and loved admiring the blue light of the stones.

  Paul stood and urged them.

  "Come on, absorb them now. After this, we're leaving this godforsaken place and killing that Vasilis guy."

  Killing and violence had become a strange norm in the group.

  Parker found it uncomfortable but also unavoidable. The way they had been living recently… It felt like an inevitable response.

  He secretly dreaded meeting and seeing Vasilis' face, wondering if he would suddenly lose all of his conviction.

  Asha nodded at him, smiling, as always—constantly happy even in the hardest moments.

  She lifted the essence. Parker kept his low and against his lap. He closed his eyes, and they both crushed the blue crystals simultaneously.

  When he opened his eyes, the green status window had appeared by itself. It was rectangular, and its bezels and edges seemed luxurious and fancy to Parker, at least. The many rows revealed themselves again.

  Name: Parker

  Level: 3

  Health: 76/120

  Stamina: 50/150

  Mana: 12/12

  Stat Cards

  Armaments

  Traits: Ariel's Web

  Skills

  He couldn't understand how his stamina and health had been increasing decently, but mana was still so low.

  He ignored it and focused on the prompt beside the screen.

  At Level Three, you can now store essence and decide to use it later. You can now draw one Stat Card…

  This is clear enough. I can store them or use them immediately.

  He tapped on the Stat Card portion which had a red ping notification on it.

  A prompt notified him that he could draw a card by tapping Yes, or reject it with No.

  He tapped Yes, and the system displayed a stack of cards over his screen. They began shuffling.

  "What does it say?" someone asked excitedly.

  Parker watched the cards skeptically.

  "It told me I can store essence, then the Stat Card portion pinged me, and when I tapped it, it asked me whether I wanted to draw one. Now it's shuffling cards… Feels like a game of Donkey."

  Asha chuckled at his observation.

  "It also added an Essence Block below my Mana. I can store fifty."

  The cards finished shuffling, and one was drawn for him.

  It was a white card with a large muscular man outline, its features were vague but it's name was Vigor and it's rank was fair.

  It increased stamina.

  Everyone seemed fine with that as Parker could actually feel the increase.

  Paul turned to Asha, who had been quiet and was still watching her screen.

  "What did you get?"

  Asha still watched her screen carefully, deep in thought.

  "It's called Arlap's Boots, and its rank is Rare. The card has a weird-looking man in wizard clothes wearing leather boots that have clouds as soles."

  "The description is… wow, this sucks. Depending on the intensity of your emotions, you will be fast and sharp or agile and flexible."

  Everyone was even more perplexed. One of the Loadbearer asked

  "Isn't this even worse? I mean, as a girl, your emotions get all over the place."

  Asha looked at him for a moment and forwent answering. Instead, she jumped.

  She kicked off the wall, planted her hand, and kicked off it again, going even higher. As she rose, she contorted her body, kicking off the roof of the cave and spinning in the air before landing on her feet.

  Asha waved her hands around a bit, jumping slightly as everyone watched in awe at the sudden acrobatics.

  "Being calmer must be the switch for agility. So anger or intense emotions is speed."

  Paul's hands were in the air, the awe and caution making for a funny face.

  "Please be careful," he warned.

  Asha smiled impatiently.

  "Why fear? Let's go crazy, I say!"

  They began gathering their things—they needed to leave now. They picked up Yohan and untied his leg. The boy was decently well-fed but still complained.

  "Can I get something to eat before we go back? This is going to be a long standoff between two insane people."

  "Shut up, man. If your master agrees to join us, then we'll spare you something. Till then, shut it."

  They had long decided that the best way to negotiate was through food. It had been thirteen hours since they got here.

  Hunger and thirst must have been getting to them, and they would use that, threatening Vasilis with the dangers of becoming their enemies.

  They trekked through the passage out of the dunes wearily.

  Asha had gone ahead with a mission, assuring them that her fear would boost her speed so she could warn them if the ants were coming.

  As Parker climbed a steep, rocky incline, a thought suddenly hit him. He turned to Paul.

  "What about Matthew's group? What if they didn't even think of negotiating and just gave them their rewards?"

  Someone cursed.

  "One of those bastards could be Level Three already."

  Paul nodded. "I mean, Jamie is also there. He seems like the headstrong type."

  Parker clenched his jaw and climbed faster. He told his group's Messenger, "You'll have to go ahead, gauge the situation."

  The third Messenger nodded and began to jog ahead.

  The rest of the group maintained their pace and discussed what their next actions would be.

  "I mean, the forest seems far better than this hellhole—water, fruits, and no heat? Sign me the fuck up."

  "Yeah, but placing a net over a small area isn't as effective as casting a wide net," the Fourth Navigator argued.

  "Man, don't speak to me about fishing. I've done a lifetime of fishing here. I never want to deal with anything that swims again."

  They walked for a while, just around five minutes talking casually about their experience, since they had never strayed too far from the exit and it was close to the central cavern.

  Parker quietly marvelled at his increase in strength. Pulling myself up feels so easy, it also easier to walk considering i haven't slept in like twelve hours

  The central cavern wasn't a welcome sight, with its devastation and signs of carnage, but the cool air inside was far more appealing than the ever-present heat of the dunes.

  The high limestone wall and massive space was almost the same size as the White temple but was more imposing despite it's rugged look

  They met the Messenger they had sent ahead, talking to an unknown person outside the safe point entrance.

  They climbed over different high rocks, watching them argue.

  They had finally returned to the safe point