"Good job," Ichtvar told Nathan, who grunted in response. "What? You did a good job."

Two days had passed since Nathan killed the Demiboss, and while he hadn't fought another one yet, he had managed to claim victories against other monsters. The most annoying ones there were the Dungeon's version of pillbugs. They were around six feet in length, and the only way to defeat them was to strike at their underside.

At least, the only way to do so in a reasonable amount of time.

The issue with striking the undersides was the fact that the sand bugs, as he called them, would curl up the moment something struck their fleshy underside, a lesson he learned when he was nearly crushed from being too close when that happened.

Other monsters he'd encountered were the gulls, which would dive-bomb him or fling feathers at him, and the sand mice, which used swarming tactics. They were barely larger than a brown rat and usually traveled in packs of fifty or more.

All three were annoying to fight, for one reason or another. But at least he could just squish half the mice, which was the reason he was still wearing his sneakers, even if they'd been ruined by the attacks. And the gulls' attacks were avoidable, and they'd eventually lose interest in him if he hid himself.

Yeah, the sand bugs were definitely the most annoying.

Searching had begun to grow boring for Nathan, and so he'd asked Ichtvar to teach him how to generate a magical barrier out of force magic, and so for the last hour, they'd been practicing that. Much like with the force push, Nathan acquired a decent grasp of the spell easily with the phoenix's help, though he knew he had a long way to go before he could actually match Keith's abilities.

"Come on," Nathan took a drink of water, then pulled his backpack on. "Let's get searching. We're nearly done, I think."

The phoenix snorted, then flew out the window, and Nathan exited via the door, watching as his familiar flew up into the sky to act as a lookout.

Walking through the streets of the Dungeon, Nathan found himself interested in why the place was created. Why did they design it on a beach? With all that sand? Out of sand? What was their inspiration?

A suspicion rose up in him, but he didn't voice it to Ichtvar, deciding it was best to keep it to himself. For then. But if he was right, then it meant his long-term plans might have a hitch in them.

A hitch he was preparing to deal with already.

"Hey, Nathan?" Ichtvar said, and Nathan looked in the direction he could sense his familiar in.

Several buildings were blocking them, and the ancient phoenix was lower to the ground.

"What?" Nathan responded.

"I think I found the Seed of Life."

"Give me a bit to get over there," Nathan said, curious at the phoenix's casual, yet hesitant, tone. He had a feeling there was more than thinking to have found it than the phoenix's words suggested. "I'm about to be attacked by more gulls."

Nathan walked over to a building and shrugged off his backpack, sitting with his back against a wall, out of view of any of the windows.

A few seconds later, feathers shot through the door and windows, slicing into the stone that formed the floor. The volleys came every thirty seconds, and as he waited it out, Nathan ate a small snack.

The flock spent almost half an hour before giving up, and Nathan waited another five minutes before leaving, making his way in the direction he could sense his familiar. It took him nearly twenty minutes to navigate through the maze of buildings, until he reached the courtyard of a four-story mansion, where his familiar was hovering in spot.

"It's right there," Ichtvar pointed down with his claw.

The courtyard was covered in sand, rather than sand stone, and Nathan only saw the sand. He walked over and crouched down, locating a small seed vaguely resembling an apple seed, though pure-white in color. Not a dead white, like snow, but more of a living white, like milk.

"It certainly looks like a seed," he commented.

"It possesses an immense amount of life energy," Ichtvar agreed. "I was… expecting it to be much larger."

Nathan didn't sense any power in the seed, though when he read it with magic sight, the magic itself was of the purest white, just as his own magic was said to be. Unlike his magic, however, it didn't just exist in a semi-fluid state, moving through his body. No, the seed's magic flowed through its very existence. Nathan wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did.

"Same here," Nathan said, reaching down to grab the seed.

The moment he picked it up, a notification appeared.

Seed of Life located! Plant the Seed of Life in the Garden of the Sandcastle. It will require some of your blood.

Nathan narrowed his gaze at the message. It was telling him to bleed himself, which meant completely neutralizing his Health.

"What's that look for?" Ichtvar asked as Nathan dismissed the message.

"We need to plant this," Nathan said. "In a garden of some sort."

"I know where that is," Ichtvar nodded. "Odd thing for a scavenger hunt."

"It also wants me to bleed myself."

"What?" Ichtvar recoiled. "It wants you to do what?"

"Bleed myself," Nathan said. "I'll need to use my blood when I plant it. It'll require me to completely remove my Health."

"Think there will be a boss fight?"

"Possibly," Nathan answered. "This is an odd Scavenger hunt, that's for sure."

The phoenix nodded, and Nathan asked to be led to the garden as he sent the seed into his Item Box.

It took them nearly an hour to reach the garden, as it was nearly to the cliff face furthest from the ocean, and they had only been halfway through the Sandcastle Kingdom when they located the seed. No monsters attacked them, though Nathan did see a few in the distance from time to time.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

The garden itself wasn't what he'd expected. He was thinking they would be things made of sand or something, not a grassy plot with flowers growing here and there. Not a trace of sand seemed to rest within it, and he kept his eyes on his feet as he entered.

The sand fell off his shoes and pants. Some sort of protective spell, to ensure the garden was unaffected.

At the heart of the garden was a circle of dirt only a few inches across. Knowing it was the place to plant the seed, he pulled out his knife and dug a small hole, then withdrew the seed from his Item Box and dropped it in.

Wiping off his knife, Nathan then stabbed at his arm several times, until he'd broken through his Health. He pricked his finger, then allowed his blood to drip into the hole until the seed was coated in it. Next, Nathan pushed the dirt back into the hole, which confirmed he'd correctly planted the Seed of Life with a notification.

Seed of Life planted! Protect the Seed of Life from the incoming monsters. Kill them all.

Standing up, Nathan listened. Monsters were coming from all around. Dozens of them, excluding the several flocks of birds that were flying towards them. A storm of feathers flew at Nathan, who generated a barrier.

Garden of the Sandcastle Kingdom's Barrier is at 9,999,031 of 10,000,000 Durability!

The message flashed in his vision as the feathers slammed into a barrier not his own, a shimmering field that only appeared around the impact points.

"Thank the gods," Nathan breathed, letting his barrier drop. Sustaining it wasn't something he was sure he could do. Sure, he had enough mana, but he doubted he'd be able to retain his focus that long, especially with other monsters around and his lack of experience with magic. "Ichtvar, I'm going to rest and recover, I don't want to waste the Health Potions I have remaining."

"When did you buy those?"

"Between Challenges," Nathan answered. "I wanted to make sure I was prepared, just in case. Had to restore some of my Health as well, anyway, so just bought a few extra."

"Alright," Ichtvar said. "I will handle this."

The phoenix erupted into flames, then flew through the barrier, and Nathan frowned a little. The barrier didn't yield to the monsters, yet it let the ancient phoenix in. If his theory about the Dungeon was correct, then the reason the phoenix was able to pass through probably stemmed from being Nathan's familiar.

Sitting down, Nathan watched his familiar sear through the enemies, either by flying through them or flapping its wings, generating flames that burst forward. There were hundreds of monsters there, and Nathan watched as the notifications rolled in, eventually telling it to hide. He'd total it up after.

Folding his legs together, Nathan opened up his Skills and added 8 Levels to Meditation, so that it was at Level 10, increasing his regeneration by fifty percent while in use. That finished, he began to meditate to quickly restore his lost Mana from the barrier and to start restoring his lost Health.

"I still hear something slamming into the barrier," Nathan said without opening his eyes when he sensed and heard Ichtvar floating in front of him, rather than fighting.

"It's another one of those tortoises," Ichtvar told him. "A bit bigger than the last, though not by much. Thought you might want to fight it alone for the Experience."

Nathan nodded, unmuting his notifications and totaling everything up. He'd only gained a single Level from letting Ichtvar kill everything, even though he'd gained nearly a thousand Points.

Opening his eyes, Nathan stood as he assessed the sand tortoise. It was maybe only half a foot taller than the other one, and the same Rank, F-2.

Unzipping his backpack, Nathan pulled out two more cards and activated them, crushing them. Two more magazines appeared, and he swapped them into his guns, before returning those to his holsters.

Nathan drew his sword, then lunged forward, cutting at the tortoise. This one didn't play around with him, and instead used its full speed against him rather than letting him wear it down over time. This sent them into a delicate dance as Nathan realized he should've taken a Health Potion or ten.

At least I'm fast enough to evade it.

The sand tortoise continued to summon its walls of sand, which his sword cut through, and retreat its entire body when he came close to striking at its fleshy parts, even while its Health was still active.

It took him nearly an hour to take out the tortoise's Health, and as soon as he did, it retreated and sealed itself in and he swapped his sword for his guns. His right-hand gun fired bullets that whistled through the air, while the one in his left hand fired bullets moving much, much faster than they should.

The first gun's bullets were enchanted with the element of wind, which he hoped would do extra damage against the tortoise, while the second gun's bullets were enchanted to move faster, with more force.

The wind bullets chipped at the monster, while the boosted bullets did more than just chip, and only a few shots in one spot were enough for him to break through its shell. As he expected, the tortoise's head shot out as it screeched in pain.

Nathan fired off a shot from his left-hand gun, the bullet blasting through the monster's head, spraying blood everywhere.

Demiboss Sand Tortoise Slain! Level Up! (x8)

Another 8 Levels? He thought, then quickly realized it made sense he'd gain a fair few Levels.

That fight was harder, after all, even if he was several Levels stronger.

Seed of Life Protected! You will be returned to the Fields of Choice in fifteen minutes.

Nathan dropped his empty magazines, then walked back into the garden, where he collected his things and allocated his Stat Points to Endurance, then pulled Ichtvar back into him. The phoenix didn't seem to be affected by the transfers like Keith's elemental was, but he didn't want to risk a negative response by not having the creature recalled during them.

When the timer reached zero, Nathan found himself back in the fields.

You have completed the Sandcastle Kingdoms Dungeon! For your valiant efforts and decision to complete the Adept-Difficulty Dungeon alone, you have been awarded 5 Levels and all supplies brought into the Dungeon that were used have been restocked!

New Skills available!

"Finally," Nathan breathed, and felt Ichtvar shift in curiosity. "I unlocked more Skills."

"Ah."

Nathan quickly added his new Stat Points to his Endurance, then did a check to verify that it had, in fact, restocked his items. With annoyance, he noted his cards weren't there. They hadn't been restocked.

"Fuck," he muttered.

"What?" Ichtvar asked.

"The System didn't seem to be able to recreate the cards," he said. "That, or they were intentionally not restored."

"You weren't expecting something like that to happen," Ichtvar said. "It's an interesting reward, to be sure. Your enchantments were a new concept to me as well, so I'm not surprised that it might not have registered the unusual enchantments. It's possible it'll just need time and reading of your cards to figure out how they function so that it can recreate them."

"Yeah," Nathan said, then rummaged through his pack some more.

All of the food he'd brought with him into the Dungeon that he'd used had been restored, which was really all that he'd used up in the Dungeon outside of his cards. He hadn't used his guns at all, other than the enchanted bullets, but all of those had been in the storage cards.

After finishing his check, Nathan began to open up his Skills Shop, only to be interrupted by a message.

Notice: Unidentified magic detected within the game. Unable to replicate said magics when attempting to restock items. Error occurred. For not being able to fulfill the reward granted, an assessment has been attempted and completed. Based on estimated values of the unreplacable items, you have been awarded 100 Stat Points, 100 Skill Points, 1,000 Points, and +10 to All Stats.

The game was admitting to being unable to replicate his cards, and from what he could tell, it didn't value them very high. Not when factoring in that it probably included the bullets in that reward. The enchanted bullets – all forty-five of them.

Mentally cursing the game, Nathan added the 100 Stat Points to his Endurance, then pulled up his Skills Shop to check out what new Skill or Skills he unlocked.