"Keith," Nathan said, and the mage looked over to the warrior as the latter sat up. "Would you mind if we waited a few more days before trying to enter the final Dungeon this island?"

"For Icthvar?" Keith asked, and Nathan nodded. "That probably would be for the best. We can do some enchanting while we wait."

Nathan pulled out food and began eating, glad Keith was willing to delay how long they were in the Dungeon. Even though they could see the suppressing darkness far above, it wasn't as depressing or disturbing as when it surrounded them from a much closer distance.

The warrior wanted to wait until Ichtvar had recovered fully, so that his familiar stopped drawing on his power and was in peak condition if something happened, especially after the catkin healer was gone.

They only needed to complete two more Dungeons, and they would be done with the Isles of Darkness. Unless, of course, they chose to journey further.

So for the next few days, Nathan and Keith trained in both magic and body, enchanted, explored the island, and rested until Ichtvar stretched his wings and flew into the air, performing two brief circles around the elementals before promptly dive-bombing Nathan, who swatted the bird into Keith.

"What was that for?" The mage and the phoenix asked at the same time.

"Why were you dive-bombing me?" Nathan asked Ichtvar.

"Gimme chocolate!"

"You're such a child," Nathan pulled out a one-pound bar of chocolate and handed it to the phoenix, who began eating. "As soon as you finish with your snack, we're looking for the last Dungeon this island."

"What about the talisman?" Ichtvar asked. "Did you find the last piece or pieces of it?"

"Yes," Nathan answered. "It's completed and in my pack with the other two."

"Okay," Ichtvar bit another chunk out of the bar of chocolate. "Do you two have any thoughts on where the last Dungeon for this island might be?"

"Yes," Keith answered, gesturing to a nearby mausoleum. "If you notice, this one is different from the others. It's only a slight difference in the design, but it's enough to stand out when all the others are identical. There are eight of these on the island, with four being close to the Altar of Light, the other four being at the cardinal points of the island. We believe that one of them may be the entrance to the last remaining Dungeon for the island."

Ichtvar nodded and finished eating his chocolate, then joined the two players as they approached the mausoleum. Nathan pushed open the doors, revealing a room illuminated by four braziers with nothing but stairs leading down.

When he entered, a message appeared in his vision.

Dungeon Entered: Catacombs Challenge Type: Slaughter Difficulty: Advanced Kill all of the monsters in the catacombs.

"They're probably spiders," Keith sighed as he joined Nathan, their familiars joining them.

"Probably," Nathan said. "Guns or no?"

"They're catacombs," Keith shook his head. "Let's try to win without, for the Experience. If it takes too long, then pull out your guns. Since it's a Slaughter and not a Scavenger Hunt, there probably isn't a boss."

Nathan nodded, then descended the stairs, the rest following.

The catacombs themselves were built of the same gray stone as the mausoleums above, with slots in the walls for the stone sarcophagi. Sconces were set six feet up the walls and spaced every five feet to provide light. The tunnels themselves were only ten feet in height, and around eight in width.

"I changed my mind," Nathan stepped behind Keith. "Your flames might be better than my fists."

Keith laughed, but he knew why Nathan decided that. The opponents did seem to be spiders, as there was webbing filling most of the tunnel starting only fifteen feet down.

As Keith worked on burning away the webbing and killing any spiders that drew too near with his air slashes, Nathan examined the enchantments in the walls, sconces, and sarcophagi with his magic sight, comparing some of them with the notes Ichtvar had made for him in his book on enchanting, as well as some of what Evala's brother had researched.

"Hey, Keith," Nathan said after an hour of their journey through the tunnels. "I think these sarcophagi are enchanted to prevent shades and phantoms. Ichtvar and Splashy agree with me."

"That's nice," Keith responded. "Please help me, I'm facing five spiders right now."

Nathan turned and lunged towards the nearest spider, sidestepping the webbing it shot at him as he punched. When his fist connected, he released a burst of force magic, throwing the spider back as a Points notification popped up.

"I wanted to punch it twice," the warrior looked disappointed, causing Keith to laugh.

Nathan lunged forward and punched another spider, then jumped back to avoid Keith's flames as the mage attacked the remaining spiders and their webs.

The pair spent hours beneath the island, cleaning out the catacombs of the spiders that had made them their home, and by the time they finished, both were tired of the repetitive activity and just plain exhausted.

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"Look at this," Nathan told Keith as he held out the notebook from Evala's brother.

"Why?" Keith asked. "It's just the first page, Nathan."

"Examine it with your magical sight," Nathan told him. "I didn't keep turning it off while looking at the enchantments down here and noticed something."

Keith frowned, but did as Nathan suggested, realizing immediately why. Evala's brother didn't just write on it with normal ink, but something that left traces of magic as well, leaving behind a completely different journal when viewed that way.

"Let's go back up to the surface," Keith sent the notebook into his Item Box.

The group made their way back to the surface, then down to the beach and followed it until the found the boat on the southwestern shore. There, they chose to make camp to rest up and recover from the tunnels.

"We have nine completed Dungeons," Keith said as they ate jerky sticks Nathan procured from one of his cards. "So the question is whether or not we want to keep going after we complete the Isles of Darkness Dungeon for the next island and whatever other Dungeons we end up in while trying that."

Nathan laid down instead of answering, sighing. While he knew it was a better idea to leave as soon as they could, he wanted to push through. He was confident that the longer they were on the Isles of Darkness, the greater the chances were of them discovering something crucial about the System and its makers.

However, he had nearly died twice already, there was confirmation of one member of the Ultimate Trinity being in the area, and a high likelihood of another. There was also the fact that he wanted to return to Samantha as soon as possible.

He wouldn't admit it, but after opening up to her in the Tutorial and being with her as her boyfriend, Nathan missed being around her. Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that he would probably miss being around Keith, William, and Michael, too. Despite preferring to be alone, he had grown attached to them.

Sure, William and Michael were more of 'there' than people he'd like to be close to in any way, but they had proven themselves useful in the Tutorial, and he had developed a sense of companionship with them during the two sets of extended Survival Challenges while helping Samantha get through her pregnancy safely.

Nathan wished he had what he wanted already. A way to destroy the System and prevent his son from ever being initiated into it. A way to protect Samantha from its evils and the risk of dying she'll face in Challenges. While they could control Dungeons and Challenges, they could not control Mandatory Challenges.

To complete that goal of his, he needed to understand the System better, figure out how it worked, and then come up with a way to erase it from existence. There were too many questions still needing answering, though.

How did it work? How was it powered? Who were the Overseers? Why did they enslave countless dimensions to fix issues with the one the Dungeons were in? How was it run? How could they create such a thing as the System? What gave them the thought that it was right to control someone's life in such a way? How was the System put into people and monsters? Why did it seem to only selectively affect things?

What would it take to destroy it?

Nathan lifted his head up, then let it slam down into the sand, and he grunted in annoyance as some fell into his ears and landed on his eyes. He lifted up a hand and rubbed his eyes until the sand that had gotten in them was gone.

That was another thing that bothered him about the System. Why was Health so inconsistent?

"Let's decide after finishing what we have to on the other island," Nathan told Keith. "We can delay needing to choose by not putting the talisman in right away."

"Are you sure?" Keith asked.

"I can't decide right now," Nathan sat up. "And it will give Ichtvar, Splashy, and Breezy more time to assess the dimension itself. There has to be a clue in the blocks that tell how everything is done. At the same time, I want to just return back to home, take Samantha, and hug her. I've never felt like this before."

Well, maybe he would admit it. But only to Keith.

"The Well of Souls might have affected your emotional state," Keith smiled. "But it didn't affect all of it, only parts. Your distance from people for years affected it, too. That's because you're in love, Nathan."

"I know," Nathan rolled his eyes, flicking sand at Keith as he sat up, and the mage stopped it with a brief barrier. "It feels strange, regardless."

"Yeah," Keith said. "Well, two months ago, you were basically a caveman, so that's progress."

Nathan threw more sand at Keith, who stopped the sand with another barrier.

"Don't worry," Keith assured Nathan. "This feeling of not wanting to be away from your lover or lovers will fade with time, even if the love itself doesn't. It's because it's new."

"Samantha and I have technically been dating for nearly a year."

"And?" Keith asked. "Just roll with it, Nathan. Back to before, though – you want to wait until after we finish whatever we need to do before we leave to decide?"

"Yeah," Nathan answered. "I'm hesitant to go into the extended Survival Challenges right now. I miss Samantha. It feels like it will be boring to just-"

Nathan cut off and stared at Keith.

"What?" Keith asked.

"We're making a scrying orb," he said. "So that I can look at Cyrus once he's born while we're in the game."

"Yeah," Keith said.

"Don't you have the ability to see what awaits us?" Nathan asked. "On the other islands? Why haven't you been using that?"

"Because we're literally surrounded by a suppressing darkness," Keith answered. "I doubt I'd actually see anything."

"Can you give it a try?" Nathan asked.

Keith sighed, then opened up his pack and pulled out the card with his scrying orb in it. After retrieving the crystal, he focused his power, his violet eyes beginning to glow. For nearly ten minutes, the psychic looked through his orb, and when he finished, the glow in his eyes faded back to normal and he looked at Nathan.

"The next island," he says. "Has just the fragments scattered about, and a small collection of stone buildings with more of those night wolves in them. It will be rather easy. Another island is pretty plain, I doubt there are any Secondary Dungeons on it. Another has another group of sirens, plus a den of wolves, as well as stone buildings all throughout. The last one – other than the central island – is full of stone buildings as well. I saw another siren's lair, two different dens of wolves, more statues, a spider's lair, and that's it for what I could perceive as possibly being Challenges.

"And yes," Keith continued as Nathan opened his mouth to ask something. "I looked at the central island. There's one dragon there, and based on what I know of dragons, I'd say it's around three, maybe four centuries in age. That island doesn't have its own Altar of Light, but it does have seven of them scattered across it. I'm not sure what else could work for Dungeons there, so it's probably just those two things."

"Two more Siren's Lairs," Nathan said. "Three dens of wolves, a Spider's Lair, and Land of Moving Statues. Is that our estimate for the other islands?"

"Yes," Keith nodded. "All in all, it would probably just be time-consuming for us. The spiders are easy for you and I to handle without bothering with having our familiars act. For the wolves, we can figure out how we'll fare against them when we handle the ones on the next island."

"So the only uncertainty before that," Nathan said. "Would be the Siren's Lairs."

"Correct," Keith said. "And anything I might have missed in my searches. It was dark."

"Let's decide after the next island," Nathan said. "I want to sleep."