"That's a good question."

Nathan leaned back in his seat, watching Zayen's eyes. There was a spark there, a light Nathan hadn't seen in a while.

"Well," Zayen said, "how up-to-date have the scientists kept you?"

Nathan scratched the back of his head.

"To be honest, they probably kept me up to date, but I wasn't really paying attention."

Gius laughed. Vee reached out and pinched the bridge of her nose. Zayen didn't so much as blink at Nathan's frank admission.

"We've managed to obtain a few essential facts,” Zayen said. “Firstly, the Dustend is killable. Secondly, we've even been able to map out a way to predict the Dustend’s arrival up to 20 minutes beforehand. There's a slight pattern—hard to spot—but with several of our brightest minds working on it, we eventually perceived it."

"You mentioned killing it. How exactly does one go about doing that?" Nathan asked. “As your critics put it, how does one kill a storm?"

"Yes, well, that is the question, isn't it?" Zayen lifted the corner of his lips. "I don't suppose any of you have much experience in weather manipulation?"

There were a few chuckles, but nobody seemed particularly amused by Zayen's response.

"Is that really all you have?" Casc asked.

“This is more hearsay,” Zayen said. “But there seems to be something specific about the core. It appears to take the form of a humanoid. Well, the humanoid part is a bit of a guess. Really, what all the eyewitness reports seem to say is—"

"Red eyes."

Everyone turned and stared at Nathan.

"You’ve seen them?" Zayen said.

"Three times."

Omarn squinted at Nathan. "You know, most people would count themselves lucky to survive one encounter with the Dustend’s Core. I'm beginning to think you're a magnet for the thing."

Nathan shrugged. "I was there, and I remember that when I got that close, it took everything I had just to stay alive. There was no time to bring out any weapons. I think if anyone else were in that storm, they would’ve been disintegrated.”

"Yes, that does seem to be the problem we keep running up against." Zayen shook his head. "We have yet to determine a practical method of shielding ourselves against the sheer magical might of the Dustend."

"You said 'practical,'" Gius said. "What does that mean? Are there impractical methods?"

"Technically, there's a rare fish that grants some level of immunity to the Dustend's effects, but no one's ever caught one before—except in myths."

"Do you have a location?" Nathan asked.

"You’d have to catch several dozen of them. And this is all for a fish that’s only been caught once in legend."

"Don't care. Just give me the location."

"Nathan, I promise you, you won’t be able to catch it. You’d need absolutely inhuman fishing skill."

"Let me worry about that."

Zayen scratched the back of his head, sighed, and crossed his arms. "Well, if you're so certain, I can tell you where it was said the fish was caught."

Zayen explained the location. Nathan received the information and tucked it away in the back of his mind.

"What's the name of this fish?"

"Ah, it's called the Bass of Many Fins."

Nathan’s eyes widened. "Is that so?"

"You’ve heard of it?"

"You could say that." Nathan opened a portal. "I'm gonna hunt down that fish. I’ll be back in a couple of hours."

Nathan could practically feel Zayen's disapproving stare. Smirking, he stepped through the portal.

----------------------------------------

Nathan tracked down the location. With any luck, he’d destroy the Dustend, and this whole quest would be over. Soon.

An idle thought came to mind. He opened up Dither and made a post.

[Nathan Lee]: hey guys. I don’t know if anybody else has had some trouble with the Dustend, but I should be taking care of it pretty soon. just thought you guys should know.

A few moments after posting, his screen lit up with replies:

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

└ [RockThrower69]: The hell you mean you’ll be “taking care of it?”

└ [StillAlive27]: The quest is impossible tho???

└ [DefinitelyNotDying]: Bro’s about to solo the circle boss

Nathan shut the window and turned his attention back to the dunes. He wasn’t quite sure what they were talking about with all the mentions of the quest or the circle boss stuff. He was pretty sure the Dustend wasn’t the circle boss.

Wait a minute. Come to think of it, what was the main quest? He still didn’t know.

He opened up his quest menu and pressed his fingers against the Global Quest window. As before, the button was grayed out. He sighed and shook his head.

I wonder if I can call tech support.

Perhaps the other Delvers had access to the global quest menu and the global quest was to defeat the Dustend?

Nathan shrugged internally. It didn’t matter. If he was also killing the circle boss, that was nothing more than a happy accident. Either way, that thing was going down.

Before long, he arrived at the marked location. It was a deep, yawning cavern, the sides of the opening stretching out to the size of a city block. He poked his head over the side and the light seemed to die as it reached into the darkness. A cool draft brushed out of the cavern and against his cheeks.

“Well, this’ll be fun,” he said.

Nathan slung his body over the edge, gripping onto a rock with his fingertips. Although he wasn’t an expert rock climber, it turned out that his Dexterity and Strength were pretty useful for physical skills like this. In no time, he reached the point where the light started to fade. He squinted into the darkness, and as his vision adjusted, he could make out the glimmer of water at the bottom

“Wait. I could’ve just jumped in?” he said.

After a moment, he pushed himself off the rock and into the air. Gravity took hold, and his body plunged into the water. Icy cold rushed against his skin, cutting into his lungs. He swam toward the shoreline and dragged himself out, shaking water everywhere as he stood up.

With that done, he pulled out his starter fishing rod and cast the hook into the water.

A few seconds passed. His hands twitched.

Something was wrong.

Hunter’s Instinct was screaming at him. There was nothing there. He was fishing in a dead lake.

“Okay… Guess this one’s a bust.”

He reeled back his fishing rod and moved deeper into the cavern. With any luck, he’d find another underground lake.

And he did. Once again, he cast out his line. Once again, Hunter’s Instinct told him there was absolutely nothing there.

“Okay, this is ridiculous.”

He scratched the back of his head. What was he supposed to do? Just keep wandering around, hoping to find... something?

I guess so…

A bright yellow light suddenly lit up the cavern.

Nathan jumped back. In front of him, over the top of the lake, a circular shape glowed with energy coursing around it. Sweat prickled across his skin. He reached into his inventory and pulled out his harpoon.

A second later, a silhouette dropped into the lake.

Nathan squinted. If he didn’t know any better, that silhouette was—

“Nathan?”

“Finny?”

----------------------------------------

Nathan stared at the fish. Finny was shaking, and there was a distinct look of fear in his eyes.

"Boy, am I glad to see you!" Finny said.

Nathan nodded at Finny. "It's good to see you too." He tilted his head. "Mind telling me what's got you so riled up? Come to think of it, what are you even doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Well, it goes something like this…"

Nathan briefly summarized why he was there—the fish he apparently needed to catch to fulfill his personal quest, and to provide Zayen and his team the materials they needed to create some kind of anti-Dustend potion.

Finny had a look of thoughtfulness on his face. “We didn’t know that about the Bass of Many Fins. We thought they were just feeder fish."

"Feeder fish?"

"Well, they’re dumb fish. They’re not like us, so we mostly use them for food. That’s why we call ‘em feeder fish."

Nathan’s jaw dropped. “You eat other fish?"

"Of course. Why are you so horrified? You eat fish too, don’t you?"

“Yeah, but they’re not my species, that’s why I can get away with it."

"You mean you guys don’t eat other humans?"

"No!"

There was a beat of silence as the two processed each other’s words.

"Putting that aside," Finny said, "I’m here for a different reason than you. This is cartel territory. We’re near their headquarters. I was planning on calling you in."

"We’re gonna storm it?"

Finny cracked a smirk. “You’re speaking my language. We’ve been hitting them where it hurts, so they shouldn’t have the resources to recoup their losses after we finish them off here."

"Is it just the two of us?"

"No, the rest of the gang is coming. Just give them a bit of time and—"

Four more yellow flashes of light appeared, and four more fish fell out of the portals and into the water. Before Nathan could react, another four portals opened. Then another four. Then another four.

In a matter of a minute, Nathan was looking at an entire fish army. Among them were a few familiar faces—Speedy and Bolt waved at him—but the rest Nathan had never seen before.

Finny nodded at Nathan. "This is going to get ugly. Are you ready?"

"Always."

Finny faced off toward the far end of the lake. If Nathan looked a little closer, he could make out what appeared to be a hole where the water was flowing through—very slowly, but still there.

"And by the way," Finny said, "once this is done, our deal will be fulfilled, and I’ll sign on with you permanently. The Don has given me and ten other fish permission to be summoned by you when you need it.”

"Perfect."

"All right then," Finny said, "let’s go crab hunting."

----------------------------------------

They swam up the river in deathly silence. Once or twice, Nathan heard someone crack a joke in the back, but any laughter was quickly suppressed.

Finally, they caught sight of the "headquarters."

As it turned out, the headquarters wasn’t on the water but on land. At the end of the river, on the shoreline, hundreds of crabs scurried about, and in the middle of them all was a huge one. Its pincers were unusually sharp and oversized. Its shell was dulled and pale, cracked and splintered. Despite that, Nathan had no doubt those pincers could snap a person in half.

"Well, damn," Finny said. "I wasn’t expecting them to be on the shoreline."

"You think they anticipated us coming?"

"That’s probably it. They got wise to our tricks.” Finny shook his head. "On top of that, I don’t see any zombified fish. And what happened to your Bass? Something’s off."

Nathan was about to respond when he heard a scuttling sound behind him. He turned, narrowing his eyes. Something was approaching them from the rear.

"Finny, are you seeing what I’m seeing?"

Finny turned through the water and jolted.

"It’s an ambush!" he yelled.

A large force of crabs and zombified bass was closing in from behind.

Nathan pursed his lips.

"Well, that’s not good."