Karrakas was already waiting for them when they came down the staircase, standing near the tavern entrance with his hands in his pockets.

"Everyone ready?" he asked.

"Yes," Lukas said.

"Good. Let’s go."

He led them out of the building and onto the street. As they walked, he glanced back at Lukas.

"Did you guys get everything on the list I gave you?"

"Yeah. We got all of it," Lukas confirmed.

Karrakas nodded and said nothing more on the subject.

They walked for about a minute before he raised one arm.

A car slowed and pulled to the side of the road. The driver leaned out slightly.

"Where to?"

"The outer gate," Karrakas said.

The driver nodded. "Get in."

Karrakas took the front passenger seat, while Lukas, Melody, and Akira climbed into the back. Karrakas tapped his card to the payment pad on the dashboard before they had even pulled away from the curb.

The car moved into traffic and picked up speed.

The city passed outside the windows in layers, the buildings growing less dense the further out they went, the walls rising higher as they passed each ring of the city.

They passed through two internal checkpoints without stopping, the driver waving a permit at each guard.

At the final wall, the driver brought the car to a stop and cut the engine.

"Good luck out there," he said.

They climbed out.

The gate was wide, built into the base of the outer wall, with two guards stationed at a small booth to one side. Karrakas approached them without slowing.

"Gate fee," one of the guards said.

Karrakas pressed his card to the reader. He looked back at the others. Lukas, Melody, and Akira each did the same.

The barrier lifted, and they walked through.

On the other side, the city was gone. The wall rose behind them, and ahead, in every direction, the desert opened up.

All they could see was red sand, rolling dunes, and a sky that seemed to have no end to it.

Karrakas stopped just beyond the gate and turned to face them.

"Before we move," he said, "there’s one thing you need to understand about hunting out here."

They gathered around him.

"The beasts hide under the sand, so most times, you won’t see them coming if they choose to stay hidden. But there are two ways to work around that."

He held up a finger. "First, you need to stamp your feet when you walk. Put force into every step and let the vibration move through the sand. Beasts that have been sitting under the surface for a long time get hungry, and hunger makes them impatient."

"If they feel movement above them, a lot of them will break early, jumping out before you’re even close enough to be a real target. They reveal themselves and by doing that, reveal their ambush. Now, you can simply fight them if you want to."

"And the second?" Melody asked.

"Watch the ground ahead of you." He held up a second finger. "Sand isn’t perfectly flat out here. When a beast is sitting just beneath the surface, it displaces the sand above it."

"So all you need to do is look for dips. Usually small and shallow ones, the kind that look like the ground is uneven. Most times, you’d see false positives, but it has saved lives on different occasions."

He looked at each of them. "When you spot one, you have two options. Attack it from range and draw it out on your terms, or walk around it and leave it alone. Either is valid depending on what you’re trying to do."

He turned to face the desert.

"Stay close until you have a feel for it. Now let’s move."

They set off.

The sand shifted under their boots with each step they took, but the specialized boots did their job, the wide soles distributing their weight and keeping them stable.

Lukas put force into each stride, letting the impact vibrate through the sand. Beside him, Melody and Akira did the same.

The dunes rolled ahead of them in long shallow waves, the red sand scorching hot from the long hours in the sun.

Then a notification appeared in front of Lukas.

Ding!

[Quest: One Trick Pony]

[For the duration of this hunt, use only one skill.]

[Reward: +200 Gacha Points]

He almost stopped walking.

He read it twice, then felt the grin spread across his face before he could stop it.

The system was back!

He’d been waiting for it without realizing how much he’d been waiting for it. It was usually active when he was in situations that invited danger, and dormant whenever he was relaxing.

Though he had to admit he liked it like that. What if he was busy recovering and a quest appeared out of nowhere?

He turned his attention back to the quest.

He had to use one skill for the entire hunt.

He ran through his options quickly. There was really only one answer.

[Smite].

There was no better option than a bolt of divine energy, called down from above and driven into whatever he pointed it at.

It hit hard, it hit at range, and it didn’t require him to close the distance first.

When he’d first received it as an Awakener, it had been a high ranked skill and it showed by packing a devastating punch. The gap between the skill and his rank had made it feel enormous.

Now that he was Adept himself, that gap had closed. The skill no longer exceeded his rank. But it was still powerful, and for a hunt like this, perfect.

He confirmed his choice quietly and kept walking.

Karrakas had already pulled out a compass, checked the needle, and adjusted their direction. They were heading north.

They moved in a loose group, boots hitting the sand with force.

The ringed city shrank behind them, and all they could see was a fight in the horizon, far to the east.

Two beasts, large enough to see from the distance, were currently fighting, sand spraying into the air around them.

It lasted only a few seconds before one killed the other, dragging the corpse.with it as it disappeared back beneath the surface.

Melody watched the spot where they had been. "Is the desert always this empty?"

Karrakas didn’t look up from the compass. "Don’t let it fool you. The desert looks empty because most of what lives here is underneath it."

He kept walking. "There are more beasts in this sand right now than you’d be comfortable knowing about."

Melody looked down at the ground beneath her boots.

Then the sand in front of them exploded upwards.