One moment, they were surrounded by the verdant canopy of the Heart Tree. The next, blinding light hit them like a sp to the face as heat rolled over their bodies in suffocating waves.

  "Eyes down!" Alexander shouted, squinting against the sudden gre. "Get your goggles on!"

  They fumbled with their packs, fingers already clumsy in the shocking heat. The transition from the Green Realm's cool forest to this bzing furnace left them gasping – like stepping from an air-conditioned room straight into a bonfire.

  Alexander pulled his protective eyewear on and looked up. The ndscape before them seemed impossible – endless waves of golden sand stretching in every direction. The sun hung fat and merciless in a cloudless sky, its reflection off the sand almost painful even through their tinted lenses.

  Lyra checked a small device from her belt and whistled softly. "Fifty-two degrees Celsius. Humidity basically nonexistent."

  "Water conservation starts now," Alexander said, already pulling his desert scarf up to cover his face. "Drink only when scheduled. Everyone cover up completely."

  They adjusted their desert clothing, pulling lightweight fabric over exposed skin and securing head wrappings. Despite all their careful preparations in the Grand Bazaar, the actual heat of the Amber Realm hit harder than any of them had imagined.

  Elijah tilted his head, listening. "The whispers sound... muffled here. Like they're trying to speak through the sand."

  "That's going to complicate things," Alexander said with a frown. "We'll need to rely more on what we can see."

  Riva tried a simple combat sequence and stopped halfway through, breathing hard. Sweat already soaked through her clothing despite the dry air. "This isn't working," she admitted. "Everything I know about movement needs to be rethought."

  Alexander scanned their surroundings. They'd nded on top of a retively stable dune with good visibility, but there wasn't a single ndmark to orient themselves – just endless golden waves in every direction.

  "We need shade first," Lyra said, already digging through her pack. "Or we'll be dealing with heat stroke in about twenty minutes."

  To everyone's surprise, she quickly assembled a lightweight canopy, anchoring it to the sand with a technique none of them had seen before.

  "Where did you learn to do that?" Elijah asked, genuinely impressed.

  Lyra looked almost surprised at herself. "Parts of Sector 17 include desert regions," she said with a shrug. "When water is your most precious resource, you learn fast."

  Under their makeshift shade, Alexander tried to mark their position on his mapping device, but frowned at the screen. "No reference points at all. Normal navigation won't work here."

  Lyra knelt at the edge of their shelter, scooping up a handful of sand and letting it run through her fingers. "Look at these darker grains," she said. "They hold moisture longer. There's probably water somewhere in that direction."

  Alexander raised an eyebrow. "You know a lot about deserts."

  "Just survival basics," she said, though it clearly wasn't. "See how the ripples in the sand all point the same way? That tells us which way the wind consistently blows. We can use that when we can't see ndmarks."

  In the distance, they spotted movement – strange creatures gliding across the dunes with uncanny grace, keeping their distance while clearly watching the newcomers.

  "They're wondering if we're dinner or competition," Alexander noted.

  Elijah patted his canteen with a grim smile. "More like they're eyeing our water. Probably the most valuable thing for miles."

  Riva kept trying to adapt her fighting style, frustration evident as she moved through forms that had worked perfectly in the Green Realm but left her winded and clumsy here.

  "We all need to relearn how to move," Alexander said, watching her efforts. "Everything costs more energy here."

  Valeria stayed on the edge of their shelter, quietly taking notes and keeping her distance from the others, respecting Alexander's new team structure without compint.

  As midday approached, the heat became almost unbelievable. Even in the shade, they struggled to breathe. Equipment left exposed to direct sunlight became too hot to touch – metal components burning skin on contact.

  Alexander checked their supplies with a worried expression. "Four days of water at absolute minimum consumption. Our equipment is already showing heat stress, too."

  Lyra examined their water collectors with a critical eye. "These condensers won't work nearly as well as we thought. We need to find water within two days to be safe."

  As they waited out the worst of the midday heat, Elijah suddenly pointed toward the horizon. "Is that... water?"

  A shimmering image appeared in the distance – what looked like trees and a ke hovering just above the sand. As they watched, the image wobbled and distorted.

  "Just a mirage," Lyra expined. "The heat bends light in ways that trick your brain into seeing water because that's what you want most."

  "Great," Alexander muttered. "So we can't even trust our eyes here."

  When the sun finally began to drop, they packed up and moved out, taking advantage of the slightly cooler air. Alexander set a measured pace – not too fast, not too slow – with short breaks to prevent exhaustion.

  "Stay where I can see you," he warned as they started across the dunes. "This terrain will separate us in seconds if we're not careful."

  They quickly discovered that desert travel was nothing like forest navigation. What looked like a straight path became an endless series of slipping down one dune only to climb another. Distances were impossible to judge – ndmarks seeming close one minute and impossibly far the next.

  Lyra showed them how to walk on sand with a rolling step that prevented sinking. "Like this," she demonstrated. "You'll use way less energy."

  As sunset approached, they set up camp on the protected side of a rge dune, sheltered from winds that had begun to pick up as temperatures dropped. And drop they did – plummeting so fast it seemed impossible they'd been overheating just hours before.

  "The temperature swing is over forty degrees," Alexander said as they all scrambled to add yers. "We need to pn for both extremes at once."

  Using some specialized viewing equipment, Lyra scanned the darkening horizon. "I think I see water," she said, pointing. "About twenty kilometers that way. The light patterns look real, not like a mirage, but we'll need to get closer to be sure."

  Alexander marked the bearing on his device. "That's tomorrow's target. We'll start before dawn while it's still cool."

  Night transformed the desert again. Stars appeared with incredible crity in the dry air, more numerous and brilliant than they'd ever appeared in the forest. The sand below them slowly released the day's heat as the air around them grew increasingly cold.

  Riva prepared a careful meal, adding electrolyte supplements to repce what they'd sweated out during the day. "It usually takes three to five days to adapt to heat like this," she said as she served them. "The first couple days are when heat sickness is most likely to hit."

  Elijah passed around special hydration compounds with their food. "These help your body use water more efficiently, but they're not a substitute for actually drinking. In heat like this, you won't feel thirsty until you're already dehydrated."

  As they ate, Alexander took stock of their first day. "We're adapting okay so far. Our main issues are finding water, figuring out navigation, dealing with temperature swings, and not getting fooled by mirages."

  "The forest was all about abundance and variety," Elijah said, gazing up at the star-filled sky. "This pce is about scarcity and endurance."

  Lyra nodded, tinkering with her equipment to keep sand out of the delicate parts. "In the forest, shelter comes before water. Here, nothing matters except finding the next drink."

  Alexander reviewed their route toward the potential oasis one more time before assigning watch shifts. Despite everything, he maintained that steady confidence they'd come to rely on – not pretending the dangers weren't real, but facing them with clear-eyed determination.

  As the others prepared to sleep, Elijah moved closer to his brother. "The whispers haven't disappeared completely," he said quietly. "They're just... different now. Like they're speaking a new nguage I haven't quite learned yet."

  "Makes sense," Alexander replied. "New realm, new rules. We all need to adapt."

  The temperature kept dropping as the night deepened, forcing them to huddle together for warmth – a bizarre contrast to the blistering heat they'd endured earlier. The Amber Realm had made its nature brutally clear on their first day: this would be a challenge of extremes, testing not just their physical endurance but their ability to survive in an environment that seemed designed to kill them.

  Tomorrow they would push toward the oasis, their first major goal in this harsh new world. The golden dunes of Floor 11 had taught them one lesson already – the Green Realm had been just the beginning, and each new realm would demand completely different skills to master.