“Most adventurers are aware of Alpha variant monsters, an exceptional specimen of a species that has risen above all of its peers into a position of leadership or general greatness, that all of its lessers look to and follow. No adventurer wants to face off against an Alpha monster.

  But the question is, how do these creatures come about? The leading theory is that they are simply born more powerful than their peers. The three Major stats granted by the system also apply to monsters, and each of those may gain a boost from lucky birth circumstances or external forces. Like with the Seven Noble Races, some of us are simply better or worse than our peers in different abilities, and it is all accepted natural law.

  But there is a competing sub-theory to ‘lucky circumstances’. External circumstances pertaining to a monster’s birth may also affect their overall strength. Perhaps their parents or egg was exposed to stronger Dungeon energies, or spent a large amount of time around magically or elementally charged substances? That could certainly have an effect on the newborn monster!

  But I would like to propose a counter-theory to both of these theories. Perhaps it is not the strength a monster is born with that allows them to become an Alpha variant, but the circumstances they face during their life that elevates them to the position?

  It is well known that the members of the Seven Noble Races grow stronger when they overcome challenges. A soldier surmounting impossible odds to survive against much stronger foes comes out with more benefits than one with an easier time, even if they gain the same amount of experience points. Perhaps this phenomenon also applies to monsters?

  If that is the case, it would be best for us to pray for complacent monsters.”

  -Excerpt from the journal of Richard Dragonmane, Explorer and Monster Researcher

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  Darkness. It was everywhere, all consuming. Nothingness. But it was a kind of nothingness greater than that. Deprivation of the senses, from an egg or a mother’s womb, implied that stimuli were simply closed off. That a barrier kept all of those pesky sensations away. But there was no barrier here, for there was no egg, no womb, and no body to sense anything.

  And then… there was.

  It opened its eyes. It was still surrounded by darkness, but only from a lack of light. It wasn’t the true darkness that it had known merely a moment ago. The memory of that void was quickly beginning to fade; all of its memories were beginning to fade, save for the ones brought forth by instinct.

  It expected to feel pain in its face from weak eyes that needed to be licked open, or a bone-chilling cold from the cave floor, but it experienced none of that. Its eyes opened just fine, and the thin coat of dry and wavy fur kept it plenty warm.

  The surroundings were filled with rocks scattered across a dirt floor. Some of the rocks were tall, tall enough to reach many times higher than any other rock while retaining their strange conical shape. Beyond the brown, there was blue. Soft glowing mushrooms emanated the deep aquamarine light that gently touched the surroundings, not daring to truly put up a fight against the all encompassing darkness.

  Instinct. That was all it knew.

  Instinct told it that it was hungry, and that none of what was around was edible.

  Instinct also told it to seek out a meal, and so the creature began to walk.

  Thick paw pads made traction with the cavern floor and took the creature forwards.

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  Rather than finding a meal, the first new thing the creature saw were others of its kind. Its instinct told it that, that those four legged and furry entities were just like it. But there was a difference between them, it could tell. Gender.

  It was a strange concept that the creature didn’t have any context to understand beyond the fact that it existed, and at least in this situation, how it appeared to be binary. In that the creatures before it appeared to be of one persuasion or another. The same instinct further told the creature that it was in fact a he. He accepted it and continued walking.

  As he moved forwards, his mind began to clear. Normally that would be associated with a lessening of the burden of instincts, but the exact opposite happened here. The sensation of hunger began to grow, which only redoubled the strength of his instincts, making him hurry along even faster with promises of comfort.

  Hmm. Can’t I get food and comfort from my parents? He asked himself.

  The thought wasn’t all consciously his own, though. Sure, he thought it all by himself, but the knowledge was borne from instinct. But something about that instinct was… off.

  Whatever had given him that knowledge was weak, with the desires associated with it being incredibly bare. Playing with his father, drinking milk from his mother, both of those desires felt like they ought to be powerful since he was a newborn, but they were merely faint. As if he’d outgrown them long ago. Five minutes wasn’t enough to outgrow something like that, not when those experiences had never even been had.

  This was his first true thought; putting existing knowledge together to reach a new conclusion. And that conclusion was that he should search for his parents.

  The search, for the next half of his life it took, proved nearly fruitless. The five minutes spent running around the cavern only found the creature a sparse count of his brethren, who were more concerned with finding meals for themselves rather than searching for their own parents.

  Of course, the creature was able to find food for himself in the form of small insects that flew, crawled, or even dug. They were morsels however, and the creature was left with an empty stomach and an empty heart.

  But then, after turning the next corner, he found them. His mother and father.

  The creature ran up to the two [Dungeon Hounds], who had a few small insects- no, eight legged creatures biting into their bodies. Despite how painful it looked, they didn’t do anything, instead opting to lie down on the ground with their eyes open.

  He ran up to them and began to fight off the spiders, using a mix of paws, claws, and teeth to rip them to shreds. Unlike the insects at least, these arachnids made for a good meal. But he was still hungry and began to search for his mother’s milk.

  The first [Dungeon Hound] didn’t have any teats with milk in them, and neither did the second. In fact, they didn’t have teats at all! They were both male. So which one was the mother? Maybe they would tell him?

  The creature poked them, hoping to wake them up.

  Poke Poke Poke Po-

  He stopped mid poke as one more instinct conveyed something very important to him. The concept of death. And how it very likely applied to the two hounds before him.

  For the first time in his life, the creature felt grief and let out a howl.

  It was loud. The other [Juvenile Dungeon Hounds] looked to him for a brief moment before turning back to their search for food.

  Those fools! How do they not realize what has happened to me, to us?! Our parents are gone at the hands of… these spiders? No, they were too weak, there’s no way our parents would have lost against those few.

  The sound of skittering broke the creature out of his mourning. In the distance, a swarm of spiders walked by, surrounding several especially massive ones. Ones that could have killed his parents. And riding atop the largest one was a particularly colorful spider. It was miniscule, but something about it told the creature that it was in charge. That it was responsible for what happened.

  He let out another howl as soon as they were out of view.

  What happened was a tragedy, one that would paint his entire life from now on. And for a [Juvenile Dungeon Hound], there was no other way to express a tragedy other than to howl. That would be his identity from now on, his name: Howl.

  And he would have his revenge.