Isn't it funny?

You can work until you drop, push yourself harder than anyone else, make the impossible possible, but in the end, lose everything through a simple gesture from a rich and powerful man.

That's what I thought as I fell into a deep cliff ... or rather, was pushed.

But none of this makes sense without a flashback, right?

My name is Valen. I'm an explorer, a adventurer, or maybe just a wanderer. I guess this job doesn't have a proper name since very few people do it.

That's understandable, though... who would dare venture into an undiscovered world full of monsters when you can live safely behind city walls in your little apartment?

But where's the fun in that? I could just go out there, to a land with no laws, completely uninhabited and unexplored, far from civilization and the power-hungry rich who love to make your life difficult.

It had always been my dream to one day have my name in a history book, and today I might just have the chance.

I'm currently escorting a group of explorers through a very densely forested area, as I'm the only one who has somewhat explored and traversed it so far.

We’re searching for an ancient ruin. Supposedly, there’s an old temple full of treasures hidden somewhere here, or at least that’s what the ancient map we found a few weeks ago says.

So far, we haven’t had any luck—aside from bad weather and monsters, we haven’t found anything. Morale is low, and we’re struggling to find enough provisions, which has proven difficult.

Nowhere can we find a tree bearing fruit, and the animals we could hunt are being devoured by monsters.

"Then why don’t we just hunt a monster?" asked one of the newcomers.

"You can try, but go alone. I doubt anyone here is eager to look for your remains, assuming you even dare," replied an irritated adventurer.

It didn’t take long for everyone to lose hope, and we were on the verge of abandoning the expedition.

Since we weren’t finding anything, we decided to pass through a small mountain range. Maybe we'd get lucky and find gems or gold among the rocks.

And we did find gold. More gold than any of us could ever spend in a lifetime.

After squeezing through a narrow pass, we saw it:

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

A gigantic, golden temple, surrounded by an ancient city, hidden in a clearing between the mountains.

Everyone stood still, speechless and overwhelmed by our discovery, until cheers and laughter erupted ... we had done it.

Our first goal, of course, was the golden temple, hoping for riches. Everyone here, including me, wanted to be rich. Without money, there are no expeditions.

We walked through the deserted ancient city. Every house on the street we were on was decorated with paintings and beautiful ornaments, but the best was yet to come.

The temple was far larger than we could have ever imagined.

Even the gate alone was so massive that if all ten of us were stacked on top of each other, we still wouldn’t have reached the top.

Surprisingly, the door was easy to open for its size and wasn’t even locked.

Inside, there was a long hallway, decorated with gold and jewels. What was in this corridor alone could have sustained us for a lifetime.

We reached the end of the hall and were met with an enormous chamber.

A staircase with hundreds of steps led down into a room large enough to fit the entire city inside, and even then, it wasn't the full size of the hall.

At the bottom, we expected a magnificent marble and gold floor, like everything else in the temple.

But something so cheap wouldn’t have been acceptable for the people who built this temple, so instead, the floor was made of pure treasures.

Gold, silver, gems, artworks. You could search for an emerald, but you'd find hundreds of diamonds instead. 

We were so excited, we almost ran through the hall laughing like children. I walked with one of the older adventurers to the center of the hall, while the others were busy stuffing their pockets.

The center of the hall was divided by a massive cliff. The cliff where this story truly began.

I wanted to see how deep it really was. Maybe the gold had filled it up. But all I saw was darkness.

"This isn’t going to work, we need to find another way," I said as I turned around.

"Yes... yes, I must ... to reach my treasure," the older adventurer replied, sounding obsessed.

I wanted to ask if he was okay, but I was distracted ... distracted by how the others were slaughtering each other.

"What are they doing?!" I shouted in horror.

The older adventurer just looked at me, not even turning as I yelled in that direction.

"We need to stop them, come on!" I called to him. But when I tried to move forward, he stopped me.

"W ... what are you doing? Let me through!" He held my arms with surprising strength.

I couldn’t do anything as he kept pushing me toward the cliff. Struggling seemed futile.

I stayed silent out of sheer panic, trying only to free myself from his grip, but without success.

"This ... all of this will be mine," he said, as he pushed me over the edge and into the cliff.

The last thing I saw as I fell, screaming, was him turning away and walking off.

Until everything went black and, after a long fall, I landed somewhere and lost consciousness on impact.