The dungeon was a temple, as it turned out - one that lay in a small, hidden caldera that was only accessible through a small pass in the mountains. That pass, in turn, could only be found by following a narrow, stony trail along the cliffside of an adjacent mountain. Between the steep climb, the monsters in the area, and the thick forest at the foot of the mountain that concealed the beginning of the trail, it took an almost delusional amount of effort to find the place.

And yet, it was none of these considerable challenges that caused the brave explorers to bemoan their fates, but rather, a far simpler, more immediate concern.

“Why the hell didn’t we bring any torches?” Perseus grumbled as he tripped over a tree root none of them had seen for the fourth time in as many minutes.

“Good question,” Ether said without missing a beat. He pretended to think, one hand on his chin as he stared down at his friend where he lay in the dirt. “Hey, Shar, didn’t I try to stock up on those at one point? I could’ve sworn I mentioned something about wanting a source of light before we left town, only for something incredibly annoying to stop me.”

“Don’t waste 5 whole gold on a pack of torches,” Shar said in a whiny, nasally impression of the party’s [Rogue]. “It’s a waste of money, it’ll be light by the time we get there anyway.”

The pale young man scowled, not that any of them could see his face. “I was just trying to save us some coin after today’s setback,” he justified.

“Five. Gold.” the redhead repeated slowly. “FIVE.”

“Look, if you save where you can, it adds up quickly!” He said defensively.

Ether cleared his throat, coming to his old friend’s defense. “Perseus and I both had to live on tight budgets to afford the Souldive helmet,” He said to Shar as he pulled out and lit a torch. “Old habits tend to die hard.”

Perseus stared at the torch, pushing himself into a sitting position. One eye seemed to twitch for a moment, his expression equal parts irritated and relieved. “You had the torches all along?”

“Of course,” Ether said with a smile. “It’s my responsibility as party leader to ignore your whining for the good of the party.”

“And you didn’t light it earlier because…?”

“Because as your friend, it’s also my responsibility to look after your health!” the [Adventurer] said piously. “You spent so much time in game, I was worried you might not be eating properly, so, like any good friend, I arranged for you to eat your words.”

Shar coughed to conceal her laughter.

“You’re such an asshole,” Perseus said with a smile. He idly picked up a twig off the ground and threw it at the smug [Adventurer] to emphasize his displeasure. “I’m letting you walk right into the first pit trap, I swear!”

“What did he say, Shar? Because it sounded something like ‘don’t bother healing me anymore’ to me, but it’s hard to tell from way up here.”

“Really?” Shar asked with faux confusion, a sirk crossing her face. “Because to me, it sounded like ‘you guys should just keep my share of the loot.’”

“Let’s not do anything hasty,” the [Rogue] said quickly as he sprang to his feet, brushing the dirt off his greaves.

They bickered as usual all the way to the foot of the mountain that supposedly housed the ruins, where they found a thin mountainside trail barely five feet across. Perhaps their conversation lulled them into a false sense of security. Maybe searching by torchlight for a small, well hidden rocky trail took all of their concentration. Or perhaps they simply thought themselves too far above the level of most local creatures to bother keeping watch for predators. Whatever the reason, they didn’t notice the eyes gleaming at them from the dark, slowly closing in around them, until it was too late.

The first crossbow bolt sprang towards them only a minute after they began their climb. It only missed Ether because Shar shoved him out of the way at the last second, sending the fragile shard of wood to splinter against the dark stone walls of the steep cliffside trail. Perseus spun around, his new knives practically leaping into his hands as he ducked, narrowly avoiding several more bolts. Half a dozen whistling sounds announced a full volley from the crossbows of their unseen assailants, sending the party scrambling to get behind their leader as he spun his glaive.

[Reflect Projectile] only cost a single MP each time it was used - but as they’d learned when facing the goblins, a group of marksmen could exhaust Ether in a remarkably short length of time. It took longer to reload a crossbow than it did a bow, but they had little room to dodge on the narrow ledge, and their newest enemies were clearly more skilled with their weapons than the tiny green bandits had been.

“Any ideas?” Perseus asked as he narrowed his eyes, searching desperately for any sign of their attackers.

“Does praying count as a plan?” Ether replied as another half-dozen bolts bounced off the haft of his new weapon.

“Not unless you unlocked some sort of [Priest] class when I wasn’t looking!”

“Then no, no I do not.”

“We have to run back down,” Shar said suddenly. “Whoever’s doing this waited until we were exposed. They want to trap us here, where there’s no cover and little room to dodge.”

“Small problem with that plan,” Perseus said casually.

Ether sighed. “They’re blocking the way down?”

“And the grand prize for stating the obvious goes to-”

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“Shut up and stab them!” the [Battle Chef] snapped, spinning towards the slowly approaching trio of cloaked figures that blocked their escape route.

Wordlessly, the arrogant svelte man blurred into motion, one of his new blades finding his opponent’s throat almost instantly, leaving them to choke on their own blood as he mercilessly sprang towards the next man. He struck the side of the second figure’s knee with a swift kick, knocking them off balance long enough for him to slam a knife into their unprotected skull.

A trio of bolts slammed into him then, almost knocking him off his feet. That confirmed what he’d already suspected; whoever was out there had nearly flawless night vision.

Well, that or they had absolutely no problem killing their own men and had just gotten incredibly lucky, but seeing as the [Rogue] had been reduced to a mere 4 HP, he was willing to ere on the side of caution with this one.

Unfortunately for the cloaked figures, Perseus had long believed that the best defense was a good offense, so his idea of ‘caution’ was a fairly unique one. He would strike quickly, finish off the third figure and make a dash down the cliffside. There was a small forest at the base of the cliff, and while some of the marksman were bound to be hiding there, it should provide him with enough cover to drink a potion before they got off another volley. Then he could face them on equal footing.

All of this flashed through his mind in the space of a single breath as he took a step towards the final figure, his knives at the ready. Then, he heard a loud thud from behind him. Spinning to look towards the sound without allowing the final man out of his sight, Perseus almost screamed in frustration.

Both of the previous men were back on their feet, looking unharmed apart from the tears in their cloaks and a few small bloodstains. The [Rogue] felt his heart sink as they threw back their hoods, revealing gray fur and long muzzles.

Werewolves.

Werewolves wielding crossbows, swords and, in one case, a heavy mace.

Werewolves with regeneration that apparently let them heal from fatal wounds in seconds.

“Well, fuck-” That was all he managed to get out before the mace slammed into his ribs with enough force to throw him off the edge of the cliff. Grimacing, the defiant young man twisted his hands in mid air, and for a moment, the muscular lycan thought he might throw his knives at them.

Then the strange pale fellow lifted the middle finger of each hand, and fell into the sparse woods below.

Shar cursed as she threw out one hand, fury bubbling up within her. How dare they?! They had just been passing through, and these bastards attacked them out of nowhere and murdered Perseus?! Never mind that he’d be back in a few hours - they’d attacked her friend, and they would pay. She focused on the largest of the werewolves, the edges of her vision flickering as the words flew out of her mouth. “[Flash Fry]!” The mace wielding lycanthrope howled in pain as a ring of flames consumed it, vanishing in a blinding flash of searing light. The charred husk didn’t regenerate, exactly as the [Battle Chef] had hoped, but the spell had consumed almost all of her MP. Her vision blurred further as a wave of exhaustion washed over her, but she grit her teeth and pushed through. She quickly drew her knife and swiped at the nearest shapeshifter, drawing a thin red line across the swordsman’s right hand.

Clearly not expecting the intense pain that accompanied the strike, the werewolf yelped in surprise and dropped his sword. Not wasting the opportunity, the redhead slammed into them shoulder first, throwing her full weight behind the blow and sending them tumbling into their partner. The unharmed lycanthrope was able to maintain his balance, and had the perfect chance to strike the tired girl as she rolled to her feet, but froze.

The wound on the fallen wolf’s right hand wasn’t healing. The wound should’ve vanished by now, unless -

He took a step back, suddenly afraid. The blade wasn’t made of silver - he, like the rest of his pack, could sense the foul metal’s presence - but it slowed their regeneration nonetheless. He was no fresh pup. He knew what he faced.

“Fire,” he snarled, pointing his blade at the shimmering kitchen utensil in the young woman’s hand. “Her blade brings fire!”

Flames destroyed flesh in a way that was not only agonizing, but incredibly difficult to heal. Their regeneration slowed to a crawl as the madwoman with a burning carving knife struck them again and again and again.

It seemed to Shar, as she lashed out at her once fearsome assailants, that there was a fire burning within her, too - one that grew brighter and fiercer with each blow. The anger she felt at seeing her friend thrown to his death, the terror she inspired in them, the ryhtmic pounding of her own heartbeat… all of it was little more than fuel for that raging inferno. Then, it was gone, fading as suddenly as it had flared, as fires are wont to do when their fuel is spent. She stared at the corpses as the world came back into focus, shocked by her own ferocity. Still… they had deserved it, right? They started this! They were the ones that attacked without warning, trying to pin them against the cliff and pepper them with crossbow bolts!

Wait. There were still more of these werewolves out there! The ones that had been firing on them, the ones that shot Perseus - where were they? She couldn’t hear the rhythmic whistling and cracking sounds that the bolts had been making anymore. Had they retreated? Would they need to worry about a second ambush after they went back to fetch a respawned Per-

“Nice work, little red!” a familiar voice said from just behind her. She nearly leapt off the cliff in shock as she spun to face the smug, pale man who’d been tossed over the edge a mere minute ago. She was dying to know how he’d survived, but first thing first.

“Who the hell are you calling little red?” She snapped acidly.

“Would you prefer a more culinary nickname?” He asked with a smirk. “How about… Gordon Slamsey? Bobby Flays-their-enemies? Wait, wait, I got it - Rachel Ray-zor!”

She glared at him as he cycled through a list he’d clearly been working on for a while. He broke down laughing as her fearsome glare slowly turned into a petulant pout.

“How?” She asked when he’d finally stopped laughing.. “You… they knocked you off the cliff!”

“I used a movement skill to mitigate the fall damage,” Perseus said with a shrug, “and Ether healed me once before the mace hit me and twice more on the way down. Still, that was a close one. Had to drink one of my potions before I could risk dealing with those snipers.”

The redhead blinked as Ether joined them, breathing heavily and leaning on his glaive. “And you killed them by…?”

“Dumb luck,” he admitted. “I couldn’t think of a way to bypass that regeneration on my own, like you did, so I took a chance. I snuck up on one and used [Identify], hoping it’d tell me something useful for once. And it did! This lot all had the [Kinslayer] class, so I checked their gear, and sure enough, these idiots were carrying silver bolts. A bolt’s not quite a dagger, but it did the trick, and once I got one of them the rest was easy. There’s probably some sort of story behind this whole mess… maybe even a whole quest! I’d say we should check when we get back to town, but I don’t think we’ll get the chance.”

Sure enough, they all heard it at the same time.

Congratulations! You reached level 9!

Soon, you’ll outgrow the Valley of Beginnings.

Then, the REAL fun begins!