Kal'o Kir stared into the light of the terminal, wondering if she had made the right choice.

The humans she'd just encountered had almost certainly been lying. This location was far too remote to give accurate directions to someone who hadn't yet ventured into the untamed wilds of the mountain. No, it was far more likely they knew more than they let on.

So that was not what had stayed her hand. It was the looks within their eyes, the complete absence of fear, that had compelled her to stay her hand.

In particular, the male of the two had frightened her. Eve's power and attitude was well known, but the other was a complete mystery. And yet, despite being only level 33 it had shown no hint of the terror that should come from staring down an opponent with a level disparity as they had. He had been shocked at first, yes. But that was replaced by an expression of cold calculation, utterly devoid of fear.

And that was what had stayed her hand.

From the beginning, these humans had repeatedly proven that they were far more of a threat than the vishan had initially anticipated. Certainly far more dangerous than the majority of the initiates the system fished out of the infinite emptiness as they'd heard.

Some among her kin still tried to view them as ignorant whelps, but Kal'o Kir knew that to ignore their fangs would prove to be a deadly mistake. From the very first day, the humans had acted far outside of their predictions.

Three of us have fallen, my precious Kal'o Dar among them. How many more will fall before our restrictions are lifted?

She paused, having to remind herself that she no longer bore those restrictions. In truth, she could barely even call herself a part of the clan anymore. Once this was all over she would be sacrificed to one of the clan's most promising elites or likely the chief, so that her curse may further the greater interests of the group. She did not feel any resentment about it, such was simply the nature of the curse.

In fact, she almost relished it. All she desired now was to avenge Kal'o Dar. After that… she did not expect she would have the will to continue on by herself.

Even so, she wished to reclaim his treasure, so that she may bury him with all the reverence she felt he deserved. It angered her beyond measure that the conniving human that had killed him had managed to discern the value of his greatest and most secret treasure, one that she and he had kept secret from the rest of the tribe, an item that would have promised to boost his otherwise stunted progression.

How the human had discerned its value from its appearance, she had no idea. It was, after all, astonishingly ordinary at first glance.

That silvery chunk of what looked to be some kind of metal or ore, the enlightenment stone.

Even a small piece was worth a fortune, as it was capable of awakening a beast's spiritual intelligence. There were two uses for it primarily. An enlightened beast would be far stronger than any ordinary creature, so they could be used as a way to force the system into providing an ascension quest if used under the right conditions. Such creatures also gave much larger than average boosts to experience, but using it solely for this was considered a waste.

The second use was to give it to a domesticated creature, thereby acquiring a reliable beast companion that could grow stronger alongside you.

I will not suffer that human to have such a treasure that we sacrificed so much for.

The question was what she was willing to do about it. Val Kazar saw the situation within the human camps as extremely unstable and did not wish to further antagonize them. But if she remained passive as he wished then there was little chance of acquiring more information on the one called Devon.

If she remained passive her goal would likely be forever out of reach. But if she took action it was possible Val Kazar would eliminate her before the end of the tutorial for being a nuisance.

There was little time. She needed to make a decision, and she needed to do it now. There remained the possibility that she would accrue additional marks of karmic disdain, but that thought was becoming less and less intimidating as her rage built.

She destroyed the walls of the small cave, causing it to collapse behind her as she exited. She would have no further use for the place now that her trap had been exposed. Most likely one of those two had already relayed the information of her being there to the one called Devon, and a trap that was known was no more dangerous than an unattended weapon.

----------------------------------------

"Woah," Eve said as they went deeper into the long-dead city, "Is this entire place a massive ruin?"

"The entire mountain was once a layered city, I think. The people who built it must have been quite the craftsmen, because even after seeing the memory of it in its prime I still can't imagine how they built structures that have lasted this long."

"How does a civilization like that even die out?"

"It's better to not know."

"Well whatever, how far in before we start finding these apes?"

"It shouldn't be too much further before we get to the point where it tells us we entered a dungeon. Ah, there it is."

[Notice]

You have entered naturally occurring Dungeon [Mountain Lair].

Dungeon rated Class E, level 47.

"Huh? That's strange…"

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"What is it?"

"The name changed. And I'm pretty sure the recommended level went up as well."

Eve frowned, "That is weird."

"It's up to level 47 now. If I remember correctly that's 12 levels higher than it was before."

"Huh. Should be interesting at least."

"Yeah…"

"We're sticking to that strategy, right?" Eve asked.

"Yeah," Devon responded.

Their 'strategy' was more of an agreement than any sort of actual tactic. Devon would go through the majority of the apes as they came, with Eve only stepping in occasionally. What Eve was really after was a chance for the system to give an ascension quest. So when it eventually came around Devon would step back and let Eve take care of it alone, while he held off any apes that attempted to interfere.

They kept moving forward, but Devon's sense of unease only got worse as they went on. They passed the point where he'd originally run into the apes, yet all he could hear was their footsteps breaking the desolate silence.

"What's with that huge space up ahead?" After Devon gave her a strange look Eve said, "What? I used a map token."

Oh, right. Those.

He kept forgetting about those, honestly. He'd only been able to claim his after he'd spent a long time manually mapping out these ruins, and it wasn't like he'd needed them in the linear spirit dungeon.

"That big open space is basically the center of the nest. I didn't want to make a beeline for it because of some bad memories, but if we can't find any other apes along the way it doesn't seem like we'll have much of a choice."

Sure enough, they couldn't find a single ape as they made their way through the underground labyrinth. Before, the overwhelming number of them had filled Devon with a sense of dread. But now, the absence of any of them might have been even worse.

He led Eve to the point where he'd lured the ape leader out, the broken building overlooking the entire ancient plaza. They looked over the edge of the edge and saw… nothing.

The last time Devon had been here this area had been swarming with hundreds of apes, but now it was empty. Well, almost empty.

Four forms sat in a circle on what was once one of the elevated tramways. The four apes sat in what looked like a state of perfect meditation in the dead stillness of their lair.

Eve yanked on his arm and they both stooped back down into cover, "Okay, this isn't what you described at all."

"Trust me, I have no idea what's going on here either. Last time I was here I used a rock to distract them and they all got sent into a frenzy while I lured the leader away."

"So maybe those four are the only remnants of that frenzy?"

"Maybe, but where'd the rest of the bodies go then? And what the hell is up with those four? The monkeys I knew went insane over a shiny rock, those four look like Buddhist monks or something."

Eve swore, "This is too damn weird. Alright, what's our strategy?"

Devon smiled, "I should have known a little bit of weirdness wouldn't be enough to deter you."

"If I ran away every time a situation smelled bad I wouldn't be at the top of the ladder."

"Fair enough. Well, since I seem to draw the ire of every creature in existence I'll go out and be the decoy while you strike from behind. When there's only one left I'll take it out myself so long as I don't get injured too badly. I don't want you hogging all the experience, after all."

"All right, sounds good."

They made their way back into the ruins before descending several levels. Once they found an exit level to the base of the chasm they split up, each sneaking among the ruins as they got closer and closer to the apes.

When Devon felt they were both in ideal spots he stood and started walking through the rubble, intentionally trying to get spotted.

I know I'm the one who suggested this plan, but it would be nice if someday every living creature didn't get hyper-aggroed at the mere sight of me.

When he was about 20 feet away all four of the apes turned to look at him as one. He felt a chill go down his spine as they did so.

Each of them had a unique appearance, which made each of them seem far more unique than the apes as he knew them. But the worst part was that their eyes seemed to glow amid the dark, soft neon blue lines etched into their retinas that made their gaze seem to pierce into his soul. With a sense of immense apprehension he examined the four of them.

[The Bone Architect, Enlightened Ape - Level 45]

[Discovery Bonus]

[The Flesh Melder, Enlightened Ape - Level 45]

[Discovery Bonus]

[The Savage, Enlightened Ape - Level 43]

[Discovery Bonus]

[The Shining Silver, Enlightened Ape - Level 47]

[Discovery Bonus]

The one called the bone architect had bones fashioned as a kind of armor around its entire body. It also wore a mask that seemed to be made from the skull fragments of more than a dozen of its kin.

The flesh melder looked like it had over-indulged at an all you can eat buffet several times, and it was bloated almost beyond what most would call the form of an ape.

The savage was ripped beyond belief. Of course, apes like gorillas were already immensely strong, but even so the only thing Devon could even remotely compare it to was the look of an extremely buff man applied to an ape. It was almost as huge as the bloated form of the flesh melder, but unlike the flesh melder the power within its body could be perceived just by looking at it.

The shining silver was the most unique even among the outlandish forms of the other three. Unlike the others, it wasn't bulked up by extra mass or any external armor. It was slim, almost skinny. But the neon blue lines that were present in all of their eyes were present across the shining silver's entire body.

Enlightened apes… They're just like the lord of the mountain, creatures that have names before anyone examines them.

"Devon!" He heard Eve shout out from a small distance away. It seemed she'd gotten a better look at each of them as well and didn't like what she saw, "We need to pull back! This is too much-!"

A pulsating silver light appeared in the palm of the shining silver before it clasped its hands together and closed its eyes, seeming as though in prayer.

All around the outer edges of the chasm a shining dome appeared, shining a translucent silvery hue. Devon opened his eyes wide at the sight as it brought back the image that had been ingrained in his mind, one of a similar barrier that once enveloped this area long ago.

The purpose of the silvery shield was obvious. Unlike the one that had been deployed here eons ago, this one was meant to block them in so that the enlightened apes could hunt them without fear of them getting away. Suddenly Devon and Eve had found the roles of hunter and hunted reversed on them.

He prepared himself to be rushed by all of them at once, for the frenzy to take them, but to his shock that didn't happen. Instead, they all slowly stood. The bone architect pulled out an ivory weapon spear. The savage flexed their absurdly pronounced muscles. The flesh melder… seemed to vibrate.

What truly shocked him was when both the savage and the flesh melder turned away from him to look towards Eve.

In an instant they each simultaneously leaped off the elevated platform and launched into their attacks, not giving him time to think.