Lan followed the sound, carefully picking his way through the dark undergrowth.

Breaking through a dense ring of trees. His feet found nothing but air and he plunged into a lake hidden behind the tightly packed shrubbery.

“Shit! It’s cold!” He yelped, swimming to the shore while cursing.

Standing on the shore, his robe was drenched, clinging closely to his skin.

“Ahaha!” Lan turned his head slowly, glaring at Archie who was doubled over laughing.

“You could have fucking warned me!” Lan yelled, grabbing a handful of water and preparing to fling it at Archie.

'Huh?' Lan froze. A strange jolt had sparked in his mind.

When he held the water in his hands, with the intent to attack, his talent seemed to short circuit.

‘Is it trying to turn the water into a weapon?’ He mused, watching as the water drained out of his hand and back into the pool.

‘I had no idea something like that was even possible…’

“Hey, where did you g-“

Thea strode through the ring of trees behind Lan, following in his footsteps as she plunged into the lake.

Swearing and spluttering, she dragged herself out of the water, looking like a drowned rat. Noticing Lan was also soaked, she shot him a venomous glare, “You could have warned me, asshole!”

Lan smirked and ignored her, trying to focus on that fleeting feeling from earlier. ‘I need to test something…’

He reached down, grabbing a handful of sand from the bank of the lake.

There was no reaction. It lay inert in the palm of his hand.

‘Perhaps my intention is important. Maybe I need to try and attack someone for my talent to activate,’ Lan figured, glancing up at Archie who was gazing across the pond.

He drew his hand back, preparing to throw the fistful of sand at Archie and his talent sparked into life. ‘So, I should blow the sand into his eyes, huh?’

Lan could see how that would be effective, and he could also see that until now, his definition of a weapon wasn’t broad enough. He had been wasting his talent.

‘I need to think outside the box,’ He decided, promising to look into using something like water as a weapon at some point.

For now, he followed Archie’s gaze across the pond. His eyes were drawn to a huge waterfall that thundered down from a cliff. Spraying a faint mist out over the lake.

The waterfall was hard to make out with only the light from Archie’s staff, but he could hear it clear as day. The crash of water falling from a great height was incredibly loud, smothering the other noises in the forest.

Even the chirping insects were drowned out by the waterfall, their haunting calls a distant memory.

Behind him, Lan heard twigs snapping and branches breaking. Turning around, he found David and George carefully emerging from the forest.

George was in the lead, his foot hovering above the pond before he stopped himself. He tapped David on the shoulder, and the big man nodded.

“How can they communicate without words?” Lan wondered aloud.

“Damnit! They didn’t fall in,” Thea cursed, hitting the ground like a spoiled child.

The pair skirted around the edge of the pond, arriving beside Lan and Thea who were dripping wet.

Although George couldn’t speak, his grin and twinkling eyes as he looked at them said everything that needed to be said.

“So, what are we doing here?” Lan asked, trying to switch the attention away from himself.

Everyone turned to Archie, expecting a response.

But the boy didn’t reply, simply pointing to the distant waterfall.

“Don’t tell me the dungeon is in there?” Thea blurted.

“No, it's beneath the waterfall,” Archie muttered, his tone more solemn than usual.

“No wonder, no one else has found it,” Lan muttered. 'Who would think to look beneath a waterfall?'

“But how are we supposed to get through there? The water is coming down so fast, I wouldn’t be surprised if it crushed us,” Thea pointed out.

Archie stared intently into the dark waterfall, his gaze expectant.

“Have you ever heard of the Moon Strider?” He asked quietly, his gaze distant, as though seeing things that the rest couldn't.

Thea froze, looking at Archie in horror.

“T-The Moon Strider?” She stuttered.

Lan began to feel uneasy, if something had Thea this worked up it had be dangerous. Even David and George looked uncomfortable, shifting on their feet nervously.

“What’s t-“ Lan began to speak before Thea interrupted him.

“Let me guess, you slept through that class too?” She snapped. “Either you are the dumbest pathfinder ever… or you didn’t really go to an academy…”

Lan froze. And then remembered that he didn't care if they found out.

‘Is there even a need to keep up the charade?’ He wondered.

Coming to a decision, he sighed, taking a deep breath before he spoke, “You’re right, I didn’t go to an academy,”

“I knew it!” Thea ran over to Archie, jabbing him in the ribs.

“I fucking told you!” She gloated. "Pay up,"

“Yeah, yeah, I know you’re excited, but can you keep it down?” Archie hissed.

“Ooh, someone’s a bad loser I bet you just want to get out of our bet,” Thea wagged her finger in Archie's face.

“It’s time,” Archie ignored her provocations, taking a deep breath and without warning, jumping into the pool with a splash.

Thea froze, her finger still raised, “Huh? It’s time, what time? Why does he have to be so cryptic?” She shouted.

“Hey, I still don’t know what the Moon Strider is,” Lan interrupted, still unsure what had them so uneasy.

Thea froze, glancing at David and George. “You don’t think...?”

David and George looked around nervously, real fear in their eyes.

“Is it just me? Or is it getting darker?” Lan muttered, watching the red glow of Archie’s staff travel underwater towards the waterfall.

“Oh shit!” Thea yelped, jumping like a cat whose paw had just been trodden on.

Without another word, Thea ran and jumped into the water.

David and George exchanged another look, diving into the pool right after Thea.

Left by the rapidly darkening shore, Lan stood in confusion. He couldn’t tell if the cold chill spreading down his spine was from his soaked clothes or something else, something more sinister.

Archie’s light had reached halfway across the pool by now and it barely reached Lan on the shore.

Chirp.

His head snapped around; the noise had come from the forest behind him.

Chirp, Chirp…

A sinking feeling dawned on Lan and without waiting for another second, he jumped into the pool, the fading light disappearing just as he entered the water.

The second his head sank below the surface, the forest burst into an uproar. Thousands of chirps echoed across the pond's surface and the wind from many wings battered against the water, creating countless ripples.

Lan swam as fast as he could manage, following the faint red glow underwater.

He swam through the water at breakneck speeds, his mood calming the closer he got to the light that twinkled like a beacon in the murky darkness of the pond.

‘Just how deep does this place go?’ He wondered.

The closer he got to Archie, the brighter the light became and the more he could see of the pool.

It was deep, unimaginably so. The dark waters seemed to descend into the centre of the earth itself.

Lan’s imagination conjured Lovecraftian horrors as he stared down into the depths of the lake. He couldn't begin to imagine what manner of creatures could reside in those depths.

Up ahead, he glimpsed four dark figures floating together beneath the edge of the lake. Above them, water frothed and bubbled as the waterfall crashed into the surface of the lake.

He swam to meet them, gesturing angrily at Archie for leaving him behind.

Archie grabbed his arm, bringing one finger to his lips and pointing to a patch of shadow even his staff couldn’t light.

It was directly beneath the waterfall and when he looked at it, a chill ran up Lan’s spine. It was an instinctive feeling that he was in danger.

Thea shook her head violently, and even David reached out a hand, trying to pull back Archie.

But he slipped past them, swimming closer to the stubborn patch of darkness.

Gritting her teeth, Thea looked between the water’s surface, where thousands of night drones were waiting and the dark spot on the rock wall. It seemed both were equally intimidating.

Finally, she grabbed Lan’s arm and dragged him down after Archie. David and George following closely behind.

From how tightly she was gripping his arm, Lan could tell just how frightened she was.

‘But since none of them told me what this Moon Strider is, I don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on,’ He ground his teeth, hating the feeling of being left out. 'I'm going to go to a library when I get on the bridge for sure. Then I won't be forced to run around like a headless chicken,'

They quickly arrived beside the dark spot in the wall of the lake and even though the glowing staff was right beside it, it remained wreathed in shadow.

Thea looked like she wanted to object, but Archie didn't give her the chance, holding up his staff he muttered a phrase Lan didn’t understand.

The staff began to glow brighter, changing colour as it did so. The red amber was bleached, becoming white.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Lan floated, transfixed by the ethereal light. ‘It looks just like a piece of the moon… Moon Strider…’ It struck him then, something bad was going to happen, something very bad.

David and George stared wide-eyed at the staff, backing away from Archie who held it up. From the way they were looking at Archie, you would think he was holding a grenade, or maybe a nuclear bomb.

With a roar, he thrust the staff at the spot, and for a single blessed moment, everything was still.

And then the lake began to tremble.

In its unknowable depths, something began to flicker, like an old light bulb finally being turned on.

It kept glowing brighter and brighter. So bright that Lan could no longer directly look at the light for fear of hurting his eyes.

The walls of the pool were gradually illuminated, revealing countless underwater vines that all seemed to converge on one point at the centre of the pool.

Amid the vines, a glowing half-moon of white rock hovered peacefully. Occasionally, it pulsed with brilliant white light that seemed to drive back the night itself.

Lan’s attention was ripped from the magical display by Archie, who had swum to the side of the black spot and was hugging the wall like his life depended on it.

‘That bastard never tells us anything!’ Lan cursed, swimming over to the wall beside Archie.

The pool began to rumble and shake violently, waves getting stirred on its surface. The chirping above only grew more violent, the night drones getting more and more agitated.

Finally, the half-moon of rock below them began to rise. Each pulse of light attacked the vines twisting around it, and blowing them apart.

Archie raised his hand slowly, holding up five fingers.

'Is he counting down?'

The rock broke free from the vines and rapidly rose towards the surface.

He put down one finger, four remained.

The insects above began diving directly into the pool, suicidally trying to reach the source of the light.

Three fingers left.

Lan’s chest began to tighten, his nerves fraying, as his lungs were starved of oxygen.

Two fingers left.

The black spot cracked, a chitinous limb pushing through the rock wall like it was made of styrofoam.

One finger left.

The glowing half-moon surged out of the water, thousands of insects swarming to it like moths to a flame.

Archie placed down his final finger.

And the black spot exploded, fragments of rock flying out like grenade shrapnel.

Lan’s mind froze. The creature that emerged from the spot defied description.

Its six armoured limbs were excruciatingly thin, disproportionate to its grotesque, bulbous body. It skated through the water so fast it left a jetstream in its wake.

And when it reached the surface, it unfurled four enormous wings, each one with a hypnotic half-moon pattern that seemed to follow you no matter what angle you observed it from.

The group were too stunned to react, watching with open mouths as the creature floated into the sky.

'Moon Strider,' Thea mouthed, disbelief and terror plastered across her face.

With one graceful movement, it swam through the sky, soaring towards the glowing rock that had only continued to float higher, ignoring the countless bugs clinging to it.

A piercing screech split the night and another equally large bug flew from within the darkest corner of the forest. It hovered opposite the first insect, beating mothlike wings.

Its body was long and thin, like a centipede. At one end was a forked tail that dripped with venom, and at the other were three sets of luminous eyes that almost glowed in the darkness.

Lan and the group watched in awe as the two huge insects hovered opposite each other, floating beside the glowing rock in tense silence.

Finally, the second insect made its move, lifting its tail and shooting venom towards the Moon Strider.

But the venom never reached its target.

The glowing rock pulsed violently and a wave of burning moonlight incinerated the night drones clinging to it. The moonlight surged onwards, scorching the venom into nothing as the rock continued to climb up towards the sky.

The moth insect was blown back into the forest by the wave of moonlight, burning like a meteorite as it crashed into the densely packed trees and out of view.

In contrast, the Moon Strider was unaffected, floating beside the glowing rock in peaceful harmony.

Lan stared at the picturesque, twisted beauty of the scene, burning it into his memory. He would never forget this as long as he lived.

Suddenly, Archie startled him, grabbing his arm. The boy had covered the staff again and was gesturing towards the hole in the rock wall urgently.

The dark spot the Moon Strider had emerged from had turned into a tunnel that water was rapidly flooding into.

Lan half swam and was half dragged into the tunnel, getting carried by the current deep into the earth.

He had never been to a waterpark before but imagined this was what a slide felt like.

The tunnel twisted and wound through the earth, a freezing rush of water carrying Lan deeper and deeper.

Behind him, he could hear Thea yelping with delight and in front, Archie was grinning like a madman, his blonde hair swept back by the wind.

The tunnel walls which were dark, almost black, gradually began to shift in colour. As if someone had spilt red ink, the rock became red, inlaid with glittering specks of gold.

Eventually, the whole tunnel transformed into an arid red, streaks of gold crisscrossing along its surface like veins.

Lan felt as though he had entered another world entirely, falling as he did through the tunnel.

Just ahead, Archie disappeared. Dragged below the water's surface into a whirling cyclone. Lan wanted to shout or try and escape but the current was too strong, dragging him in after Archie.

His whole world was flipped on its head and then flipped again as he was sucked into the cyclone.

‘This must be what my goldfish felt like when my parents flushed it down the toilet,’ he mused sardonically as he reached the eye of the whirlpool.

A terrifyingly strong suction force dragged him down and he shot out of the water entirely, falling through the ceiling of an enormous cavern and plunging into a huge underground lake.

Spluttering, he surfaced from the water, just in time to see Thea falling towards him.

“Watch out!” He screamed, just barely managing to throw himself out of her way as she fell into the lake.

She floated to the surface, heaving for breath and staring at the cavern ceiling.

Two shadowy figures fell from the ceiling shortly after, One huge, the other slender.

“Look out! David might cause a tsunami when he lands!” Archie shouted from another spot in the lake.

Thea and Lan began to swim frantically, but it was too late. The giant crashed into the lake, the wave from his entrance swamping them.

When they eventually made it to shore, David was scowling fiercely, water dripping from his beard. “I heard that,” He rumbled, speaking for the first time since he introduced himself.

“Heard what?” Archie asked, doing his best to look confused.

“Next time I’ll land on you, little man,” Was all David said, turning away from a panic-stricken Archie.

They had climbed onto the shore by the lake and after wringing water from their clothes, they collectively turned to Archie.

“Mind explaining yourself?” Lan asked coldly, cracking his knuckles.

“Ah, well- You see... The thing is-“

Alert: Moon Strider awakened.

The conditions to pass the tutorial have been changed accordingly.

Time limit: 30 days -> 15 days

Difficulty increased

Rewards doubled

See the leaderboard for more details...

The gazes towards Archie grew more hostile.

“What. Did. You. Do?” Lan asked grimly.

“Listen, guys, I needed to do this to get the title, we all understand how rare the title is right?”

Lan rushed over, grabbing Archie by his robe and lifting him off the ground “I need to pass the eighth step before this ends or I’ll die! You’ve just halved the amount of time I have to do that,” He yelled.

“Oh…”

“How am I supposed to get the titles I need with so little time!?” Thea screamed.

“I-I didn’t…”

“Little man.” David rumbled, “Was it worth it?”

“Yeah! Give me a reason not to kill you right now!” Thea yelled, pacing angrily in front of Archie, who was still being held by Lan.

“This was the only way to get the title,” Archie spluttered.

“I’m going to need more than that,” Lan snapped.

“With double rewards, the sheer steps become far more valuable to pass and levelling becomes easier,” Archie explained hurriedly.

“But what about the new clear conditions?” Thea asked.

“There’s no point in worrying about them right now. But I’ll say this, if we clear the tutorial on this difficulty, we will all be rewarded with a skill upgrade,” Archie spat.

“Are you serious?” Thea said slowly.

“Yeah, it’s harder for a reason. So of course, the rewards have to be better,”

“Hmmm, let him go, Lan,” Thea said.

Lan dropped Archie whose face had gone red. He landed in a heap on the ground, panting.

Ignoring Archie who looked like he’d just met death itself, Lan turned to inspect the cavern.

It was stupidly enormous. Golden moss clung to the ceiling and walls in patches, glowing with almost holy light.

Bathed in the golden glow, massive black ants crawled in their thousands, blanketing the floor around an enormous mound.

The ants constantly disappeared into holes that covered the mound, endlessly carrying pieces of what looked like, metal and gemstones into the depths of their anthill.

“What is this place?” Lan whispered, ducking out of view from the mound.

“It’s the dungeon. When we step onto the anthill, we will have accepted the challenge and the ants will start attacking us immediately.”

Lan remembered the thousands of enormous ants the size of a small horse, frowning. “How exactly do we beat all of them?” He asked doubtfully.

“We need to kill their queen of course,” Archie said like it was obvious.

“Of course… but how exactly do we do that?” Lan asked.

“Ok, so here is where the hard part comes in. The queen always has five incredibly powerful ants protecting her, called the royal guard.

From what I learned of previous expeditions, the royal guards are usually around level 10 and the queen will most likely be close to level 15, so once we are done killing the ants out here, we should be high enough levelled to kill the queen,”

“But there sure are a lot of them…” Thea pointed out.

“Yeah, this might take a couple of days,” Archie said slowly.

“A couple of days!? Jesus Christ!” Lan yelled, joining Thea in pacing in front of Archie.

“Don’t have time for that,” David rumbled.

“There's no other way,” Archie said meekly.

“And what if one of us dies?” Lan pointed out.

Arche shrugged, “Sucks to be them I guess, there’s no way back in once the dungeon starts. The water level of the pool will plummet since the whole thing will drain into here. And then the Moon Strider will start using the pool as its home,”

Lan remembered the Moon Strider’s insane strength and shuddered. “So, it’s all or nothing,” He shifted on his feet, scuffing the ground with the toe of his shoe.

“What? Are you nervous or something?” Thea asked with a snort.

“Not nervous…” Lan clenched his fists tightly. “Excited,”

Lan turned to Archie, “So, is there anything else we should keep in mind?”

Archie shrugged, “Not really. Since this is just a tutorial dungeon, it’s pretty straightforward. We kill the worker ants; the fighters will come. Kill the fighters, then the royal guard shows up. Kill the royal guard and her majesty will appear,”

“What is this, a video game?” Lan blurted.

“Hah, I wish,” Archie sighed, “As I said, the dungeons in the tutorial aren’t particularly complex. Most of them will be very choreographed with little room for change,”

“Is there a reason for that?” Lan wondered.

“It’s because the tutorial resets at the end of this month, and since the bridge seems to want everyone to have the same experience in the tutorial, nothing ever changes,” Archie explained.

“Except when you release some crazy Moon Strider and screw everyone over,” Lan pointed out.

Archie held up his hands, “Hey, I’m not the first person to do this. On average, the Moon Strider gets released 1 in every 100 tutorials,”

“There can’t be that many tutorials… that’s like one every ten years,” Lan muttered.

Thea rolled her eyes at Lan, “Wow, really don't know anything do you? There are hundreds of tutorials happening as we speak, all over the universe,”

“Really!? I had heard there more planets than earth on the bridge, but I had no idea it was that many…” He finished quietly, realising just how daunting the bridge really was.

“Anyway, we should do some scouting first,” Archie interjected, changing the subject.

“What do you have in mind?” Lan asked, happy for a distraction.

“I’m thinking… We find a smaller group of ants on their own and take them out. Just so we can get an idea of how strong they are,”

Thea sighed dramatically, “Ugh, but won’t that take forever? I thought we agreed to finish this as quickly as possible,”

“When did we agree to that?” Archie asked angrily.

“We agreed,” Lan said.

“Agreed.” David rumbled.

George just nodded.

“Damnit. Fine. But don’t come crawling to me when one of you dies and ends up missing out on the title,” Archie threw his hands up and stormed off, heading straight for the nest.

Lan followed closely behind, being careful not to trip on the twisted red rock pieces of rock that looked like bits of a coral reef jutting from the cavern floor. The golden lines that ran through the rock made him feel like he was walking through an evil motherboard.

It wasn’t far to the nest and with their superhuman bodies, they arrived quickly. Crouching down behind a rock, they peeked over at a nearby group of ten ants that stood motionless beside the entrance of a tunnel.

“Are they guards or something?” Lan hissed.

“Yeah, that must be a tunnel they use to gather resources,” Archie replied.

“Right, so… Should we just go out and… Kill them?” Thea asked.

Lan thought it over, unable to come up with a better plan, “Uhhh, sure. I don’t see why not?”

And so all five of them leapt out from behind the rock and charged at the group of ants.

Lan was still carrying the spear he had stolen in the treasury and his talent told him exactly where to aim.

He knew how to use the wooden shaft of the tool to generate additional force, and he knew just how to twist the spear to cause the most damage.

He picked his first target.

Sentry Ant Lvl: 2

It was on the edge of the group and should be easy to pick off.

He ran over, thrusting his spear between one of the ant’s chitinous legs with a sickening crunch.

The creature squealed, clashing its mandibles madly at Lan who had jumped back and away from the snapping jaws.

Jabbing out again, he managed to slip the spear between two of its armoured plates. The metal spear screeched as it slid in, but the ant screeched louder, writhing in pain.

It scurried towards Lan, driving the spear deeper and deeper into its body the closer it got.

“Oh shit! One more thing!” Archie shouted.

“What!?” Lan yelled, levering the spear against the ant’s head and using it to rip off the ant’s exoskeleton.

“Don’t let any of their blood get on you!” Archie roared, thrusting his sabre cleanly through an ant’s eye.

The ant Lan was fighting’s exoskeleton exploded, drenching him in blood.

And to his left, Thea stood with both her arms deep inside the corpse of an ant. Her clothes were drenched in blue blood.

“Could you not have said that sooner!?” Lan yelled, trying to get the blood off him to no avail.

“What’s going to happen?” Thea asked nervously.

The ground started to tremble violently, and the clicking of hundreds of mandibles echoed throughout the cavern.

Lan looked over in horror, watching as countless ants poured out of the hive and rushed towards them.

“That…” Archie said with a sigh, rolling up his sleeves.