Sihe dungeon provided no obvious path to them, they made the intuitive decision to head for the tallest of the nearby crumbling architecture. They needed a vantage point to take in their surroundings to make an informed decision on which dire to head. Climbing forty feet in the air and peering out at the sprawling ruins might provide an obvious ndmark to work toward.

  And Natalie did assume there would be some sudmark. It was already uncharacteristic for the duo drop them into su open space, but there was always some goal. How else would they find a boss or escape? Or find their teammates? As strange as the dungeon could be at times, it was usually fair and straightforward.

  Except wheole one of its prized monsters, Natalie mentally corrected with amusement. But evehey hadn't been truly overwhelmed. The dungeon hadn't thrown level twe them, it had just moved the difficulty from 'normal' to 'hellish' ialiation.

  Gripping [Valentine], Natalie fed forward. She was teh anticipation as she made slress, Vaa trailing behind with daggers drawn. This was the third floor, so the challenges would be the hardest yet. Maybe parable to the goblin fights. Plus they were missing their mage and support, so their versatility was signifitly limited.

  There was also the nature of the envirohat put her on edge. At least iypical dungeon cave tuhere were limited pces a monster could pop out from. Not only were these deg ruins open in all dires, there was also endless cover to take; danger could surge out from anywhere. Her eyes lingered on the most obvious hiding pces, but there were simply too many to keep track of.

  As fitting of any other floor, said danger found them without dey. Less than a quarter of the way to the nearby crumbling thostly wisps of white-blue light seeped from the ground. In a matter of seds, an armored humanoid assembled itself. It wielded a two-handed sword, face covered by a helm.

  [Fallen Wraith - Lv. 3]

  A level three, though uhe goblins of a simir level she'd fought, a full-fledged solo enter, which meant it wouldn't be nearly as easy to dispatch as any single goblin. Especially with only Vaa as backup rather than a full team. The dungeon may or may not have made the creature weaker in pensation for their enforced disadvantage, but Natalie wouldn't assume so ht; that would be foolish. For all she khe dungeon was still mad about Malice.

  She was never oo waste time gawking at an appeared monster, so she was charging before it finished maing. With , she noted more wisps of blue light floating up onto a crumbling wall where a sed humanoid appeared wielding a short-bow. A gnce revealed it was seemingly human: male, with bluures, though its ghostly appearance prevented her from thinking of it as a real human.

  Likely, these creatures were the remnants of whoever lived in this civilization before cataclysm had struot that this city was real, nor the disaster that had brought it to ruin. All of it was fabricated by the dungeon. Though was it, really? Some schors thought the dungeon pulled echoes of other existences.

  Either way, it wasn't truly real, though theoretically speaking, it might be a refle of a pce that once was.

  Her musings cut off as her hammer smmed down toward her oppo. Unsurprisingly, the Wraith stepped deftly out of the way, and skillfully transferred the momentum from his dodge into a retaliatory strike. Though he wielded a two-handed greatsword, he was still faster than Natalie, but then again, it was rare she fought an oppo slower than her; she had learned how to deal with that handicap.

  In the er of her eye, she saw Vaa throw one of her daggers at the bow-wielding Wraith that had maed on top of the crumbling wall. It struck the monster in the shoulder, but Natalie forced her attention onto her own e. It seemed this first fight would be two one-on-ones. Natalie was just gd she wouldn't have to worry about arrows raining down on her while she fought the swordsman.

  The two fighters traded blows. Natalie realized the dungeon hadn't softehe e for the ck of their teammates: it was certainly as strong as an average level three. Rationing out mana was important, so she didn't jump ht to summoning illusions, but she kept the possibility in mind.

  Instead, she worried about simply occupying the swordsman's attention. She positioned herself so that she could both fight the monster and keep an eye on Vaa at the same time. Her pn was to see how the rogue fared against the bowman, and if she ha easily, then Natalie simply o wait it out until they could turn against the swordsman two against one. She could defiake down the Wraith herself if she called on her abilities, but w effitly was important, especially when they would be fighting for days straight during this weekend delve.

  And indeed, putting faith in Vaa turned out to be a smart decision, because the girl scampered up the wall with surprising adeptness, first leaping two-thirds of the before vaulting the rest of the distance using a grip on an outcropping. She verted that momentum into an attack, smming her dagger into the Wraith's k toppled forward, loosing a sloppy arrow that it had been trying to aim at Vaa, but which it had been too slow to fire. Vaa pursued as it fell down the wall.

  Natalie refocused on her own fight. The Wraith's bdework was skilled, but not on the level of top performers at Te. If admittedly the monster was much strohaudents there. Still, this wasn't a fight like against the Chieftain: it was not overwhelming and near impossible to go head-to-head against. A feint with her o Natalie sm a kito its chest and have it stumbling backward, which she followed up on with a vicious eg blow to its side. Battered, the ghostly bei staggering sideways. A two-handed blow probably would've fihe fight ht, but the Wraith pulled out a trick: it went incorporeal, and her hammer sailed through its body. It drifted sideways a step and came bato existence, and Natalie was forced to dart backward, abandoning her hammer to prevent herself from being cleaved in two.

  Disarmed, Natalie was at a sudden disadvantage, but it also gave her the maneuverability she'd thus far been g. She hesitated not for a sed to rush forward into cle to tackle the Wraith and sm both of them into the ground. While she'd been training with her hammer a lot retly, one of Natalie's specialties had always been in ht brawls: she delivered a vicious punto the Wraith's hat it either couldn't or didn't dodge with incorporeality, the metal of her gaus giving the attack extra weight. Reinforced with [Juggernaut] and her armor's Furor booo, a punch was no small atta its ht, especially when followed up by two more.

  The Wraith threw her off, and Natalie hurried over to her hammer, reg her on.

  Right as she was squaring up for the exge, which would probably be the st, with the Wraith already looking woozy from the puo the face, Vaa smmed a dagger into the side of its neck. She withdrew the bde just as quickly, and the ghostly being crumpled to the floor.

  Dead, just like that. Vaa's [Assassination] skill was even strohan she'd made it sound; Natalie had put a few det attacks in, but dungeon monsters were usually pretty durable.

  "I had that, you know," Natalie said, half jokingly. "But thanks for the assist."

  Vaa quirked an eyebrow, looked around, and lowered her daggers, seeing no more enemies.

  "No illusions?"

  "Saving mana," Natalie replied.

  Vaa nodded approvingly. "Good. Don't waste it on trash."

  Natalie wasn't sure she'd have called it trash, though the Wraith certainly hadn't been a life-threatening e. She gestured at the wall. "You're quite the little acrobat," she said. It had been impressive how easily she'd scaled the wall to deliver a crippling blow onto the bowman Wraith. All one fluid motion.

  Vaa narrowed her eyes. "Little?" she repeated, with an edge to her voice.

  Apparently she didn't like being called that.

  Natalie coughed. "Just saying well done," she said.

  Thankfully, they had a distra to move past the misstep: the Wraith had finished disiing in cssigeon style, and something happehat made the two girls blink. It didn't drop a monster core, as would be expected, but something else entirely.

  Resting on the floor was a ade of dark, faded pial.

  [Token of Eros]