Three-seconds cast time, and then a ball of light flared off from Ein's staff.

[center][b]Energy Ball[/b][/center]

The targeted rat let out a sad wail as it got blasted away by the magic attack. Another one lunged toward Ein, only to be knocked back by the swing of her staff. Before it could stand back, the head of the oak staff had pummeled him. There were only three of them left. Before, it was thirty or so.

When the horde of rats suddenly came out and chased her down, Ein ran as her feet allowed her to. Unfortunately, running without map or any clear goal in mind just served to drive her deeper and deeper into the cave. Soon she reached a dead end. In verge of tears, she resolved to at least take one of them down if she was about to die anyway. The Energy Ball struck a rat, which instantly disappeared from sight. Light from the effect of gaining experience point engulfed her. At that time, a rat jumped up and bites her arm. The attack did…nearly nothing, honestly.

Suddenly she realized that these monsters were hopelessly low-leveled, even a weak mage class like her could defeat them with at least two strikes from her staff. The experience point gained was comparably low, but their drops were nice. She gained meats (rat’s, of course), feeble amount of gold, and some basic crafting materials. Quickly the horde was decimated, leaving Ein alone once more in the darkness.

This cave was surely a dungeon for players, yet she hadn’t seen any players yet. Perhaps they were not satisfied with such low-leveled monsters. As much as she didn’t like to meet any players, the darkness of the cave started to frighten her. Seeing such closed space by her own eyes awakened basic claustrophobic fear within humankind. Where was the entrance again? She needs to find a way out. Weak as they were, sleeping with those rats around was too dangerous.

Another chirping sound resonated in the cave. It was slightly different from the rats which she had defeated. No, it could be rat after all. Biology classes were somewhat useless in game, where developers could put anything that they want and call it a day.

“Hello?” she exclaimed. The cave carried her voice away in echoes. Somehow the chirping sound went off again as if answering her call. Was it a monster? Or…a player? Either way, she needs to move. Hoping that it was the latter, she followed the sound toward the darkness.