Once the Paladin went down, the girls behind him scattered in every direction. The slower ones, or those with shorter legs, turned into beams of white light and got a free trip back to town just like the Paladin.

As someone who’d witnessed the whole thing, Ye Yuan’s first thought was—

“Do these monsters really hit that hard?”

It wasn’t unheard of for players to turn the tables, but usually that happened when someone foolishly challenged a monster far above their level, like an elite boss.

That clearly wasn’t the case here.

Ye Yuan had figured that no matter what, the Dark Bats would only take about half the Paladin’s health. With the priest behind him and his own healing, he should’ve been back on his feet in no time.

A five-player party should’ve been enough to handle these ten Dark Bats. But no one had expected the bats to strike first and take out the Paladin leading the group. Without their main frontline, the party fell apart fast.

The party’s composition was partly to blame, but Ye Yuan had clearly realized that these Dark Bats were no pushovers.

If even the toughest Paladin at their level couldn’t withstand one round of attacks from ten bats, she’d probably struggle against even one or two.

“Wait. If their attack is that high, does that mean…”

Ye Yuan realized something. She remembered that when the Paladin had attacked earlier, he’d taken off a sixth of one Dark Bat’s health even while in Defensive Stance, which reduced his attack power.

By that logic, with her current attack power, she could easily finish one off with Backstab and Gouge, plus one more hit at most.

Ye Yuan tightened her grip on her dagger and made up her mind almost instantly.

Stealth.

Her figure vanished into thin air. Carefully controlling her breathing, Ye Yuan crept toward a Dark Bat near the edge of the ruins. It was a little smaller than the others.

She wasn’t sure, but it was always better to pick the softest persimmon to squeeze, right?

As if sensing something, the Dark Bat suddenly grew restless.

Unfortunately for it, Ye Yuan wasn’t about to give it a chance to react. She struck at just the right moment.

Backstab.

Her sharp dagger traced a brilliant silver arc through the air and struck the Dark Bat squarely in the body.

The Dark Bat let out a piercing screech and beat its wings, trying to fight back.

Ye Yuan narrowed her eyes and suddenly put more force into her attack.

Gouge.

Just then, the other Dark Bats came rushing over, drawn in by the aggro-link mechanic, and attacked Ye Yuan.

“Three?” Ye Yuan frowned as she caught sight of the incoming Dark Bats from the corner of her eye. She could handle one or two at most. For now, she’d have to retreat and shake off their aggro.

As she thought this, she slipped in another attack against the Dark Bat that was still alive.

A purple critical-hit number appeared.

She’d gotten lucky. The one-percent chance to deal triple damage had actually come through.

But just as Ye Yuan thought that, she saw the damage number and froze.

-61

Something wasn’t right. That was triple damage?

Ye Yuan seemed to realize something and looked at the target she’d attacked.

Sure enough, despite her string of attacks—and even that lucky hit—the Dark Bat still had a sixth of its health left.

Had she been wrong all along? Were these monsters actually low on attack but unusually strong on defense?

But the attack of a Dark Bat flying straight at her quickly shattered that idea.

-38

Nearly a third of her health vanished in an instant. Ye Yuan went pale, suddenly understanding what the Paladin had been through.

When several more shadows swooped toward her, she activated Shadow Assault without hesitation.

It was one of the Rogue’s few early-game survival skills, and she’d gotten it as loot from a chest.

Her figure vanished from where she stood, and the attacking Dark Bats hit nothing but air. Ye Yuan reappeared behind the wounded bat and quickly landed another hit right on its wound.

-20

The damage number appeared, and at last, the poor thing turned into experience for Ye Yuan.

Something dropped beneath the Dark Bat. Ye Yuan’s heart jumped, and she snatched it up before she could miss her chance.

But before she could see what it was, she sensed danger coming and hurriedly shoved it into her bag.

The next moment, three damage numbers appeared in quick succession, and Ye Yuan’s health bar emptied.

Back in Soma Town, Ye Yuan quickly checked her gear. When she saw that she’d only lost an ordinary leather bracer, she breathed a sigh of relief—though her expression turned a little awkward right after.

She never thought she’d get killed by low-level monsters like these. She’d even laughed at that Paladin earlier, and now karma had caught up with her in no time.

Normally, after an experience like that, Ye Yuan wouldn’t have wanted to return to the ruins. She’d seen for herself how dangerous those Dark Bats were.

But one Dark Bat gave her only a little less experience than killing two Wanderers, which was awfully tempting.

Ye Yuan suddenly remembered that the Dark Bat had dropped an item. She hurriedly took it out to check.

Skill Book: Iron Wall (Passive)

Skill Description: Warriors gain powerful defensive abilities through training.

Skill Attribute: Defense +10

Usable by: Warriors

“Not bad. I came out ahead.”

In Era, skill books were no easier to get than equipment. And this one was arguably the strongest passive skill available to Warriors early on. She could easily sell it for 40 copper coins.

She could die once—or even a few more times—and still come out ahead. Besides, anyone under level ten in Era was protected, and could lose at most 10% of their experience. That made it an incredible deal.

After heading to the exchange and listing it in the auction house, Ye Yuan found herself reconsidering whether to return to the ruins.

“Normally, a monster can’t have both high attack and high defense. So that means…the Dark Bats might have different individuals with especially high attack or especially high defense…”

Ye Yuan suddenly realized something. If that was the case, then everything made sense.

“Whoever designed these monsters sure had a lot of ideas.”

Even after figuring it out, Ye Yuan still felt a little exasperated.

Just then, a private message from a friend popped up.

“I’m here, Ah Ye! Did you manage to find a spot at the Wanderer camp?”

Seeing the message, Ye Yuan suddenly felt that the Dark Bat problem at the ruins might not be impossible to solve after all.

“We’re not going there. I’ll take you somewhere else.”

“Somewhere else?”

“Just come over here first.”