The notification pops up in my line of sight and remains there even after Vorn turns away from .
That isn’t because I’m reading it. I’ve already read it. I’ve read it three tis in the thirty seconds since and the wording hasn’t changed and will not change.
*You are no longer required to follow the script.*
Sure.
Daren is talking with Vorn. Smooth, casual, the way Daren can talk to anyone without ever seeming impatient — asking about guild status, or lack thereof, and Vorn is answering with that sa steady unhurried tone of his, giving enough information to make the exchange aningful but no more.
I watch Lyra.
She’s standing slightly to Daren’s left, where she usually stands, with her hands clasped together in front of her and her face set to the expression that I would describe as carefully neutral were it not for the fact that I recognize what 91/100 corruption looks like. My relationship ter with Daren reads 612; though I could see this number hovering over her head at the top of the page, the one that actually counts is the one from the wiki, which does not display.
Vorn speaks low enough for only Lyra to hear, and her lips curve into a slight smile.
I turn away from them and look to the bar.
Full wiki access makes the power dynamic between us feel much more like knowing the plot for a story than anything else. Everything I see in their faces, in their expressions, in the way they interact with one another and with their surroundings, I know what it all ans and what cos next. It’s like being in a theater, watching a play that you’ve already read through completely before opening night.
What it doesn’t give is the physical presence needed to act.
I get the bartender’s attention and ask for the cheapest thing on the list. He gives a brown drink that tastes strongly of wood and regret, and I cradle it in my hand and think.
Unrestricted stat progression.
The statistic window pops up imdiately.
---
> **KAI** — NPC Unit #4471
> Role: Childhood Friend *(Supporting)*
> Rank: Unclassified
> STR: 12 → ∞
> AGI: 15 → ∞
> INT: 20 → ∞
> Skills: Friendly Conversation / Moral Support
> Updated Status: Skill tree unlocked — all branches
> EXP: 0/500
> Note: Progression cap removed.
---
The arrows by my attributes are new. Little golden infinity icons sitting by each number like the ga is telling to go ahead, I can do anything in here now.
STR 12. The Ashveil Undercroft Floor 1 requires STR 50. I have twelve. I was watching a B-rank adventurer suit up at the entrance to the dungeon yesterday with a Tier 4 weapon and attributes in the hundreds and the way he moved made feel like STR 50 was sothing he did as warmup before breakfast.
I have twelve and a skill called Moral Support.
The infinity icon doesn’t give hints on how to increase those numbers but it lets know that the ceiling is gone. The floor is as solid as ever and it is very much at twelve.
I close my attributes tab.
Daren is laughing at sothing. Pure, genuine laughter that pushes his relationship with Lyra one notch higher — now it says 849 on reflex and it keeps growing, the loyalty of a man who has no clue about it, and I watch and I feel the tiredness I have been getting from this city lately.
Vorn gives a look over Daren’s shoulder.
It only lasts a second. Unreadable flat dark eyes and he is back to talking to Daren again as if looking at was more trouble than it was worth.
I take a sip from that brown liquid. As foul as it slled.
The food is fine. The lamb stew is really tasty, which sohow looks like an oversight on the designer’s part — soone obviously spent so effort in creating the Broken Crown Inn’s afternoon nu without thinking about the emotional context of it.
Daren eats as a man who ate nothing in the past couple days — probably because he forgot. Lyra toys with her plate and quizzes him on the guild dinner — about who will co, about the agenda and if he feels nervous about any of that — and he answers her but asks none back since Daren vents his anxiety by talking about everything but what bothers him, according to the wiki — sothing I am witnessing firsthand and Vorn noted down three weeks ago.
Vorn sets down the cup. He stands up.
"Good to see you, Daren." Easygoing, but sohow everything and nothing at all. His eyes flick to Lyra for a half second — asured. Just long enough for sothing, and then they land on . "Kai."
The first ti he ever called by na.
I et his gaze directly, not blinking. "Vorn."
So kind of subtle change occurs in his features, so infinitesimal adjustnt in his expression. He nods once, and then he walks away, and the door clicks softly behind him. And Daren is suddenly saying sothing about the guild dinner again.
I stare at the door for a few more seconds after he’s gone.
He knows my na. I never told him anything. Daren ntioned it when we walked in here, and Vorn must have heard, and now he’s using it. As easily as soone else might nod after a sentence.
*You’re not a threat to . I know who you are. I’m going to ignore you.*
That’s what he ant, then.
I pick up the spoon.
Once Daren is done eating, he says he wants to look at the dungeon board. Typical Daren behavior, running through dungeons in Undercroft regularly for so extra EXP and supplentary inco, nothing higher than Floor 3 so far and still proceeding cautiously and systematically in that thodical fashion that helps him accomplish so much.
We walk through the streets to the plaza.
It looks like the usual dungeon entrance; the circular tear in the ground, runes around the edges pulsing faintly with light, the guild’s checkpoint station set up on the side where a bored looking employee sits and sorts through permits, quest board covered in fresh assignnts.
Daren peers at the quest board, analyzing its content as one would do ntal arithtic. His combat statistics hover overhead.
---
> **DAREN** — Adventurer *(Active)*
> Rank: C
> STR: 87 / AGI: 74 / INT: 45
> Weapon: Iron Edge *(Tier 2, standard)*
> Active Flags: 3
---
STR 87. Against my 12.
I stare at the entrance to the dungeon. The runes pulse with an almost languid indifference, regardless of whoever approaches. There is, sowhere under Floor 1, a required STR of 50 standing between and anything useful, and under that are floors that Daren has not seen, and beneath those are floors the wiki describes in terms that made even an NTR ga feel the need to include a content warning.
Full wiki access. Full access to progression. Skill tree available.
I look down at my hands. STR 12. AGI 15. Friendly Conversation. Moral Support.
The gulf between here and where I’m supposed to be is huge — a chasm rather than a re gap. Yet the infinity sign next to every stat, the unopened skill tree, the door, and the endless possibilities... and the clock no longer ticks, either.
I open the skill tree nu for the first ti.
It appears as a sort of map, showing branching skills leading out from the two initial choices in the middle, with several dozen nodes stretching in many directions — combat, magic, stealth, persuasion, dungeons, social interactions... so still beyond my imagination. Most skills require to achieve certain stat levels before becoming accessible, but not all.
Three options are unlocked.
---
> **UNLOCKED — Skill Choice**
>
> **[Observe]** — Passive. Increased data display on all targets. Reveals hidden flags at 30% probability.
> *Requires: INT 18 ✅*
>
> **[Footwork I]** — Active. Combat skills involving movent. Scaling with AGI.
> *Requires: AGI 12 ✅*
>
> **[Fast Learner]** — Passive. Accelerates experience gain by 25%.
> *Requires: INT 20 ✅*
---
I stare at those three options for quite a while.
If [Observe] helps to uncover the hidden flags on Vorn, who has four active flags and a redacted hidden entry that has had wondering ever since the day I’ve t him... [Footwork I] will get started along the path of learning much-needed combat skills. [Fast Learner] helps accelerate everything else.
I think about how Vorn called my na when leaving the inn.
I think about 612 out of a thousand.
I choose to unlock Observe.
It settles in my brain with a faint throb, nothing painful, just there, like opening another room in an apartnt I’ve been living in. I blink and look at Daren.
His UI has changed. The flags that once read Active: 3 now appear to have more detail, and there’s sothing else below them that wasn’t there before:
---
> **Hidden:** Stress fracture — guild dinner anxiety suppressed. Exploitable.
---
I read that for a second. Then I consider the entrance to the dungeon and think about Vorn’s UI and the newly hidden flag now that I know how to see them.
I don’t think I want to know.
But I still do it anyway.
Vorn is gone from the plaza — I won’t be able to see his UI until I get closer to him.
For the best.
Now I’ve got ti to figure out how I want to react to the information.
Daren grabs a bounty slip for a material run, Floor 2, pretty much straight up, then turns to with that lazy expression he always wears. "Ever done the Undercroft?"
I glance at the entrance. STR 12, recomnd fifty for Floor 1.
"No," I admit.
"I think you should. Nice EXP to grind through your ranks." He tucks the bounty away. "I’ll take you through Floor 1 so ti. Shouldn’t be hard if you know what you’re doing."
I nod.
He ans it. Daren always ans it. Everything he says casually, everything he does in a carefree sort of way, is real and entirely sincere.
849 out of a thousand and falling.
"Yeah, that sounds good to ."
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