The issue with being outmaneuvered was that there was only so long you could wallow in self-loathing before something else came along.

I had returned to Floor 2, where I resumed my patrols, by the time the sun had set even further towards the west. Same corridor, same patrol routes, same four EXP per kill. It was becoming easy to think of the shortbow as part of myself – either that was a good thing or I had spent too much time below.

+4 EXP – Skitterer (Ranged Kill)

Experience Level 263/500

Nothing but silence from the UI. No alerts about passive observation or new flags. Lyra’s stand-in stall was either boring or Vorn had not yet made his move. I was willing to bet it was the latter option. He would know what time I had entered. Eleven minutes after the interaction. That visit was not going to be wasted unless Vorn knew how to extend that window.

That meant Vorn was planning.

I loosed an arrow at the tailing Skitterer and proceeded to my next point.

+4 EXP – Skitterer (Ranged Kill)

Current EXP: 267/500

What troubled me about the fact that Vorn worked in a planning mode was that there was nothing in the open that could give me any insight into his plans. Even his flag was unreliable — strategy adjustment: active. It only told me that he was working on his plans, but not what they entailed.

Most likely options. With a direct route narrowed down, the indirect ones would be preferred. I went through the list of available vectors.

Firstly, there was Daren himself. In the original script, Vorn never attempted to approach Daren directly, as it would have been too risky and might easily have blown his cover, leading to the appearance of the Protective Boyfriend flag. However, Daren had advanced up to rank B already. He played in more difficult dungeons, for longer periods, with less predictable timings. So, if Vorn was monitoring windows, then he was certainly monitoring mine — and Daren’s.

The second vector was patience itself. Simply wait. Make sure that the ambient presence he was generating continued to be sufficient to get his point across. The fact that Lyra had enquired about him indicated that he had successfully created an impression in her mind, meaning that my interference had achieved the desired effect, but it also meant that Vorn had already passed the first stage. He existed in her consciousness, and that could not simply be undone by the decision to discuss him with Daren.

+4 EXP — Skitterer (Ranged Kill)

Total EXP: 271/500

I stopped at the rest node and called up the complete overlay.

SYSTEM STATUS

Floor: 2

Threats active: 3 patrol clusters

EXP until D-rank: 229

Estimated time left at current rate: 3.8

Three point eight days. I was progressing faster than the original estimate. The fast learner passive was doing its job – each floor run was marginally better than the previous one, tighter positioning, cleaner shots, no unnecessary movement. The shortbow had made things easier. Scaling in AGI meant that I had been building the proper stat after all.

VORN — ACTIVE FLAGS

Escalation path: ACTIVE 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Primary objective: Lyra (presence maintenance – suspended)

Secondary objective: Kai (variable – active)

Strategy change: ACTIVE

Tactic current: RECALCULATING

Tactic new: PENDING

Suspended. This was new.

I double checked to make sure I didn’t miss any UI indicators.

Presence maintenance – suspended. Not canceled. Not abandoned. Suspended. He had consciously backed off the Lyra vector and was hanging on to it for now while he figured out what else to do next. Which told me that I’d actually made an impact. The eleven-minute time window had been so close that he’d reclassified the direct method as inefficient. Not necessarily impossible — put on hold rather than canceled, but inefficient enough to be parked until he could find an alternative strategy.

I should have taken that as a victory.

I felt like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

+4 EXP — Skitterer (Ranged Kill)

Total EXP: 275/500

I resurfaced two hours later with 298 EXP and a nagging intuition I couldn’t explain.

The market was beginning its close. Stalls were closing down, merchants were clearing up, and afternoon pedestrian traffic was dwindling into evening crowds. Out of habit, I checked my UI interface from afar.

PASSIVE MONITORING — LYRA

Relationship with Daren: 612 — stable

Corruption: 92/100 — stable

Mood status: Calm / Focused

Active engagement: None

Vorn contact: no new entries

No changes. Stable, both ways. Whatever Lyra had told Daren, it wasn’t registering on the relationship or corruption scales yet. She may not have told him anything, after all. She might still be mulling over his offer, trying to decide if the word of an old childhood friend was enough to risk a conversation she didn’t know how to start.

Being in 612 wasn’t exactly ideal.

But I took a breath regardless. Not hearing anything back from Vorn was at least something.

Then my overlay corner buzzed.

VORN — FLAG UPDATE

Strategy adjustment: COMPLETE

New attack plan: IN PLACE

Target: DAREN

Approach method: Dungeon circuit — coincidental meet-up

Attack timing: B-Rank grind rotation

Next meeting opportunity: Tomorrow

So there it was.

It wasn’t Lyra. It wasn’t me. Daren.

I found myself standing in the shadowy outskirts of the fabric district and reading through the flag three times, feeling it fit in perfectly. Vorn wasn’t going to go right for the jugular in his attacks against Lyra’s corruption. No, he would infiltrate Daren’s inner circle by working his way into a coincidental meetup while grinding through the B-rank circuit. An old buddy, a reliable connection, the guy who nodded to you at the dungeon entrance and then introduced him to their significant other because of how he’d helped with the previous Floor 4.

The subtlety of it was perfect. There were paper trails to cover everything, all of which could be read as entirely innocuous. And it would give Vorn access to Daren’s trust circle, which bordered Lyra’s directly.

The meter had read 853 for Daren. A high, stable number – the sort of reading that made a man feel confident. And confident men did not doubt their recognition of friendly faces. Confident men simply introduced their friends to their loved ones.

This wasn’t something the wiki had ever mentioned for this route. Something new, then – this is how an adjustment plan looked when you had your initial strategy foiled.

QUEST LOG — UPDATE

Objective: Protect Daren / Lyra pairing

Detected Threats: Vorn / Daren closeness

Recommended Course of Action: INTERCEPT

Warning: Interception will require B-Rank Dungeon Access

Current Rank: Unranked

Days to D-rank: 3.8

Intercept recommended – Current rank Unranked. Not good reading by any standards.

I stared at the Quest Log for a long time.

Then I returned to the dungeon entrance.

+4 EXP – Skitterer (Ranged Kill)

Total Experience: 302/500

3.8 days to rank up was just that – a projection. And projections could be adjusted.