She was not what he expected.

This was partially true. She was precisely what the wiki page had promised her to be — early twenties, dark eyes, easy and warm in a way that made anyone feel instantly comfortable. The game had done a good job capturing her essence. Amber hair loose over one shoulder, a worn-out guild tunic, hands that fidgeted whenever she spoke as if she were always explaining something significant.

What he did not expect was how much the smile would affect him.

He knew about the smile, yes, he had seen it in-game, and he knew that she was designed as the type of person whose demise would tear through the heart of any player. Academically, he had known all of this.

Standing three feet away from it was an entirely different experience.

"You must be Kai," she said, as if she had heard more than enough about him to develop her own opinion on the matter. "Daren speaks of you endlessly. At this point, I thought he had fabricated you entirely."

"Endlessly?" Kai asked, turning his attention to Daren.

Daren gave a nonchalant shrug, completely devoid of any shame. "I talk about you sometimes."

"He even went as far as describing your sleep routine to me," Lyra continued. "Without prompting."

"That happened naturally," Daren insisted.

Kai found himself on the verge of a smile. Just barely.

The interface layer had already appeared, hovering in front of him. He had tried to avoid looking — had consciously made an effort to not do so from the moment he realized where she stood — but it was there just as Daren’s had been, a faint blue hue around her silhouette, the words hovering over her head:

> Lyra - Main Route Target

> Relationship Status: DAREN ❤️ 612/1000

> Corruption Meter: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛░ 91/100

> Mood: Content

> Hidden Flag: VORN contact - 14 interactions logged

Six hundred and twelve.

Eight hundred and forty-seven had appeared on Daren’s meter. Fourteen interactions with Vorn. Documented. Classified. Proceeding on exact schedule.

"Are you alright?" Lyra was giving him a worried look. "You zoned out for a minute."

"Sorry, long morning," Kai answered.

"Daren told me you had a difficult morning," she continued, saying it with an understanding kindness. Not because she wanted something in return, but just because it made sense for her to understand. Then she looked back down at the fabrics she was looking at. Stacks of fabric in deep green, and she was holding it up to the light. "What do you think? It’s for the guild hall."

"Too dark."

"That one you said was too light."

"There is a happy medium."

"Not when you’re involved."

Kai stood a little apart as he watched their interaction, the easy way that they were talking to each other. How Daren leant towards her and never realized what he was doing. How she passed the fabric to him without a second thought and how he took it without being asked twice.

91%.

Fourteen interactions.

Quest log pulsating.

> Flag 2/3 Complete: LYRA contact established.

> Current Progress: 2/3

> Time Remaining: 3:58:44

> Next Objective: Escort party to the Broken Crown Inn.

One more flag to go. One destination. After which point he wouldn’t be able to avoid the inevitable. No matter how badly he tried.

"I’m going for a walk," Kai announced to no one in particular. "Meet you back here in ten?"

Daren waved him away from the fabric without even looking up. Lyra gave him a small smile and nod that did nothing to help him with his problem.

Kai turned and walked.

The entrance to the dungeon was a little farther down on a street perpendicular to the one he’d taken.

He’d sensed the place before he even saw it — an almost imperceptible tremor in the atmosphere, the kind that lurked just below the audible range and made the backs of his teeth ache gently. Turning the next corner brought him to a larger square and, within it, the point of origin.

A gash in the earth. An opening about ten meters wide, marked by a circle of dark rock carved in glowing glyphs, a flight of steps leading down into a darkness that absorbed all light and threw none back. The surrounding area had clearly been designed for it — stalls pushed back at a respectful distance, a stationary guild entrance booth to the side with a bored-looking clerk issuing entry passes, a notice board filled with quests and bounties flapping in a breeze that seemed to have come out of nowhere to Kai.

And they came prepared.

A trio of adventurers were assembling their gear near the entrance booth — three individuals double-checking their bindings and counting through last-minute inventories. The woman at the head of the party carried a pair of short daggers that glowed with a cold blue aura, their blade edges not quite real. Her companion bore what might be a halberd, only the blade was all wrong, too sharp, humming with barely restrained power. And the third member held a staff that was doing some interesting things to the air at its end.

Fortunately, the user interface was obliging enough to give him a few details.

> Mira - Adventurer Rank B

> Weapons: Duskfang Blades - Tier 4 / Soul-bound

> STR: 847 | AGI: 1,204 | INT: 445

> Skills: Shadow Step / Blade Echo / Counter Instinct

> TORREN - Adventurer Rank A

> Weapons: Sunbreaker Halberd - Tier 6 / Legendary

> STR: 2,341 | AGI: 678 | INT: 290

> Skills: Shockwave / Fortify / Titan’s Grip

Kai studied their stats.

Then, as if the confirmation of what he expected was too much of a bother, he looked at his own.

> KAI - NPC Unit #4471 / Childhood Friend (Support Character)

> Weapons: None

> STR: 12 | AGI: 15 | INT: 20

> Skills: Friendly Conversation / Moral Support

> EXP: 0/500

> Classification: Ungraded

Friendly Conversation.

Moral Support.

He examined his abilities carefully.

The adventurer party melted into the darkness of the dungeon stairs as though they belonged in there; the darkness took them without pomp, and Kai remained on the edge of the plaza feeling about twelve again.

Every weapon in the world had a tier. Every warrior had statistics which made his look paltry beyond consideration. As an NPC supporting character in a game world full of violence and competition, he had the powers of engaging in pleasant discourse and making people feel good about themselves.

From memory, Vorn was A minus on the combat ranking system on the wiki.

He had Moral Support.

He called up the dungeon board with deliberate malice and looked through the listings. Beginners’ dungeon runs. EXP rewards. Weapon drop rates. At the top of it all was a notice:

> Ashveil Undercroft — Floor 1 — Recommended STR: 50. Take caution when entering ungraded.

Recommended fifty. He had twelve. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

He would need to rectify that.

Some other time. When they finished their escort job. When anything else happened to make this better. For now, the idea filed itself away in the portion of his mind where the list of necessary changes was already being compiled.

He turned toward returning to the cloth market.

Vorn waited at the edge of the plaza.

Not looking at Kai. Not even watching anything, really. Being present, like he had been in the cloth district — that sense of not moving that makes itself known without announcing itself. He was eating something, casual as anything, eyes running over the dungeon entrance with idle curiosity.

But his positioning, Kai observed, was such that he had a clear line of sight down the street and into the cloth market.

To Lyra’s stall.

The clock in the corner of his vision clicked forward.

> Time Remaining: 3:44:19

Kai stared at Vorn for three seconds. Vorn never once made eye contact.

And then he returned to the cloth market with his twelve points of power and his skill in Moral Support, as well as a sense of how much farther apart the knowledge of how a story would turn out and the ability to actually do something about it were than he had realized.

Daren was still holding the fabric when Kai returned.

Lyra was giggling at something Daren had said.

Six hundred and twelve points out of one thousand.

Kai smiled when Lyra looked at him and hated how effortless it was.