The notification pops up in my line of sight and remains there even after Vorn turns away from me.

That isn’t because I’m reading it. I’ve already read it. I’ve read it three times 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 same steady unhurried tone of his, giving enough information to make the exchange meaningful 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 meter 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 means and what comes 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 me is the physical presence needed to act.

I get the bartender’s attention and ask for the cheapest thing on the list. He gives me 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 immediately.

---

> **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 game is telling me 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 me feel like STR 50 was something he did as warmup before breakfast.

I have twelve and a skill called Moral Support.

The infinity icon doesn’t give me hints on how to increase those numbers but it lets me 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 something. 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 me 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 me was more trouble than it was worth.

I take a sip from that brown liquid. As foul as it smelled.

The food is fine. The lamb stew is really tasty, which somehow looks like an oversight on the designer’s part — someone obviously spent some effort in creating the Broken Crown Inn’s afternoon menu 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 come, 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 — something 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 somehow everything and nothing at all. His eyes flick to Lyra for a half second — measured. Just long enough for something, and then they land on me. "Kai."

The first time he ever called me by name.

I meet his gaze directly, not blinking. "Vorn."

Some kind of subtle change occurs in his features, some infinitesimal adjustment in his expression. He nods once, and then he walks away, and the door clicks softly behind him. And Daren is suddenly saying something about the guild dinner again.

I stare at the door for a few more seconds after he’s gone.

He knows my name. I never told him anything. Daren mentioned it when we walked in here, and Vorn must have heard, and now he’s using it. As easily as someone else might nod after a sentence.

*You’re not a threat to me. I know who you are. I’m going to ignore you.*

That’s what he meant, 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 some extra EXP and supplementary income, nothing higher than Floor 3 so far and still proceeding cautiously and systematically in that methodical 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 assignments.

Daren peers at the quest board, analyzing its content as one would do mental arithmetic. 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, somewhere under Floor 1, a required STR of 50 standing between me 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 game 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 mere 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 menu for the first time.

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... some still beyond my imagination. Most skills require me 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 movement. 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 me to uncover the hidden flags on Vorn, who has four active flags and a redacted hidden entry that has had me wondering ever since the day I’ve met him... [Footwork I] will get me started along the path of learning much-needed combat skills. [Fast Learner] helps me accelerate everything else.

I think about how Vorn called my name 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 apartment 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 something 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 time 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 me with that lazy expression he always wears. "Ever done the Undercroft?"

I glance at the entrance. STR 12, recommend 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 some time. Shouldn’t be hard if you know what you’re doing."

I nod.

He means it. Daren always means 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 me."