Daren spots me waiting outside the entrance to the Undercroft.

I’m sitting on the stone bench where Vorn had sat two days earlier, with my skill tree open in my UI and crunching numbers on potential progression paths, none of which were appealing to me. My Fast Learner skill was active, and while the XP curve from my solo runs through Floor 1 was beginning to compound as per Daren’s prediction, there was still a massive gulf between STR 12 and something useful.

Daren sits down beside me.

Not across from me, but beside. The same stone bench that Vorn had occupied in the exact same position, looking out in the same direction. It’s something I observe and tuck away into the back of my mind somewhere.

He is in high spirits. That’s evident without him even trying to fake it — just the air of satisfaction that he radiates because things have gone well and he doesn’t have to try too hard to feel that. His UI reinforces this sentiment.

---

> **DAREN** — Adventurer *(Active)*

> Rank: B

> STR: 94 / AGI: 81 / INT: 47

> Relation / Lyra: 851/1000

> Active Flags: 2

> Mood: Warm / Settled

---

851. Up from 849. And the active flags went down from three to two.

Something must have happened in that conversation over dinner. I don’t know what — the wiki page only has four sentences, and none of them describe the actual event — but the meter ticked up, the flags decreased, and now Daren is sitting next to me on the bench in the morning light, with the air of someone who’s got their act together a little bit better than he did two days ago.

I close the skill tree window.

"B-rank," I say.

He smiles. Unreservedly, unselfconsciously, the smile that comes before you even think about whether it’s the right time for one. "Got it this morning. Post-dinner assessment. It seems like my dungeon board flagged my run completion rate, and the guild committee decided to push it through."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks." He leans back, resting his forearms on his knees, relaxed. "Lyra told me the same thing this morning. She made me breakfast."

I glance at the dungeon entrance. "Good morning."

"Yeah." Pause. Something in his tone changes — not somber, just thoughtful. "She had something else to say too."

I wait.

"She said she needs me to ask more," he says, turning the Iron Edge in his hands the same way he does when he’s figuring something out. "Like. Ask about her. The stall, what she’s thinking. She said she’d been carrying it for a while and she needed me to know."

Corruption Meter: 91%, static. The city contains an anomaly in the 91% range. I’m staring at the entrance to the dungeon and thinking about two degrees of shifted angle and how they might look from the outside.

"What did you say?"

"I didn’t — well, I didn’t really know what to say at first. It was like I was doing something wrong without even realizing it." He hesitates. "Well, I was, I think. Just didn’t know."

"Now you do."

"Now I do." He pauses, as if waiting for something. "Did you know that she was feeling like that?"

I look at him.

He looks back at me in the open expression that means that he means what he’s asking; his UI reads:

---

> **Flag Pulse:** Direct question — trust level threshold met. Response pending.

> Mood: Warm / Relaxed → Intently curious

---

The intervention branch comes to mind. Spontaneous. No metrics on its results. Four paragraphs in the wiki.

"I noticed that she seems like she’s keeping some things secret," I remark. "But I don’t have the details yet."

Truth. But not the entire truth. There’s some gray area in the middle somewhere, between us, where I seem to be hanging out an awful lot these days.

Daren nods slowly. Acknowledges it. Files it away. "She actually spoke to you, right? In the stall?"

"A little bit."

"But she doesn’t usually do that. Talk to others, I mean. She can be very friendly, but she doesn’t open up much."

612 and then moving forward. 91 and holding steady. I stare at both figures without saying anything.

"Anyways," he says, getting to his feet. The relaxed mood returns as he finishes filing away what’s been said. "The B-rank allows you access to the third floor. I’ll be making a trip later today, so why don’t you tag along?"

I glance down at my statistics. STR 12. 71 EXP after the Fast Learner buff activated earlier today, probably already near 85 after my solo session at Floor 1. Floor 1 recommended minimum STR 50. Floor 3 is not something the wiki quantifies in terms I find encouraging.

"STR recommendation for Floor 3?"

"One twenty."

I look towards the entrance.

"I’ll be observing," I tell him.

"Just being close will give you EXP. Same as Floor 1." He stands up and rolls his shoulder – the pre-run ritual that he goes through before each run. "I’ll show you something down there on Floor 3. There’s a weapon cache in the second rest node. Leftover equipment from previous runs. People leave them behind." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Leftover weapon drops?

I look up at him.

"What kind of weapons," I ask.

"Not anything that’s tier four and above, those get automatically counted and claimed by whoever drops there. But the tier one and two weapons are often left there for weeks and months because people don’t care about them when they rank higher than what those tiers cover." He shrugs again. "Though I figured you’d like to see that."

Weapons.

Real weapons, not the fist-sized rocks that are left lying about on the floor in the corridor. STR 12 with an actual weapon? That’s still STR 12, but the wiki’s progression guide mentions minimum viable entry points for combat and those all assume the presence of a weapon.

"Yeah," I reply. "I’ll join you."

Daren simply nods, already making his way towards the checkpoint. His brand-new B-rank permit is ready even before he gets to the clerk – still wet from yesterday’s examination. The clerk handles him like someone whose stats consist of numbers bigger than two digits.

I follow him and give my own permit to the clerk.

She checks it, looks at me, then scans his now retreating figure.

"Third floor," she announces.

"Third floor."

And stamps it in the face with what I can’t help but call the Kai look: a thoroughly professional look with infinite depths to it.

Third floor is another story.

Not only more difficult – but a fundamentally different experience. The bioluminescent moss here grows thicker, casting broader patches of light and shadow, and the passages are narrower than those of Floor 1, and there’s less headroom, more sense of the dungeon below. Like the entire edifice is self-aware on this level.

Daren himself moves differently here, too. His behavior on Floor 1 was maintenance-oriented, easygoing and relaxed. Not so now – the hand hangs closer to the sword, the corridor inspections take twice as long, and the time spent examining each corner takes twice as long, as well.

I follow close behind and watch and earn experience.

---

> **EXP:** 97/500

---

Fast Learner is compounding in effectiveness. Each kill Daren makes depletes proximity EXP, and that twenty five percent increase in passive XP gain really is paying off its promised dividends.

And the monsters here are larger and more dangerous as well – an example being the Floor 3 Skitterers, who unlike their Floor 1 counterparts are twice their length, and faster as well, with thicker shells and in pairs. And yet, as always, Daren deals with them efficiently, using two strikes instead of one. Maintenance has turned into fluency.

I observe him working, thinking about the Vorn approach vector that is currently marked as unknown, the wiki’s four sentences, and the flag that bears my name.

He hasn’t made a move. Two days have passed since our conversation on the bench, and the wiki remains untouched, as does the corruption bar. Patient was the mood indicator’s advice. Patient.

I wonder how patient it costs him as the meter remains motionless.

I come to the second resting area at the end of the corridor; it is broader than that of Floor 1, stocked even more, and the guild cache has more supplies. And then there is a rack of weapon drops on the far wall — right where Daren told me there would be some — unclaimed and left alone because they are beyond ranker’s capacity.

I make my way over to the rack and examine them.

---

> **Unclaimed Drops — Floor 3 Rest Node**

> Short Sword — Tier 1. Strength requirement 8. Standard

> Hunting Knife — Tier 1. Strength requirement 6. AGI scaling

> Iron Knuckles — Tier 1. Strength requirement 10. Melee

> Shortbow — Tier 2. Strength requirement 10. AGI scaling. Ranged

> Weighted Staff — Tier 2. Strength requirement 14. INT scaling passive

---

Strength requirement for the staff is 14, and I have 12. Still can’t use it just yet.

Shortbow. Strength requirement 10, AGI scaling. I have 15 AGI and Throwing I active, and an efficient unlocking mechanism that seemingly works based on the continuous application of ranged attacks.

I equip the shortbow.

It feels lighter than what I had thought it would be. Antique and old looking, the wood worn smooth by its prior usage, and the string changed, though not recently. The wiki weapon page describes Tier 2 short bows as introductory ranged weapons, which have poor base damage and high AGI scaling. In other words, the stronger your AGI the higher the damage and I have been speeding up since unlocking Evasion I.

---

> **Shortbow — Tier 2**

> Required STR: 10 ✅

> Scaling AGI: Active

> Current DPS on AGI 15: Moderate-low

> Passive Throwing I: Compatible – ranged skill bonus works

> Weapon equipped; skill tree ranged branch unlocked.

---

Skill tree ranged branch unlocked.

I stare at the notification for some time.

Daren is watching me from the other side of the rest node with the smile of one who made a wise decision. "Fits?"

I turn over the shortbow in my hands. With STR 12, AGI 15, Fast Learner, Evasion I, Throwing I, Observe, and finally an equipped weapon with compatible skill tree branch and ranged combat tree with high potential but low starting point according to the wiki’s progress notes.

Potential weaknesses: STR 12. Unclassified. No combat experience.

Still unclassified and with STR 12. But it’s hard to talk about the absence of combat experience any longer.

"Fits," I say.

Daren nods. Already headed towards the exit hallway, B-rank, settled, 851 out of a thousand and two flags down from three.

I follow him with a shortbow strapped to my back and 97 EXP and the distinct sensation of having modified a single variable within an equation with many more variables yet to be manipulated.

This is not enough.

It is more than this morning.