The twisted ankle was a problem. Not an unsolvable one, but a problem that demanded optimization.
I sat on the edge of my cot in the Wayward Wake, rotating my foot with methodical precision, watching the debuff timer tick down in my vision: 7 HOURS 23 MINUTES REMAINING. The pain was a dull throb, a 4.2/10 on my personal agony index. Manageable. I'd logged sixteen-hour raid nights with worse.
But the Demon-Bloom quest had a 72-hour maturation window. Varn's intel put us at hour 31 already. I didn't have 7 hours to waste on a status effect.
[SOLUTION MATRIX GENERATING...]
- Potion of Lesser Restoration (Unavailable: 12 copper)
- Meditative Recovery (Duration: 4 hours. Unacceptable.)
- Brute Force Traversal (Risk: Re-injury +35%)
- Leverage Local Resources (Probability of Success: 67%)
The last option had the highest probability. I opened my door—jammed it with the chair when the lock clicked, because 1 Luck meant assuming every sound was a monster—and limped downstairs.
Helga Wake was still awake, wiping down a bar that had seen more blood than ale. Her milky eye swiveled toward me. "Problem, Worldlost?"
"I need a poultice. Something for sprains."
She snorted. "Kitchen. Third cabinet. Blue jar. Don't take the green one unless you want to hallucinate your grandmother." [INFO GATHERED: HELGA'S GRANDMOTHER = DECEASED, PROBABLY TRAUMATIC] .
The blue jar contained paste that smelled of mint and something chemical. My overlay analyzed it:
[CONSUMABLE: MIRE-MENDER SALVE]
[EFFECT: +2 HP/MIN, REMOVES MINOR DEBUFFS (PHYSICAL)]
[DURATION: 1 APPLICATION]
[VALUE: 3 COPPER]
I slathered it on my ankle. The debuff timer dissolved. HP: 60/60 . Status: OPTIMAL.
"Put it on your tab," I said, heading for the door.
"You don't have a tab," Helga called after me. "You have a timer."
Fair point. 3 DAYS REMAINING.
The north gate wasn't a gate so much as a gap in a wall held together by spite and Lumen-sap. Gorum stood there, his bone-and-silver prosthetic gleaming in the pre-dawn dark. He wasn't alone. Mira waited beside him, holding a pack that looked heavier than she was. Her father was conspicuously absent.
"He's sleeping it off," Mira said, reading my expression. Social Deduction overlay flickered: [DECEPTION LIKELIHOOD: 8% - TRUTH, BUT INCOMPLETE] . Varn was probably passed out. The debuff icon would be ALCOHOL POISONING (MODERATE).
Gorum thrust a rolled parchment at me. "Map of the upstream route. Red marks are confirmed Gloomvermin nests. Blue is safe-ish. Black is unknown." The map was hand-drawn, but precise. Military precision. [ITEM: SURVEYOR'S CHART (QUEST ITEM)] [QUALITY: UNCOMMON] .
"Thanks," I said. He grunted. That was apparently his entire vocabulary.
Mira handed me the pack. I took it, felt the weight distribute. [ITEM: SURVIVAL PACK (TEMPORARY)] . I opened it, system windows exploding across my vision like a loot drop in an ARPG.
[GEAR ANALYSIS: MIRRA'S PROVISIONS]
- [IMPERIAL SHORTSWORD] [DAMAGE: 5-12] [QUALITY: COMMON] [DURABILITY: 45/50]
"Better than a monster tooth."
- [LEATHER ARMOR (SET)] [DEFENSE: +8] [QUALITY: COMMON]
"Fits. Mostly. Left shoulder's loose."
- [GLOWCAP LANTERN] [LIGHT: 15 FT] [FUEL: 8 HOURS]
"Don't drop it. The sap explodes." ⚠️
- [MOSS-DRAKE POTION x3] [HP +25] [TOXICITY: MINOR]
- [WISEMAN'S BREW] [MP +15] [TASTE: HORRENDOUS]
- [CLIMBING SPIKES x12] [UTILITY: +40% CLIMB SPEED]
- [SOUNDING CHARM] [EFFECT: MAPS ENCLOSED SPACES] [CHARGES: 1/1]
- [DEMON-BARK SLIVERS x10] [DAMAGE: 1-2 (THROWN)] [EFFECT: MINOR DEMON REPELLENT]
I equipped the leather armor. The system auto-adjusted the left shoulder with a minor [-2% MOBILITY] debuff. Acceptable. The shortsword felt... adequate. A weapon with actual stats. Luxury.
"Sounding Charm's single-use," Mira warned. "Activate it when you're in the Bloom's core chamber. It'll map the structure in 3D. Gorum's artificer charged us forty Essence for that."
Forty Essence. That was a week's work for a salvage team. [SOCIAL DEDUCTION: INVESTMENT CONFIRMED - MIRA HAS STAKED HER REPUTATION ON YOU] .
"Why?" I asked. Not why the gear. Why the risk.
She met my eyes. The social overlay flooded with data: [MIRA: PRESSURE POINTS - FINANCIAL (CRITICAL), FAMILIAL (HIGH), SURVIVAL (EXTREME)] . "The Reach has three days of water left in the clean cisterns. After that, we drink tainted or we die. My father's... not reliable. Gorum won't send his men on a mage's job. You're the only variable that doesn't subtract."
A gambit. She was gambling everything on a Level 2 Worldlost with 1 Luck.
"You know the probability of this working?" I asked.
"Lower than my father's sobriety," she said flatly. "But probability doesn't matter if the alternative is zero."
Gorum's prosthetic whirred. "You leave now. Sun's up in forty minutes. You want to hit the Bloom site at full light—the spores are less active." He paused, then added, "Don't die. Paperwork's a bitch."
[QUEST UPDATE: BLOOM SURVEY]
[TIME REMAINING: 41 HOURS]
[GEAR LOADOUT: COMPLETE]
[RECOMMENDED DEPARTURE: IMMEDIATE]
I shouldered the pack. The weight was 17.3 pounds, distributed at 63% optimal efficiency. My Agility dropped from 6 to 5.8. Still above the movement penalty threshold.
"One more thing," Mira said. She held out a small leather pouch. "Insurance."
Inside was a single glass vial filled with swirling silver mist. [ITEM: WARDEN'S RESIDUE (LEGENDARY?)] .
"It's all that's left of our last mage," she said quietly. "One-time emergency. Break the vial, you get a full mana burst. Might give you ten seconds of Level 15 power. Might also liquefy your organs. 50/50."
[ANALYSIS: MIRRA'S FATHER'S DEBT - WARDEN'S RESIDENCE WAS CONFISCATED, THIS WAS HIDDEN] . She was giving me her family's last treasure.
"Organ liquefaction is suboptimal," I said, but took the vial. It tucked into my armor's chestplate slot perfectly. [QUICK-SLOT ITEM ASSIGNED] .
Mira's smile was thin. "Then don't break it unless the alternative is certain death."
[ALTERNATIVE TO CERTAIN DEATH: ALSO CERTAIN DEATH] . The system had jokes.
I left through the north gap. The path was a deer trail, barely visible. My Tactical Precognition overlaid it with a [OPTIMAL FOOTING] guide, highlighting stable rocks and mud patches to avoid. The twisted ankle debuff was gone, but the system was being cautious. I appreciated that.
The forest was different by daylight. Less menacing, more... watchful. The phosphorescent moss dimmed to a faint glimmer, conserving energy. Birds—actual birds, not demonspawn—called in the canopy. [BESTIARY UPDATING: AVIAN, NON-HOSTILE] . My Intelligence was turning me into a walking encyclopedia.
I traveled for two hours at a ground-eating jog. The map's blue-marked "safe-ish" zones were accurate—minor predators, easily avoided with my predictive windows. The red zones required detours. One Gloomvermin nest was active, three beasts sunning themselves on a rock. My overlay calculated a 94% stealth success path, but the XP gain was only 150 total. [OPPORTUNITY COST: TIME VS REWARD - UNFAVORABLE] . I bypassed them.
At hour three, I hit the first black-marked zone: THE SUNKEN GROVE.
The map had a single note: "Avoid. Water weirds."
The grove was a depression in the forest, flooded with opaque black water that reflected the sky wrong. The trees here were dead, but standing, their bark stripped to white bone. My overlay went haywire: [WARNING: ENCHANTED TERRAIN] [EFFECT: UNKNOWN] .
I should have gone around. The detour would cost ninety minutes.
But the water's surface rippled. Not from wind. Something moved beneath, large enough to displace gallons with each lazy stroke. [ANALYSIS: ??? LEVEL ??] . The system couldn't quantify it. That meant it was way above my pay grade.
I took the detour. [DECISION: PRUDENCE +1] . The system actually tracked that. My Wisdom ticked up by a fractional 0.1. Interesting.
The long way took me through a field of Whispercaps —mushrooms that emitted soft, almost-words when the wind blew. They were harmless, but their spores were psychoactive. My overlay warned: [BREATHE SHALLOW. MASK RECOMMENDED] .
I tore a strip from my shirt, soaked it in water from my canteen. [IMPROVISED FILTER: 45% EFFECTIVE] . Good enough.
The whispers were almost intelligible. "...the river sees... the bloom dreams... the world is a calculation..."
Probably just hallucinations. Probably.
I cleared the field by noon. My stamina bar hovered at 62%. The leather armor's chafing was a minor debuff: [DISCOMFORT: -1% CONCENTRATION] . I'd live.
The stream that fed River's Reach originated from a cave system in a limestone bluff. The map marked it as THE WEEPING STONE . This was the Bloom site.
Even from a hundred yards away, I could see it.
The cave entrance was a weeping wound in the rock, oozing black sap that steamed when it hit the water. The stone around it was wrong, twisted into spirals that hurt to look at. The air shimmered with a purple haze.
[WARNING: DEMON-BLOOM MATURED 37%.]
[AURA: CORRUPTION (MODERATE)]
[EFFECT: -5% HP REGEN, SANITY CHECK EVERY 10 MINUTES]
Sanity checks. Great. My Wisdom was only 6. I'd fail those like a freshman fails calculus.
I checked my gear one last time. Shortsword, sharp. Armor, secure. Potions, accessible. The Warden's Residue vial pulsed against my chest, warm and terrifying.
[TACTICAL PRECOGNITION: ENTERING IN 3... 2... 1...]
The future flickered. I saw myself stepping into the cave. I saw... static. The Bloom's corruption interfered with the prediction, reducing my 4.1-second window to 0.8 seconds. Inside, I'd be flying blind.
[PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 0.03% → ENVIRONMENTAL INTERFERENCE DETECTED → TRUE ODDS: UNKNOWN]
The unknown is worse than zero. Zero is calculable.
I drew my sword. The steel caught the light, reflected nothing. It felt too light in my hand. [SHORTSWORD: READY] .
The cave mouth breathed cold air that smelled of ozone and decay. The whispers from the mushrooms were louder here, almost coherent: "...calculate... the cost... the river... remembers..."
Somewhere inside, the Demon-Bloom's heart was beating. Growing. Dreaming of Breach.
[QUEST OBJECTIVE: MAP THE STRUCTURE. IDENTIFY THE CORE.]
I took a breath, activated the Sounding Charm —a faint ping that echoed into darkness, building a wireframe map in my overlay—and stepped inside.
The shadows swallowed me whole. The twin moons vanished. The world's rules changed.
The grind had just begun, and already I was out of my depth.
[HP: 60/60]
[MP: 12/12]
[SANITY: 6/6] ⚠️ CORRUPTION DEBUFF ACTIVE
The system was still there. Still calculating. Still my anchor in a place that defied logic.
I walked deeper, and the darkness began to see me back.
---
[CHAPTER 4 END]
[PROGRESS TRACK:]
[LEVEL: 2]
[LOCATION: DEMON-BLOOM CAVE, OUTER CHAMBER]
[SANITY: 5.8/6] ⚠️ DECREASING
[PROBABILITY OF SURVIVAL: UNKNOWN (INSUFFICIENT DATA)]
The cave awaits.