The Adventurer Guild of Valenreach did not panic easily.
It was built that way—layered stone, ancient wards, and systems older than the city itself. Designed to withstand monster tides, rogue mages, even divine remnants.
And at its heart lay the **Detection Array**.
A circular chamber beneath the guild hall, lined with rune-inscribed pillars and crystal conduits. It measured fluctuations in mana across the region—violent surges, forbidden magic, dimensional distortions.
Most days, it was silent.
Today, it wasn't.
A single crystal chimed.
Soft.
Clear.
The rune-scribe on duty frowned and stepped closer. "That's… odd."
The crystal pulsed again.
Not violently.
Not erratically.
Steady.
"That's not a surge," she muttered. "That's a response."
Across the chamber, another pillar flickered.
Then another.
Lines of light connected briefly between them, forming a pattern no one had seen in generations.
"Supervisor," the scribe called, voice controlled but tense. "You should see this."
Guild Supervisor Halvek arrived moments later, his expression already grim. He studied the array in silence.
"Region?" he asked.
"Lurden Forest," the scribe replied. "Edge proximity. Low-intensity amplification."
Halvek frowned. "Low-intensity doesn't trigger this many nodes."
"I know," she said. "That's the problem."
The array chimed again.
Not louder.
Deeper.
Halvek's eyes narrowed. "Run classification."
The scribe hesitated. "Sir… classification failed."
The room went still.
"Failed how?" Halvek asked carefully.
"No surge index stabilized," she said. "No spell signature. No elemental alignment. It's not corruption, not summoning, not divine."
Halvek slowly exhaled. "Then what is it?"
The scribe swallowed. "Presence-based reaction."
Silence.
"That classification was deprecated," another official said. "Those are myth-tier cases."
Halvek didn't look away from the array.
"Nothing in this system reacts unless something breaks a rule," he said. "And nothing breaks rules without consequences."
A third crystal pulsed.
This time, the rune pattern shifted.
The array attempted recalibration.
It failed again.
A quiet alarm rune activated—not a siren, not a warning.
A *notice*.
> **ANOMALY: UNRESOLVED**
> **THREAT INDEX: UNDEFINED**
> **ORIGIN: MOBILE**
The scribe's hands trembled. "It's… moving."
Halvek closed his eyes for a moment.
Then opened them.
"Lock this room," he said. "No reports leave this floor."
"Yes, sir."
"And send a quiet request," he continued. "Observer-grade only. No enforcers."
The scribe looked up. "You think it's that serious?"
Halvek stared at the glowing array.
"No," he said quietly. "I think it's worse."
Far from the guild, beyond its walls and wards, a Copper-rank adventurer walked through the forest—unaware that the system designed to protect the world had just noticed him.
And failed to understand him.