The first time I really saw Lyra smile was after she dismantled a bugged Shadow Wraith in four seconds flat.
We'd been dungeon-hopping just outside Elderfall, testing out low-tier zones with high-reward risk markers. The Wraith had clipped through a wall and appeared behind us mid-combat.
I flinched. She didn't.
A dagger flash, one blink-step, and a backwards roll—gone.
"You didn't even ping," I said, wiping off a status debuff with a tag-seal.
She grinned, eyes bright. "Didn't need to."
I'd seen plenty of show-offs in Ascension. Lyra wasn't one of them.
She just was good. Fast on her feet. Scary with her timing. Still new to the game, by her own admission—but her instincts made up for it tenfold.
[Player 'LyraFen' – Bond Affinity: Stable | Tactical Sync: 87%]
The SYSTEM hadn't given us an official party synergy rating yet, but I could feel it growing. She adjusted to my casting rhythms like she'd memorized them. When I delayed a spell tag mid-combo to catch an enemy dash, she already had a dagger waiting where I'd redirected the blast.
We made a good team.
Better than I ever had before.
Back in Elderfall, the square was quiet—afternoon lull.
We returned from a short delve with a few dozen silver, one rare tag scroll, and a pouch of tagged ink dust. It wasn't much, but it felt earned.
Lyra sat at the edge of the town fountain, sorting through loot. I sat beside her and opened my Lexicon, fingers tracing faint glyph scars on the paper.
"Hey," she said after a pause. "You ever going to explain how you knew to take that left path in the dungeon?"
"What left path?"
"The one no one goes down," she said. "With the hidden chest behind the burnable wall?"
I didn't look up. "It was just a hunch."
She snorted. "You're the worst liar I've ever met."
I didn't answer.
Because the truth was this: I did know that route. I'd taken it years ago. Died at the end. Learned from it.
The Lexicon pulsed faintly beside me—responding to my thoughts.
[Ink Efficiency Review: Improved by 4%]Tag Sequences Analyzed: 74Suggested Experiment: Delay + Thread Detonation
It wasn't a spellbook anymore.
It was alive.
And learning with me.
I left Lyra in town and walked the outer wall path alone.
The sun dipped low across the Duskridge hills, casting long shadows between trees.
That's when I saw it.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Observation Detected]You are being watched.
No sender.
No player tag.
Just text—unsettlingly cold. A flicker of UI data passed across my vision, then vanished.
I stopped walking.
The Lexicon hovered silently beside me, pages still.
Then the wind shifted—and my interface glitched.
A single frame of static.
Then it was gone.
Back in town, I bought extra ink and a fresh dagger for Lyra before logging out.
But before logging off, I detoured to the smithy.
The vendor greeted me with the same gruff, placeholder dialogue I'd memorized years ago, but the forge menu opened with a flicker I hadn't noticed before—almost like it hesitated, reading me.
I traded in a handful of raw materials from the Duskridge run and slotted in a basic ember tag I'd stabilized earlier. The result?
[Crafted: Worn Ember-Edged Chisel]A low-tier tool infused with residual glyphfire. Can etch weak magical surfaces or assist in tag placement.
I didn't keep it.
Instead, I sold it to a passing player for 14 silver—double what I would've made from the dungeon reward.
That wasn't much.
But rent was due in five days.
And in this timeline, even support classes needed side hustles.
When I blinked awake in my dorm pod, the feeling stayed with me.
The hum of the pod. The buzz of my monitor. The ache in my fingers from clenching the VR links.
I looked over at the class schedule on my terminal.
I was two hours late for my project meeting.
But all I could think about was glyph drift patterns and tag lag timers.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Player 'Aiden Chase' has exceeded expected behavioral learning curve.]Anomaly Type: Loopwalker | System Integrity Check: Partial Deviation Noted[Escalating Observation – ECHO Subprocess Engaged]
Somewhere behind the code…
Someone, or something, was watching.
And it wasn't part of the tutorial.