The shortbow has a different feel the second day.

It isn’t necessarily better, just less alien. The weight of it resting against my back no longer feels like something that I’m carrying but something that is there, an evolution that the wiki describes in its progression system as "familiarity" but which I refer to more prosaically as "not being sure if you’ve borrowed some other player’s gear."

Floor 1. Solo. Early hours of the morning, before the market is open and the clerk at the checkpoint is the night shift guard who has not yet adopted his Kai expression, filling out the paperwork for me with all the impersonality of a brain still half-asleep.

I begin my descent.

The passage looks as it always does. Light from moss, the scent of mineral water, the low ceiling and deliberate silence. My UI interface comes up on entering the passage.

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KAI – NPC Unit #4471

Role: Childhood Friend (Supporting)

Rank: Unclassified

STR: 12 / AGI: 15 / INT: 20 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Skills: Friendly Conversation / Moral Support / Observe / Evasion I / Throwing I / Fast Learner

Weapon: Shortbow (Tier 2, AGI Scaling)

EXP: 140/500

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140. Fast Learner compounding. Now there’s definitely some curvature.

I nock an arrow — the floor three rest node had a shortbow quiver cache next to the shortbow itself, unused and pointed out by Daren, and which I took despite myself because I’m not too ashamed to admit that I need all the practice I can get — and head to the first hallway.

A Skitterer appears at the thirty-second mark, just like always. It would seem that Floor 1 Skitterers aren’t the most creative creatures, and have predictable habits, which is helpful when attempting to familiarize oneself with a new weapon.

The difference is that I don’t attempt to dodge this time.

Instead, I draw.

Drawing an arrow from a Tier 2 shortbow with STR 12 is less than impressive. Wiki weapon entries claim it’s enough for Floor 1 enemies at close range with AGI scaling activated, meaning I’ll have to hit the target on the first try since the reload time will be significant enough at my current level to force me to use evasion again if I do miss.

Fifteen feet from the Skitterer who moves quickly along the walls.

I can feel it. The use of Evasion I is going on under the action itself – not combat evasion but simply the skill acquired from being aware of foot positioning in relation to danger from the run-and-hide training I used to get the skill two days ago. It transfers, a little bit, into the draw. More steady than it should be for one who has never used a bow until now.

I release.

It strikes the carapace at an angle and slides off – definitely not a direct hit, wrong trajectory, and the Tier 2 bolt causing the low-moderate damage that the UI had indicated was possible on a target needing more finesse than the current user can provide.

However, it slows the Skitterer for half a second as he adjusts.

I draw the second arrow faster than the first. Real-time muscle memory that hasn’t even been trained yet.

The Skitterer lunges towards me. I move out of the way reflexively – using Evasion I – then shoot him from close quarters through the gap in his armor which has been observed for two weeks of seeing Daren’s weapon strike the exact same spot.

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Gained EXP: 12

KAI — 152/500

Combat Log: Enemy killed — range. Kill clean.

Skill Prompt: Precision Shot I — pattern application detected. Add to skill tree?

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Kill clean.

Breathing hard in the corridor beyond whatever just happened, I look down at my combat log. 12 EXP gained — three times the amount I gain from a proximity kill during Daren’s runs. Plus, with Fast Learner still active, I get a skill prompt from killing the enemy via its weak point for a second time.

I add Precision Shot I to my skill tree.

It feels different from anything else — it isn’t unlocking access to a new room like the other skill prompts have done so far, but rather improving an existing room by adding light to it.

At least, I think that’s what it’s doing — the small changes made when I read the room ahead of me make sense within that framework.

I keep going.

The next forty minutes of my Floor 1 journey will be very different from every one prior.

But differently. Evade and ranged attack begin communicating — Evade I analyzing the threat, Precision Shot I finding an opening, Pattern Recognition I of the Throwing tree translating into archery in a way that appears to have been foreseen by the compatibility remarks on the wiki skills page.

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EXP: 203/500

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203. I pause in the middle of the hallway, looking at the number.

203 out of 500. Fast Learner active. If this progression continues, then D-rank is not two weeks away but perhaps five days away.

Five days.

I consider Vorn’s escalation pathway, now active in the flag log. I consider approach vector established, how he took three weeks to get Lyra from zero to 91 and how patient the wiki article devoted three paragraphs to explaining it. Five days is nothing to sneeze at. Five days is the difference between D-rank requiring a certain threshold be met and D-rank granting Floor 2 access.

I bring up the skills menu and take a look at what unlocking D-rank unlocks for me.

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D-Rank Unlock – available at 500 EXP

Combat Skill Node: Rapid Shot I – increases ranged attack speed

Combat Skill Node: Close Quarters I – enters melee branch

Floor 2 Access – unlocked

Stat Growth Rate Increase: +15% to all stats per dungeon floor cleared

Quest Availability: D-rank quests

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Rapid Shot I. That reload problem that caused me to waste half a quiver against four Skitterers, giving them a chance to approach after every misfire — well, that’s either gone or at least greatly minimized for D-rank monsters.

I glance ahead into the hallway. Half quiver remains. The rest node is two hallways away, and the supply storage contains the necessary consumables, including spare bolts behind a restricted lock.

I continue my way forward.

The Stoneback Beetle lies at the end of the next hallway.

I take a look at it. It regards me with its sensory organs where eyes should be. There’s some history between the beetle and I; it spent six minutes waiting with me at a chokepoint last week, absorbing multiple arrow shots in the process without any complaints.

I nock an arrow.

There’s a description of the beetle in the wiki’s monster entry notes that I’ve read at least three times but never used until now because I didn’t have the proper angle. Its carapace is nearly immune to conventional ranged attacks. Its underbelly isn’t. Its underbelly is vulnerable for about one second as it rears to charge.

Precision Shot I, Evasion I, and the exact time that the Stoneback Beetle will rear.

I watch.

The beetle charges.

I evade – Evasion I – and it rears in order to get back into formation. During the one second opportunity that presents itself, I let the shot go, aiming for the belly and it hits, burying itself up until the fletching. It lets out a sound I’ve never heard before and drops dead.

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Experience Gained: 35

KAI — 238/500

Combat Log: Enemy defeated through precision ranged attack – weak point successfully identified. Experience boost awarded.

New Skill Prompt: Enemy Analysis I – enemy weak point detection pattern recognized. Include skill?

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Thirty-five experience points from one little beetle.

I accept the new skill without a second thought.

238 experience points of a possible 500. Fast Learner module active. The experience gain graph is beginning to form a curve now; not a flat line, not even a slight one.

I locate the rest node, take a seat on the protruding rock formation, refill my quiver from the supplies, and access the flag logs for Vorn.

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VORN — Independent Contractor (Unaffiliated)

Mood: Patient

Status: Escalation pathway activated.

Assessment — Kai: Monitoring.

Flag: Strategy deployment — pending timing assessment.

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Pending timing assessment.

He is waiting for something. The perfect time, the right opportunity, the exact moment when he can move forward from an active to deployed status. Patient and well-calibrated.

I observe the EXP bar.

238. Such efficiency means five days, perhaps only four when the skills gained from training kick in.

I rise, reload my weapon, and move forward down the hallway.

Four days.

I have four days to get the liabilities known this morning to look very different.