The explanation of the south passage took around twelve minutes.

Mira paid attention as if she had already heard much of what I was going to say but needed to fill some blanks. Patiently but efficiently — she asked two questions, both reasonable, but neither is something that comes from someone who runs dungeons for the first time. About timing windows between patrols reset. I gave my straight answer.

We left the guild hall a little before half past noon; standing on the stairs and looking down upon the market district and the Undercroft entrance two plazas away, the rune ring barely glowing in daylight.

"You don’t need to look after me on Floor 1."

"I know."

"Why do you stay then?"

"Because I have 233 EXP to earn and am indifferent about which direction I’m going to choose first."

There was a slight pause. She started to descend the stairs and I followed suit. The only thing left for me was either go downstairs with her or stay where I stood, looking like an idiot making a sudden decision to change his mind.

We walked.

Ping from the wiki was at 83% somewhere between the guild hall and the first plaza.

---

WIKI — ALERT UPDATE

Entry: Mira

Generation: 83%

New data: Subject inserted into Shattered Vows Online through external interference, means of entry similar to Kai insertion. Point of origin: outskirts of Ashveil, day one. Assigned role: [REDACTED]. Role accepted: NO.

Note: Subject refused assigned role during first 6 hours of insertion. Subject is currently operating without script.

---

I read that twice over.

Assigned a role, refused it.

She’d had a script offered to her and refused it in less time than I’d needed to figure out mine.

"You had a role assignment," I said.

She kept on going. "Yes."

"You refused it."

"Yes."

"What was the role?"

Silence. Then another plaza of walking.

"Rival," she said. "Female rival. Made to generate some friction between Daren and Lyra for act two. Arc of jealousy, misunderstandings all designed, typical sort of thing." She delivered it like a business proposition she’d refused, not upset, just moved on. "Read the wiki. Knew where the arc went. Didn’t want it."

I pondered on this.

The rival arc. I knew of it from the wiki; it was an intermediate flag sequence that was rather insignificant to the main story. Rival character showed up, made waves, then was resolved by act three where Daren finally pledged himself to Lyra just as Vorn’s corruption campaign gained momentum.

Except this time, the rival was a real person. The person standing beside me who rejected her part six hours into her journey.

"Smart," I said.

"I thought so." She sidled to me slightly. "Unlike you — you didn’t refuse your role."

"I did not know that I had the option to."

"Fair enough."

There was more activity in the Undercroft entrance at noon compared to the earlier morning period. The queue for permits was quite long; we were four behind in line. Mira obtained her Floor 1 clearance without any problem whatsoever — unclassified rank, unrestricted access, the clerk even did not raise his head.

I received my Floor 3 clearance.

This time, however, the clerk did raise his head; he took note of the D-rank I wore, then raised his eyes to look back at the permit.

"Floor 3," he stated flatly.

"Floor 3," I agreed.

He stamped it quickly then returned it to me.

We reached the point where Floor 1 turned leftward and the other path went down further. Typical check-in. Blue rune marking the branch point, etched into the stone wall.

Mira stopped at the branch point.

"I can find the southern passage," she said.

"Of course you can."

"Well, then you go grind."

I stared at her. She stared back. My wiki was at 83% and the last 17% was waiting, unclaimed, while there was at least one hidden flag on her player profile that I hadn’t done anything with.

"Mira."

"Yes?"

"Your profile has at least one hidden flag on it. The wiki doesn’t know what it does, but you do."

Her face remained unchanged, save for the way her eyes moved slightly. "It’s an objective flag," she said.

"Do you need to do it, or does someone else?"

A pause.

"Both. Maybe."

That was not an answer I wanted to hear.

"Vorn knows you’re here," I said. "At a minimum, he’s been analyzing you since day two. However many objectives you have, he will discover all of them far sooner than you would like."

She took that in stride. "I’m aware of that."

"Do our objectives conflict?"

Longest silence yet.

"I don’t know yet," she replied. Straightforward answer, whether that was comforting or more disconcerting depended on how you interpreted her tone. "It all depends on what you do next."

---

WIKI — ALERT UPDATE

Entry: Mira

Generation: 89%

Hidden flag — partial unlock:

Type: OBJECTIVE

Content: Subject has independent operational goal in Ashveil. Goal intersects with Kai’s known interference pattern. Alignment: CONDITIONAL.

Note: Full flag content locked pending Kai action threshold.

---

Conditional alignment.

Brilliant.

"Go check your floor," I told her.

"Gotta." Left turn at junction. Took two steps. Paused. "Kai."

"Yeah."

"For twenty-five days you’ve been going solo here. You don’t have to keep going at it alone anymore."

Then she headed off down the south passage.

I lingered at the junction for four seconds doing absolutely nothing, which was starting to become a problem I had to solve later, then started walking straight towards Floor 3.

Lower loop was quiet.

I ran through it on autopilot — south passage empty, first junction secure, Thornback timing reliable. Two kills before I’d gotten around to actually thinking about what was said at the junction.

---

*+14 EXP — Thornback Runner (Weak Point Kill)*

*+14 EXP — Thornback Runner (Weak Point Kill)*

---

795 EXP.

Wiki reached 91% somewhere in the curved corridor.

---

WIKI — ALERT UPDATE

Entry: Mira

Generation: 91%

New data: Previously associated with Shattered Vows Online canon material — reader, not player. Entered game with complete wiki knowledge as well as supplemental forums knowledge. Level of foreknowledge exceeds Kai index by approximately 14%.

Secondary note: Subject aware of redacted flag on Vorn. Unknown what it contains but she is aware of it.

---

I paused motion for one second.

Mira knew about the redacted flag.

Not just that it existed, but that she knew about it. Meaning she had found out something from the supplementary forums that I had not. Something which she got that went beyond the standard wiki content to give her context about the fourth flag on Vorn, which I was totally oblivious of.

Fourteen percent more foreknowledge than me and she’d been here three days longer.

File this under Extremely Relevant and keep walking.

First Crawler. Lower loop entrance. Sixty-two feet.

Drew. Held. Released.

---

*+55 EXP — Ironback Crawler (Weak Point Kill)*

---

850 EXP.

The wiki hit 94%.

---

WIKI — ALERT UPDATE

Entry: Mira

Generation: 94%

New data: Subject’s assigned role — Female Rival — has secondary mechanical functionality within game design. The role serves as CORRUPTION VECTOR. Canonical rival storyline plays dual role: surface narrative action, passive corruption boost on Lyra through jealousy markers.

Clarification: Subject’s rejection of her role nullified this functionality. Corruption vector: INACTIVE.

Cross-reference: Corruption reset of Lyra — Kai. Corrupting rival vector — Mira refusal. Net result: Closure of Vorn’s Lyra corruption path in two completely separate directions.

---

I saw that while walking and almost missed the timing on the second Crawler’s patrol route.

Two completely separate directions. At the same time.

We hadn’t known about each other being there. We hadn’t synchronized anything. Both of us had just independently decided — I’d reset Lyra’s corruption straight up, she’d rejected her rival role that would’ve boosted it anyway, and between the two we’d closed off Vorn’s primary access path to Lyra from both ends at once.

Vorn had been six weeks’ work undone by two people who didn’t even know each other.

I recalled his look in the alley. Curious but not annoyed.

Yes, I was beginning to comprehend why.

Second Crawler. Curved path. Corrected toward the right of center.

Drew. Adjusted. Released.

---

*+55 EXP — Ironback Crawler (Weak Point Kill)*

---

905 EXP.

The wiki was at 98% now.

---

WIKI — ALERT UPDATE

Entry: Mira

Generation: 98%

Remaining data: [2% LOCKED — condition unmet]

Unlock condition: [REDACTED]

Note: Final entry block requires in-world trigger to complete. Type of trigger: interaction-based.

---

Certainly.

The final two percent would not unlock itself. Something had to be triggered first to make way for the data to be unlocked.

The trigger for unlocking the final entry of the wiki was objective-based and contingent upon mine, meaning the next thing I did was significant.

I loved it, honestly. Extremely relieving, if anything.

Third Crawler. Narrow pathway. Approximately twenty-two feet.

Drew low. Flat release. Joint hit, clean.

---

*+55 EXP — Ironback Crawler (Weak Point Kill)*

---

960 EXP.

Only forty more to go.

End chamber. Fourth Crawler. Sixty feet away. Line of sight clear. Practiced this routine often enough now that my hands did everything instinctively.

Drew. Held two beats. Released.

---

*+55 EXP — Ironback Crawler (Weak Point Kill)*

---

1015 EXP.

The notification came even before I had finished lowering the bow.

---

RANK UP

D → C

STR: 12 → 18

AGI: 17 → 23

INT: 20 → 24

New skill unlocked: Threat Assessment I

Floor access unlocked: Floor 4

Guild standing: updated

Note: Stat increase reflects rank threshold bonus. Weapon scaling recalculated — shortbow damage output increased.

---

I stared at the numbers in the end chamber.

STR 18. AGI 23. INT 24.

It was hardly anything worth boasting about, by any stretch of the imagination — Daren was sitting at STR 94, Vorn was A-minus rank, the creature that I had just slain had more physical strength than all of those stats combined. Yet eighteen was not twelve. And twenty-three was not seventeen.

The shortbow felt slightly different in my hands. It was most likely in my mind. Then again, maybe it wasn’t.

I collected my bounty marker, began making my way out of the dungeon, and considered the fact that somewhere above me Mira was going through Floor 1, armed with fourteen percent more foreknowledge than myself, an awareness of Vorn’s redacted flag, and a conditional objective that relied on my actions going forward.

There were still two percent left for the wiki.

---

CURRENT STATS

STR: 18

AGI: 23

INT: 24

Skills: Friendly Conversation / Moral Support / Observe / Evasion I / Throwing I / Fast Learner / Precision Shot II / Enemy Analysis I / Pattern Recognition II / Threat Assessment I

EXP: 15/1500

Rank: C

MIRA — UPDATED PROFILE

Name: Mira [surname pending]

Rank: Unclassified

Origin: Non-game confirmed

Foreknowledge: HIGH — exceeds Kai index

Relationship / Kai: 31

Relationship / Daren: 23

Hidden flag: 1 — [REDACTED — unlock condition unmet]

Alignment: CONDITIONAL

Threat classification: UNKNOWN — reassessing

VORN — FLAG UPDATE

Lyra pathway: CLOSED — dual interference confirmed

Daren contact: ONGOING — 128, organic

Redacted flag: ACTIVE — Mira awareness confirmed

Kai classification: CONFIRMED OPPOSITION — C rank noted