She was discovered by us on the fourth day of our present run.

Or did she discover us? This was less important than it might have been because everything that happened on Floor 6 behaved differently from everything on any other floor, and when something came into view at the head of the corridor that was not a Shade, it took me less than half a second to go through Combat Instinct I before Pattern Recognition II kicked in and categorized it as humanoid shape, not enemy architecture.

Draw was still in. Kept locked.

She stood where two paths branched away from the main corridor — one path on each side — in precisely the geometric arrangement used on Floor 6 to mess with your orientation. Her back was against the left-side path wall as she observed us, and she was observing with that special intensity that indicated she had already sized us up while we had only just noticed her.

UI instantly displayed her information.

RIN — STATUS

Name: Rin

Class: Solo Runner — Floor 6

Grade: B

Corruption meter: 4/100

Relations / Kai: 0

Mood: Observant / Alert

Flags: NONE

Data source: Game-native. No wikis available.

B-ranked solo runner. Corruption meter rated at four — standard, essentially nothing, a figure that builds up from existing in a city even when corruption mechanics were running. No flags detected. She was game native, which meant she was created by the world itself instead of inserted into it through any other means.

A post-canon character spawn. It was curious that her spawn was noted on the wiki since this character hadn’t appeared in the canonical storyline, considering Floor 6 wasn’t cleared within the canon, meaning we weren’t far enough along to encounter her yet. She was an artifact of our presence.

I released the string.

"You’re B-ranked," she said, not asking but stating as a fact from reading my guild emblem. "You’ve cleared Floor 5."

"Yes," I replied.

"And you did it alone?"

"With help — Mira and I were the only two who made it through," I answered, waving towards Mira with one hand as I kept my gaze fixed on Rin. "What about you?"

"I’m a solo runner," she answered, making no fuss over it. "Eleven days on this floor."

Eleven days alone on Floor 6. Cross-referenced that with my knowledge of the layout on the floor; the fluctuating Shade combat strategies, the vertical drop capacity, the zero EXP system. Eleven days alone indicated one of two things; either she had some serious skill beyond her B-rank standing, or she had found a way to traverse this floor which we didn’t know about.

"You know the layout."

There was something different in her expression. Not shock, but rather evaluation. "You observed the web geometry."

"Pattern Recognition II." I responded. "Four days into it. You’ve spent eleven days here; you’ve got more of it than us."

She glanced at me for a second before turning to Mira and then back to me.

She was small. Petite frame, short black hair tied back neatly. Someone who had been working in tight areas long enough that their entire physique adapted to it. Weapon style consisted of paired short blades; hilt of each visible over her shoulders. She was melee and likely high strength as opposed to Mira and myself’s ranged strategy.

"You’re the ones who’ve been killing Shades," she said.

I thought about that. "You gave them the same name."

"It’s how they look." Pause. "You found the neck joint."

"Four down."

"Three for me." Something that could’ve been an affirmative in her voice, could’ve just been a statement. Not easy to decipher at relationship zero. "The ones that go up are worse."

"They’re tough. Mira changed positioning after the first one failed. We haven’t lost anyone since."

Rin finally turned to properly assess Mira for the first time. Quality assessment — noting the crossbow, the INT scaling profile, and the stance Mira adopted holding the crossbow, neither lowered nor raised but precisely between the two positions. Mira held herself that way when she was collecting information.

"INT scaling," Rin said.

"Yes," Mira said. Her first contribution to the conversation. She’d been assessing her since she appeared and was satisfied with what she saw. "STR primary for you."

"STR 71," Rin said. "AGI secondary. My INT is low."

"Complementary," Mira said.

It balanced out. Rin’s STR-melee class made up for the engagement distance where our team couldn’t effectively fight. While we had our strengths when it came to combat, Mira and I could hardly deal any significant damage within melee range. The addition of another angle to the mix would address an issue that we’d been avoiding until now.

Information transfer was a more pressing matter.

"The structure of the web," I pointed out. "You mentioned you’ve spent eleven days in this floor already. How much of its center-point layout have you covered."

Rin looked me over inquisitively. "What’s the point in telling you that."

Good question. Our relationship could best be described as nonexistent. Without even the most basic of established patterns in place, she wasn’t about to share any sensitive information with the likes of us.

"Because we have something you’ve missed out on for eleven whole days." I continued. "We know of an EXP gate. So far, you’ve managed to slay some Shades without gaining a shred of experience same as we did. And based on our theory, you have quite the credit there. We’re heading towards the center point. If the guardian’s there, we have to clear it."

Rin remained silent.

I looked at the numbers run. She was smart; there was no doubt about that apart from her statistics or rank; she was smart enough to realize that a team of three with matching profiles had a higher chance of encountering a guardian-class monster than any lone adventurer, even an excellent one.

"How many Shades?" Rin asked.

"I killed thirty-one for both of us. Add to that your eleven days."

"Forty-six," Rin said.

This meant we would have collectively killed seventy-seven Shades if our tabs were counting in the same way. The experience points on clearing a guardian were going to be impressive, but I did not know the exact numbers; I did not have access to wiki information on the floor above, but the math on seventy-seven gated kills would certainly mean something.

"Show me your map," Rin finally said. "I’ll show you mine."

We looked for a wide spot on the corridor. There were a few of these spots in Floor 6 due to its organic structure; the walls seemed to move away in some places and provided ample room.

Her map was superior to ours. Eleven days had given her access to areas that we hadn’t explored, deeper into the web pattern, three of the most significant junction points that we had earmarked for exploration. Our maps were more detailed in respect to the entrance adjacent sections and the behavioral patterns in Shade variants, while she had only witnessed their standard formation and the vertical formation and not the latter’s formation in parallel.

It was almost an absolute map when combined.

There was the central point. The direction of both our individual maps showed the same bias towards a point that was definitely not a dead end; from its geometry alone, it could be safely stated that it was the largest room on the floor compared to all other rooms. Rin got within two junctions of it before being chased off by three Shades.

"Three at once?"

"Two normal Shades and one vertical. It dropped after the normal Shades attacked." Her tone remained even as ever. "I turned back; no need to get killed over information."

"Smart," Mira commented.

"And you would’ve done the same," said Rin.

"Yes," agreed Mira.

Some tiny thing changed in Rin’s body language, and even though it was minuscule, I noticed it because I had been watching that zero on the relationship meter and waiting for the slightest indication of movement.

RIN — STATUS

Relationship / Kai: 7

Relationship / Mira: 4

Corruption meter: 4/100

Mood: Assessing / Interested

Note: Organic establishment phase activated — proximity and demonstration of competency

Seven relationship points gained from the map comparison and the tactical discussion. A baseline establishment, nothing more, but progress all the same — especially since there was no change in the corruption meter. Still stuck at its initial position of four, this one was going to grow solely through organic interaction.

That awareness was something different from my experience with Lyra. There was something meaningful about watching a relationship meter build up from zero rather than waiting for the corruption meter to get to ninety-one.

"Three-person run," I said. "Tomorrow morning. We take the center chamber."

Rin regarded me. "You assume that I agree to a group."

"You haven’t walked away," I said.

A moment’s pause.

"Tomorrow morning," she said. "Undercroft entrance. Early."

"Early," I said.

And with that, she collected her half of the map — our practice had been to duplicate each others’ notes rather than consolidate onto a single page, probably a combination of prudence and necessity — and turned back the way she’d come without another word. No pleasantries about sealing the deal with words and smiles. Just a businesslike statement of the terms and an exit.

Mira watched her leave.

"She’s got some skills," Mira commented.

"Yeah."

"Going eleven days solo on this floor? That’s not something to ignore."

"No. It isn’t."

"And it means that Rin is going to be changing our engagement strategy."

"It’ll help. The close range difference is problematic."

There was a moment’s silence.

"The corruption meter," Mira remarked.

"Four. Base line background score."

"I noticed. Did you notice me noticing?"

That was all she said about the matter. Mira had wiki information combined with forum information; she was just as familiar with the corruption system as I was. She knew, having been around me long enough at this point, that the reason I was keeping track of the meter didn’t mean that I was activating it.

The distinction was important.

We marked the final part of our present corridor and emerged back into reality an hour later. It was still quiet at the Broken Crown — not enough of the evening crowd had arrived yet but it was also too late for the lunch crowd. Sena set down our cups without even being told to.

The next day, we’d take the center chamber.

The center chamber had seventy-seven Shades’ worth of gated experience stored up in there somewhere beyond what would be inside of Floor 6’s intricate geometry.

I could hardly wait to see what kind of value it had.