Ren moved first.
He slid one foot back, set both hands neatly at his sides, and bowed.
It was a real bow. Clean line through the spine. Exact angle. Precise enough that Kage’s own shoulders straightened on reflex.
“Thank you,” Ren said as he rose. “For helping Lily and the others clear the Goblin Mines on launch day.”
Kage blinked once.
Most players thanked people by looting faster than them, stealing the boss chest, and typing “gg” on the way out. This guy bowed like he was standing on polished wood with a shinai in his hands.
A faint pulse traveled through Mumyo’s grip at Kage’s hip. Warm. Curious.
Ren continued before Kage could decide what expression fit the situation.
“I was supposed to be in that party. Something came up in real life and I missed launch by several hours.” His voice stayed calm, even, respectful. “Lily told me they would have failed the dungeon without you.”
The sincerity landed harder than the words.
Kage had a ready shelf full of responses for suspicion, greed, panic, ego, and plain old stupidity. Sincere gratitude took longer. It always did.
Politeness? he thought.
The label felt cheap.
No. Weight. The guy meant it.
Kage gave him a short nod.
“It worked out for me too,” he said. “Your friends kept up.”
Ren’s eyes sharpened very slightly at that. Approval, maybe. Relief, maybe. He dipped his head once more, smaller this time.
“I’m glad.”
The conversation reached a natural stopping point and immediately became awkward. Kage could handle blood, chaos, and impossible timing windows. Standalone social sincerity kept finding gaps in his armor.
Fortunately, the universe sent him an emergency exit in the shape of a moving lighthouse.
A streak of white cut through the crowd at the gate.
Even under Korros’s gold and violet lights, Vami’s armor looked offensive. He walked like he owned three different speed limits and found all of them insulting.
Beside him came a woman who immediately made the whole visual composition make sense by contrast.
[Jules - Lvl 20 (Tender)]
The first thing Kage registered was the absence of spectacle. She wasn't trying. Light armor, practically cut and beautifully fitted, a healer's tools arranged without decoration. She had used her real biometric scan, apparently, because the face was simply a face and the kind of proportional, genuine construction that stood out in a city full of sculpted fantasy designs precisely because it made no argument for itself.
Vami saw Kage and grinned.
“You’re on time,” Kage said.
“I know. Try to hide your excitement.”
Julie looked from Vami to Kage, then offered Kage a small smile that actually reached her eyes.
“So you’re Kage.”
“That depends,” Kage said. “Am I being blamed for something?”
Julie laughed immediately. Easy laugh. No strain in it.
“Not yet. I’m Julie. Jules in-game.” She jerked a thumb at Vami. “This disaster is mine.”
Vami placed a hand over his chest. “Rude.”
“Accurate.”
"He said you were very good," she said, and the tone carried the weight of someone correcting a record that had been understated. "Which from Vami is, genuinely, embarrassingly high praise."
Vami appeared to be checking his inventory.
Kage gave him a look. Vami closed his inventory and said nothing, the corners of his mouth doing something that wasn't quite a smile.
Ren gave them a polite nod. “Ren.”
Vami’s gaze slid to Ren’s nameplate.
[Ren - Lvl 21 (The Still-Water Duelist)]
“Rare class,” he said. “Good. If this raid turns into a slaughterhouse, I prefer qualified coworkers.”
Ren took that with the same calm he took everything else. “I’ll try to meet your standards.”
“You won’t,” Vami said cheerfully. “Nobody does.” His eyes moved to Kage for a fraction of a second.
Julie patted his arm as they stopped near Kage. “He says things like that when he wants to make friends.”
“I say things like that when I’m correct.”
Kage looked at Julie again, properly this time.
Tender.
Before the thought settled, the rest of the group arrived in a loose cluster from the market road.
Lily came first, staff in hand, auburn hair tied back, expression bright the second she spotted Kage.
[Lily - Lvl 18 (Holy Priest)]
Finn moved at her left shoulder.
[Finn - Lvl 18 (Pathfinder)]
His hawk glided overhead, circled once in the clean evening air, then settled on the limestone lip of a nearby fountain. Finn’s eyes kept drifting upward between glances at the crowd, like he still couldn’t quite believe a sky this open existed, even in a game.
Jax walked on Lily’s right.
[Jax - Lvl 18 (Fighter)]
He wore plate polished to a hard shine and carried a sword that looked expensive in the specific way money tried to imitate confidence. Better gear than launch day. Of course. When he spotted Kage, some old reflex tightened in his jaw, then he swallowed it and kept moving.
Valdrias followed a half-step behind them.
[Valdrias - Lvl 18 (Guardian)]
He carried the Bark-Iron Bulwark on his arm, the heavy shield looking increasingly natural there. Good. He’d stopped holding it like a piece of furniture and started holding it like part of his body. He should switch it off already, though. The stat gap between early levels was huge.
Zara arrived last.
[Zara - Lvl 19 (Frost Mage)]
Of course she had an extra level.
Her robes stayed practical, dark blue and silver with frost-threaded hems, and her expression held the same permanent disapproval she reserved for server lag, inefficient builds, and oxygen.
Lily lifted a hand.
“Kage!”
Then she saw Ren and lit up further.
“Ren, you made it!”
Ren’s entire posture softened by a few degrees when he looked at her. “I said I would.”
Lily closed the distance and stopped just short of what would have been a hug in any normal social setting. In full-dive, people still hesitated around physical contact for half a dozen reasons, most of them awkward. She settled for grabbing his forearm with both hands.
“You’re finally here,” she said.
Zara looked over Ren once, looked at the class name, then gave a short nod. “Useful.”
“Hello to you too,” Ren said.
Jax jerked a thumb at Ren. “You still owe me for missing launch, by the way.”
Ren looked at him. “You seem to have survived.”
Jax glanced once at Kage, then gave a rough little huff. “Yeah. Apparently.”
Finn spotted Kage next and visibly tried to decide whether to wave, salute, or stand at attention. He ended up doing a nervous half-raise of the hand.
“Uh. Hi.”
“Still breathing,” Kage said. “Good start.”
Finn huffed a tiny laugh. The hawk above him ruffled its feathers.
Jax stopped in front of Kage next.
“Kage.”
The single word came out compressed, filed down by effort.
Kage gave him the same nod he gave everyone else. “Jax.” Lily’s shoulders eased by a visible inch.
Valdrias stepped forward with complete earnestness.
“Kage,” he said. “I have continued practicing tyranny.”
Julie blinked.
Lily covered her face for half a second. Zara closed her eyes like someone enduring weather.
Vami looked delighted. “I like him.” Kage kept his expression flat.
Introductions began properly after that.
Lily handled them because Lily handled everything social the way good supports handled everything, early and before the fire spread.
“I’m Lily,” she said. “This is Zara, Finn, Jax, and Valdrias. Ren too, obviously.”
Julie smiled sweetly at her. “I'm Julie, it's nice to meet—"
“Very good healer,” Vami interrupted.
Julie eyed him. “You say that only because you enjoy living.”
“That’s true.”
Lily looked genuinely relieved. “Two healers is amazing.”
Julie gave her an appraising glance whilst a slight curve appeared around the corners of her mouth.
“As a heads up,” Julie pointed with a thumb offhandedly at Vami. “If he starts vibrating, he’s about to do something stupid.”
“I heard that.”
“That’s because you’re next to me.”
Finn stared between the two of them, then muttered to his hawk, “They seem stable.”
Zara answered without missing a beat. “Your standards are low.”
Jax snorted. “He’s glowing. That already feels unstable.”
Kage watched the little social web form in real time.
Lily warmed to Julie in under thirty seconds. Finn relaxed because Lily relaxed. Valdrias accepted Julie the way he accepted weather reports and aggro rules. Zara started evaluating party cohesion like it was a spreadsheet she hadn’t asked to open. Jax spent ten quiet seconds sizing up Vami’s armor, another five deciding whether this counted as a competition, then caught Lily’s glance and remembered how to act in public.
Ren stood in it all with calm attention, saying little, measuring distances even in conversation. When Zara shifted half a step, he adjusted half a step. When Vami drifted closer on instinct, Ren gave him exactly enough room for a sword that was still sheathed.
Yeah, Kage thought. This guy’s the real thing. Or close enough to be annoying.
Then Valdrias noticed Vami’s level.
[Vami - Lvl 25 (Radiant Cutthroat)]
He stared at the number with full, open admiration.
“You are level twenty-five,” he said. “Holy. Fuck.”
Finn looked too, then made a small choking sound. “Wait, seriously?”
Zara’s eyes narrowed. “Already?”
Jax gave a low whistle. “Okay. That’s disgusting.”
Vami spread his hands like a stage magician receiving applause. “Talent. Discipline. Superior choices.”
Julie smiled up at him with wicked affection.
“Of course he is,” she said. “He plays all the time.”
Vami turned his head slowly. “What a vicious betrayal.”
“You reorganized our entire weekend around a drop-rate window.”
“It was a limited-time opportunity.”
“You also left the dishes in the sink for twelve hours because ‘soaking improves workflow.’”
“That was a valid hypothesis.”
Julie looked at the others. “He says things like this with a straight face.”
Lily laughed. Finn laughed because Lily laughed. Even Valdrias looked like he was trying to understand whether soaking really did improve workflow.
Zara folded her arms. “It doesn’t.”
“Thank you,” Julie said.
Vami pointed at Zara. “I appreciate intellectual honesty.”
Finn's eyes went wide as something in his brain finally registered. “Wait. Vami… Was there not a World Announcement like an hour ago?”
Lily's eyes widened as she made the connection. “Right! We all saw it. So it was you who triggered it.”
Zara closed her eyes and let out a long, suffering sigh. "Of course Kage was the anonymous ally. Why am I even surprised."
Jax folded his arms and looked at Kage with the expression of a man revising an old mistake. “Should’ve guessed. He even hid his level this time around.”
Kage didn't comment on that, but a corner of his mouth rose.
Then Lily, still smiling, caught Ren’s class and level again and turned proudly toward the others.
“And Ren has a Rare class too. He finally caught up.”
Finn looked impressed in the particular way rangers looked at melee players who obviously knew what they were doing and would therefore be standing in front of the monster instead of beside them.
“Level twenty-one already is kind of crazy.”
Ren shook his head once. “I had some time.”
Julie looked between Vami and Ren, then back toward Kage.
“So this is the scary group,” she said. “I've only heard about Kage, though.”
“That’s a bad sign,” Zara said.
Julie ignored that with veteran healer grace.
“Vami told me Kage’s very good,” she said. “Apparently he was very 'helpful' with resolving the event, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing what that actually means.”
Kage turned his head and looked at Vami.
Just a glance. Small. Flat.
Vami met it and smiled like a man who had left that exact sentence on the floor on purpose to see who would step on it.
Helpful.
Kage remembered being the one doing the main part of the event while a white blur dragged half the battlefield into suicidal geometry, the background of musical ghosts buffing everything and history catching fire around them.
Yeah. Sure. Very tasteful wording.
Ren’s gaze touched the exchange for a single moment.
He saw Kage look at Vami. He saw Vami enjoy it. Then he returned his attention to the group with that same unreadable calm. He didn’t comment. He didn’t need to. The man noticed things quietly.
Julie either missed the subtext or decided to leave it alone.
Kage let the topic die. Explaining Songstone to people who hadn’t been there would take too long and make him sound insane.
Lily shifted closer to Kage during the lull.
“Thanks for letting Ren join,” she said softly.
“He’s your friend.”
“He’s one of my best friends.”
Jax gave a small grunt from beside her. “He was supposed to be here from the start.”
Kage glanced at Ren again. The stance. The spacing. The weapon. The restraint.
“He’ll do.”
Lily smiled because she heard the approval hidden inside the dry packaging.
More players streamed through the gate around them while the group settled into the shape of a raid. Couriers brushed past. Duel invites popped in the distance. A player argued with an Azure Watch guard about “creative parking rights” for his mount-companion. The luma-orbs overhead brightened and deepened.
Zara checked the time in her interface and frowned.
“We’re past the meeting mark.”
Vami rolled one shoulder. “Then let’s go.”
Finn looked around the plaza. “Uh. Question.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed carefully, like he was presenting evidence to a room full of dangerous people.
“Weren’t we supposed to be ten-man?”
A tiny beat passed.
Kage answered.
“Yes.”
Finn waited.
Zara waited.
Julie looked around and counted faces.
“The last slot owns the key,” Kage said. “He’s late.”
“That seems irresponsible,” Valdrias said.
“It is.”
“What kind of player arrives late for a raid in first week of launch?” Zara asked.
Jax answered before Kage could. “A rich one.”
Kage exhaled once through his nose.
“The kind with more money than coordination. He messaged me forty minutes ago." Kage opened his interface and read it aloud. "'LITERALLY pulling up rn, two secs, don't leave me bro, I swear on my grandma, I'm literally almost there.'"
The group was quiet for a moment.
"That was forty minutes ago," Zara said.
"Yes."
Then the commotion started.
It rose from the outer road beyond the gate in layers.
First came a brass fanfare.
Real brass. Loud enough to cut through general chat and make half the plaza turn.
Then came shouting.
Then came the sight of three hired NPC heralds in blue-and-gold festival uniforms jogging ahead of a lacquered sedan chair shaped like a miniature throne. Gold trim. Velvet cushions. Decorative wing motifs. Excessive in every direction. Four sweating porters carried it at a wobbling trot over the mosaic road while trying not to collide with actual traffic.
On top of the chair, because sitting inside it clearly lacked enough dignity, stood Zherdev.
He wore an armor set assembled by a man who had lost a fistfight with rarity filters.
One shoulder burned with magma-veined plate. The other leaked shadow-smoke. His chestpiece flashed crimson sigils every few seconds for no reason Kage could identify. A luminous cape streamed behind him in royal purple and somehow also orange. A horned helm hung from one hand because actually wearing it had probably blocked the last ten percent of his vision. Across his back sat a gigantic greatsword whose sheath actively shed sparks onto the upholstery.
Jax stared at the armor with the concentrated attention of a man who understood exactly how much that disaster had cost.
One of the heralds took a heroic breath and bellowed across the gate plaza.
“MAKE WAY FOR ZHERDEV THE GREAT, CONQUEROR OF THE SHIF—”
The lead porter stepped on an uneven tile.
The sedan chair lurched left.
Zherdev windmilled both arms.
The greatsword slipped halfway free of its sheath with a shriek of metal and a spray of embers.
The purple-orange cape snapped sideways and wrapped itself around one herald’s face.
The rear right corner of the chair clipped the gatepost.
A decorative gold finial broke off and struck an extremely expensive-looking fruit display.
Pears exploded across the road.
The porters tried to recover.
They achieved something worse.
The whole throne-chair bounced once, hard enough to launch Zherdev clean off the roof.
He sailed through the air in glowing catastrophic majesty, crashed into the pear cart, and vanished in a rain of fruit, splintered wood, and spark effects.
A full second of stunned silence hit the plaza.
Then Zherdev’s voice burst out from inside the wreckage.
“I’M GOOD.”
An Azure Watch guard blew a whistle.
Another one shouted, “Contain the flame effect!”
“I paid for temporary parade clearance!” Zherdev yelled back, emerging shoulder-first from the remains of the cart. “Bro, where’s my sword? Why are there pears everywhere?”
Finn’s hawk launched off the fountain and fled to a higher roof. Lily pressed her lips together so hard her whole face shook. Julie covered her mouth with one hand and failed to hide a laugh. Vami looked like he had just witnessed a religious experience.
Jax winced like the broken finial had hit his wallet.
Zara stared at Kage.
“This,” she said flatly, “is our party member.”
Valdrias drew himself up a fraction. “His entrance conveyed authority.”
“It conveyed several property crimes,” Zara said.
“And a terrifying budget,” Jax muttered.
Zherdev finally spotted them.
His whole face lit up.
“KAGE!” he roared, waving both arms over his head. “MY GUY! My absolute demon! Sorry I’m late, traffic was giga-scuffed and these NPC carriers have zero pathing instincts!”
He took one triumphant step toward the group.
His cape snagged on the broken cart axle.
He jerked backward, spun in place, and almost fell again.
Kage closed his eyes.
Then he ran both hands through his face.---AN:Never in my life did I think I would post 100 chapters of a story online. It went by in a blink, and in retrospect, I'm blown away that so many people have spent their time reading my words and enjoyed them enough to stick around.
Thanks, everyone. I hope to see you all for the next 100 :)