Shouts for roles echoed off the damp stone, a mix of desperation and opportunism.
Kage, now Level 3, stood apart from the swarm. A silent observer in a sea of noise. His class—displayed as a simple Poet—hovered beneath his name like a neon sign flashing a single, universally understood message: DO NOT INVITE.
He wasn’t waiting for a handout. The clamoring herd was a waste of processing cycles. His focus was on the smaller, more organized groups.
His eyes settled on a party of four. Their gear was a mix of crafted items and early quest rewards, superior to the starter rags most players still wore. And they were agitated.
The leader, a hulking Level 6 Warrior named Jax, paced back and forth, his oversized axe a constant threat to the low stone ceiling. His armor was a cut above the rest, suggesting a healthy injection of real-world cash. A classic whale. Next to him, a Level 5 Healer named Lily watched, her staff held in a nervous grip.
Zara, a Level 5 Mage with sharp eyes and gear that screamed efficiency over flash, muttered spell calculations under her breath. Her posture was tense—the kind of player who had min-maxed every stat point and spent the last hours grinding while others fumbled. Across from her, Finn, their Level 5 Ranger, looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. His equipment was solid but basic. He kept glancing around, opening his mouth as if to speak, then closing it when no one seemed interested.
Kage analyzed the negative space between the players.
Logic dictated a disconnect. Emotional probability suggested a rage-quit. The variables aligned into a high-urgency deficit. They were desperate to fix the equation before their efficiency curve bottomed out.
Lily leaned in toward the Warrior, her voice a low murmur that Kage’s perception hardly needed to strain to catch. She gestured with a microscopic tilt of her chin. "Jax. The guy by the pillar. He hasn’t moved."
Jax followed her gaze. His lip curled, exposing teeth that looked too white for the gloom of the waiting area. "A Poet?" He spat on the cavern floor. "Lily, use your head. That’s a walking debuff."
He shifted his grip on the axe, the leather creaking under the pressure of his gauntlets. "We need kill-pressure. I’m not carrying some artsy deadweight looking to compose sonnets while I play."
Lily didn't argue. She didn't have to. She simply let her shoulders drop, her grip on the staff loosening just enough to convey fatigue. She looked at the floor.
Jax saw the surrender. It fed the ego algorithm running his personality script perfectly.
"Hell," Jax grunted, dragging a heavy hand down his face. "Fine. We’re wasting time." He stood straighter, the magnanimous leader carrying the weight of the world. "My DPS can cover the spread. We’ll carry the charity case."
Behind him, Zara was tapping her fingers against her thigh, a frantic, staccato rhythm. She didn't look up from her own UI. "Artisan class? Seriously?" She looked at the Ranger. "Finn. Tell me you have something useful. I just unlocked [Frost Bolt], but the cast time is garbage. The rotation clunks."
Finn flinched. He looked at his bow like it was an alien object he’d been handed five minutes ago. He scratched his neck, leaving red marks on the skin.
"I... I think the tooltip for [Hunter’s Mark] said it buffs damage? I haven't—" He stopped, swallowing hard. "I haven't tested the range yet."
"Perfect," Zara muttered, kicking a loose stone. It skittered into the dark. "Hours into launch and we’re all figuring out the basics. If we wipe on the first pull, I’m logging."
Jax spun on his heel. He stomped, closing the distance to the edge of their perimeter. The air in the cavern smelled of sulfur and unwashed bodies, but Jax’s voice cut through the sensory sludge like a hammer.
"Hey! Poet!"
Jax pointed a thick, armored finger at Kage’s chest.
"You’re filling the slot. Stay behind the Healer. If you pull aggro, you die alone. And don't think you're getting a full cut of the drops."
Party Invite from User [Jax - Lvl 6 Warrior].
-
[ Accept ]
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
-
[ Refuse ]
The insults were merely discordant notes. It was the price of admission. A transaction fee. Kage didn't blink. He felt the cold dampness of the cavern air against his skin, a sharp contrast to the burning heat of the crowded entrance.
He gave a single nod. Sharp. Mechanical.
He walked forward, slotting himself into the rear of their formation. He didn't speak. He simply occupied the empty space they needed filled.
[ Accept ]
The silence stretching from Kage was heavy. Jax stared at him for a second longer than necessary, a flicker of genuine unease disrupting his bluster, before he turned back to the mine’s maw.
"Move out," Jax barked, though the command sounded slightly less sure than before.
The mines were dark, narrow, and smelled of damp earth and something foul. They weren't an instance, but an open-world dungeon, and despite there being a lot of parties near the entrance, most of them died at the start or stayed in the boss room.
Jax, true to his word, led the charge with the subtlety of a charging bull. He barreled into the first group of two Goblin Scouts, his axe swinging in wide, powerful arcs that tore huge chunks from their health bars.
[-55 HP]
[Critical Hit! -110 HP]
He was strong. He was also sloppy. He ignored positioning, taking a crude dagger to the side that he could have easily avoided.
[-15 HP]
Beside Kage, Lily sighed as a soft green light enveloped the Warrior, his health bar refilling. The pattern repeated with the next pull. Massive damage out, unnecessary damage in. Jax fought, Lily burned through her mana, and the two DPS struggled to find a rhythm around their frontliner's erratic aggression.
Kage said nothing. He observed.
His mind was a combat log, parsing information far faster than any UI. He noted the patrol patterns of distant goblins, their aggro radius, the exact layout of the tunnels. He tracked party cooldowns, Lily's dwindling mana, the Mage's potion usage. He was gathering data for a simulation only he could see.
[You have defeated Goblin Scout!]
[EXP Gained: 40]
[You have defeated Goblin Worker!]
[EXP Gained: 40]
Good, there's no penalty for not tagging, and no exp split in the party. I'm basically leeching free levels.
And, in the meanwhile…
[Harvesting Success! Gloomweed x1 acquired.]
[EXP +2 From Harvesting]
[Harvesting (Basic) EXP +0.5%]
[Harvesting (Basic) Level Up (Lvl 2)]
[EXP Gained: 25]
He ignored Jax's irritated gaze, Zara's disapproving shake of the head, and the questioning look that Lily gave him. He just kept harvesting.
Experience 275/520
Need about two more pulls. The mage said that they got new spells at level 5. That means both lvl 4 and lvl 5 should be big power spikes.
They approached a larger chamber, a circular cavern with a high, craggy ceiling. Three Goblin Scouts were visible near the center, huddled around a sputtering fire.
Jax hefted his axe, a grin on his face. “Alright, bigger pack. Everyone focus my target.”
He was about to charge.
Kage's voice, calm and sharp, cut through the chatter like a shard of ice. “Stop.”
The party froze. Jax turned, an annoyed scowl on his face.
“Ambush,” Kage stated, his tone flat. “Two archers, left ledge, behind those stalagmites. Trapper by the north passage; you can see the edge of his net. Pull the front three back to this tunnel. It’s a natural choke point.”
Zara squinted into the darkness, then shook her head. “I don’t see anything. God, I wish this game had a proper detection spell. It’s all just guesswork.”
Finn adjusted his grip on his bow. “I… I don't see anything there, either. The minimap is empty.”
Jax laughed, the sound dripping with condescension. “An ambush? Kid, don’t get ahead of yourself. There are three goblins in that room. Quiet down and get carried.”
He charged in.
The trap sprang with sickening speed.
A coarse net shot out from the north passage, ensnaring the Mage. Simultaneously, arrows hissed down from the exact ledge Kage had indicated.
[-25 HP]
[-28 HP]
The arrows targeted the backline. Lily cried out as one struck her shoulder, forcing her to heal herself instead of the party. The three melee goblins swarmed Jax, who was now separated from his party and bogged down.
The fight devolved into the exact chaos Kage had predicted.
Zara cursed as arrows whistled past her head. “Shit! How did you know?” She frantically began casting, her skepticism evaporated. “I can barely see ten feet in here!”
Finn, despite his panic, found his voice. “Goblin archers! Slow reloads!” His own arrow flew wide, his aim shot through with nerves. “Four seconds maybe? I think?”
While Jax roared, pinned by the melee mob, Kage remained at the cavern's entrance. A point of absolute calm. He processed the tactical situation.
Trapper prevents repositioning. Jax is a non-factor. Primary threat: archers pinning the healer. Neutralize the archers.
He scanned his lexicon. Strike was useless. Weaken was a debuff. The only crowd control tool he had was Bind.
He accessed his mental user manual, the data from his earlier experiments. Bind creates roots from the ground. Constricts movement. The archers were stationary. It wouldn’t do anything.
Useless. A dead end.
For a split second, frustration flared. The system was inefficient; the tool was inadequate. His mind hit a logical wall.
Then a different data point surfaced—an anomaly he hadn't yet integrated. The stream. The herbs. The system’s response to a raw, unstructured intent. The keyword was [Growth], but the result wasn’t a generic "grow bigger" effect; it was "yield a better harvest."
The initial conclusion was flawed. His assumption was wrong.
His mind raced, forging a new hypothesis. The keyword isn't the spell. It's the concept. Bind doesn't just mean ‘Root.’ It means to restrain. The how, the what, the method… that was defined by the user.
He had been thinking like a common mage, assuming Bind was a pre-defined skill from a skill tree. He was wrong. The Poet's Lexicon wasn't a spellbook.
It was a dictionary. And he had to write the sentence.
Don't wait for the ink to dry. Unlock up to 20 advanced chapters on Patreon.
Your support fuels the story.