Rai was humming softly to himself, the melody aimless but laced with satisfaction and enjoyment. The smirk on his face hadn't faded since he'd left the bloody remnants of Lucien's party behind. The memory of their baffled expressions, especially Lucien's, as the death notification flashed in front of them saying—"You have been killed by player: The Fallen Shade"—played like a beautiful symphony in his mind.
"'Sorry, Rai, this is just business,' huh?" He scoffed. "You got what was coming to you."
"Haha… That damned bastard must be fuming by now," Rai muttered with a dark chuckle. "Serves you right, snake."
He walked down the cobblestone path leading out of the area, heading back toward Elorin's Rest. Occasionally, he kicked a stone along the way, getting rid of his leftover adrenaline.
At launch, Eidolon Realms had implemented a soft system: neither getting killed by NPCs nor by other players resulted in any penalties. Dead players didn't drop any items, neither did they lose any XP, and could respawn instantly and infinitely without any cost or cooldown. The developers designed this for the beginning as they wanted the early game to serve as a grace period, allowing new players to build foundations freely without any sorta of grief or fear.
But Rai knew something others didn't.
In a few short weeks, everything would change with a world-altering patch: "Phase 2: Realm Stabilization." This was the same patch that started the world banks and currency exchange system.
The upcoming update would not punish the killers, but instead penalize those who got killed. If a player died to another player or enemy NPC, they'd face one of two consequences:
Pay a large amount of gold coins for instant respawn.
Or face a forced 7-day lockout, where they couldn't play.
In the early game, where every level and loot drop mattered, seven days of inactivity was basically a death sentence for the professional players.
He kept on thinking about all this, but once the satisfaction wore off, he refocused. He'd almost hit Level 6—he was somewhere at the end of Level 5 before his brief detour for vengeance. While all the hunting till now had been fruitful, he knew he had to start grinding more efficiently now. And that meant dungeons.
In Eidolon Realms, dungeons were the true gold mines—literally and metaphorically. They offered better experience, more structured battles, and high-tier loot. However, they had one caveat: minimum party requirements. The dungeon that he wanted to go into, that was near Elorin's Rest, was the Crimson Hollow and it required a party of at least three players. Till now it is unbeatable and it was only when the players started to reach level 10, that a guild was able to defeat it.
The only reason they were able to reach it was cause after every 10 levels players got a major stat boost. It was this feature of the game that allowed them to win.
He had one candidate in mind—Eron, the future blacksmith. With his talent he didn't really need anyone else but he needed to complete the minimum requirements. But to bring Eron into the party without exposing his identity as the 'Fallen Shade', Rai needed to be do something different. Directly inviting Eron could cause troubles as during the party formation, each others nickname was visible. Revealing his identity raise questions, and if his identity somehow got leaked—even if unintentionally—it might make him a target. After all, Lucien and the other powerful guilds were not people to trifled with openly.
"Which means I'll need to get that ring," Rai murmured to himself.
The ring Rai was referring to was a unique-grade item that allowed the player to disguise themselves and also alter their nickname in party chat, trades, or other social interactions. Not only did it effect public system messages or world announcements, but it also worked perfectly in parties and private scenarios. In his past life, this item had been discovered by a low-profile casual player who had unknowingly triggered a hidden quest in one of the starter villages. The player had no idea of its true value and sold it cheaply on the marketplace. That ring later fetched tens of thousands of credits after its usefulness became widely known.
Rai remembered the quest perfectly. It was a hidden chain called "The Price of Secrecy", and every starter village had a different version of it—only one player could trigger it per village.
"I was lucky to see that fandom post before it got taken down," he thought, eyes narrowing.
In Elorin's Rest, the quest began when you spoke to an old herbalist named Lily, whose stall was tucked behind the village chapel. Most players ignored her, as she didn't sell anything special. But if you talked with her, then she would reveal that her daughter and a few other children had gone missing over the last few days. Most villagers believed they had wandered off or fallen prey to wild beasts, but she thought they had gotten kidnapped.
Once Rai talked to her, then the quest would begin.
The quest was straightforward in objective but hard in execution. The real culprit was a Level 25 evil mage, an NPC associated with the secretive Undying Reach Cult, who had been kidnapping the children for dark rituals. Players had no chance of defeating him at this stage. Fortunately, the goal wasn't to kill him—but to uncover evidence and report it to the village elder.
Once that was done, a dramatic cutscene would trigger—soldiers storming the hideout, villagers cheering, and the mage being executed. And for the player who uncovered the truth? He would gain a reward from Lily herself.
A ring.
Not just any ring—but one imbued with the rare magic of illusion and anonymity.
"NPCs like Kael would still see through me," Rai muttered, "but it'll do just fine for now."
He moved quickly through the village streets. The server had only been live for a few days, so he was almost certain no one else had triggered the quest yet. If someone had, it would be impossible to get the ring again from this village.
The key of gaining this hidden quest was to talk with the mother of the lost child, but most players never go out of their way to do something like that. After all, no other game had such mechanics.
On the way to the herbalist's hut, Rai recalled the dungeon loot system of Eidolon Realms. It wasn't just random rolls or free-for-all pickups. When a party was formed, players could assign loot preferences and agreements beforehand. The game tracked who dealt the most damage, who landed finishing blows, who performed best in support roles like healing or defense.
The higher your contribution, the better your loot share and EXP gain.
It was a brilliant system that was designed to eliminate drama and fights over item drops. You could also lock specific agreements in the party window before entering—like "Give Flame Crystal to Player A if dropped." Once cleared, the system auto-distributed rewards based on those terms and conditions. This was made so that no one got scammed or fooled by others.
Rai appreciated how well-built the game was. The developers had covered nearly every aspect of potential player conflict—and yet ironically or rather naturally nothing could account for the sheer greed of humans.
"I'll have to be careful when recruiting the third member," Rai mused.
He was already considering a few possibilities—perhaps a healer or a ranged attacker. But for now, the ring came first.
He arrived at Lily's stall just as the afternoon sun filtered down through the chapel tower. The herbalist stood there, sorting dried leaves, her eyes clouded with worry. A few players passed her by without even sparing a glance.
"Typical," Rai muttered. "No one notices gold until it has been polished. Any one with a decent EQ could easily tell the lady is emotionally distressed but no one cares cause she is a NPC. But i guess that's only natural. We humans don't even have any time to help each other, let alone some NPC. I do wonder how all these players would react when they come to know the truth about the Npc's."
He walked up to her and decided to talk to her.
[Interact: Lily the Herbalist]
He started, "Are you fine, miss? You look disturbed by something."
Lily looked up with misty eyes. Her lips quivered.
"Please... have you seen my daughter?"
Rai clicked his teeth and said, "Tell me everything you know."
The moment he confirmed the response, his system lit up with golden letters:
[Hidden Quest Initiated: "The Price of Secrecy"]
'Time to reappear under a new name.'