The alcove was silent, but not peaceful. The silence was a fragile thing, stretched thin over the residual dread left by the shaman's parting words.
The Apathy debuff ticked down under Aeliana's soft, glowing ministrations, but a heavier fatigue remained—a soul-deep weariness no spell could instantly cleanse.
Sai Ji leaned against the cold stone, the grey system messages—[Legacy Unstable]—burned into his vision. It wasn't a status effect; it was a diagnosis of something fundamentally wrong with his very presence in this world.
Unfinished. Borrowed king. The shaman's words echoed, finding grim resonance in the new system text.
Fern stood like a bastion at the alcove's narrow entrance, but his usual mountain-like stillness was edged with a new tension. He kept flexing the hand that had burned the ash-hand away. Lura was perched on a rocky outcropping, sharpening one of her knives with a methodical, almost angry intensity. Nyx was simply absent, a reassuring void in the corner of Sai Ji's awareness.
"He didn't fight," Lura said, the words cutting the quiet. "He just… looked. It was worse."
"He measured," Fern rumbled, not turning. "For slaughter later."
Aeliana finished her hymn, the soothing light fading. She looked at Sai Ji, her healer's perception seeing past the armor.
"Your spirit… it's frayed at the edges. Not wounded currently but strained like a cord pulled too tight between two anchors."
She had no idea how right she was. The anchor of a human gamer, and the anchor of a slumbering Primal King.
He's not wrong, came Sal Vera's voice, a strained whisper in the cognitive space.
The Legacy is not a garment to be worn. It is a mantle of office, and the throne is vacant. You are regent in a storm, holding a crown that does not fully know your head.
Helpful, Sai Ji thought back, the sarcasm a feeble defense against the creeping dread.
Just as the weight of it threatened to solidify, a new shadow moved.
It didn't come from the canyon below. It detached from the jagged rock ceiling of their alcove with a liquid, impossible grace, flipping once in the air to land in a silent crouch at the center of their makeshift camp. Hands were raised, palms out.
"Whoa, easy! Friendly! Or, y'know, friendly-adjacent!"
The voice was young, male, laced with a street-smart casualness that clashed violently with the grim atmosphere.
The figure stood up, brushing non-existent dust from dark, non-reflective leathers. He was human, with sharp features under a hood pushed back to reveal messy black hair.
A pair of sleek, enchanted looking-lenses were perched on his forehead. His grin was wide, disarmingly genuine, and his eyes missed nothing, darting to each of them with appraising curiosity before landing on Sai Ji.
"Damn, bro," he whistled, low and impressed. "You guys stirred up the whole anthill and walked into a Soul-Caller's parlor, gave him the finger, and walked out with style. Respect."
Fern's greatsword was halfway from its sheath before Sai Ji's raised hand stopped him. The movement was instinctual, a leader's call as his Instinct hadn't flared with danger. It had prickled with… recognition.
"You," Sai Ji said, the memory clicking. The bustling square of the starting city. A clap on his shoulder and a cheerful, mocking warning.
" Player Midnight Wolf."
"The one and only!" The player—Midnight Wolf—grinned, tapping his own chest.
"You remembered.,knew you were built different the second I saw you. Didn't think you were this different." His gaze lingered pointedly on Sai Ji's wolf-head pauldron and the mythril blade at his side.
Lura had vanished from her perch, reappearing soundlessly behind Midnight Wolf, one of her knives a hair's breadth from his kidney. "You were tracking the warband. Or us. Explain. Fast."
To his credit, Midnight Wolf didn't flinch. He just tilted his head, addressing the air where she stood. "Both. Warband's a moving violation of several local zoning laws. My quest ledger said 'investigate Ash-Hide anomalous activity.' But then I picked up a way more interesting signal." He looked back at Sai Ji. "A Primordial Legacy Disturbance. Rare as hell. Had to get a closer look."
The terms meant nothing to the others, but Sai Ji felt the egg beneath his armor pulse with a sudden, warm thrum. The system in his mind seemed to lean in, listening.
"Speak plainly," Fern commanded, his voice a rockslide.
Midnight Wolf sighed, as if explaining the obvious to children. "Okay, okay. Look, I'm a Lore Hunter. Subclass. Which explains how I could track you guys.My job is to find the secret stuff, connect the dots the game doesn't connect for you. And right now, bro…" He pointed at Sai Ji. "…you are the biggest, juiciest, most unstable dot on my map."
He settled onto a low rock, pulling out a waterskin and taking a swig.
The casualness was an act, Sai Ji realized. A very good one and his eyes were still calculating.
"That 'skin' you're wearing? Not a skin. It's a Shattered Primal Archetype. The Werewolf King. Top-tier world lore. Thing is, his power got Thanos-snapped a long time ago. Broken into pieces called Authority Fragments and scattered across Aetheria." He leaned forward. "What you've got is the big one—the Core Fragment. It lets you wear the form, access a trickle of the power. Your systems are 'upgrading' because you're slowly, messily, integrating it."
The pieces slammed together in Sai Ji's mind. The unstable status. The shaman's recognition. "You are unfinished."
"The sanctuary," Sai Ji said, the words coming from him and the ghost-memory at once.
Midnight Wolf's eyebrows shot up. "You do know something! Yeah. Every Primal has a Sanctuary—a dungeon where their true, sleeping body chills. Yours is called the Howling Cradle, buried in the Frostfang Mountains. Your real, human body is there right now, in magical stasis. This you?" He gestured at all of Sai Ji. "Is basically a super-advanced, combat-ready projection powered by the fragment."
Aeliana gasped softly. Lura's knife didn't waver, but her eyes widened. Fern's scowl deepened.
"To get stronger," Midnight Wolf continued, his voice dropping into a storyteller's cadence, "you don't just grind mobs. You gotta reclaim. Find the other fragments. They could be anywhere. Hidden in boss rooms, powering ancient wards, maybe even worn by other players or NPCs as fancy trinkets they don't understand." He nodded in the direction of the vanished shaman. "Like our bony friend back there. He's an 'Anti-Legacy' hunter. Some factions want to destroy or corrupt the fragments. He wasn't just trying to kill you. He was trying to scour you."
As if on cue, a new, shared notification pulsed in the air before Sai Ji, and, he saw, before Midnight Wolf's eyes as well.
[SHARED WORLD QUEST ACCEPTED: SCATTERED CROWN]
Objective: Locate and secure the next Authority Fragment of the Werewolf King Legacy.
Hint: "Seek the Glimmer in the Deep Green. Where the ancient woods swallow light and stone."
Reward: Major Legacy Progression, ???, Significant Renown.
Warning: Quest signature is now active. Other seekers may be drawn to your presence.
Midnight Wolf let out a low, appreciative whistle. "Boom. There it is. The Verdant Weald. Deep, nasty, high-level forest zone. Perfect place to hide a shiny piece of god-power." He stood up, his grin returning, fiercer now. "So. I'm in. This is the motherlode of lore, the kind of thing Lore Hunters dream of. Plus," he added, looking at the party, "you fight like a beast, bro. And your crew is legit scary. We pack up?"
The proposal hung in the miasma-thinned air. Trust a stranger? A player, no less?
Fern spoke first, his eyes like chips of flint on Midnight Wolf.
"You talk too much. Noise draws death."
"But he knows the death he's drawing," Lura countered, finally sheathing her knife and rematerializing at Sai Ji's side.
"His information has value and his tracking skills… are adequate."
The faint praise was her version of a recommendation.
Aeliana looked at Sai Ji, then at the eager Lore Hunter. "
He understands what is happening to you on a level we do not. That understanding could be a shield."
Nyx's voice, for the first time audible to all, whispered from everywhere and nowhere.
"He entered my perimeter without triggering an alarm. That is either a great asset or a greater threat."
Midnight Wolf blinked, genuinely surprised, then laughed.
"Okay, that is cool." He fished in a pouch and tossed a silver coin. It vanished in mid-air. "For the shadow I can't see. Buy yourself something sharp."
Sai Ji watched it all, feeling the push and pull. The Wolf King's instinct was a low growl of suspicion while the human gamer saw the clear utility. The leader saw a divided party that needed a united decision.
He made it.
"We move together," Sai Ji said, his voice leaving no room for debate. "To the Verdant Weald. Midnight Wolf scouts ahead with Lura. You find us a path, and you share everything you know about fragment sensing. No surprises."
Midnight Wolf's smile turned sharp, professional. "You got it, Captain."
As they began to break their minimal camp, Midnight Wolf sidled up to Sai Ji. "One more thing, bro. A freebie, since we're now quest-bound." His voice lost its playful edge. "If that shaman 'scanned' your legacy signature—and he did—then it's marked. It's like you're broadcasting a faint, delicious signal. Other hunters will notice. And some of those hunters…" He met Sai Ji's gaze. "…are players. Top guilds have faction quests to secure Primal assets. They pay fortunes for coordinates. You're not just an oddity anymore. You're loot."
The final word landed with the weight of a prophecy. Before Sai Ji could respond, a new, personal notification flickered in his vision, born from the intense focus and revelation.
[Instinct has evolved through focused revelation.]
New Passive Ability Unlocked: Primal Resonance.
Effect: You possess a faint, directional sense for other Authority Fragments of your Legacy. Strength of signal depends on range, concealment, and your own integration progress. Use it to guide your hunt.
A compass needle for his own shattered soul. Perfect.
As they filed out of the alcove, single file into the treacherous scree, the egg against Sai Ji's chest pulsed again, warmer, more insistent. A faint, curious light leaked from the seam of his armor.
Midnight Wolf, walking just ahead, glanced back and did a double-take. His enchanted lenses slid down over his eyes with a quiet click. He stared for a second.
"No way," he breathed, his professional cool cracking into pure, unadulterated geek-out awe. "Is that a… a Primal egg?! Bro! You have a legacy and a legendary familiar incubating? You're not a walking treasure chest. You're a walking, talking raid boss drop!"
In that moment, surrounded by looming threats, ancient conspiracies, and the burden of a broken crown, Sai Ji couldn't help it. A short, sharp, genuine laugh escaped him.
The game was insane. His life was insane.
And for the first time, staring at the backs of his uniquely terrifying pack—the stoic knight, the deadly scout, the angelic healer, the unseen blade, and now a hyper-competent lore-nerd calling him 'bro'—he felt not just fear, but a flicker of something else.
Anticipation.
TO BE CONTINUED…