After a long rest, after wounds had closed and breathing no longer came with weight, the group rose to their feet.
Their steps carried them deeper into the forest—slow, measured, quiet.
The air shifted around them, heavier the farther they walked. Trees loomed taller here, their shadows longer.
Yet no monsters lunged from the darkness. No growls from the brush. No sudden roars.
These were the safe paths—routes worn thin by time and travel, where the system itself respected the boundary between combat and silence. Unless called by a quest, nothing stirred.
They followed the trail as it narrowed, weaving between crooked trees and thick moss until it led them to a cliff edge.
A steep, jagged drop stretched below—dark and deep, the bottom shrouded in mist. Nothing moved within. No sound echoed from the pit.
Just a quiet that felt… wrong.
Noah stopped near the edge, one brow raised, eyes narrowing into the void.
"Hey, kid. You sure this is the place where the Shadow Owl took your sister?"
Luis stepped closer, his gaze locked on the nothingness below. His hands trembled at his sides.
"I… I'm not sure anymore. They vanished. Right around this spot. One moment they were there… the next, gone."
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
Noah gave a casual shrug, though his expression carried little humor.
"Great. We're in the middle of nowhere, chasing shadows, and running on pure guesswork. Love that for us."
The group continued along the narrow cliffside, their backs pressed close to the stone wall.
The path was barely more than a ledge, just wide enough for cautious steps and the occasional steadying hand against the cold rock. One wrong move, and the drop below would be unforgiving.
Their footsteps echoed faintly. The wind brushed past, whispering through the trees above, but the bottomless silence below never answered.
Then Luis stopped.
His eyes widened.
"That's it…"
June, walking just ahead of him, glanced over her shoulder.
"What do you mean, 'that's it'?"
Luis hesitated under her gaze, his voice soft, uncertain. He pointed toward the cliff face just beneath them—low enough to miss without a careful glance, tucked along the vertical slope.
Small clusters of flowers clung to the rock, growing from crevices that had no right to bear life. Their petals were a deep violet, but at the center, each glowed with a golden light, soft and pulsing like breath.
The yellow shimmer looked warm, unnatural against the cold cliffside.
Luis stepped closer to the edge, his voice soft, almost carried away by the wind.
"That's the reason me and my sister came here… to pick those flowers. They're called Viola Aureocorona. That flower can cure our mother's sickness."
Noah's eyes followed the path of Luis's trembling finger, narrowing as they locked onto the blossoms growing just inches below the ledge—delicate things clinging to the wall like hope refusing to fall.
"Wait… you mean those flowers? The ones blooming on the literal edge of a death drop?"
His gaze sharpened, disbelief creeping into his tone as he stared at the glowing petals that swayed faintly over the abyss.
"Yeah. Perfect. That tracks."
•••••
Quest Name: Bloom on the Brink
Quest Description:
As you traverse a jagged cliffside path, young Luis clutches your arm and points toward a narrow ledge far below. Nestled in the rock face, glowing with golden light, grows the Viola Aureocorona—a rare and sacred flower said to cure even the gravest of ailments. His mother's life hangs in the balance. But the winds are fierce, the climb treacherous, and predators lurk where few dare tread.
Quest Requirement:
Obtain Viola Aureocorona x1 from the cliffside.
Rewards:
• Experience Points
•••••
Noah let out a slow breath as the familiar chime echoed in his ears, and a translucent window flickered before his eyes.
It wasn't like the Zombie Ant mission. That one had pulled them in, chained to the system's plight, bound by the force of narrative.
But this one… this was a choice. He could walk away. They all could.
But he didn't move.
He glanced around at the others.
One by one, they were already looking at him.
June, arms crossed, her face unreadable—but her eyes not.
Aiko, hands clasped together, hopeful.
Fiona, watching him with quiet calm.
Dimitri, steady as ever, as if waiting for Noah to say the word and he'd follow.
And Luis… Luis with his dirt-streaked cheeks and too-wide eyes, staring like the world depended on a single decision.
Noah closed his eyes.
Another sigh.
"Why do I keep doing stupid things… even when I know they're definitely, absolutely stupid ideas?"
There was a pause.
A soft voice followed.
"Big brother Noah?"
He cracked one eye open.
"Fuck it. Quest accepted."
The moment the words left his mouth, a subtle shift passed through the group.
They smiled—not wide or boisterous, but quiet, relieved. The kind of smiles that came after held breath and unspoken hope. A decision had been made. A burden, shared.
Dimitri rested his hand on his sword, eyes narrowing slightly as he studied the flowers glinting far below.
"How do you plan to get those flowers, Noah? We'll need five. One for each of us."
Noah rolled his shoulders, stretching out the tension that had built in his back. He glanced over the edge, calculating the slope, the cracks, the narrow holds in the cliff wall like a puzzle only half-formed.
"I'm probably the only one who can make that climb. Light enough not to break the ledges, fast enough to move without drawing too much attention... I think."
There was no boasting in his voice. Just grim logic.
Dimitri gave a firm nod.
"Then we'll watch your back. Every second."
Noah let out a breath—not a sigh, not a laugh. Something in between. He adjusted his clothes, muttering under his breath with a crooked smirk as he stared down the drop.
"Noah, you stupid son of a gun… this is exactly why you're not gonna live long."
And with that, he took the first step closer to the edge.
Noah exhaled once, steadying his breath, then moved.
He jumped.
The wind bit at his clothes as he launched off the ledge, dropping into open air with alarming speed. The world tilted, narrowed, slowed. But he didn't flinch.
His boots struck the slanted face of the cliffside, and instead of tumbling, he slid—controlled, precise, using the momentum.
His body moved like it had done this a thousand times, weight shifted forward, arms balancing the descent. Dust and fragments kicked up beneath him as he angled toward his target.
He pivoted mid-slide, planted his heel on a crack in the stone, and with a sharp breath, launched again.
His second landing was clean.
A narrow ledge—just barely wide enough to fit both feet—jutted out from the wall like a forgotten step. And just beside it, rooted to the cliff face like something that defied logic, were the flowers.
They shimmered up close—delicate, golden-hearted blossoms glowing against the rock, untouched by the wild winds around them.
Noah looked down at them, then glanced back toward the others above.
"Well… that turned out way easier than I thought."
Noah reached out with one hand, fingers brushing gently against the petals of the glowing flower.
The moment his skin made contact, it shimmered.
The bloom dissolved into a cascade of blue particles—soft, weightless, like dust catching sunlight.
They drifted upward, not scattered by wind, but drawn by something unseen. One particle, brighter than the rest, floated toward his chest and sank into him with a faint pulse.
Then the others followed.
Each remaining flower released its glow, petals unraveling into radiant threads of light. Four delicate streams of blue lifted from the cliff wall and arced upward, as if they had minds of their own.
They danced through the air with effortless grace—gliding across the wind, curving around the jagged cliff—until they found their recipients.
One landed on June.
Another nestled into Fiona.
Then Dimitri.
And finally Aiko.
Each of them blinked as the glowing fragments touched their chests, disappearing in a quiet flash.
Noah stared at the empty space where the flowers had once bloomed.
"Just like that, huh…"
[Quest: Bloom on the Brink has been completed.]
[You have received Experience Points.]
Noah narrowed his eyes, a flicker of unease tracing across his face.
Something wasn't right.
Robocrab, perched silently on his shoulder a moment ago, stirred. Its single red eye pulsed brighter, and its clawed limbs shifted with sharp, deliberate clicks. It turned its head slowly, scanning the air with sudden urgency.
It felt something.
So did he.
Noah's voice came low, cautious.
"Okay, that was suspiciously smooth… Too smooth. Like, horror-movie final-girl-walks-into-the-basement kind of smooth—"
He didn't finish.
Without warning, the stone wall in front of him shimmered—no crack, no sound—just a ripple in the surface as the creature phased through it like a ghost slipping between worlds.
The air warped around it as though reality itself was reluctant to let it pass, and yet it moved effortlessly, silent as death.
From within that ripple, a pair of black talons lashed out—fast, sharp, unnatural. They clamped down on his shoulder with terrifying precision, the grip powerful enough to crack armor.
His breath caught.
Then the wind shifted.
A massive shadow erupted from the wall in one fluid motion. It had wings, vast and silent, cloaked in darkness that didn't shimmer or gleam—just swallowed light. Feathers like torn smoke. Eyes like glassed obsidian.
And it flew.
The creature soared upward with a single, ghostlike beat of its wings, lifting Noah clean off the ledge. It vanished into the sky in the blink of an eye, leaving behind no trace—no sound, no trail—just a hush that fell heavy and cold.
Only the wind remained.
And a few scattered pebbles where he had stood.
[Tier 1: Shadow Owl — Level 2]
A name pulsed in the corner of Noah's vision, stark and cold.
The creature holding him aloft was massive—easily wider than a wagon, its wings like veils of night pulled across the sky.
Its feathers were pitch black, not matte or gleaming, but swallowing all light, as if the stars themselves bent away from it.
The talons gripping his shoulder were cold as iron, unmoving, wrapped in unnatural stillness.
Far below, he could barely make out the voices of his allies—faint, like echoes through water.
He didn't waste time.
With a flick of his hands, his flintlocks materialized—both already charged with mana. Robocrab rotated on his shoulder, red eye glowing bright, claws shifting into place.
They fired.
Twin flashes of light, bolts of compressed magic, and a streak of searing laser arced through the air—straight into the creature's wing.
And passed right through.
No impact.
No reaction.
As if the bird were made of smoke and dreams.
[Don't waste your bullets, Noah. This is a cutscene. You can't kill it. Not yet. Just enjoy the short ride.]
Noah's arms dropped slightly as the flintlocks vanished from his hands.
He looked down.
The forest stretched endlessly beneath him, vast and dark, broken only by soft rays of moonlight cutting through the trees. It was beautiful in the way nightmares were—still and deep and far too quiet.
"Really? You're telling me now? Could've mentioned that before I got bird-napped by an overgrown shadow pigeon."
[Because I am not allowed to. My program doesn't permit it. It wouldn't be a test if you knew the answer. And you passed, Noah. Truthfully, I didn't expect you to. Given your usual stance—how you talk about NPCs, how you believe they aren't real, not truly human—I was certain you'd reject the flower quest like most do.]
[But you didn't.]
[Most players fail here. They turn it down, call it a waste of time, and the moment they do, the quest ends… with a rockslide. Brutal. Unavoidable. Instant.]
Noah stared ahead, his hair tousled by the wind, his eyes locked on the looming cliffs in the distance.
The Shadow Owl carried him higher now, toward a jagged mountain wrapped in mist and stone. The peak cut into the clouds like a spear, its shadow crawling across the forest beneath them.
He let out a dry breath.
"So you're surprised I'm not entirely rotten inside, huh?"