Morning in Havenford sounded like wagon wheels, gulls, and someone swearing at a rooster.I rolled over in bed, buried my face in the pillow, and seriously considered pretending I was still dead.[New day, new crises.] MMA's voice chimed far too cheerfully in my head. [Get up, Host.]"I thought support systems were supposed to be supportive," I mumbled.[Providing motivation is part of my function.]"You're providing harassment."[Semantics.]I cracked one eye open.Sunlight painted a bright rectangle across the floor. Somewhere below, Merra was yelling at someone to stop tracking mud through her common room. My body felt mostly fine, which was slightly insulting given I'd wrestled raw reality a few hours ago."Any lingering side effects from the crack?" I asked mentally as I sat up.[Minor residual resonance.] MMA replied. [You've absorbed some micro-data from alternate Eldoria branches, but it's mostly noise. You might get déjà vu more often.]"So… normal weirdness."[For you, yes.]I splashed my face with water from the basin, pulled on my coat, and headed downstairs.The Copper Acorn's morning version was quieter than last night: fewer drunken songs, more clinking of cups and spoons. The air smelled like porridge, fried eggs, and the faint threat of burnt toast.Merra glanced up as I approached the counter."You look less like a raincloud today," she said. "Breakfast?""Please. And coffee, or the local equivalent of 'liquid that convinces your brain it's time to function.'"She snorted."Herbal coffee substitute it is."As I ate, I opened my interface with a thought.STATUSMost of it looked the same, but a new line glowed faintly.——————————
LOCAL REPUTATION – HAVENFORD:
– General: "Strange but helpful newcomer"
– Market District: "Cart-Healing Miracle Guy"
– Shrine: "Suspiciously Resonant"
——————————"…'Suspiciously Resonant' sounds like a band name," I muttered.[It means the shrine likes you.] MMA said. [Or at least, finds you interesting.]"I'll add 'shrines' to the list of entities that have better taste than most of my old followers."Before MMA could snark back, someone slid onto the bench across from me."Morning, reality hazard."I looked up.Aria, shrine caretaker, still in her white-and-blue robes, hair tied back, broom absent for once. She held a small cloth-wrapped bundle in her hands."How did you find me?" I asked."There are three inns in Havenford," she said. "Two of them smell like wet socks and desperation. This one doesn't. You give off 'doesn't like wet socks' energy.""Scarily accurate."Merra appeared with another cup, setting it in front of Aria with the ease of long practice."The shrine girl found a friend," Merra said. "The spirits must be feeling generous.""Or desperate," Aria said dryly, then turned back to me. "You did something last night.""Define 'something'," I said.Her gaze sharpened."The world shuddered," she said. "Not like when a storm comes. Like when someone… nudges a loose stone in the foundation. The shrine reacted. I followed the trail. It led here. And to you."Subtle was not in this town's vocabulary.I set my spoon down."There was a crack," I said quietly. "In an alley. A child nearly touched it. I stepped in. Closed it."Aria exhaled slowly."You closed it," she repeated, like she was tasting the words."That's the short version," I said. "The long version involves migraine, existential visuals, and my system yelling at me about safety."[You are underselling the risk.] MMA said."I'm overselling my tolerance," I thought back.Aria placed the cloth bundle on the table and unfolded it.Inside lay three small, smooth stones, each carved with a different sigil: a spiral, a leaf, and a stylized crack crossed by a line."These are ward stones," she said. "Old ones. The priests left them behind when they ran off to 'consult the high temple' six months ago. They resonate with the shrine's line. If there are more cracks, they'll vibrate, glow, or sometimes scream.""Sometimes… scream?" I asked."Just a little," she said. "It's more of a spiritual whine.""Comforting."She nudged the stone with the crack sigil toward me."You're the only person I've seen who can touch a fracture and not fall apart," she said. "I don't like that fact. But I like the idea of children getting eaten by holes in the air even less.""So you want me to play… crack detector?" I asked."Cracks might be drawn to you anyway," she said. "Better you know before they know you."[Side Quest Updated: "Whispers at the Shrine" – Ward Stone Acquired.] MMA chimed.I picked up the stone.It felt… warm. Faintly humming, like a tiny heart beating very slowly. When I focused, a thin line of light appeared on its surface, matching the sigil."Does it always glow?" I asked."No," Aria said. "That's new.""Of course it is."I closed my fingers around it."Alright," I said. "I'll keep it on me. If it starts screaming, I'll… respond accordingly.""Preferably with less self-destructive enthusiasm than last night," she said."No promises, but I'll try."Merra, who had been pretending not to listen and failing, snorted."If you break my inn because you poked something you shouldn't," she said, "I'll make you pay in mopping for a year.""I'll add that to my list of existential threats," I said. "Demons, world collapse, angry innkeeper."[In that order?] MMA asked."Depends on who's holding a broom," I thought.Aria stood."I have to get back," she said. "The shrine sulks if I leave it alone too long. But, Kai—" She hesitated, then met my eyes. "If you feel something… off, and the ward reacts, come to the shrine after. The spirits might… know more. Or at least complain with context.""I'll bring them a fruit basket," I said."They prefer incense and sincere feelings.""I can manage one of those."She almost smiled, then was gone, the door swinging shut behind her.Merra shook her head."First day and you've got the shrine watching you," she said. "You really are trouble.""In my defense," I said, "the trouble started long before I got here. I'm just… the patch.""A patch that explodes if applied wrong," MMA added."Shh."I finished breakfast, feeling the weight of the ward stone in my pocket like a very polite alarm waiting to go off.As I stepped out into the street, ready to… do something vaguely productive, the universe decided that "vague" was not on the menu."Kai!"I turned.Rel, the frazzled Guild adventurer from yesterday, jogged toward me, panting slightly. He looked like he'd sprinted across half the town."There you are," he huffed. "Harven wants you. Now.""That's never an ominous sentence," I said. "What's up? Did I forget to sign the terms and conditions?"Rel grimaced."South road," he said. "Near the old mill. A caravan came in at dawn. One of the wagons was ripped apart. No bodies. Just… scorch marks. And weird residue.""Let me guess," I said. "Weird residue that makes magic users feel like they kissed a live wire."Rel blinked."Yeah," he said. "How did you—""Lucky guess."[Residual demonic or extra-systemic energy often feels like that.] MMA provided. [Given Eldoria's state, demonic incursion is a prime candidate.]"Thought so," I thought.Rel fell into step beside me as we headed toward the Guild."I don't know what you are," he said, "but Harven's already bumped you to the top of the 'throw new problems at' list. That's basically a promotion.""I'll put it on my résumé."The Guildhall was busier than yesterday. Adventurers clustered around the quest board, murmuring. Harven stood near a table with a rough map spread out, jabbing at it with a calloused finger. When he saw me, he beckoned sharply."Kai," he said. "Good. Saves me sending someone else.""Rel said you had… weird wagon issues," I said."Understatement," Harven grunted. "Take a look."He pushed a smaller piece of paper toward me. A hastily sketched scene: a wagon in ruins, wood splintered outward, the ground beneath blackened in a circular pattern. Strange marks squiggled around the edge."The caravaners came from Westhaven," he said. "They said something hit them in the night. Fast. No one saw properly. One of their guards vanished. No blood. Just burn marks.""Any survivors sick? Weak? Hearing voices?" I asked.Rel gave me a sharp look."Two complained of headaches," Harven said slowly. "The local priest wrote it off as travel strain.""Local priest is in the capital," Rel muttered."Right, the substitute," Harven corrected. "Point is, the whole thing smells off. And you… smell like something that could either fix it or make it worse.""So naturally, you called me," I said."Bronze rank or not," Harven said, "you're not normal. And right now, 'not normal' is exactly what this town needs. I'm putting together a small team to investigate the mill and the road. You interested?"[Main Quest Hook Detected.] MMA sang in my head."Who else is going?" I asked."Rel," Harven said, nodding at him. "Sara—she's a healer. And a mage who owes me three favors and a keg. You'll like her. Or she'll set your coat on fire. Either way, entertainment.""Fantastic."[This is your first official "party," Host.] MMA noted. [Try not to terrify them with your true stats yet.]"I'm not planning to whip out my status window at dinner.""Pay's standard Bronze rate," Harven added. "Plus hazard bonus if anything actually tries to eat you.""I'm more worried about it trying to recruit me," I muttered. Then, louder: "I'm in."Rel exhaled in visible relief."Good," he said. "We head out in an hour. Gear up. Meet at the south gate."I glanced down at myself."Does 'gear' include anything beyond long coat and crushing sense of cosmic responsibility?" I asked."Knife, maybe?" Rel suggested. "Just for show.""You mean I shouldn't solve everything with my bare hands and dazzling personality?""Please don't."As Rel headed off, Harven caught my sleeve."One more thing," he said quietly. "If this is tied to… whatever's wrong with the sky, I want to know. If it's above our pay grade, I want the option to get everyone out before it goes bad."I met his gaze."If it's above my pay grade," I said, "we're all in trouble."He grunted."Then let's hope your pay grade is as obnoxious as your reputation says.""It's worse," I said. "You just don't have the numbers."Back at the inn, I did the adventurer thing and inventoried my pockets.Coins.Ward stone (still warm, not screaming).A bit of bread wrapped in cloth from Merra ("For when you inevitably forget to eat," she'd said).No weapon, unless you counted my ability to make bad decisions at high speed.[You can create basic armaments with magic if you need to.] MMA reminded me. [But subtlety is useful. A simple dagger might be less alarming than conjuring a sword of starlight in front of Bronze ranks.]"You say that like I'm not tempted," I thought.[Your restraint so far has been admirable. Let's not test it with starlight.]I borrowed a plain knife from Merra ("Don't stab demons in my bar," she'd said), tied it at my belt for aesthetics, and headed for the south gate.Rel waited there with two others.One was a woman in light chain armor, shield strapped to her back, short brown hair braided tightly against her head. She had the grounded, no-nonsense aura of someone who had absolutely no time for foolishness.The other leaned against the wall, arms crossed: a tall young woman with short black hair, bright blue eyes, and a long staff resting on her shoulder. Red runes glowed faintly along its length. She wore a robe that looked like it had once been expensive and was now covered in scorch marks.Rel straightened when he saw me."Kai," he said. "This is Sara—" He nodded at the healer. "—and this menace is Lyse."Lyse grinned."Menace?" she said. "I prefer 'innovative mage'.""You set the practice field on fire," Sara said flatly."It was a controlled burn.""The Guildmaster had to put it out himself."Lyse shrugged, then looked me up and down."So you're the rumored cart-fixer," she said. "You don't look like much.""Perfect," I said. "Maybe the monsters will underestimate me."Her grin widened."I like him," she announced.Sara sighed."I'm here to keep you all alive," she said. "Try not to make my job impossible.""I'll take 'mildly difficult' as a challenge," I said.We set out, the road stretching ahead between fields and scattered trees. The ward stone in my pocket stayed warm but quiet.For a while, we walked in relative silence, the crunch of boots on dirt the only sound."So," Lyse said eventually, falling into step beside me. "Where'd you learn to do that repair trick? Rel says you glowed.""Trade secret," I said. "Let's just say I'm good with broken things.""Convenient," she said. "This world's pretty broken."Her tone was casual, but her eyes were sharp, flicking briefly to the sky."You see the cracks?" I asked."Not clearly," she said. "But I feel them when I throw bigger spells. It's like pushing against… thin glass. Harven says I'm imagining it. The shrine girl says I'm not." She smirked. "I tend to trust the one who doesn't snore in staff meetings.""You snore in staff meetings," Sara said from ahead."That's because they're boring.""Don't encourage her," Rel muttered.I glanced at Lyse's staff."Fire mage?" I guessed."Mostly," she said. "Bit of lightning. Bit of 'oops that wasn't supposed to explode.' What about you?""Generalist," I said. "Picked up a little bit of everything. Good at improvisation. Great at last-ditch saves."[And wildly overpowered at all of it.] MMA added.Lyse's eyes gleamed."Oh, a fellow improviser," she said. "We're going to get along."Sara groaned softly."I can already feel my blood pressure rising."The old mill came into view around a bend: a stone building by a narrow river, waterwheel creaking lazily. The caravan wagons were parked nearby, a few still hitched. One, however, was a mess: boards snapped, metal warped, ground scorched in a rough circle.Rel lifted a hand."Stay sharp," he said.As we approached, a man in a travel-stained cloak strode toward us. He had the harried look of someone who'd had a very bad night and no patience left."You the Guild team?" he demanded."Rel, Bronze rank," Rel said. "This is Sara, Lyse, and Kai. You're…?""Darren," the man said. "Caravan leader. I've been hauling goods since before you were born, and I've never seen anything like this."He gestured at the destroyed wagon."Show us," Sara said, already moving.Up close, the damage was worse than Harven's sketch suggested. The wagon's side had been blown outward, wood charred and splintered. The ground beneath was blackened in a near-perfect ring. At the very center, the dirt was… wrong: glassy, hairline fractures radiating outward like a frozen spiderweb.The ward stone in my pocket twitched.Then thrummed.Then heated, light seeping through the cloth.[Resonance detected.] MMA's tone turned clinical. [This is a secondary fracture point.]Lyse whistled softly."That's not bandits," she said. "Or any spell I know."Sara knelt carefully at the edge of the ring, hand hovering over the glassy center without touching."I can feel… something," she murmured. "Like static. Or… hate.""Cheerful," I said.Darren scrubbed a hand over his face."We were riding through the night," he said. "Guard on watch saw… a glow. Said it looked like a lantern at first. Then it got brighter. Closer. Then there was a blast. When we woke up, this wagon was like this and Thom—our guard—was gone.""No blood?" I asked. "No tracks?""Nothing," Darren said tightly. "Like he was plucked off the world."I exchanged a glance with Lyse."Could be a demon," she said. "They like dramatic entrances."[Demons in Eldoria are usually invasive entities from lower-ordered planes.] MMA provided. [They ride fractures like parasites.]"Charming," I thought.Rel shifted uneasily."If it is a demon," he said, "should we really be poking it?""Yes," Lyse and I said at the same time.Sara sighed."I hate that I knew you were going to say that," she said.I stepped closer to the scorched ring."Kai?" Rel said cautiously. "What are you—""Just looking," I said. "Carefully."I crouched at the edge, letting my senses stretch out, not with the full weight I'd used on the alley crack, but gently, like testing bath water.The air above the glassy center tingled.Thin threads of not-light drifted upward, invisible to normal eyes but obvious to mine now: wisps of… elsewhere. A faint trace of something that had punched through, grabbed, and retreated."Something came in," I murmured. "Then left. It used a micro-fracture as a door.""Can you tell where it went?" Sara asked."Maybe," I said. "If I… tune in."[Mild risk.] MMA warned. [But within your current capacity. Treat it like tracing a phone call, not answering it.]"Good analogy," I thought.I pulled the ward stone from my pocket. It glowed brighter here, the crack sigil lit from within."Alright," I said quietly. "Show me the thread."I focused on the feeling of "door." Of "passage." The world blurred at the edges. The ring at my feet pulsed.For a moment, two images overlapped: the mill clearing and something else—a darker space, damp and echoing. Stone walls. The smell of old water and iron. A faint, distant sound like humming or chanting.An underground chamber.Then the vision snapped away, leaving only the sunny clearing, the ruined wagon, and three concerned adventurers staring at me."You went pale," Rel said. "Did you see something?""An old underground place," I said. "Stone. Water. Maybe a cistern, or a forgotten cellar. Close enough that the fracture could anchor to it."Rel and Sara exchanged a look."There's an abandoned storm drain complex near here," Sara said slowly. "Beneath the south fields. Old city infrastructure no one uses anymore. Kids dare each other to go down there and get yelled at by parents.""Great demon hangout," Lyse said cheerfully. "Damp, dark, dramatic.""Can you lead us there?" I asked.Rel hesitated."We were supposed to just investigate the wagon," he said. "Not run into underground demon lairs.""We don't know it's a demon," I said. "But whatever it is, it's taking people. If it's using those drains as a base, we should at least take a look."Sara looked at the scorched ring, then at the cracks in the sky, faint but present."If we leave it," she said slowly, "it might hit another caravan. Or the town proper."Rel swore under his breath."Fine," he said. "We go. But if it's worse than we think, we pull back and call in higher ranks. Agreement?""Reasonable," I said."Boring but necessary," Lyse added."We're not dying over your shared sense of drama," Sara warned.[Party dynamic: healthy.] MMA commented. [You might keep them alive after all.]As we followed Rel toward the south fields, the ward stone throbbed gently in my hand, tugging like a compass needle toward something hidden beneath the earth.First official party.First official maybe-demon.First step from "local weirdness" into "actual multiverse work."I flexed my fingers, feeling the bloodline hum quietly in my veins."Hey, MMA," I thought.[Yes, Host?]"Scale of one to ten," I asked. "How bad could this get?"[With you involved?] it replied. [Let's assume an upper bound of 'the tutorial boss accidentally starts a cult' and work our way down.]"That's not comforting."[You didn't ask for comfort. You asked for scale.]I smiled despite myself, adrenaline and anticipation mixing in my chest."Fair enough," I thought. "Let's go meet the boss, then."