The group made it back to the forge just as the light was failing. They were carrying heavy sacks filled with the weirdly high-quality materials they'd scavenged from the "empty" ridges. Jin-Ho was still huffing and puffing, adjusting his glasses every few seconds.
"Okay, I have to ask," Jin-Ho said, leaning against a stone pillar and catching his breath. "Si-woo, man, why do you talk like that? The 'Dao of the River' and 'Mountain's Marrow' stuff? It's cool for the first ten minutes, but you're roleplaying so hard I'm starting to think you've forgotten we're in a basement in Busan."
Hana chuckled, setting her bag of coal-stone down. "He has a point. You sound like those old guys in the historical dramas my grandma watches. You're Level 5 now, not the Emperor of the Heavens."
Si-woo paused, his hand resting on the hilt of the short-sword he'd forged. He realized they were right. He had been so caught up in the sensations of the world—the way the energy moved and the "logic" of the materials—that he had let his old life bleed into his current speech. To him, it was just the truth, but to them, it sounded like he was trying too hard to be an NPC.
"Fair enough," Si-woo said, rubbing the back of his neck. He dropped the formal, rhythmic cadence of his voice. "I guess I got a bit carried away. It's just easier to describe things that way when you're actually... well, feeling them. But I'll dial it back. No more 'mountain marrow' talk for at least twenty-four hours."
"Thank you," Grizz laughed, his voice booming in the quiet forge. "I was starting to feel like I needed a translator just to pick up a rock."
The atmosphere lightened instantly. Without the weight of the "Sovereign" persona, they felt like a group of friends again, just people trying to make something of themselves in a world that usually ignored them.
The moment of levity was cut short by a vibration. It wasn't a spiritual hum or a cosmic resonance—it was the Heart-Stone Compass Si-woo had clipped to his belt. It started rattling against the leather, a sharp, mechanical vibration that felt like a phone on silent mode.
Si-woo looked down. The needle wasn't just spinning; it was locked toward the north, glowing with a steady, pulsing light.
"Is that part of the quest?" Hana asked, coming over to look.
"Not one I signed up for," Si-woo said, his voice back to a normal, modern tone. He looked out the window. Far to the north, beyond the jagged peaks that marked the edge of the beginner zones, a pillar of violet light was shooting into the sky. It wasn't a cutscene; it was a physical change in the map.
"The forums are exploding," Jin-Ho said, pulling up a digital window. "Everyone's seeing it. The pro-guilds are calling it a World Boss event. They're already mobilizing. Look at the Azure Heaven threads—they're sending their main raid teams."
Si-woo looked at the light. He knew what it was. It wasn't a "boss" to be looted. It was a breach. The same corruption he'd cleared from the water intake was happening on a much larger scale at one of the world's natural pressure points.
"The guilds are going to run straight into a meat grinder," Si-woo said. He wasn't being dramatic; he was being practical. "They're going to treat that light like a prize. But if that seal breaks, this whole region is going to get hit with the same rot those spiders had. The Outpost, the water, all of it."
"So what do we do?" Mina asked. "We're crafters. We can't exactly go up there and join a raid."
Si-woo looked at the items they'd gathered. The "Dragon's Whisker" was still resting on the anvil, and the high-grade salts and coal they'd found were sitting in sacks on the floor.
"We don't join the raid," Si-woo said. "We do our jobs. The guilds need weapons and supplies to fight whatever is coming out of that light. If we can provide better gear than the corporate shops, we don't just make money—we make sure the people fighting actually have a chance to win. And maybe, while they're busy being the distraction, we can slip in and fix the actual problem."
"A support role?" Hana asked, a spark of excitement in her eyes. "In a world event?"
"Exactly," Si-woo said. "Jin-Ho, find out where the nearest supply hub for the northern front is. Grizz, start prep on that wind-torn silk. We're going to make some armor that actually works."
Si-woo looked at his hands. He could feel the connection to the world, but he kept his thoughts to himself this time. He didn't need to explain the Dao to them. He just needed to lead them.
"Let's get to work," he said. "We've got a lot of gear to forge before that light hits the ground."