POV: Nara
She did the math out loud.
Rhen and Varyn listened, eyes narrowing, brows furrowed in that particular way people did when numbers made a problem real. Sena, seated cross-legged on the dirt floor of the makeshift camp, was pretending to ignore them, flipping through a small folded map, but the occasional twitch of her finger or the slight lift of an eyebrow betrayed her attention. She was listening. She always listened.
"Alright," Nara began, voice steady, eyes tracing the lines of the map they had spread on the ground. "We have a three-fold problem, and it all comes back to the same thing: EXP. Experience points. Or, in our case, the lack of them."
Stone, curled up in a shadowed corner behind the tent flap, lifted its massive head and blinked once. It had learned over time that when Nara said numbers, it meant thinking time. Calculations, threats, options — the moment numbers were involved, it waited.
"First," Nara said, pointing to a rough diagram of the zones they had chalked onto the map. "We cannot level. Not me. Not the army." She tapped the edges of the Zone 2 border. "The barrier system locks higher zones. My undead status lets me ignore the barriers for movement, but monsters? NPCs? Anyone with System authority? They still obey the rules. Zone 2 is the highest safe level we can recruit from. Any attempt at Zone 3 recruitment before we solve this will be suicide."
She drew a line from Zone 2 to Zone 4 with her finger, pausing to let the weight of the thought settle. "To reach higher zones safely, we have two options. Stay undead — which seems permanent — or find a fix. The Elixir of Restoration is the only documented method. Manual calls it 'mythic.' Location unknown. No coordinates. No hints beyond the footnote that says 'Seek where time bends.' Whatever that means."
Varyn, crouched beside her, arms crossed, let out a low whistle. "So, permanent undead army," he said. "With no level gain. Every fight is purely tactical, no growth." He tapped the map at a cluster of Zone 3 monsters. "And if you try to recruit higher, the barriers will push back."
"Yes," Nara said. Her eyes didn't leave the map. "And they will push back hard. Zone 3 patrols, Level 12 minimum. We encounter one, it's game over."
Sena, still flipping the map, finally spoke. "Which makes our current army…?"
"Flat. Zero. Me, Stone, the wolf, everyone in formation. Zero EXP. We fight to survive, not to grow."
"Zero EXP?" Rhen repeated. "Nothing? Even monsters?"
"Nothing." Nara's tone carried the faintest edge of frustration. "Undead do not generate EXP from combat. Not us, not anyone we raise. We are untouchable for XP purposes. Immortality does not equal advancement."
Stone snorted. The sound was deep, almost amused, though no one else noticed.
"Second problem," Nara continued, voice tightening. "We are hunted." She tapped the map again, this time tracing the last known patrol routes they had observed in Zone 2. "We have a Glitch Class. That bag I took from Kael's hideout is marked, traceable, and stolen. No money. No supply lines. No safe zone. Anywhere we rest, anywhere we pause, someone can find us."
Varyn shifted, hands brushing against his knees. "Hunted how? Just random bounty hunters?"
"Not random," Nara said. Her eyes flashed. "Glitch pings. System anomalies. Someone noticed the irregularity. They can track it. I don't know who. I don't know intent."
Rhen's jaw tightened. "That explains the advisory board posting. The Zone 2 hunter we encountered… the Level 8. Someone bigger is directing them. Someone with authority."
Nara nodded. "Exactly. Which brings us to the third problem. Someone with System Authority has detected the Glitch ping. That's not Kael, that's not a local hunter. This is deliberate, targeted." She pressed her finger to the center of the map where the Zone 2-3 corridor ran. "And we don't know who it is."
Sena looked up finally, eyebrows knit. "We'll find them."
"You don't understand," Nara said, tone sharper than she intended. She relaxed immediately. "No. I do. You can fight anyone in the open. We can kill hunters, monsters, even high-level NPCs in Zone 2 with enough planning. But System Authority? Whoever is controlling that doesn't play by the rules. They can observe, restrict, intercept… maybe even reset us." She let the words hang.
Varyn had been quiet until now. His dark eyes narrowed. He finally spoke. "I know who sent the Collector."
Silence fell. The only sound was the faint wind moving through the treetops, carrying the earthy smell of damp soil and moss.
"Vorath," he said.
Nara froze mid-breath.
"The Sin of Gluttony," he added, almost softly. The words sank like weights.
Nara's mind slammed to the manual. "Which one is that?" she asked quietly, more to herself than to anyone else.
Rhen answered, voice low, careful: "The one that eats everything."
The weight of the revelation pressed down on them all. Sena's hand flexed against the map, but her face betrayed her concern despite her best attempt at nonchalance. Varyn, normally calm, was tense, shoulders rigid. Rhen exhaled slowly, jaw tight.
"The Collector," Nara whispered. "Gluttony's agent… hunting us."
"Yes," Varyn said. "The one who tracks anomalies. The one who doesn't care about zones. Level doesn't matter. Nothing matters except what he's been told to take." He let the words hang. "And he's been told: keep the girl alive. The bag… optional."
Nara clenched her fists. "Why the bag?"
Varyn didn't answer. No one had an answer. The manual had nothing. Everything they had learned was insufficient. The bag contained Kael's notes, yes. System knowledge, yes. But more importantly, it was marked, traceable. It was a beacon for anyone looking for a Glitch-class anomaly. Whoever controlled the Collector understood that.
She looked at her undead army — Stone, silent and massive in the shadow; the wolf, ears twitching; Pip, perched on a branch like it understood more than its size suggested. None of them generated EXP, none could be leveled, none could be improved in the traditional sense. She was their commander. Their only growth was through strategy, improvisation, and survival.
"And that is the point," Nara said, voice rising slightly with urgency. "We have to get smarter. Faster. Better."
Rhen leaned in, tracing potential movement paths with a finger. "We can take the secondary road to Zone 3. Fewer patrols. Higher monster density. It's riskier, but safer in terms of visibility."
"Monster density is manageable," Nara said. "We have Stone, the wolf, and Varyn can handle himself. Sena can…" She trailed off. "Sena can hold her own."
Sena smirked faintly. "Flattery will get you everywhere."
"Not flattery," Nara said. "Observation." She tapped her fingers on the map, tracing the dark shapes of forests, ridges, and the Zone 2 border line. "We have less than twelve hours before patrols begin systematic sweeps. Dawn if they read the guild board tonight. That means we move now. No pause. No mistakes."
Stone shifted, the sound of its massive joints faint but audible. The wolf circled, tail low but alert. Pip chirped once, as if acknowledging orders.
"And the Gluttony problem?" Rhen asked.
"You cannot fight a Sin with numbers or brute force," Nara said. "Strategy, misdirection, invisibility… all of it matters more than combat stats. We survive by thinking faster than they can act. We exploit gaps, weaknesses, timing."
Varyn's dark eyes met hers. "And if we fail?"
Nara's gaze did not waver. "We don't."
The night air settled over them, cool and heavy with the scent of damp leaves. Each member of their small party absorbed the gravity of the situation differently. Sena tapped her map methodically, Rhen's jaw clenched, Varyn's fingers flexed on his weapon hilt. Stone's eyes glimmered with a patience born of centuries, and the wolf's ears flicked toward every sound, every distant rustle. Pip, small and absurdly determined, tilted its head at Nara.
She exhaled slowly. "Then we leave. Now."
They packed silently, each movement practiced, each glance loaded with unspoken communication. Maps folded, bag straps adjusted, weapons checked. Nara took the last look at the small fire that had kept them warm, the soft glow of the lanterns in the treeline, and the world beyond that was already hunting them.
The forest swallowed them as they moved northeast. Shadows clung to their forms. The leaves whispered beneath their boots. Each step carried the weight of zero EXP and the ever-present threat that someone bigger, someone unknowable, was watching, waiting, calculating.
Nara kept the Grimoire open in one hand, reading Zone 3 entries under the weak moonlight. Level requirement: 1. Monster density: moderate. Primary hazards: dire wolves, cave crawlers, occasional Zone 4 spillover near the eastern ravine. She read while moving, while listening, while directing the silent ballet of her undead companions.
And through it all, a single truth echoed in her mind: no EXP. No growth. Only survival. And the Collector.
They had begun counting down the hours before the first strike.