The entrance to the Goblin Mines was a chaotic, inefficient market.
Shouts for roles echoed off the damp stone, a cacophony of desperation and opportunism.
Kage, now Level 3, stood apart from the swarm. A silent observer in a sea of noise. His class—displayed as a simple Poet—hovered beneath his name like a neon sign flashing a single, universally understood message: DO NOT INVITE.
He wasn't waiting for a handout; he was calculating an entry point. The clamoring herd was a waste of processing cycles. His focus was on the smaller, more organized groups, the ones who understood the meta.
His eyes settled on a party of four. Their gear was a mix of crafted items and early quest rewards, superior to the starter rags most players still wore. Professionals. And they were agitated.
The leader, a hulking Level 6 Warrior named Jax, paced back and forth, his oversized axe a constant threat to the low stone ceiling. His armor was a cut above the rest, suggesting a healthy injection of real-world cash. A classic whale. Next to him, a Level 5 Healer named Lily watched, her staff held in a nervous grip.
Zara, a Level 5 Mage with sharp eyes and gear that screamed efficiency over flash, muttered spell calculations under her breath. Her posture was tense—the kind of player who had min-maxed every stat point and spent the last hours grinding while others fumbled. Across from her, Finn, their Level 5 Ranger, looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. His equipment was solid but basic. He kept glancing around, opening his mouth as if to speak, then closing it when no one seemed interested.
Kage cross-referenced their classes, levels, and agitation. An algorithm clicked into place. Five-man party, missing one member. Just lost their fifth, likely a disconnect. High urgency to avoid wasting time.
As if on cue, Lily's soft voice cut through the air. She gestured subtly with her chin toward Kage. "Jax… look at him. He's been standing there for a while. No one will take him."
Jax scoffed, a loud, grating sound. "A Poet? Lily, be serious. That's not a player; that's a liability. A walking EXP penalty. We need someone who can actually kill things, not write a sonnet about them."
Her shoulders slumped. Seeing her disappointment, Jax's chest puffed out.
"Ugh, fine," he grumbled, his tone shifting to magnanimous strength. "It's not like we need the help. My damage is more than enough. We'll carry the charity case."
Zara glanced up. "A Poet? Artisan class, right? Finn, what skills do you even have? I just got Frost Bolt at Level 5, but I'm still figuring out the optimal casting rotation."
Finn shifted uncomfortably. "Um, I got Hunter's Mark, but I haven't really tested it…" He trailed off, embarrassed by his cautious playstyle.
"Great," Zara muttered. "Hours into launch and we're all still figuring out our core abilities. This should go smoothly."
Jax spun around and bellowed across the clearing. "Hey, Poet! You're with us. Stay behind Lily and try not to die. And don't expect a full cut of the loot."
Party Invite from User [Jax - Lvl 6 Warrior].
[ Accept ]
[ Refuse ]
The insults were background noise, an acceptable social transaction. The cost of entry. Kage gave a single, curt nod and moved to join their formation, slotting himself into the rear with silent precision.
[ Accept ]
His quiet compliance was more unsettling to them than any argument could ever be. Jax stared for a second, a flicker of irritation in his eyes, before turning to bark orders at the others.
The mines were dark, narrow, and smelled of damp earth and something foul. They weren't an instance, but an open-world dungeon, and despite there being a lot of parties near the entrance, most of them died at the start or stayed in the boss room.
Jax, true to his word, led the charge with the subtlety of a charging bull. He barreled into the first group of two Goblin Scouts, his axe swinging in wide, powerful arcs that tore huge chunks from their health bars.
[-55 HP]
[Critical Hit! -110 HP]
He was strong. He was also sloppy. He ignored positioning, taking a crude dagger to the side that he could have easily avoided.
[-15 HP]
Beside Kage, Lily sighed as a soft green light enveloped the Warrior, his health bar refilling. The pattern repeated with the next pull. Massive damage out, unnecessary damage in. Jax fought, Lily burned through her mana, and the two DPS struggled to find a rhythm around their frontliner's erratic aggression.
Kage said nothing. He observed.
His mind was a combat log, parsing information far faster than any UI. He noted the patrol patterns of distant goblins, their aggro radius, the exact layout of the tunnels. He tracked party cooldowns, Lily's dwindling mana, the Mage's potion usage. He was gathering data for a simulation only he could see.
[You have defeated Goblin Scout!]
[EXP Gained: 40]
[You have defeated Goblin Worker!]
[EXP Gained: 40]
Good, there's no penalty for not tagging, and no exp split in the party. I'm basically leeching free levels.
And, in the meanwhile…
[Harvesting Success! Gloomweed x1 acquired.]
[EXP +2 From Harvesting]
[Harvesting (Basic) EXP +0.5%]
[Harvesting (Basic) Level Up (Lvl 2)]
[EXP Gained: 25]
He ignored Jax's irritated gaze, Zara's disapproving shake of the head, and the questioning look that Lily gave him. He just kept harvesting.
Experience 275/520
Need about two more pulls. The mage said that they got new spells at level 5. That means both lvl 4 and lvl 5 should be big power spikes.
They approached a larger chamber, a circular cavern with a high, craggy ceiling. Three Goblin Scouts were visible near the center, huddled around a sputtering fire.
Jax hefted his axe, a grin on his face. "Alright, bigger pack. Everyone focus my target."
He was about to charge.
Kage's voice, calm and sharp, cut through the chatter like a shard of ice. "Stop."
The party froze. Jax turned, an annoyed scowl on his face.
"Ambush," Kage stated, his tone flat. "Two archers, left ledge, behind those stalagmites. Trapper by the north passage; you can see the edge of his net. Pull the front three back to this tunnel. It's a natural choke point."
Zara squinted into the darkness, then shook her head. "I don't see anything. God, I wish this game had a proper detection spell. It's all just guesswork."
Finn adjusted his grip on his bow. "I… I don't see anything there, either. The minimap is empty. I'm sure it was just shadows."
Jax laughed, the sound dripping with condescension. "An ambush? Kid, don't get ahead of yourself. There are three goblins in that room. Quiet down and watch how a real warrior handles things."
He charged in.
The trap sprang with sickening speed.
A coarse net shot out from the north passage, ensnaring the Mage. Simultaneously, arrows hissed down from the exact ledge Kage had indicated.
[-25 HP]
[-28 HP]
The arrows targeted the backline. Lily cried out as one struck her shoulder, forcing her to heal herself instead of the tank. The three melee goblins swarmed Jax, who was now separated from his party and bogged down.
The fight devolved into the exact chaos Kage had predicted.
Zara cursed as arrows whistled past her head. "Shit! How did you know?" She frantically began casting, her skepticism evaporated. "I can barely see ten feet in here!"
Finn, despite his panic, found his voice. "Goblin archers! Slow reloads!" His own arrow flew wide, his aim shot through with nerves. "Four seconds maybe? I think?"
While Jax roared, pinned by the melee mob, Kage remained at the cavern's entrance. A point of absolute calm. He processed the tactical situation.
Trapper prevents repositioning. Jax is a non-factor. Primary threat: archers pinning the healer. Neutralize the archers.
He scanned his lexicon. Strike was useless. Weaken was a debuff. The only crowd control tool he had was Bind.
He accessed his mental user manual, the data from his earlier experiments. Bind creates roots from the ground. Constricts movement. The archers were stationary. It wouldn't do anything.
Useless. A dead end.
For a split second, frustration flared. The system was inefficient; the tool was inadequate. His mind hit a logical wall.
Then a different data point surfaced—an anomaly he hadn't yet integrated. The stream. The herbs. The system's response to a raw, unstructured intent. The keyword was [Growth], but the result wasn't a generic "grow bigger" effect; it was "yield a better harvest."
The initial conclusion was flawed. His assumption was wrong.
His mind raced, forging a new hypothesis. The keyword isn't the spell. It's the concept.Bind doesn't just mean 'Root.' It means to restrain. The how, the what, the method… that was defined by the user.
He had been thinking like a common mage, assuming Bind was a pre-defined skill from a skill tree. He was wrong. The Poet's Lexicon wasn't a spellbook.
It was a dictionary. And he had to write the sentence.