Wren had screenshotted his wine's stats and posted them on the forum the night before—a free ad. By morning it had a hundred thousand reads."Hey, isn't that Wren, the guy the Sovereigns are hunting? What's he doing in Cloudspire?""Look at the Sovereigns now. The guy's not just fine—he's got a wine bar.""That stat boost is real. Worth a Bronze piece. Shame it's short.""Be grateful. One cask lasts two days.""I'll pay a silver each, send me a hundred casks!""Above poster—first reach the capital. He's selling in Cloudspire.""First to the capital has it made. Where's Wren even getting this much supply?"Wren owed the Sovereigns a thank-you. Their bounty had turned a nobody into a trending name. A random post got a hundred thousand reads. The bar's future was covered.He closed the forum and logged in. He walked to the courtyard. The brews were done; opening them would push his brewing to Intermediate. He opened them one by one. Two came out Fine. Lucky.Ding. Brewing has reached Int

By afternoon the Peach Blossom Tavern had customers.Word had gotten around. Players had walked the city, priced the wine at the rival restaurants, and decided they'd save a few silver by buying from Wren. The location helped—his door wasn't far from the south gate, and a third of the city's foot traffic walked right past it every day. The east side of the map was open ocean and monsters too high-level for anyone to touch yet; everyone came and went through the west, south, and north gates, and the south gate was his. A steady stream of adventurers trundled past his window hauling pelts and ore, and every one of them was thirsty by the time they made it back to town.He'd only brewed a hundred-odd casks of Clear Wine the day before. By mid-afternoon the shelf was nearly bare. The barkeep and the serving boy were doing what they could, but they were NPCs and they moved like NPCs, and Wren had to step in more than once to ring up a sale himself."HA! Brother Wren. Few days gone and you'

Breaker was a Polaris man. One of their best archers. Before the game he'd been a national archery champion—real-life, target, the kind who could group arrows inside a playing card at seventy meters. When The Vigil opened, he'd rolled an archer like it was destiny. Out in the starter woods he'd saved a hunter's kid from a wolf, and the hunter had given him a Gold bow in thanks. That bow was Dawn, the one he held now. After he hit the capital he'd rolled a hidden class—Blaze Archer.From Wren's side of the road, the arrow that went up came down as a sky full of fire. It was beautiful, in the way a wildfire was beautiful, and then it fell on the bandits.-203!-255!-216!Their health dropped in chunks. Breaker moved through the firestorm like he'd choreographed it, weaving between their spells, drawing and loosing, drawing and loosing.Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.-260!-412!-235!Every arrow took three, four hundred HP off a target. Within seconds the bandits started popping—one by one th

The healers bought them time, but they couldn't fix the math. The wolves kept coming, and one healer couldn't outheal a hundred bleeds.Wren gritted his teeth and ran back into the pack. He popped Shadowchase and wove through the wolves, using his 6500 HP pool to soak pressure the soldiers couldn't. He'd bought two stacks of mid-grade health potions before he left the city—each one healed a hundred a second for ten seconds—and he started chugging. Health kept dipping, but it held just long enough for his cooldowns to come back.The wolves were fast and mean. One snapped at his thigh, another at his unguarded side. He let them bite—the Goldenward shield was eating the worst of it, and his raw HP was a buffer the soldiers didn't have. Every time a wolf got a clean bite, a heal-over-time ticked back. It was ugly. He looked like a pin cushion. But the line held.Every time a combo reset, he threw it, and every combo killed a dozen wolves. He kept his health parked around three thousand; i

Wren opened his character sheet.Wren. Level 12. Strength 71. Vitality 43. Agility 39. Attack 258. HP 6500. P.Def 223. M.Def 217. Attack Speed 4.9. Move Speed 5.4. Rootedness 5. Luck 1. Soul Power 2.Talent: Spear Mastery (Rare): +10% proficiency gain to spear skills, +1 spear skill level.Skills: Basic Spearplay Lv4 (+1), Rising Dragon Strike 3, Mountain Splitter 2, Thousand Army Break 2, Heavensbreaker 2.Gear: Goldenweave Hauberk, Strider Boots, Cloudveil Hat, Serpent Spirit Ring, Soulreaper, Black Dragon Medal, Wolf-hide Gauntlets, Wildhide Greaves.Both defenses over two hundred. He was getting fat. Maybe he really was going to just face-tank things.The system had mentioned the Black Dragon Medal upgrading. He opened it.Black Dragon Medal II. Strength +2. Vitality +2. Agility +2. Intelligence +2 (useless). Luck +1.The Tier II bump gave him another point across the board. The best part: the medal was a trinket, not an equipped slot. Free stats. Best kind.He left the tent and r