Chapter 58: Pieces on the board
Lucen was quite surprised to meet Aldric Marren, the very same merchant who, in the game, would somehow always appear in dungeons, uncharted ruins, or the middle of nowhere, just in time to sell the protagonist group some wares.
In the game, Aldric had always been a walking mystery, an unassuming merchant who somehow knew exactly when and where the protagonist needed supplies. A crumbling dungeon? He’d be there with lanterns and antidotes. A bandit ambush in a snowy pass? Aldric would already have a small fire going and tea brewing like he’d booked a reservation.
Lucen used to laugh about it with other players online. They’d joke that Aldric must’ve been the real final boss or an unpatched bug with a quest marker stuck to him. He was a meme, a legend, and somehow, also a beloved NPC.
Now, seeing him here, real and breathing, Lucen was both amused and unsettled. There was no explanation for how he survived those places. Unless sheer luck was a stat, and if so, Aldric had maxed it out.
’In-game, his appearing anywhere the protagonist was, especially before a big battle, made sense, but in reality, I’m starting to question how he did it... This guy wasn’t some powerful knight or a great mage... Then how?... No use thinking about it.’
Lucen’s thoughts drifted again when he realized something else. Aside from Aldric, he’d already met several named characters from the game.
This was surprising since Lucen had never stepped foot in Caelhart, where most of Alexander’s story took place.
Yet even here in the North, he was already crossing paths with characters who had roles in the game’s main storyline.
’Well, these guys should originally be from the North, so I guess bumping into them would have been a matter of time.’
Their presence, like pieces scattered too early on a chessboard, was both exciting and deeply concerning.
It meant that they were moving in ways he couldn’t predict, which means the enemies and bosses were also going to move in a way that is not the same as the game.