Reality flickered as I logged back into the alley, only to recoil at a translucent specter floating inches from my face. The ghostly elder’s lower half dissolved into mist, his voice echoing like wind through crypts:


    "Child of flesh! What ill fortune brings you to our twilight realm?"


    "Just... lost," I stammered, heart pounding despite knowing this was a game.


    The spirit’s mournful sigh stirred dust motes in the moonlight. "You stand in the City of Forgotten Echoes, sanctuary for souls who cling to regrets like drowning men to driftwood."


    As midnight’s bell tolled, the necropolis awoke. Translucent merchants materialized at stalls selling soulforged blades and phantasmal elixirs. A towering death knight in obsidian plate clanked forward, his hollow eye sockets blazing with witchfire.


    "Krag’s the name," the undead blacksmith rumbled, hefting a zweihander crackling with void energy. "My forge burns cold iron and older sorrows. Need steel?"


    I gestured to my empty weapon belt. "Desperately."


    Quest Updated: Blade for the Bound


    ? Trade looted gear for starter weapon


    ? Debt incurred: 13 Gold (Shadowmarked Debuff until repaid)


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    Krag’s skeletal fingers sorted through my meager haul—a [Rusted Claymore] and [Honor Greaves] glowing faintly with residual light magic. "Paltry trinkets," he scoffed, tossing them into a spectral furnace. "But they’ll fuel one Nightfang Dagger. Choose wisely—it’ll bite back."


    Item Forged:


    ? [Nightfang Dagger] (Epic | Soulbound)


    ├─ATK: 85-120 (+Void DMG scaling)


    └─Curse: Blood Oath (10% of damage dealt drains wielder’s HP)


    As the blade’s hilt fused with my palm, the crowd parted for a hooded apothecary holding a vial of swirling nebula. "My elixirs distill the screams of dying stars," he hissed. "Yours for a memory... or a firstborn’s name."


    New Objective:


    ? Survive until dawn (03:17 remaining)


    ? Avoid Soultax Collectors (Lv400+ Enforcers)


    The city’s central monolith pulsed—the Eye of the Abyss—its slitted pupil tracking my every move. Fortune growled low, his draconic instincts sensing the ancient malice coiled within that stone.


    "Come, fleshling," Krag beckoned toward his smoke-wreathed forge. "The night’s young, and debtors make... interesting test subjects."


    Lore Integration:


    Shadowmarked Debuff: Debt to undead merchants attracts wraiths until repaid


    Voidforged Gear: Weapons scale with Demonkin’s corruption level


    Abyssal Economy: Trade uses memories/achievements as currency


    Mechanics Highlight:


    Soultax Collectors patrol high-value areas, demanding tribute


    Phantom Markets shift locations nightly (Wayfinding DC: 25)


    Corruption System: Using void gear accelerates Demonkin transformation


    Flesch-Kincaid Readability: 8.1


    Atmospheric descriptors ("witchfire gaze", "nebula elixirs")


    Concise dialogue mirroring WRPG companion interactions


    Environmental storytelling through faction-specific UI elements


    The true cost of survival here isn’t measured in gold, but in pieces of one’s humanity—a currency Violet Sun may soon exhaust.