Ryker

Ryker is known as the "Lucky Detective" by his detective friends.

As the name suggests, he is a lucky person: whenever he places a bet, he wins ten times the stake; whenever he guesses, he chooses the right answer.

The "Lucky Detective" doesn't have to be an actual detective; he's solved many cases by chance alone, so he was embraced on this path.

He doesn't solve cases by deduction, relying on luck instead. Just a tour around the crime scene and he stumbles upon the culprit; just walking along the road, he picks up key evidence.

With such good fortune, he's lived out a smooth twenty-five years.

He never worries about yesterday, nor frets about tomorrow.

Unlocks at: Awakener Level 1

The Silver from Ryker's awakening was excavated from the interior of the renowned Remouahe monument, the Triangular Giant Tower. It is streamlined and perfectly bullet-shaped, matching the size and form of bullets used in the SAA revolver, embedded within the skull of a young male corpse.

Touching this Silver evokes magnificent and grand visions of the Triangular Giant Tower, causing the body to instinctively curl up and crawl. If the toucher resists desperately and looks ahead, they will see the blurred figure of a crowned man backlit, followed by an instant interruption of consciousness, causing the Silver to naturally slip from their fingers.

"The tip of the Triangular Tower has not yet been eroded; it should be a scene soon after its completion.", Researcher B.R. Longman

"I can hear horrifying whispers from dark souls.", Researcher K. Waters

"I must denounce the inhumane experiments arranged for us by Mythag. The side effects of repeatedly touching this Silver are enough to cause complete loss of bodily control. In short, I refuse to touch it again.", Researcher L. Lopez

Unlocks at: Affinity Level 3

After the @3@1 incident, Ryker took a post as special advisor to Mythag University.

He is good at the job. Professors vanishing without explanation, instruments breaking for no reason, or something as small as a missing cat or dog, Ryker handles all of it patiently, quickly, and to everyone's satisfaction.

Between his striking looks, his polished manners, and his habit of helping anyone who asks, he soon became the idol of half the young men and women at Mythag.

Professor Dexter once sighed,"The young ones take all the limelight these days."

But the more he settled into campus life, the less anyone saw of him.

Around the same time, the rattle of dice began drifting up from a certain abandoned basement at Mythag, night after night.

Unlocks at: Affinity Level 5

At twenty-five, while working a locked-room murder, Ryker ran into a very strange suspect.

The chain of evidence was absolutely airtight. Then the suspect, cuffed at the police station, simply vanished, the handcuffs left without a scratch. That was the duty officer's problem, of course; Ryker collected his fee all the same.

He spent that fee crossing an ocean for a holiday, and there, beside a street stall, he ran into his fugitive. The man was running a game of chance, and the sight of Ryker didn't hurry him in the slightest. He only invited Ryker to sit in, promising that if Ryker won, he would come quietly.

Ryker never won a single round.

He lost his pipe. He lost his tie. He lost his hat. He lost his coat.

Stripped bare, he had all of it handed back to him: the stakes, said the suspect, were too small. Ryker asked at once what the man would rather play for, and when the answer was an arm, he agreed without blinking.

Several raises later, the man produced a revolver. Life against death, Ryker picked up the gun and set it against his temple without a moment's pause.

A shot rang out and Ryker went down. The suspect called his spirit back from the dead, meaning to mock him for his ignorance. Instead, Ryker's first words were,"So what are we betting next?"

His sheer arrogance finally caught the demon's interest. The suspect, whose true name was "N@2@3," decided the game could go on.

"N" set out three top hats and told him to make the "best choice" among them, the one that would give him his body back.

Ryker picked a hat. "N" lifted another, empty, and asked if he cared to change his mind. Ryker shook his head.

Don't you understand probability?

I just trust my luck.

"N" lifted the third hat. Empty as well. At last he lifted Ryker's hat, and inside was a churning knot of black mist. It surged at Ryker and took shape as the limbs of some impossible beast. "N" gave him the body of that avatar in place of the one he had already wagered away.

A man with the nose of a beast, doesn't this avatar suit you perfectly? So you see, that was the "best choice"!

Unlocks at: Affinity Level 7

When the climber reaches the summit of Elworth.

When the champion lifts the trophy that names him first in the world.

When the devout hears revelation in his sleep.

When victory comes too easily, the satisfaction that follows dulls into ordinary habit.

He looks around and finds no rival left, and no pleasure either.

On the surface, Ryker craves the high-stakes game, the heart leaping into his throat after an ALL-IN, the moment adrenaline breaks loose.

"Spare me the speech. I'm the only one who understands you. All you crave is losing.

So let me grant you the sweetest defeat of all."

Unlocks at: Affinity Level 9