Level 1 Fallen

It was still too soon for the three of us to tackle another unknown dungeon, given what had just happened earlier that same day. Thus, we decided to go with one that we had already been to, but was considerably too high level for us at the time that we first explored it.

For that reason, we made our way towards the Sunset Isles. There were two dungeons here that we could make use of for our training. The first was the Roc Forest, a level three hundred and forty outdoors dungeon containing Stone Rocs. When we first entered, Diane and Bella were just barely over level one hundred, so we had to immediately leave.

Now, their levels were still greatly lacking compared to the dungeon, but they could also benefit from my passive buff. This buff, which allowed me to cross an otherwise insurmountable level gap to fight on the same battlefield as them, naturally allowed the two of them to fight above their levels as well.

The other dungeon was only ten levels higher, and was actually a resource dungeon, the Shifting Elemental Beast Grounds. Here, there was constant fighting between the inhabitant beasts, so typically people only needed to go in and retrieve the corpses. However, it was also possible for someone to join the fighting themselves. I had used this method when preparing for the war with the dragon race.

Personally, I was more inclined to go with the second option, as it would mean that I would be able to level up my Corpse Collector skill far more effectively. However, the battlefield there would perhaps be too chaotic for us to use as an appropriate test for Bella and Diane’s new equipment.

By the time we arrived at the entrance of the dungeon, Diane had already sent a message to her friends in the Twisted Eye guild to inform them of our request. Due to the high levels of these dungeons, they were kept sealed to prevent them from overflowing. Thus, we needed the managers of the dungeon districts to unseal them before we could enter.

Well, technically we didn’t exactly need that, not really. Since I had been to the Roc Forest dungeon before, I could naturally return there with World Walker. However, it felt more proper to let them know that we were clearing the dungeon ourselves.

As we waited for the dungeon to unseal, I couldn’t help but look over at Diane. “Out of curiosity, how strong are the high-tier players now? We definitely lost some time with our extra errands, so I want to know how far we are behind.”

However, Diane hesitated to answer. “Actually, the time we lost is pretty minimal. Remember that most people can’t travel as efficiently as you can. Even the hardcore grinders will find a dungeon that they can just barely complete, and camp there until it is no longer profitable. Then, they’ll look up where another good dungeon is that pushes them to their limits, and go there.”

“There are typically two problems with this approach. First of all, they have to compete with other players for the dungeons, since multiple people in the same region will all be drawn to the most ideal grinding spots. On the other hand, if they wanted to find their own location, they would need to go off the beaten path, which could take weeks or months of arduous searching to find a suitable dungeon.”

“The second problem is the time it takes to travel from one dungeon to the next. You might not feel it because of your extra skills, but flying vehicles are actually extremely risky in this game, due to how many monsters there are in the skies. You always avoid them with your stealth field, but other players can’t just keep a stealth field up at all times like that.”

“For that reason, players prefer motorcycles for personal use, especially those equipped to handle multiple terrain types. They are fast and maneuverable, and their small size makes it harder for monsters to target them. There have even been some inventions to help with long-distance travel by storing energy in batteries during rests between trips.”

“Still, it often takes at least a few days to go from one dungeon to the next since they are rarely located in the same nation. Then, they will at most be able to challenge the dungeon once a day. Outside of those with exceptional traits like the kings, the highest levels are still just shy of three hundred.”

“Admittedly, there are plenty of players capable of fighting beyond their level, whether it is through their traits, skills, or equipment. However, I don’t think that we should be too far behind them. If we monopolize this dungeon until our level catches up to it, we should be able to start approaching the king level.”

I chuckled at that, giving a small nod. “Perhaps, though the kings themselves will also have their own methods of growth while we’re doing that. I could see the Questing King easily reaching a level where he could solo this dungeon, given how many skills he has mastered.”

Though I said that, I had also seen that the Questing King was not one to truly focus on improving any of his skills through practical application. He was even worse than I was in that regard. At least I tried to understand how my skills worked before throwing them around randomly.

Still, I was happy that we were managing to keep pace with most players, thanks to not needing to worry so much about the travel time anymore. Eventually, more and more people would likely gain methods of teleportation, making the competition more fierce. No, that won’t even be an issue with the new patch, will it? Players will be able to level up by grinding those dungeons, so they won’t need to focus on the dungeons in the open world anymore.

I was starting to grow hesitant on how that would play out when I saw a shift in the dungeon portal before us. Clearly, the dungeon had been unsealed, so the three of us wasted no time in entering the dungeon.

Inside, we found the dungeon as crowded as one would expect from a place that had been sealed for two months. Whether it was the forest floor or the sky above, there were countless large, bird-like creatures. I didn’t hesitate, transforming into my draconic body and shrinking myself down as much as I could with Ancient Shifter. The change was barely noticeable, but this would let me give the other two the greatest buff that I could.

At the same time, I locked onto both of them with Ancient Mentor, further boosting their experience gains. Both girls equipped their pitch-black armor, their presences fading. Bella pulled out her pistols, running up my back to jump off of my head towards the nearest of the birds, which had noticed my presence.

It swept towards me, a layer of stone armor forming over its body. Before it could crash into me, though, Bella landed on its back, causing it to flinch. She spun, placing both of her pistols to the creature’s head and pulling the triggers. A loud bang echoed out, the skin on the monster’s head cracking. With another round, blood spilled out as the monster collapsed towards the ground, while Bella herself jumped back to land on my head.

Meanwhile, Diane had stretched her arms outwards, sending the black wires from her gloves into the shadows at her feet. With a deep breath, she pulled hard, and wires emerged from the shadows of several trees. Some of them wrapped around struggling birds, while others pulled taut and formed razor-sharp obstacles.

Judging from her performance, she most likely enchanted her gloves with a combination of Shadow Bind, Binding Lines, and the Wire Proficiency skill. There may have even been more skills mixed in to make her shadow wires truly terrifying.

Once she had restrained some of the birds, Diane summoned her puppet, sending it into battle with her new short swords. Of course, she only targeted the birds that had already been restrained, but this would definitely help her level up that skill.

As for me… well, there were still far too many monsters for the two of them to handle alone, given how long the dungeon had been sealed. That, and I wanted to vent a little…

I lifted my head skyward after Bella had jumped off of it, focusing on the sky above. Tiny spheres of black, blue, red, and gold energy began to dot the sky. Each time one was created, it shot out with explosive force, targeting the flying monsters. Each sphere rotated with enough speed to create a whirring sound, tearing through their stone armor and sending them crashing down.

Even with all three of us getting involved in the fight, it took more than half an hour just to clear the area immediately around the portal. At that point, the ground was covered with layers of corpses, which I had to take my time throwing into my inventory one by one.

“For the next area,” Diane said, pulling her wires back into her glove, “I want to let my Chosen try out the staff. Is that alright?”

Naturally, neither Bella nor I had any objections. Diane closed her eyes, her brand fading. Her Chosen seemed almost giddy as she pulled out the staff, clutching it tight in her hands. “Give me a few minutes to prepare. I want to see how far I can push myself now.”

Diane hugged her staff to her body, activating her Shadow Dragon Transformation skill. Her body grew into a large, black dragon, the staff shifting to become one with her scales. With every breath she took, black runes emerged from her mouth, spiralling in the air around her.

“Night that falls like stolen breath. Shadows hiding vicious gazes. All-consuming, all-denying. Gnawing darkness that consumes the flesh. The endless abyss, from which all fear emerges.” As she spoke, the sky grew dark, clouded with a layer of shadow. This wasn’t an illusion for me to see through. Diane had truly summoned a bubble of darkness to cover this region of the dungeon.

With my True Sight, I could see countless tiny shapes forming within the darkness. Small, winged creatures with razor-sharp teeth and fluttering wings. “Come. Feast. Let nothing stand beneath the empty sky.”

All at once, those tiny creatures flew into action. Some of them launched themselves at the Stone Rocs, dozens attacking each creature and chewing through its body in seconds. Others went after the trees themselves, sweeping through the dungeon like a swarm of vicious locusts.

Thanks to her Shadow Dragon Transformation, the skill did not consume any of Diane’s own energy. She simply stood there, focusing as the sounds of monster cries became a distant chorus, before eventually dying down.

When the artificial night was withdrawn, Bella let out a surprised gasp. The trees that filled the island upon which the dungeon was located had been swept clean. Bloodstains and scattered bones littered the ground, but there were no birds to be seen in the sky. At least, not until the next island over.

Bella looked at Diane’s draconic form incredulously. “You could have at least saved some for me!” she chided, though there was a playful smile in her eyes.

Diane lowered her head sheepishly. “Sorry, I’ve been thinking about that combination for weeks, planning out the rune patterns. I didn’t think that it would be so… effective.”

“That’s probably why they’re rebalancing runes,” I commented, earning a quick glance from Diane. “It’s too easy for someone to use runes to replicate the effects of a grandmaster-level skill, or even beyond that. Especially for those with true mastery over runes, like those fairies that your Player told us about a while ago. There are likely going to be more strict limits put in place for their effects, and it might not even be possible to just make such complex rune effects on the spot anymore.”

Diane lowered her head again, though I grinned and continued. “In other words, you’ll need to craft the rune effects in advance, and create a type of spellbook. Runes were originally meant for crafting, anyways.”

Diane’s eyes lit up at the idea of having a spellbook. As someone who wanted to pursue the path of a mage, this was likely a dream of hers.

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