Level 1 Fallen

One week passed while we alternated between farming the Roc Forest and the Shifting Elemental Beast Grounds. Once the duo got used to the first dungeon, we would spend time in the second one to hone our skills while waiting for the first to replenish its numbers. This created a rather effective cycle of leveling, allowing them to reach level three hundred and ten before the patch came.

As for my own growth, a few of my skills had predictably evolved over the week. The biggest ones were my two ‘Ancient’ skills. Ancient Mentor became Ancient Master, which increased the amount of experience my ‘students’ received. Ancient Shifter, meanwhile, became the grandmaster-tier Eternal Body.

Thanks to this skill, I was able to maintain my Dragon King skill at all times, as well as other skills like Forest Titan that normally altered my appearance. With Eternal Body, I could choose which aspects of any active skills were displayed, preventing the verdant growth of Forest Titan, or my draconic transformation from Dragon King.

Of course, I could also take it in the other direction if I wanted. As a test, I had once pushed my size to the limits with both Dragon King and Forest Titan, then enhanced my size even further with Eternal Body. My final form in that state was almost two kilometers long, making me fortunate that I had performed this test within an open-air dungeon like the Roc Forest.

For now, we had informed the Twisted Eye that we were done farming these two dungeons. The patch was just about to hit, and many of the guild’s own members were now at a stage where they could begin farming the dungeons for their own experience.

Instead, Diane’s Chosen sat together with Bella and myself, as well as Nuoda and Ennolf’s Chosen in the palace. None of the players were logged in at the moment, the patch requiring them to briefly log out.

Soon, a notification window appeared in front of us, informing us of the patch’s contents. The biggest change, naturally, was the appearance of player-made dungeons. However, this part of the post was kept remarkably brief, as the information had little to do with Chosen or Fallen.

All that was really said about it was how Players could obtain the right to create their own dungeon. Originally, I had assumed that any Player would just be able to do so at will. However, there was a requirement. In order to create their own dungeon, a Player would need to obtain a Dungeon Certificate, which was a new guaranteed drop from dungeons, but only for the first kill of a dungeon’s final boss.

In addition, you could only create a dungeon within fifty levels of the certificate you received. This meant that Players would still need to actively seek out new dungeons in order to unlock the ability to improve their own.

Next, I saw the information about the Essence and Rune rebalance. According to the patch notes, these new crafting mechanics had been far too loosely implemented, with runes functioning closer to enchantments than intended. Runes would still have a considerable power, but their usage was being reworked, with little information on exactly what was changing other than becoming ‘more strict’.

As for Essences, apparently there had been similar problems with those. Essences had been reworked from the ground up to function more strictly as an alchemic tool than, as the notes put it, ‘weapons of mass destruction’.

These two were the biggest changes, but there was a list of other minor fixes. For instance, there was apparently a problem with collision detection when crafting items made from deep-sea stone harvested from Thalassia. And certain plants from Pyrrhos could be turned into bombs if they interacted with one another improperly. These and other issues had all been fixed.

As we were reading through the patch notes, I noticed the brands of Diane, Nuoda, and Ennolf all lighting up. Seeming to realize everyone was logging on, Bella similarly made her own brand light up. “You all saw the notes?” Diane asked, looking at Bella and myself.

“Yeah. The dungeon stuff was kept pretty sparse, so I don’t know much about how that will work on your end. But, it did mention how to get the certificates,” I spoke up with a nod, being the official representative for non-Players here.

Diane gave a brief glance towards Bella, deciding to explain things in more detail. “This means that those who own territory will have a natural advantage, as they can spawn their own dungeons by paying a suitable price. Otherwise, adventuring players will need to stumble upon their own dungeon in order to get a certificate.”

“Once you have a certificate, you can set up a dungeon within the given level range following a few strict rules. First, you can only populate the dungeon with enemies that you yourself have defeated. There is some freedom when designing boss monsters, but the basic monsters have to be ones that you have personally killed.”

“Spawning monsters, as well as designing dungeon mechanics, all require dungeon points, which players like us can get from having other players raid our dungeons. We can also get a certain amount of points by raiding dungeons within the game, though we can only get these points once per dungeon.”

“Similarly, the dungeon’s loot has to consist of items that we have owned, whether it is an item that drops from the monsters in the dungeon or if it appears in a chest. I plan to ask Hammerhead to create a full series of Shadowbound items for my own dungeon as special loot from the final boss chest.”

I widened my eyes in surprise at this. “Are you sure? Wouldn’t that draw in too many people and make the equipment too common? That could saturate the market, right?”

Diane simply smiled at this. “You can set the drop rates for items that you provide. The higher the drop rate, the more it costs to implement. I plan to have a low drop rate for the Shadowbound gear, low enough that you’d have to run the dungeon dozens of times to just fortunately get one piece. In addition, I won’t be using the five-star gear we have as the reward, but rather a three-star set.”

“This might make my dungeon seem meaningless at first. However, once the first person gets the Shadowbound gear from the boss, it will definitely make other players want to challenge the dungeon to get their own gear. To get a full set of the items they want, they may need to go through the dungeon more than a hundred times, giving me more than enough points to work with.”

“Of course, there will still be people selling the drops through other channels, trading for pieces they need. But that will also lead to people challenging the dungeon. This gear, which can currently only be created through a combination of your own materials and Hammerhead’s hard work, can serve as the symbol of my dungeon. But first, there are three things that we need to take care of before I get started on that.”

Diane lifted three fingers, counting the items off one-by-one. “First, we need to verify the new method of operating runes and essences. Hammerhead won’t be able to make the equipment otherwise. They said in the Player notes that the runes function similarly to a programming language now, though with more restrictions than before. We can have him experiment with that as we handle the other two issues.”

“Secondly, I need the certificate. Dungeons spawned in this region have a high chance to be of the right level, so I would like it if you could help me out with that, Drake,” she looked at me with a knowing gaze, before moving on to her third requirement. “And finally, I need to kill some high-level shadow monsters. Preferably ninja-themed ones, if I had a choice. Like the Shadow Cloud Palace in Shadowbane, but at a significantly higher level.”

“Are you wanting me to look for a ninja-themed dungeon in Oblivara or something?” I asked, but Diane shook her head.

“It’d be nice, but I won’t put that on you. We can just ride around in Oblivara for a little while to try to find something suitable. As long as we can get the first clear of a new dungeon near Fallcry.”

That wasn’t a problem. From what I had heard over the last week, plenty of new players had been drawn to Fallcry. It might have been because of our new dragon idol, or word about the nation was getting out. Also, three of the lords that Nuoda had chosen before had managed to establish their own cities, further boosting our land. It wouldn’t hurt to have another dungeon or two for people to challenge.

With that in mind, I took Diane and Bella out to the city’s walls, before deploying my roaming sentries to watch all four directions from the city. I could already see players preparing to head out to look for unconquered dungeons, with many heading for the forest.

With a thought, I purchased a single dungeon for Fallcry, looking for any signs of a change in the scenery. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for us to find it. Off to the north, tucked away in the mountains, we saw a pitch-black building appear. Diane’s eyes widened in delight at the building, looking at me with a pleading gaze.

I chuckled, teleporting the three of us to the dungeon’s entrance. Up close, the building looked like some sort of workshop, its door a swirling black gate. We stepped inside, finding it to be an advanced alchemic lab full of beakers and sensitive equipment.

Diane visibly deflated at the realization that this was not a ninja dungeon. “Sorry,” I said with a light laugh, noticing her sulking shoulders as we navigated the halls. “Still, this will be good for one of your requirements.”

Diane let out a defeated sigh, nodding her agreement. “Right.”

Since the dungeon had only just spawned, the monsters within hadn’t appeared yet. We took our time going through, looting three hidden chests that were tucked away in various cupboards. As we found the third one, we began to run into the dungeon’s monsters. 

They clung to the walls and ceiling, moving with unnatural speed and leaving behind a veil of shadows where they passed. Their bodies looked like elongated humanoids, with stretched limbs bent at odd angles and glowing white eyes. According to my Observe skill’s appraisal, these were level two hundred and seventy Shadow Ghouls.

Diane and Bella barely needed a moment to adjust to the strange movement patterns of the monsters, finishing them off with black wires or bullets respectively. “You think the setting of this dungeon was supposed to be something like an alchemic project gone wrong, transforming the alchemists into shadowy, undead horrors?” Bella mused as we walked towards the backmost room of the basement, where the boss monster waited for us.

“Probably,” Diane agreed. “It’s a pretty standard trope. What do you see from the boss, Drake?”

I sent my gaze past the sealed doors, shuddering slightly. “It’s… big. Like a giant, stitched-together collection of corpses leaking shadow mist. Level two hundred and seventy-five, Patchwork Shadow Horror. Skills are Disassemble, Shadow Network, and Shadow Essence Control.”

Diane pursed her lips at the list of skills. “If that last one works how I expect, I might not be able to use my wires for this fight. Still, it’s rare for us to fight something actually lower level than us, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

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