Level 1 Fallen

Because we were keeping a low profile, we didn't speed up to go to Harkenfeld, walking at a calm pace. If Diane had me carry her, we could have blitzed through the two small villages and reached the city in under an hour. However, there were two reasons why we didn't do this.

The first reason was because we were not wanting to attract attention, as previously said. If we happened to pass someone on the road, and they saw how fast we were going, that would raise unwanted suspicion. For this point alone, it was better to take the slow route.

The second reason was because we were buying time. According to Diane, it was three days at a normal speed to reach Harkenfeld, with villages positioned every forty or so kilometers for people to rest for the night. This was half of the time that we needed in order for Erebus and Wisteria to get back to us, and also half of the time that Diane had said for us to wait.

As we walked, I would idly train some of my magic skills, releasing them through Myriad Strikes-X as long as there were no other players in our field of view. Diane wasn't completely pleased with this, due to the pain that I had to go through every time I switched to a new skill, but she had accepted that I needed to get stronger in any way that I could.

Given my limited pool of magic skills at the moment, the ones that I focused on training were the shadow skills that matched my current disguise. These were Shadow Plate, Shadow Spear, and Animate Shadow. On the first night we camped out after leaving Shadowbane, I gave Diane a quest to learn Lesser Animate Shadow from me by dueling one of my shadows.

Perhaps because of the reduction in stats that the shadow suffered, Diane was able to easily pull out a victory. Because of this, she would also train her skills as we traveled, or when we stopped to take breaks for food.

"Aren't you worried that your level isn't increasing?" I asked when we sat down for lunch on the second day, and Diane hesitated.

"It would be nice to increase my level, but this is a relatively low level country, and isn't suitable for me to level up. I only came here because I wanted the skills and to apply for the league."

"Now that players are becoming more aware of mechanics like skill evolution, and the impact that has on your personal power, two major categories of competitive players have appeared. On the one side, you have those who only seek to increase their own level, and consider any skill that slows down that progress as a waste of time."

"The other category is filled with players that level up more slowly, but can typically fight above their levels due to their evolved skills. I am in this second category. Of course, there are other types of players out there, and everyone has their own, unique style. Hammerhead, for instance, doesn't care about leveling up or training his combat skills. In every game he plays, he is always a full crafter. He only cares about creating the best items in the game."

I gave a small nod at that. "So, you are the type that focuses mostly on your skills. I think... it's probably pretty safe to put me in that category as well. If anything, I am the most extreme example."

Diane nodded her head in agreement. "That's why you earned the title of Munchkin. It's usually a derogatory term used to describe players that overly optimize their character to play far above their level."

After that conversation, the two of us began to focus more heavily on our training. Whenever we saw another player on the horizon, we would stop training until they had passed, but otherwise… I kept spamming my active skills as much as I could, while Diane did her best to ensure that she used her skills as soon as her mana had recovered enough to do so.

By the time we saw the city of Harkenfeld on the horizon, Diane had managed to learn the Empty Body skill, meaning that she was only one step away from learning Ghost-X. All she had to do was master that and her Stealth skill, and she would get a massive improvement.

As for me, my biggest gain was leveling up Myriad Strikes-X to level twenty-five. Every ten levels, I was given an additional slot that I could use for enchantments, so I kept all three of my shadow skills on at all times. More than ever, I needed new magic skills to vary my arsenal.

Though, there were some notable evolutions. For instance, Shadow Magic Proficiency turned into Shadow Magic Expertise. Unarmed Proficiency became Unarmed Expertise. Ki Projection evolved into its third stage form, Martial Intent-X which considerably increased the range of my projections. And finally, Flicker Step evolved at last into its third form, Glancing Step-X, which further increased the range of my steps.

With my new skillset, we decided that the identity of Lester would be an armored shadow mage, and we would play off Glancing Step-X as if it were an evolved version of Shadow Step.

Harkenfeld was a festive city, far more than I would have expected for something so relatively close to the League of Assassins. This was apparently due to the sound-related skills available in nearby dungeons, leading to this being the haven of bards in Farro. Though, this did lead to us being able to listen in on some interesting rumors.

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"Did you hear? A black dragon appeared near Shadowbane the other day."

"I know, apparently, he threatened to tear down the city." When I heard that, my eyes widened slightly, though Diane didn't have any visible reaction. Either she already knew, or her stoic acting was able to keep her expression calm.

"Yeah, the city's lord had to step out to chase him away. I think he's hanging out near the southern mountains."

"Think we should go? A dragon would drop some amazing loot, right?"

I closed my eyes, letting us pass by the group. As we did, a private message appeared from Diane. I never told you because there wasn't any damage. The city lord is a medium-level figure of the league, so he forced the dragon back. For now, we need to focus on what we can do to get stronger.

I nodded my head faintly, showing that I understood. Diane likely knew it, but if the city had been hurt, I probably would have raced back to fight the dragon right away, regardless of our agreement. Let's visit the skill store, and see what magic they have.

Diane closed her eyes briefly to sigh, but ultimately agreed to the suggestion. With the two of us walking through the city in largely matching outfits, it was easy for people to guess that we were operating together, and where we had come from. However, that was fine for us, as it was all part of the story that we had built.

We made our way to the skill store, where the attendant was a middle-aged dogfolk woman. She perked her brow as she saw us entering, before letting out a chuckle. "Alright, what'll it be? Just to let you know, but we won't have many shadow skills in stock. Those are all back in Shadowbane."

"That's fine." I said, clearing my throat. "I'd like to see all of your basic magic skills, regardless of element."

"Basics only, huh?" She asked in a knowing tone. "Been getting a lot of people coming through here and buying out all of my stock for basic sound skills. Guess you guys are branching out now, huh? Let me see what I've got in the back."

She stood up, stretching for a moment before walking back to the shelves. Diane and I looked at each other, Diane nodding her head and sending a private message. They're probably buying the skills locally to sell them at a higher price on the forums. It's a risky investment if they buy too many, but it's a decent strategy.

When the woman returned, she was carrying a stack of seven skill books. "Alright. Looked through what I could find. Since you narrowed it down to basic-level magic skills, that eliminated a lot of options. I managed to find three lightning spells, two poison spells, and two sand spells. Take a look."

She spread the skill books out in front of me, and I quickly identified them. For the lightning skills, there was a single offensive skill, known as Spark Shot, and two support skills. One of the support skills increased your speed, while the other gave you a damaging aura.

Next was the poison skills, both of which were offensive. One of the skills was Poisoned Grasp, which dealt poison damage via touch, and the other was Poison Shot, which shot out a small lump of poison.

Finally, there was sand, which had one defensive skill, and one offensive. The defensive skill, Sand Shield, summoned a shield of sand… pretty much just as it was labeled. The offensive one, Sand Bolt, shot a condensed bolt of sand at the target.

When Diane saw the poison skills, I could tell that her interest had been piqued. They fit very well with her concept of a rogue, so it only made sense. "I'll take Spark Shot, Poison Shot, Poisoned Grasp, and Sand Bolt." I told the shopkeeper, pulling out the one gold needed to pay for all four skills.

She didn't seem that surprised, handing over the four skills that I pointed out and taking the money. For the sake of safety, I didn't immediately learn the four skills, but instead waited until we had found an inn room to stay at for the night. This time, we stayed in a single room, to further push the story of the two of us being very used to traveling together.

Of course, the room still had separate beds, which increased the price a bit, but we made do. Once we were in the room, Diane walked over to sit on one of the beds. "What type of quest would I need to get those poison skills?"

I had expected this question, and so I pulled the skill books out to learn them right away. "Let's see… I can't exactly ask you to make a poison yourself. It's only a level one basic skill… how about you endure the poison yourself? If I disable my enhancement skills, the poison shouldn't have much effect on you."

Diane thought about it for a moment, before nodding her agreement. She pulled the sleeve of her trench coat back, revealing a pale arm. "Go ahead."

Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Before I could cast the poison on her, I had to enchant it onto my arms. And… unfortunately, poison was one of the things that Internal Recovery-X didn't help with. Sure, it alleviated the symptoms, but it couldn't get rid of the poison affecting me. That was the highest level skill in that branch, Expel Poison.

I understood why Expel Poison was such a high level skill once I experienced it myself. As part of the backlash to enchanting Poisoned Grasp onto my arms, I myself became poisoned. And, I learned that the 'poisoned' injury does not go away quickly. I saw the timer on the status displayed as eight hours, during which it would be gradually damaging me from within.

Thankfully, it was still a very weak poison, so the damage wouldn't be too great, but that certainly showed how terrifying poisons could be. Once I had recovered from the initial shock of the enchantment, I reached out to grab Diane's arm. She shuddered at the sensation of the poison seeping into her skin, pulling her hand back.

Diane didn't seem to be surprised by the duration of the poison, simply nodding her head. "With my status, the poison shouldn't be able to do any damage to me before it runs its course. I should be able to turn in a completed quest in the morning."