Level 1 Fallen

After confirming the death of the dragon named Drake, who unfortunately only dropped a few silver and copper coins when we looted him, the two of us both sent a message to Wisteria, informing her of our success. She congratulated us on the achievement, and awarded each of us five hundred and twenty contribution, or 'mission points'. Additionally, she told us that the charms that we had been given were worth fifty thousand mission points… these were certainly valuable, if they required completing a hundred missions like this.

Still, with the dragon out of the way for now, I turned to look at Diane with a smile. "What do you want to do now? I think that we should be strong enough to take care of ourselves for a while, right?"

Diane thought about it for a moment, her expression back to its normal seriousness. "That's right. Though, I would still like to use the status charms to prevent certain information from being too easily known. You should be able to drop your disguises now, aside from the player brand. I think that we can both agree that you'll be more welcomed if people think you are a player."

I nodded my head in agreement at that. At least I wouldn't need to keep using fake names and appearances anymore, and could actually look like myself.

"As for where to go… if we want to level up…" She paused, looking at me for a moment. "Sorry, that still sounds insensitive."

I let out a light chuckle, shaking my head. "It's fine. I know that you still need to level up, so let's plan around that."

Diane hesitated for a moment, before continuing. "If we want to level up, there are two choices, according to what I have read online. The first is to go south, as the southern half of the continent is largely overrun by monsters. The second option is to go west, as we have been."

"To the west of Farro is Ilsan, a desert nation that serves as a natural barrier for monsters. It's why they've been getting lower level the closer we get. On the other side of Ilsan is Evergreen, the nation of elves. There, the monsters should all be over level one hundred, aside from the controlled areas near cities. Some might even be as high as two hundred."

"That's where I had been wanting to go originally, as well. I've always wanted to visit the land of elves." I told her, and she nodded in understanding.

"One of your parents was an elf, right?" She asked, which I confirmed. "Do you think that they will welcome you?"

"As an NPC, or a Failure? Not even remotely." I laughed, smirking down at Diane. "Elves aren't really racist towards other races, but that is only full-blood races. They will receive humans, halflings, or even orcs just as well as they receive other elves. However, they view half-bloods like myself as abominations. They think that the fact that we can't have children of our own is proof that we are a mistake of creation."

"But… this all changes if they're interacting with a player. If you're a player, they consider you an entirely different race altogether, just like any other NPC race." I told her, to which she nodded her head, looking at me thoughtfully.

"Why can't half-bloods have children?" She asked, curiously. I blinked at the question, before shrugging and giving the answer that we had been taught as children.

"According to legends, it was a decision of the gods. They created the races, and allowed them to flourish. When the various races began to meet one another, they intermarried and reproduced, creating the first half-bloods. The gods saw this, and feared that if it continued, one day the original races would die out entirely. Thus, they placed a curse on all half-bloods, making them unable to further reproduce."

Diane blinked at that, but nodded her head in understanding. "I see… from the perspective of one watching from above, the intermingling of species over numerous generations would inevitably lead to the original races becoming fewer in number. Moreover, there would be a great deal of difficulty distinguishing one race of mixed-blood individuals from another, given the influence of various races. It's… unfortunate, but understandable from an outside perspective."

"Yeah, I've gotten used to it." I said with a wide smile. "Besides, it's not like I can't fall in love or anything. I just can't have kids. Though, now that I was Chosen, even briefly, I've definitely got my eyes set on adventure more than romance."

Diane's eyes gleamed at that, and she gave a firm nod of her head. "In that case, we should get moving. It's a long walk to Evergreen."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Do you want me to carry you? If we use Glancing Steps, we could probably get there within a couple of days, at most."

Diane seemed to consider the offer, before shaking her head. "No, I would rather we walk. If you are using your Glancing Steps, that means that we could be missing undiscovered treasures by rushing by. We'll need a great deal more money if we are to acquire higher level services and equipment later."

Thinking back to the dungeon key that I had found before, I had to agree with her. "Alright. Is there anything that we need to get from Shadowbane, before we set out?"

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Diane shook her head, smiling beneath her mask. "No. We should have everything that we need for our travels."

With that, the two of us set off, descending from the mountain where we had fought Drake and returning to the road near Shadowbane to journey west. As we walked along the dirt road, I couldn't help but look over at Diane. "I know you said that it's for the sake of treasure hunting and all that, but isn't traveling this way really bad for you to gain levels?"

Diane hesitated, but shook her head. "Other players will face the same problem. The only form of fast travel available here is through the teleport stations. Given their price, not many players will be able to afford that in the lower level countries. That's why I am heading west, crossing over the desert. I expect that most players will go south, where there is not such a natural barrier."

"Then… why don't you go south, too?" I found myself asking, but Diane shook her head.

"You saw it on the first day, didn't you? If there are too many players occupying an area, it will be hard for any of them to find enough monsters to level up. I'm considering this an investment. By sacrificing some experience now, I will put myself in a better position to level up in the future. According to what I have seen, natural monster respawns only occur from dungeon overflow."

As I nodded my head, Diane continued. "This means that if players are repeatedly clearing both the fields and the nearby dungeons, there will be no respawns at all. Only territorial bosses will appear. On the other hand, if there are fewer players in Evergreen, I will have more monsters and dungeons to myself. So while their experience slows to a crawl, mine will soar."

"Wait… won't more players just go to Evergreen then, if they're following that logic?" My eyes widened, worried that her plan might have been foiled from the start.

"People are typically more interested in instant gratification. Despite the complexity of this game, and the wonderful features, it is its size and lack of proper fast travel that prevents more players from enjoying it. They call it too slow, or too much of a grind. There are many that left the game when they out-leveled their starter area, simply because they didn't want to travel for days to find a new zone to level up in."

"If not for the fact that our Chosen can continue to act when we log out, there would likely be even more players leaving the game. As it stands, I imagine that most people leave their Chosen with instructions to go to a certain town, and then log out for several days until they get there."

"That's insane…" I muttered, my eyes twitching. "If they just miss out on all of that, then they won't learn how to properly use their skills, even if their Chosen continues to grind levels for them. They might even forget what they can do after not playing for that long."

Diane gave another nod, pulling out one of her daggers and twirling it in her hand. "That's one of the reasons why I don't do that. I want to keep my skills sharp. Besides, I don't get to walk around like this in my world. Other people might think that it is exhausting, or boring, but to me? Just walking down this road is as thrilling as fighting any monster we've met. I've never been in a game that let me experience anything this clearly."

"Besides, you're not the only one that can train your skills as we travel." Diane said, glancing over at me. "I might not be getting much experience, but I still plan to level my skills up as much as I can."

As she said that, she created her own animated shadow, silently commanding it to run off to the side of the road. "You might have it easier than me when it comes to that, but I won't slack off. I've never been afraid of putting in the work."

After that, we continued to walk along the familiar road. We had spent a week traveling from Shadowbane before, so it was only natural that we had already become familiar with this area. For the rest of the day, Diane and I continued to practice our skills while our feet carried us forward.

And then, at night, we set up camp on the side of the road, almost at the same place we did the first time we walked this path. Diane let Wyr out to help her hunt, and soon we found ourselves going to sleep.

The next morning, however, I noticed a look of concern on Diane's face after she logged back in. "Is everything alright?" I asked, and she glanced over with a slight nod.

"It seems your old player took things worse than I thought." She explained. "After I logged out, I checked up on your bounty. Your old player canceled the bounties on his other characters, but has increased yours by an order of magnitude. Anyone that shows a recording of killing you will earn your original capture reward. If they capture you and bring you to him, they will earn ten times that amount."

I arched a brow, somewhat concerned. "Does that mean that I should apply my disguise again?" I asked, to which Diane shook her head.

"No. I think that our battle against him showed that we're strong enough to be considered among the top echelon of players right now. Unless one of the other Final Bosses shows up, I don't think you have too much to worry about. If we went into hiding now, that dragon might think that we're scared, indicating that we can't reproduce our fight from yesterday."

"For now, let's just take things as they come. And, if any bounty hunters target you, we'll deal with them at that time."

I nodded my head at that, before smirking. "I guess that means that you still can't get those skills I asked about?"

Diane shook her head in apology. "Afraid not. We might need to wait until Evergreen to get you a wood magic skill. As for ice… we might be able to get one along the northern borders of Ilsan and Evergreen, but I'm not sure. Ice skills are surprisingly rare, from what I've seen. Most people that want to take that route have said that they had to find a trainer."

My eyes lit up briefly at that, before a sigh escaped my mouth. "And if I tried to go to a magic trainer, they would be able to easily find out about my negative trait, and simply refuse to teach me." I could fake some magic with my Myriad Strikes-X skill, but that would still require me to enchant the skill onto my arms first, and suffer an initial backlash.

Any magic instructor that saw that backlash would no doubt refuse to teach me for my own well-being, claiming that I had no talent for magic, and should pursue other avenues of power.