Level 1 Fallen

For the next week, we continued walking along the road. We stopped by the various, unnamed villages long enough to rest our legs, but we never stayed for more than an hour. Thanks to this, we were able to make better time than we had before. At the end of the ninth day, we had even made it to Slitherhold, a town decorated with serpent motifs along the outer walls.

This was the second to last major city that we would be visiting, before we moved on to Ilsan. However, as we entered the town, I noticed a strange atmosphere that seemed to have settled over the people. Everyone seemed nervous, looking out towards the gates with suspicion.

Blinking, I glanced back, but didn't notice anything particularly off about the outside of the city. Sure, there were a lot of serpentine monsters, but that was par for the course with a city named Slitherhold.

Then, it hit me, and my eyes widened. "Diane, do you have today's date?" I asked, looking over at the halfling girl, who glanced at me in confusion.

"It's the twenty-ninth of March, why?" She asked, and I quickly looked around. We had been planning to move on towards Pike City after stocking up on some necessary supplies, but that would have to wait now.

"We need to get an inn room. We're staying in Slitherhold for the next few days." I spoke in an urgent tone, walking down the street and searching for anything that looked like an inn.

"What? Why?" She asked, still confused.

"Only a fool leaves the cities on the first day of April." I told her, shaking my head. "On April Fools' Day, dungeons experience a surge of monsters, and they flood out into the open as a giant wave. Even powerful and experienced Fallen can be swept away by a low level monster flood."

Diane's eyes widened at my explanation, following along behind me. "How do the smaller villages handle the flood?"

"From what I know, the kingdom will send them defenders. But, for the most part, they simply pray. A more powerful flood could decimate a village, and leave it in ruins. That's why they are never named, because they don't have the strength to reliably make it through a flood. If a village is powerful enough to withstand the yearly floods on their own, and have the resources nearby to sustain players, they will be given a name."

Diane hesitated, but seemed to understand. "What about… after the flood? The monsters don't just go away, do they?"

"That's the strange part. They do." I said, causing her to blink. "After the April Fools' flood, the monsters vanish, as if killed. However, there is another event that closely coincides with the flood, and people have often considered them to be related. We call it the Wealth of Spring, because it happens shortly after the spring equinox."

"For a period of one week, treasure chests can be found in the open world, similarly to a dungeon. Their placement is always different, and the chest disappears after being opened, but more will always appear until the week is over. If I'm right, this year's Wealth of Spring begins immediately after the flood."

Diane blinked at that. "Easter?" She asked with a tilt of her head, though I didn't recognize the term. "Sorry, something from my world. So, you're saying that we shouldn't risk being between cities during the flood, but after the flood, we need to leave and go looking for treasure?"

"That's about right. For now, we need to get inn rooms for the next few days, before they are fully booked."

Thankfully, finding an inn room wasn't too hard, though we had to go through three different inns to find one that had two free rooms available. Sadly, this did put a stop to our training for the following few days, as we familiarized ourselves with the city. We could have gone out to train, and just made sure that we were back by sunset, but it was common practice to take care around this time of year.

That said, I had still made quite a few improvements to my skills over nine days of training on the road. The most notable was the fusion of Shadow Blade and Shadow Spear when both reached level fifty. These two skills turned into Shadow Arsenal-X, which allows me to create various weapons from darkness, which grow stronger in darkness and inflict mana burn.

Much to Diane's chagrin, I took the time to update my shadow archer with this new skill, which sent me through another round of painful enchantment failures until I got all three of my enchantments how I wanted them. Well… until I realized that I could have two more enchantments, due to the level of Myriad Strikes-X increasing.

For the sake of not wanting to spend all day getting my enchantments right, I kept my fourth enchantment simple, making a version of Animate Shadow that I could use to create multiple shadows at once, like I did against Wisteria. Except, these were actual shadows of myself that could use my martial skills.

This was going to be my ace in the hole if I ever needed to just summon an army to overwhelm something. Though, keeping my archer out and active did help me level up my Animate Shadow, which was getting close to its evolution.

When the day of the flood came, Diane made sure to log on as early as she could, and saw the fear that the townsfolk had on their faces. The strongest champions of the city were stationed along the walls, and we could hear their skills being fired off as soon as we set foot outside.

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Every time there was an impactful crash, a small whimper spread through the townsfolk. I could tell that Diane wanted to get a look at what was happening outside, but that wasn't going to happen. Nobody would open the gates during the flood, even for players. The only way to return to the city after the flood began was to die and respawn.

Diane watched the guards act in shifts, each rotating out with their fellows as soon as their mana burden was reaching a dangerous level. "Wouldn't this flood be an excellent chance to farm experience?" She asked curiously, to which I shook my head.

"Only for the insane." I explained, looking around. My eyes came to rest on a tall building, one whose rooftop could overlook the wall. Seeing it, I held my hand out for Diane. "Here, let me show you."

Diane nodded her head, taking my hand. Using Glancing Steps-X, the two of us appeared on the rooftop, and Diane let out an almost horrified gasp.

Beyond the wall, the land could no longer be seen. The ground was covered by a sea of slithering bodies, crawling over one another in an attempt to reach the city. The guards continued to fire off ranged attacks, unwilling to engage the flood in melee combat. The few melee specialists were running along the walls, dispatching any monsters that managed to climb up over the corpses of their brethren.

"If you stepped foot outside, you would be devoured in an instant. Even if their levels are only in the twenties or thirties. I wouldn't be the slightest bit confident in surviving for more than a few seconds, despite my healing skill. The only ones that get a surge of experience from this event are the town guards, or any players that can help resist the siege."

"And, of course, I'm an assassin, specialized in solo combat." Diane said with a hint of bitterness. That was why I hadn't suggested that she volunteer. She might have been able to join the melee group running along the walls, but it would be more effort than it was worth for what little reward she would get.

"And I don't need the experience." I added. "At most, it would be target practice for my Scorching Spear. But that would mean revealing that I could fire it off continuously, without any visible strain. Sure, I might be able to explain it away as being a skill that I have fully mastered, but they probably wouldn't accept that."

With that, Diane and I watched the battle unfold for the rest of the day, nerves slowly easing as the citizens were shown that the guards had the flood under control. Even when a boss monster appeared, it was slain by a series of attacks from the troops.

The next day, everything had returned to normal, the corpses of the monsters outside disappearing as if they had been a lie. The townsfolk were cheering, guards preparing to set out to look for the promised treasure chests.

I was ready to set off as soon as Diane logged in, and she had a glimmer in her eye that I had come to associate with her being happy. Of course, she tried not to show it. I knew that she had spent a good deal of time in the local library while we were in town, and was likely researching something when she had logged out, as well.

"Did you find something good?" I asked, and she nodded her head.

"That's right. I've memorized all of the dungeons between here and Ilsan, after passing through Pike City, as well as every notable landmark that has been identified by the players. We should have a smooth journey to the Broken Sands. That's the name of the city we'll be heading to in Ilsan."

I simply chuckled, nodding my head. "Let's get going, then." I said, letting her lead the way.

As we left the city, Diane kept an eye out for any treasure chests along the way. Though, the nearest ones had all been claimed immediately by the city guards. This was, in a way, their reward for defending the city throughout the flood.

"Oh, by the way. There is going to be an update after this event ends." Diane added as we moved south-east along the dirt road, which ran adjacent to a flowing river.

"An update?" I looked over in confusion, but Diane nodded her head.

"That's right. It means… how can I explain this? It means that some things are going to change in the world. Think of it like the gods making an active change. The details are pretty sparse at the moment, but they said that this update is meant to improve the relationships between Chosen and Players. I'll be able to give you a more detailed note after the update comes."

"Right…" I nodded my head warily. I was familiar with the concept of patches, though they often came in batches with unexpected consequences. After about an hour, we made it beyond the range where the guards were searching, and Diane took a more active role in looking for chests. She found one after another hour had passed, tucked alongside the river, and was awarded a gold coin for her troubles.

Though, as she came back, holding the coin with that familiar glimmer in her eyes, my gaze was locked on something else in the distance. "Diane, what dungeons are there between Slitherhold and Pike City?"

"Hmm?" Diane glanced over, putting the coin in her inventory. "If memory serves, there is the Venom Den, the Grass Serpent Nest, and the Chittering Cave. Those are the only ones until we pass by three villages, and then we'll start hitting the dungeons of Pike City, which are the Ruined Battleground, the Broken Forge, and the Tomb of Spears. Why?"

I pointed into the distance, where I could see a tower poking over the horizon. It was made of solid, white stone, with a blue, conical roof and windows along its side. The tower itself seemed to be no more than a hundred meters across. "Was there a tower like that in the landmarks you memorized?" I asked, and Diane's eyes widened.

"No, there shouldn't be any towers outside of the cities like that. Well, there is one as a watchtower, but that's not until after we've already left Pike City."

"Which means… it's probably a new dungeon." I said, staring at the tower. A tower didn't really fit the theme of Slitherhold, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this place. Still, Diane practically buzzed from excitement next to me, so we began to make our way over. "If we hurry, we'll have enough time to do one, maybe two runs of the dungeon before other players begin to find it. If we are lucky we can get the dungeon key, and we'll head back to Slitherhold to sell it."

"And… if we don't get the key?" Diane asked curiously. Even with two of us, the odds were in favor of the key not dropping.

"If there is any special loot, we'll still head back to report. The information itself could be valuable. If it's just a mundane dungeon, without anything too interesting, we can move on and let others deal with it." With that said, the two of us began to speed up, until I grabbed Diane's shoulder and used Glancing Steps-X to get us there faster.