Level 1 Fallen

Knowing that we didn't have much time to explore this new dungeon before other players came along, we rushed inside after a brief check of our equipment. The gate of the dungeon at the base of this tall tower looked like a black portal, and we walked through without a moment of hesitation.

Inside, the space seemed to be expanded considerably, appearing to be a large library. I glanced back, ensuring that the gate was still behind us, and then looked ahead at the long, twisting aisle of shelves.

Diane clenched her daggers, keeping her eyes focused. "Given the surroundings, we could be fighting a number of things. Mages, historians, perhaps characters from fictional stories." She said, slowly walking forward.

I stepped up to lead the way, my eyes trailing over the covers of the various books. To my surprise, each one had a different title, with many of them seeming… educational? I saw a familiar book on herbalism that reminded me of the one I read back in Brita. However, it was the fluttering of pages that caught my attention, making me quickly lift my shield.

Up ahead, something was flying between the shelves. It looked like a book, but moved more like a bird, its covers flapping and pages fluttering beneath it. Using my Observe skill, I was able to quickly identify it. "This is known as a Fluttering Book. Be careful, it has a skill called Paper Shredder."

Diane's brow twitched, but she nodded her head. I ran forward, activating my Killing Stare on the book. It froze up, falling to the ground and fluttering weakly, unable to take flight for a moment. Although confused, Diane rushed forward, driving her daggers into its spine.

"That was… easy." She muttered, as if disappointed. Upon looting the book, she was rewarded with a small vial of ink. "What level was it?"

I thought back, hesitating as I tried to recall the information that I had obtained from Observe. "I think… it was level forty?" When I said that, the tension seemed to disappear between the two of us. That was right, this was a relatively low level area, at least by our standards. It wouldn't make sense for an incredibly high level dungeon to suddenly appear here.

"Let's keep moving. Maybe there will be some more interesting loot, at least." Diane said, putting the ink vial into her inventory. It didn't take us long to encounter more of the Fluttering Books, and this time we allowed them to use their skill. Upon doing so, they shot their pages out, which seemed to have a bladed edge, going by how they stuck in the floor.

Still, they were no match for Diane's speed, and could not penetrate my defenses. After killing a few dozen of them, we only managed to get a few more ink vials, some blank sheets of paper, and three pens. It didn't look like we were going to get any good loot from these books.

Thankfully, Diane spotted a treasure chest tucked away behind a shelf, which swung outwards to let us in. At this point, we didn't have much hope for the treasure that we could find here, but Diane still opened the chest after checking that it wasn't a mimic.

The chest opened, granting her a stack of paper, and a single book. My brow twitched when I saw the book, immediately activating Observe.

My eyes widened as I saw that description. I didn't realize that there was a crafting skill for scrolls. Then again, I never had a reason to learn about something like that. "...It looks like we might be able to get something good from this dungeon, after all." I said, and Diane glanced back at me.

After explaining to her what I had read from my Observe, I stepped forward to open the chest myself. When the chest opened for me, there was only one single book inside, which I appraised as well.

My body froze when I read that description, and I could feel my arms shaking. "Is everything alright, Drake?" Diane asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

"We need to hurry." I told her, picking up the book and shoving it into my inventory. "We absolutely can't let anyone else report this dungeon before us."

Diane blinked in confusion, until I told her what the item description said. She immediately understood the value of this book, and turned to rush out of the hidden corridor. It was clear that she was done playing around with the books, and we were now doing what she called a 'speed run'.

With that decision made, I put my shield in my inventory as well, as it would only slow me down. Whenever we came across another group of Fluttering Books, Diane lunged forward and destroyed them with a series of quick slashes, letting me pick up the loot behind her.

There were two more chests on the first floor, out of which we obtained another Scroll Crafting skill book, an Alchemy skill book, a ring that increased intelligence, and some money. On the second floor, we started to fight more difficult enemies, referred to as Spell Books. These books were capable of firing magical blasts with little warning, though they were easy to identify by their more elaborate covers.

Spell Books dropped more valuable versions of the materials that Fluttering Books dropped, giving items like blank scrolls, enchanted ink, or magic quills. Additionally, there were two more chests on this floor. In one of them, Diane seemed to hit the jackpot, obtaining four Enchantment Skill Books at once.

The third floor had a more powerful, elite monster roaming together with the Spell Books, labeled as a Grimoire. There were only ten of these creatures on the entire third floor. Unlike the basic magic of their counterpart, they were able to fire lightning, fire, or ice, and similarly their loot included scrolls for these three types of magic. Unfortunately, they weren't skill books…

From what we saw, the third floor only had a single chest, which Diane and I both quickly opened. Inside was another skill book, though this was different than any that Diane or I had seen before. It was more weathered than a normal skill book, looking as if it had been forgotten on a shelf for dozens of years.

Both of us had obtained the same book, with Diane also getting a few pieces of silver. When she asked me to identify them, I did so, blinking in confusion. "They're called Skill Demotion Books. According to the information, they can reduce a skill's rank by one tier."

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Diane blinked again, looking at the book curiously. "In other words… if someone learned an advanced skill, they could use this to turn it into a novice skill, then train it from its foundation?" She asked, to which I could only nod my head, assuming that was correct. "I wonder if it would work on the skills created with the Enchantment Skill Book."

"We'll find out later. For now… all that's left is the boss." I said, turning my attention to the large door at the end of the third floor. "Let's finish it off, and then run back to town."

Diane nodded her head in agreement at that. There wouldn't be much point in waiting around after killing the boss the first time, unless it were to try and receive the dungeon key. However, even without that key, the information from this dungeon would surely sell well.

I walked over, pushing open the door. Beyond it was a large, circular study, its walls lined with thousands of books. In the center, there was a single, large tome propped up on a podium, standing taller than either Diane or myself. Its pages were open, showing complex, arcane formulas.

As soon as we stepped in, the door to the boss room closed behind us, and several pages flew out from the book. Each one seemed to act as a scroll, firing intense blasts of fire, ice, and lightning. I used Martial Intent-X to create a barrier around us, blocking the barrage. "The book is its main body?" Diane asked, to which I nodded my head.

Immediately, Diane's body slipped into the shadows, appearing beneath the book. She seemed to have no desire to draw this out, plunging her daggers up and into the stationary target. There was the sound of shattering glass as her daggers briefly stopped against a magical barrier, before piercing through and cutting it in half.

Diane gestured for me to loot the boss, while she herself went to open the boss's treasure chest. When I looted the boss, I was admittedly disappointed in the outcome, receiving a pair of heavy metal gauntlets with arcane runes, as well as some paper. With the boss chest, Diane didn't have much better luck, receiving only some paper and a silver ring.

Finally, when I opened the chest, I received a pair of light blue pants, as well as the Lightning Bolt skill book. I couldn't help but click my tongue in annoyance at the fact that the key didn't drop. We might have been able to earn twenty platinum pieces if we sold the key to this dungeon, at least.

Still, it would take a full hour for the boss to respawn. "Ready to go?" I asked Diane, holding my hand out for her. She hesitated for a moment, before nodding and jumping up to let me hold her. It was clear that she wasn't entirely used to being carried like this, but it was true that it was the fastest way.

It took maybe half an hour for us to climb the dungeon the first time, but less than a minute for us to leave,using my Glancing Steps-X to immediately retrace our steps. Once outside, I continued to use this skill until we were back at the city gates, the guards startled by our sudden appearance.

Diane cleared her throat, jumping down from my arm to look at the guard. "We need to speak with the city's lord. We've discovered a new dungeon within the town's jurisdiction."

"A new dungeon?" One of the guards asked in surprise. Given that the Wealth of Spring had only just begun, finding a new dungeon was something that needed to urgently be discussed. Now that I thought about it, there was even the chance that this entire dungeon was only going to be around for this week, though I had never heard of a time-limited dungeon like that.

One of the guard's focused for a moment, likely to send a message to the city's lord, before nodding to the two of us. "Please, follow me." He said, walking at a brisk pace to lead us through the city's gates.

Diane and I looked at one another, before immediately following suit. He led us towards a large mansion at the center of the city, passing through the crowds that were still rejoicing at the end of the monster flood.

When we arrived at the lord's manor, we were greeted by a portly man with short, curly blonde hair. His eyes were slanted and slit like a snake's, but he seemed to have a generally kind demeanor about him. "Greetings, greetings. My name is Duke Fenom." He said, introducing himself. "Yes, Duke is my name, not my title. Please, don't worry about it too much. I was told that you had something important to discuss?"

He asked, gesturing for us to enter. Diane nodded her head. "That's right, lord Fenom. We were walking the road to Pike City, when we came across an unusual tower. This tower rests just beyond the hills on the horizon, perhaps an hour and a half's walk away, and less than a thousand meters from the road."

"A tower, you say?" He asked, stroking his chin. "Did you explore its interior?"

"We did." She said, glancing over at me. "The interior of the dungeon takes the form of a spacious library, its aisles arranged like a maze. The monsters within all have the theme of books, and we have samples of their loot with us, as well as the loot from the boss monster and the treasure chests."

As she said that, we arrived at a large display room, Duke leading us to a table where we could spread out what we had found. At first, Duke didn't seem impressed, until we started producing skill books. "Were these all found from the same dungeon? There hasn't been enough time since the gates opened for you to run it multiple times yet…"

"That's right, sir." I confirmed, but Duke's eyes firmly locked onto the Enchantment Skill Book and Skill Demotion Book. He seemed to find them even more valuable than we did, swallowing his saliva.

"Did you happen to retrieve the dungeon's key?" He asked in a shaky tone, but both Diane and I shook our heads. Surprisingly, he seemed relieved by this, no doubt wanting to send in his troops to farm the dungeon themselves.

Diane furrowed her brow, seeing the way Duke looked at the two special skill books. "Lord Fenom, I understand that these two books are valuable, but the way that you are looking at them… is there perhaps something more?"

Duke hesitated at that, before deciding to explain with a nod. "That's right, young lady. On their own, these books are excellent trade goods. Any city would be lucky to have a dungeon capable of producing them, as they can't be crafted by normal means."

"However, when both books are together in one dungeon… I believe that there are only five dungeons in the world that contain both books as possible rewards. Using the two books together allows for something otherwise impossible, which is the creation of new skills."

Both Diane and I widened our eyes in surprise, but Duke quickly held up his hands to stop the inevitable outbursts. "Calm yourselves. This skill creation is not without limits. According to legend, there were originally only a few select skills, especially among the magic branch. Physical skills can be created with repeated actions, but the same cannot be said of magic."

"The numerous magic skills that exist today were created by the combination of these two books. You see, by enchanting one or more skills onto the Enchantment Skill Book, the user can modify the end result like a normal enchantment. Then, they use the Skill Demotion Books to turn it into a basic skill."

"Like this, they create a skill that has never existed before, one that they can potentially teach to others through either quests or more Enchantment Skill Books, though the former is a far more common method. These books are incredibly rare, after all."

"I won't ask you to sell these to me, as I feel that you are unlikely to want to part with them, even if I increase the asking price. However, I shall offer you a word of warning when you use them yourself. If the enchantment fails, the Enchantment Skill Book is wasted. Additionally, the Skill Demotion Book can only reduce a skills rank by one tier, so you may need to use multiple books to create a new basic skill."

"Finally…" He turned to look at the two of us as we collected the loot once again. "Since you did not retrieve the dungeon's key, I can offer you one platinum coin for the information that you provided."

Honestly, one platinum was more than I expected to get without the key, so I nodded my head in understanding. "I assume that you will be dispatching the soldiers currently sweeping the surroundings for treasure chests."

Duke gave a full-bellied laugh at that. "Right you are, son. The monsters may still be cleared out from your run through the dungeon, but we can still use the chests. It would be a waste not to take advantage of this, don't you think?"