Level 1 Fallen

After leaving Duke's mansion, Diane and I discussed amongst ourselves what we should do with the spoils of the dungeon. Altogether, we had some miscellaneous gear worth about four gold if we sold it, as well as the skill books and crafting materials. Neither of us really specialized as a mage, aside from Diane's chosen, but it was impractical to get an entire separate set of equipment for her. And besides, the overall level of this dungeon wasn't very high.

As such, we sold off the magic-themed gear. Naturally, I wanted to use the Lightning Bolt skillbook. Although lightning wasn't high on my skill book priority, it was still better than not having it. As for Diane, she had no interest in receiving a lightning skill, even as a simple quest reward.

I had expected that we would end up selling the three crafting skill books that we had obtained, as neither of us particularly specialized in crafting skills. However, as I was about to suggest it, Diane looked at me with a serious expression. "Would it be alright if I learned these two skills myself?" She asked, pointing at the Scroll Crafting and Alchemy skill books.

I blinked, surprised by her sudden request. "I don't see why not, though I'm surprised you want to."

Diane simply gave a small nod, accepting the two books. "For Alchemy, it would help in my crafting of poisons, and I could potentially make us some potions with ingredients we find along the road. For Scroll Crafting… I thought my Chosen might enjoy being able to create the scrolls in her free time."

Hearing that, I couldn't help but smile slightly, nodding my head. "We'll need to get you an inventory alchemy kit, then." I said, briefly confusing her. "Most crafting skills have an inventory kit. If you have already created a product with the kit, it will allow you to automatically produce that product again as long as you have the materials, without retrieving it from your inventory. The quality drops a little, but it's typically worth it."

As I explained, Diane looked suspiciously at me. "That sounds expensive." She said, to which I cleared my throat.

"I think the inventory kit for alchemy costs about fifty gold? But we can afford it right now. I think it's a good investment, that way you don't have to always set up delicate equipment whenever you want to craft anything."

Of course, if she wanted to get into alchemy, she'd need to do a lot of reading about the regional herbs from anywhere we traveled to. However, I was certain that she already knew that. There would likely be ways for her to look into those subjects when she was offline. If not, we would just need to spend a little while we were stopped at major cities along the road for her to study.

In the end, that just left us with one Scroll Crafting skill book, which we sold for almost two gold. After that, we bought an inventory alchemy kit for Diane, and she purchased some local herbs to practice with when we camp for the night.

With that, we once again set back on the road to Pike City. However, this time, we didn't use Glancing Steps-X to rapidly travel, as Diane wanted to take the chance to gather herbs along the road. We had purposely avoided talking about the Skill Demotion and Enchantment Skill books until we were well out of the city.

As we walked down the road, we could see players searching around for the promised treasure chests, and eventually the guards that had been assembled outside the new tower dungeon. By the end of the day, we had made it roughly halfway to the first village on the way to Pike City. Given that we were walking at a casual pace to pick herbs near the road, and had a late start due to the first run of the dungeon, we were making good time.

That night, as I worked on setting the camp and preparing dinner for us, Diane's Chosen was busy setting up her new alchemy kit off to the side of camp. Clearly, she was eager to get started experimenting with brewing potions with what few ingredients she had on hand. I hadn't seen her visit the library while we were at Slitherhold, so I assumed that she was just blindly experimenting for now.

After we ate, Diane showed me the different concoctions that she made, asking me to identify them for her to see if they were useful. There were three of them, each with various swirling colors in glass vials. Hesitantly, I used my appraisal skill, only to discover that two of the three were simply labeled as 'disgusting potion' with no effect, while the third had both a healing and poison effect that seemed to cancel each other out.

Hearing this, Diane didn't seem too disheartened. She only seemed more determined to create a proper potion. I shook my head with an amused smile, settling in to rest first, since it seemed like she would be up for a little while to practice.

The next morning, as soon as Diane logged back in, I saw her grabbing her notebook and beginning to write in it as I dismantled the camp. Although I didn't read over her shoulder, I was sure that she was writing down the results of her offline research.

After that, we once again set out along the road, with Diane reading her notebook and looking around at any flowers that we passed by. Every now and then, she would stop to carefully pick one to put in her inventory.

This pattern continued for the next several days, passing through a pair of villages and finally making our way to Pike City. Since we were sticking near the roads, we didn't manage to find any of the event chests scattered around. However, on the final morning, just as we were almost to Pike City, a notification appeared in front of me.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

My eyes widened as the message appeared, particularly the first few. Setting restrictions on Chosen while the player was offline… I could see how that might be favorable to the player, but that could turn into a living hell for the Chosen. As for the last two… I couldn't help but feel slightly targeted there.

Out of everyone in the world, I was no doubt the one gaining the most experience from fighting higher level enemies. With this update, it meant that my skills would all level up more slowly from combat. Nearby, Diane's Chosen noticed the changes as well, her eyes going wide. At first, she seemed excited, realizing that she would be able to talk to Diane directly. However, as she read down the list, the color seemed to drain from her face.

By the time she was finished, she looked over at me, concern etched on her face. I was about to speak up to assure her that I would be fine when suddenly her brand lit up, her face returning to the neutral appearance Diane typically had when logged in. "The patch just hit." She said, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"I saw." I said, nodding my head. "At least it looks like you'll be able to speak with your Chosen without the use of that notebook now?"

When Diane heard that, her lips twitched slightly into a smile, before quickly shaking her head. "I'm already working on setting that up. And before you ask, no, I'm not going to be activating any of the other restrictions. They're moronic, and I'd have to be a controlling idiot to want them. But, are you alright with these changes? They're hitting you pretty hard here."

I thought about it for a moment, before shaking my head. "There's not much that I can do about it either way." It was annoying that I was losing my ability to summon a clone army, but at the same time, completely understandable as to why such a change was necessary. I could only imagine someone downcasting a clone skill to create an army numbering in the tens of thousands. Even if each one was weaker, the sheer numbers would be more than enough to kill powerful enemies.

As for the change in experience gained with the clone skills, when I highlighted that option, it indicated that clones would be regarded as a pet. If the user wanted to gain experience from the clone's fights, they would need to participate beyond simply summoning the clone and leaving it to its own devices. Either direct commands or participation in the battle was required, with experience gained based on contribution.

With the same previous example, this would stop that same army of thousands from flooding into a dungeon, the user gaining a massive amount of experience without actually doing anything. Again, it was understandable, but it certainly had a negative impact on me personally.

Speaking of which, I still had my Shadow Archer trailing behind us invisibly. Since it didn't cost me anything to maintain, I never saw a reason to dismiss it.

"Regardless, let's get going." I said, nodding towards Diane. "We won't get anything done by just waiting around, and we're almost out of Farro."

Diane hesitated, before giving a firm nod. "Right. Speaking of which, I did some research on Ilsan while I was waiting for the patch to finish." She said, the two of us walking along the road. "We might run into a little bit of trouble there."

"Oh? Why so?" I asked uncertainly, not too familiar with Ilsan, beyond it being a desert nation.

"The fact that the vast majority of the nation is a desert has created a few natural hazards. There aren't any roads between most cities, nor are there smaller villages. People can only reliably survive within the main cities, and monsters roam freely everywhere else. That makes it easy for people to get lost when they get caught up in frequent sandstorms and battles.'

Hearing her explanation, I could understand the difficulty. If there were no natural landmarks, even the map might be unreliable. "What are you thinking? Do we just blitz through to Evergreen?" I asked, but Diane shook her head.

"I think that we should at least visit the capital." She explained. "It's near the southern coast, where the desert gives way to firm, rocky plateaus. We might be able to buy useful skills, and then get a boat from Yellowkeep to Evergreen."

I blinked, confused by her request. "Why would we get there by boat? Evergreen is just to the west of Ilsan, isn't it?"

Diane gave a small nod, but explained her reasoning. "Apparently, there are a lot of roaming boss-level monsters along the border of Ilsan and Evergreen, with an average level of over a hundred and fifty. They are ambush predators, hiding beneath the sand to attack anyone that gets close. Your travel skill might be able to bypass them, but I think that it's better not to risk it. If we die, we'd respawn with no clear idea of where our bodies were. Especially if…"

Although she left it unsaid, I knew she was worried about the possibility of me either losing my Glancing Steps-X skill, or my positive trait. If I lost either of those when respawning in the desert, it would be practically impossible for me to ever recover my body.