Level 1 Fallen

Just to be safe, I waited next to the well for more than half an hour, with no sign of the two wraiths emerging. During that time, Diane similarly noted that no other wraiths had appeared within the town. Accepting that they had retreated for the night, I met up with Diane, and the two of us got a short rest before morning.

By the time we awoke, there was a new message awaiting us from Wisteria. The first stage of the quest had been marked as completed, and she had issued a follow-up quest. The second quest had one main objective, as well as an optional secondary objective.

The main objective was to kill the wraiths while carrying a special stone, labeled the Punishment Anchor. According to the item's description, these were single-use items. Whenever a non-NPC was killed by the bearer, their respawn point would be forcibly set to a marked cell within the league's prison.

Surprised that the league had such an item, I naturally sent a message to Wisteria, asking why it wasn't used when we were fighting the draconic player previously. According to Wisteria, it was simply because they did not have a cell large enough and powerful enough to house a dragon, so they could only settle for resetting its respawn point.

To be safe, they sent us four stones via mail, with Diane and I each holding two of them in our inventories. However, any unused stones were expected to be sent back after the mission was over, as there was only a limited supply of them that the league had available.

Having done our best to prepare ourselves, I began thinking about what we could do for the rest of the day. It might not be a bad idea to sleep early, that way we could be awake when the wraiths attacked later in the night. Yet, before I could suggest to do so, Diane messaged me over the friends list.

Can you take me to the well where they disappeared? She asked, confusing me briefly. Still, I looked around, spotting Diane lurking in the alley near the mailbox. Still under the effects of my own stealth skill, I walked over and lightly grabbed her hand. Expecting this, Diane entered stealth, and I led her through the streets.

It took about ten minutes to navigate through the crowds, careful not to bump into anyone, before we came across an old well near the western edge of the town. The well seemed to be rather popular, as the nearest surface waterway was over a hundred kilometers away. NPCs couldn't use skills like Create Water, so they had to extract water from the well normally.

That said, Diane slipped through the small group lining up at the well, and I watched her hazy figure descend down the well, likely to look for clues. I didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but I also didn't want to distract her while she was investigating.

A short while later, Diane climbed back out, weaving through the crowd to return to where we had parted ways. Since I had lost sight of her while she was in the well, her figure had become even more faint, and I barely registered her presence until she was right in front of me, the damp smell of the well the biggest indicator. Once again, she held her hand out, and I took it, guiding her to a secluded alley where we could talk normally.

Once we were sure that nobody else was nearby, I released her hand and turned off my Ghost-X skill. "Did you learn anything?" I asked, and Diane similarly emerged from stealth with a nod.

"I think I know where we can find them." She said, catching me by surprise.

"How so? I checked the well myself last night, and there weren't any hidden passages or other traces."

Diane planted her arms on her hips, looking smug despite her expressionless face. "That's right. The well doesn't connect to any path leading to their base. It's just a convenient landmark."

Seeing that I still wasn't sure what she was talking about, she let out a long breath and explained. "Since we were dealing with wraiths, I looked into the information about their race posted on the forums. Although wraiths have a natural ability to phase through walls as part of their ghostly form, they can't see where they are going. That's why the two of you saw them rise up over the city before starting to make their move, because they needed to get their bearings first."

"Thus, when they are moving underground, they can only move in a straight line to avoid getting lost. The well has to be along that line, serving as a landmark for them to emerge from."

I furrowed my brows, thinking through her logic, before raising an objection. "How does that help us? Their base could still be in any direction from the well, right?"

However, Diane shook her head. "It will either be directly to the south or the west. There are few natural formations to the north or east that would offer the cover they would need for their second landmark. If the base is to the west, then it is likely at the foot of the mountain dividing Ilsan and Farro. However, Broken Sands would be a far closer choice to target if that was the case. Most likely, their base is in the forest fifty kilometers to the south of Pike City. As a wraith, they are able to fly quite fast, so fifty kilometers wouldn't be a problem for them."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

My eyes widened at her theory. Fifty kilometers might not have been much for them, but that was almost two days of walking at a normal pace. Admittedly, I could get us there in just a minute or two at most with Glancing Steps-X, but that was quite the deductive leap. Additionally…

"How did you do all of this research already? We just found this out last night, and you haven't logged back out since your Chosen would have had the chance to inform you." That was honestly what was bothering me the most. The way she was talking made it seem like she had spent hours researching all of this, but I just couldn't understand how she had done so.

Hearing my question, Diane tilted her head and blinked twice. "My Chosen let me know while I was offline." She said, and I froze. "Ahh, you wouldn't have seen that part of the patch notes as a Fallen, I assume. Part of the Quality of Life update with the Chosen was to allow us to communicate with each other, whether the player is online or not. When I'm offline, there is a device that I use for speaking with others, and I set it up so that my Chosen could contact me through that."

"She sent me the information about the Wraiths, as well as their pictures and the area that they disappeared, all last night. When I found out about that, I couldn't sleep, so I started doing my own research with the information that I could gather on my end."

I nodded my head slowly, starting to understand. At the same time, though, I sent a look of concern towards Diane. "Are you alright? There's not a problem with you staying up that late, is there?"

Normally, I wouldn't have to worry about that. However, Diane had told me how she had a naturally weak body in her world, and was confined to a hospital bed. With that being the case, I had no choice but to be worried that staying up late like that might be harmful to her body.

Diane simply cleared her throat, dodging my gaze. "I'll be fine. It's not the first all-nighter I've done. Don't worry, though, I'm playing in sleep mode right now. My body is getting plenty of rest, so there won't be any problems. Keep in mind, my reaction speed might be a bit dulled because of sleep mode, but it shouldn't affect our mission too much. If it looks like we're going to get into a fight, I'll log out and let my Chosen take care of it."

I let out a sigh of relief, nodding my head. The last thing that I wanted was for Diane to endanger her own health in her world. "That's good to know. Be sure to take care of yourself." I said in a soft voice, and she nodded her head, her eyes focused on the ground. I couldn't see her mouth through her facemask, but I had the feeling she was happy that I was worried for her sake.

"Anyways… why would they only have bases along the cardinal directions?" I asked, and Diane cleared her throat again.

"They're players. They probably have a navigation skill that gives them the equivalent of a compass. They just have to follow that along a straight line, and they will eventually hit their target. Most likely, there is another one back at their base that summons them back as soon as they've possessed someone, which causes them to simply vanish."

That made sense, though something else dawned on me when I listened to her explanation. "What if… they're converting the people they abduct? If there are two wraiths, and a third, unknown individual, what are the chances that they are turning the NPCs into undead?"

Diane's eyes froze when she heard my speculation, and she clenched her fists. "That would explain why they're going for NPCs… a Fallen like you would just respawn, but an NPC can't do that. If they need true humanoid corpses, capturing NPCs would be their only option."

The halfling ninja began pacing back and forth within the alley, her body tense. "Assuming that their base is to the south, within the forest, that would give them another possible avenue to acquire corpses. To the east of the forest is an unnamed village, one where it would be easy to secretly abduct people."

Stopping in her tracks, she sent a firm look in my direction. "We need more punishment anchors, at least ten of them to be safe. If your theory is accurate, this is an undead guild that is trying to rally a horde. Once they've got enough people, depending on the skills of the players responsible, they could sweep through a major city. Every NPC death would only add to their numbers."

"That's… a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?" I asked cautiously, though I could feel the seriousness in her tone. "They're just NPC-turned-undead. They wouldn't have that much strength, and could be put down after one kill."

"Unless there's a necromancer, capable of binding them as familiars. With the forest, they have a high level hunting ground where they can train to level up, maybe even a dungeon or two. And if they are bound as familiars, the necromancer could potentially bring them back again and again, forcing them to grow stronger."

I couldn't help but hiss at the prospect. Certainly, there was the chance that Diane was right. And, if she was, we would need to be extra careful. There was no telling how many players the other side might have. "Okay… let's let Wisteria know. This is important information, even if it is only a theory."

After I said that, I opened my friends list and messaged Wisteria, sending her the theory that Diane and I had come up with as well as the request for additional resources. At first, there was no response, other than a 'standby for further instructions'. It wasn't until nearly an hour later that I received a proper response. Are you in a secluded location?

Confirmed. We are hidden in a back alley at the moment. I responded. A moment later, Wisteria emerged from thin air, teleporting with her special trait, Close Ties. Wisteria's expression was solemn, her fox ears standing at attention as she looked around.

"Thanks to your information, the Guildmaster has increased the rank of this mission. Until it's over, I'll be taking command. For now, stay hidden, and don't alert the targets. I'm going to run to the nearby village to investigate."

After saying so, Wisteria's figure blurred, soon disappearing completely. I couldn't tell if her stealth skills were simply that good, or if she had run too fast for me to notice after entering stealth. Either way, all that we could do now was wait.