Level 1 Fallen

Seeing my immense reluctance to risk damaging the new bike worth more money than I had ever seen in my life, Diane rolled her eyes and walked me through the basics. She told me how to start it up, how to accelerate, turn, and brake. My entire body locked up when I heard the word 'brake'.

Finally, she just let out a sigh. "You can make a barrier around the bike with your skills to stop it from getting damaged." She reminded me, and finally my body started to relax. "Just make sure to keep the bike balanced, and nothing should go wrong."

"Right…" I said, gulping nervously as I revved up the bike. I had already confirmed that none of the enchantments would burn my mana, so it was just a matter of trying it out. When I felt the vibrations of the motorcycle beneath me, I nearly jumped out of my skin, gouts of fire shooting from the rear-facing pipes, which Diane called the exhaust.

Moments later, we were speeding along. The surroundings grew hazy as the engine roared. It felt as if I was using Flicker Step again, the horizon shifting by the moment. Recalling what Diane said, I formed a barrier around the bike with my Martial Intent-X, and then began wondering what other skills I could channel through the bike.

Glancing Step-X? If that was possible, this truly could be faster than me. However, the requirement for Glancing Step-X was for me to lock onto a destination in visual range, and then take a step forward. It probably wouldn't work for these wheels. However… what about Duke of all Trades-X? That was just a general enhancement of all statistics.

I hesitated for a moment, looking around and noticing that there was nothing in the surroundings that could form an obstacle. Gripping the handlebar tight, I focused on channeling my skill into the bike. Almost immediately, the engine roared louder, the flames shooting out from the exhaust turning a bright blue.

Diane let out a little yip of surprise, leaning forward and grabbing onto my back as the speed of the bike increased by more than three times. "What did you do!?" She asked in a panic.

"Stat boost!" I responded, the wind against my face nearly enough to throw me off the bike entirely. In order to stay on, I extended the barrier upwards, forming a triangular barrier to deflect the wind. Only then did I no longer feel the wind buffeting my body. That was a close one.

Now enclosed in the barrier, Diane relaxed behind me. "Okay, I applaud your courage to try new things, but warn me next time you do something like that. I almost fell off back here."

"Sorry." I glanced back, looking down at the speedometer. Five hundred… was that a lot? "Are we going too fast?" I asked nervously, and Diane peeked around my body, her brow twitching when she saw the speedometer.

"Five hundred kilometers an hour. That's as high as this thing can measure. If we hit a hill!" She started, before the wheels suddenly left the ground, having just crossed over the top of a small hill. Diane's eyes widened, quickly grabbing onto my waist tight. "Give us a road, Drake!"

Trying my best not to panic, I extended a glowing path beneath the bike, which led back to the ground. "Okay, yeah, slow down!" She huffed once both wheels were back on the ground, and so I stopped channeling my skill into the bike. Gradually, our speed began to decline, dropping to barely a third of what it had been. "I am so buying us proper helmets when I log out later…"

"Sorry…" I apologized again, keeping my eyes focused forward as we drove. Now that we weren't moving nearly as fast, hills only caused us to lightly jump from the ground, rather than sending us soaring into the air.

"Not your fault." Diane shook her head, patting her chest. "Honestly, once you master the bike, you can drive us on ki paths through the air as fast as you want. Until then, try to keep your speed below two hundred. That's already insanely fast, for the record."

"What would you consider a 'normal' speed, then?" I asked curiously.

"About a hundred and ten?" She responded after a bit of thought. "But that is when we have to worry about other drivers. For now, that's not an issue."

"Right, there's something that I've been meaning to ask you." I looked back at her briefly, before turning my eyes back ahead to make sure that we weren't about to run into any random monsters. "How did you afford something like this? You've told me that you make your money playing games, but we haven't gotten anything valuable enough for you to sell. You're not just burning through all of your existing money in your world, are you?"

Diane hesitated a bit, seeming to consider how she should answer. "Not yet, but that doesn't mean I won't later. It's an investment, really. I'm spending money now for us to more comfortably reach our goal in the future. Once we get to a higher level, items we acquire will be worth more. At that point, I'll be able to sell those to other players to make up for what I'm spending now."

"Are you sure that you'll be able to do that?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm sure." She responded in a confident tone. "I've got you with me, don't I? I'm not so desperate that I would rely on you to get items for me at this stage of the game, but… once I've caught up with you in strength, we'll be able to take on harder content together, and get more valuable items."

I gave a small nod, fully aware that it wasn't a matter of if she would catch up with me, but when. Unless I found a way to level up, or more powerful enhancement skills, there was only so much that what I had now would be able to boost me. Sooner or later, her natural leveling speed as a player would catch up to me leveling my skills, especially after the recent patch reduced how much experience I'd get from fighting stronger monsters.

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As I was thinking that, I noticed a distortion in the air, like black boxes flickering in and out of existence. My eyes widened, and color drained from my face. "Diane, do not use any skills! Don't get off the bike, don't touch anything or do anything you don't absolutely have to!" I said urgently, slamming on the brakes and causing the bike to skid to a halt.

"...Drake?" Diane asked warily. "What's going on?" She sounded more confused as to why I had stopped the bike than what I had said.

"We're in a glitch zone." I answered, and she still seemed confused. "It means that something is innately wrong here. See those?" I pointed in the direction of the flickering distortions. "Those are signs that there is a glitch in the area. We don't know what the glitch is, though. It could be something as simple as a tree that hasn't fallen, or perhaps the ground itself might not exist beneath our feet."

Diane's eyes widened, looking down below us and seeing that I still had a projected platform beneath the bike from when we were driving. "If we can't use any skills, why are you keeping your Martial Intent on?"

"If a skill's already active when we enter a glitch zone, and doesn't cause any problems, it's probably not what's wrong." I explained. "And I'd rather keep that platform there than risk falling through the ground."

"Fair point… so what do we do?" She asked, gripping the back of my shirt.

I let out a long sigh. "We wait. The glitch sign means that the developers have been alerted to the problem. Glitches happen most frequently after big patches, and their effects can vary wildly. For instance, there is a rule among travelers. After a patch hits, you must never travel to a village at night."

"Why not?"

I looked back at Diane as I answered. "Because, there have been times when someone traveled to a small village the night of a patch. When they arrived, the sun had not yet risen, but the glitch signs appeared. When they disappeared, the entire population of the village had disappeared."

"Other times, when a glitch happens, you could have two people phase into each other, becoming horrific abominations that weren't able to separate even after respawning. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case here. Most likely, the glitch is something related to local monsters, or a dungeon in the vicinity. I don't want to risk looking with Detective Analysis, because I might accidentally lose my eyes."

"That… would be bad, yes." Diane said, gulping slightly. "So… waiting it is. How will we know when the glitch has been resolved?"

"The sign will disappear, and we'll get a notification of a local hotfix. The hotfix will tell us about the cause of the glitch, too." I explained, and Diane looked up at me.

"So the disappearing villagers..?" She asked, and I hesitated.

"They were 'unrendered'." Just thinking about that word gave me the chills. Breaking it down, wouldn't that mean that they were unmade at the most basic level?

Diane blinked curiously, but nodded her head, as if understanding something. Moments later, the flickering squares disappeared from the air, and a message appeared in front of us.

The two of us froze as we read the message, and Diane arched a brow as she looked up at me. "Drake… do you still have that Shadow Archer summoned?" She asked, almost accusingly.

I cleared my throat, quickly deactivating the enchantment. "Not anymore…" Okay, how was I supposed to know that would create a glitch? If we knew how those glitches were created, they wouldn't exist in the first place!

Diane rolled her eyes, letting out a suppressed laugh. "Sorry… that was just so tense, only for something like that to be the cause… You even told me all those horror stories about famous glitches, and you were the glitch the whole time…"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up…" I sighed, starting up the bike again. Of course, I wasn't going nearly as fast as before anymore, but that shouldn't matter. The ground beneath us was already starting to give way to sand, and the once-distant mountains were looking closer than ever. It was probably not going to be too long before we reached Broken Sands.

Honestly, out of everything that could have happened, I was glad that we only got a glitch like that. Admittedly, a failure in collision rendering seemed scary, but I already had a platform to support us. There were any number of truly horrific glitches that could have happened, such as deleting our entire inventory, removing our skills, or possibly deleting us. Compared to those, a glitch that we already had the answer for was naturally something to be thankful for.

"Anyways, where was I?" Diane asked after she settled down. "Right. The easiest way for me to make money in this game would be to get a high level crafting skill. Sort of like how this bike got made. However, I don't really have the talent for crafting advanced items like this. So, instead, I raid high level dungeons, do big quests, or help other players complete their own objectives."

"At the moment, my hope is to find a high-level, lucrative dungeon that hasn't been claimed yet. If we get the key for it, that could be a good short-term source of income. For long-term income, I need to be willing to get my hands dirty…"

"You mean killing other players?" I asked, but Diane blinked.

"No, I mean learning skills like dismantling monsters. PvP is alright, but the loot you get isn't typically worth the drama that comes with it. But, if I learn butchery or similar skills, I can get all of the parts of a monster I kill, which drastically increases its selling value. I've just been holding off on that for now because we keep moving around, so it hasn't been worth it yet."

I gave a small nod of my head, thinking aloud. "I wonder what would happen if I learned to dismantle monsters, and then ordered a group of animated shadows to do it for me." I felt Diane's hands gripping the back of my shirt, and looked back to see her staring hard at me after I said that.