Level 1 Fallen

It didn't take us long to reach Falconlot, which was a large city positioned around an oasis, tropical trees rising up to give it a beautiful internal scenery. At the same time, there was a large, stone wall protecting it from the outside, with numerous guards patrolling both the top and exterior of the wall.

When I saw the gate, I brought Diane and myself down to the ground, dismounting from the bike and putting it in my inventory. With that taken care of, my Ghost-X was dismissed, and the guards were surprised to see two people appearing less than a hundred meters from the wall.

At first, they seemed ready for battle, before relaxing slightly when they saw our brands. "Players, you really know how to make an entrance." One of the two standing at the gate, a dogfolk man, said with a laugh.

Diane looked between the duo, walking up to the guard that had spoken. "My friend here was up all night protecting us from the sudden sandstorm, and could use a rest. Can you recommend a good inn for him to stay at?"

Hearing the news of the sandstorm, the duo seemed surprised, tensing up for a moment. They looked at one another, and the rabbitfolk male rushed into the city gates while the dogfolk turned back to look at Diane. "There is a nice inn with a beautiful view of the oasis near the center of town called the Devil's Tail. Your friend should be able to get plenty of rest there."

Diane nodded her head at that, turning to gesture for me to follow. There were a surprising number of people in Falconlot, considering that it was at the center of a desert, and their style of dress reminded me largely of Wisteria, with flowing skirts and a great deal of exposed skin.

Diane looked around, soon finding the inn that the guard had recommended, displaying a sign showing a scorpion's tail. We walked in, and I got a room for myself, while Diane left to begin her dungeon raids.

When I awoke, I noticed that there was still light coming in through the window. I rubbed my eyes, standing up, and made my way downstairs. "Ah, look who's finally awake." The catfolk innkeeper said in an amused tone.

"Sorry, how long was I out?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head.

"You slept like a log for an entire day." She responded, her words catching me by surprise. "Your friend tried to let you know when dinner was ready last night, but you must have been too exhausted to wake up."

I froze briefly, processing that. I had slept an entire day? Granted, it had been incredibly draining to hold up that barrier all throughout the night, but I hadn't expected anything like that. "Speaking of her, is she--" I began, but the innkeeper held a hand out to stop me.

"She's already gone off to the dungeon about an hour ago. She said to tell you not to worry if you woke up, and that she's making good progress." There was a kind smile on the innkeeper's face as she explained. "She suggested you take the day to explore the city."

I nodded briefly, thanking the innkeeper and making my way out of the establishment. Of course, I still sent a message to Diane, informing her that I was awake. After a few seconds, she sent a brief confirmation, likely in the middle of a fight. I didn't want to disturb her any further, so I took her up on her advice and simply began to wander the city.

It felt… weird not having a plan in mind, and just being able to aimlessly walk around. Even when I was waiting for Diane in Broken Sands, I managed to find something to keep myself busy. However, here, there were no special dungeons that I could train in. There were no boss monsters or quests that I had to take care of.

Honestly… it was boring! I wanted to do something. I needed to find some way to make myself productive, or else I felt like I'd go crazy. I mean, sure, the city looked nice. The sparkling oasis, the citizens swimming in the water as if it were a beach, everything looked great. But it didn't really feel like it helped me at all..

Dear god, I've become a workaholic. I thought inwardly, shaking my head quickly. I had gotten so used to training, so used to always being busy with one thing or another, I couldn't remember the last time I legitimately just rested. And, unfortunately, given how I was feeling, I didn't think that streak was going to end.

With a long sigh, I made my way back to the inn, the innkeeper greeting me with the same polite smile. I went back to my room, sitting down on the floor, and did the only productive thing I could think of without causing large-scale property damage or requiring me to leave the city. I began practicing Fire Shaping.

I had already figured out an easy method to train this skill while I was fighting back against the sandstorm. However, my attention wasn't able to be spared at that time, so I couldn't put it into practice.

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Lifting my hands, I generated small flames on my palms, which I began to shape according to my will. Since I had experience with Martial Intent-X, I was very familiar with the process of controlling these projections. However, I could feel some clear resistance with Fire Shaping. The skill's low level meant I was lacking the fine control necessary to create detailed shapes.

And so, that's what I was practicing. Thanks to the developers debuffing the amount of skill experience I gain in combat, this form of training could prove just as practical as actually fighting monsters. Not to mention that the monsters of Ilsan should have some measure of resistance to fire, so this low level skill wouldn't be able to harm them much anyways.

I started simple, forming the flames into a circle, which created a burning halo above my hands. Then, I worked on compressing this halo, gradually eliminating the floating embers. My goal was to create a solid ring of burning light.

Just creating this ring alone took me more than ten minutes, and required all of my focus to maintain it. Still, the experience gained wasn't horrible, so I began to increase the difficulty. The second stage was to create an additional, overlapping ring, this one rotated vertically. And after that, a ball of free-floating flame within the two rings.

Unlike the rings, I wanted this fire to be less condensed, burning freely. However, focusing on maintaining that state while also tightly condensing the two rings drastically increased the difficulty of the training. My mind kept trying to either condense the inner flame or relax on the outer rings.

Naturally, this made the next stage of the training even more difficult, as I inverted the pattern with a second construct. This one, which hovered next to the first, had a tightly condensed ball of light at the center, surrounded by two burning rings of fire. My brow tightened, sweat beading down my face as I struggled to maintain this level of control over the flames.

When the door of my room opened, I briefly lost focus, the two constructs snuffed out as my eyes flicked to the door. Diane was poking her head in, and fully stepped inside when she noticed my gaze. "Feeling better now?" She asked calmly, and I nodded my head.

"Just restless. Figured I'd get some skill training in while I waited for you." Hearing that, Diane nodded her head in understanding.

"How's the training?" She asked curiously, and I opened my skill window to check.

"Just hit level eleven, so it's going well so far. At this rate, I should be able to get back to Fire Projection before too much longer." As for what came after that, I honestly wasn't sure. Perhaps it would be like the shadow equivalent, taking the route of Fire Arsenal. Or, maybe it would turn into Fire Intent. I was quite curious to see what the end result would be. Maybe I could make a Fire Blade skill by mastering the process of turning the fire into a sword. I could even combine it with Empty Bow Expertise to make fire arrows…

Diane smirked behind her mask, clearly seeing how my mind was operating. "Here I thought I had a hard time relaxing." She said in a light tone.

"Sorry." I chuckled sheepishly, shaking my head. "How is your dungeon diving going, by the way?"

"It's alright. There aren't many players here, because the environment is a bit harsh. But, that just means less competition for the dungeons. I've already learned Falcon's Eye and Beast Riding, and Wyr has learned a magic skill called Boulder Dive. I've still not got the skill I'm aiming for here, though." She said with a small tone of complaint.

"What skill is that?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Feather Arrow. It's supposed to be a skill that drops from one of the dungeon bosses. Only bird-type pets can learn it, or Birdfolk, I suppose. Using the skill lets you send your feathers out like arrows, or throwing weapons, with sharpened spines. If I can get Wyr to learn it, that would give me an easily renewable source of throwing weapons, since a Rock Roc's feathers are already stiffer than normal." Just listening to her talk, I could tell that Diane was eager for this. "I can make shadow needles if I use the Shadow Spear or Shadow Stab skill, but those use up my own mana, whereas this would just use Wyr's."

"Well, just keep trying." I nodded my head with a smile. "How's the difficulty? Is it a good leveling ground for you?"

That actually earned a hidden smile from Diane, pleased with her own progress. "Yeah. I managed to level up to seventy-five earlier. At this rate, I won't have to worry about lagging behind too badly when we get to Evergreen."

After she said that, her gaze went unfocused. "Sorry, that's all the time I've got today. I'll see you after tomorrow's dungeon run. And don't forget to eat today!" She said, before her brand dimmed.

Her Chosen offered me a small nod, chuckling slightly. "Good luck with your own training." She added, turning to leave the room.

With a grunt, I retrieved my travel wand, conjuring a piece of bread. Only with Diane's reminder did I realize that I had still not eaten since I woke up.

Once I had filled my stomach, it was back to training. Since this was all I could do at the moment, I was going to do my best to take it as far as I could! With any luck, I'd be able to replicate effects similar to fire magic with just my Fire Projection, such as condensing a ball of flame, shooting it out, and then making it explode. Would that give me a Martial Fireball skill?

The thought of it had me excited. Even if I couldn't use proper magic without enchanting, couldn't I achieve the same effect with modified skills? Though, we only had two more Enchantment Skill Books, and only a single Skill Demotion Book left. I could, at most, create a similar result with one other skill. Looking at my current skill list, my only options were lightning, water, poison, or sand. If I did water, would that include ice? I had always thought it would be good to master ice-related skills…