Level 1 Fallen

When Diane returned, I told her about the idea I had, and she blinked, logging out again. This time, she was gone quite a bit longer than before, long enough that I began practicing my projection skills. Meanwhile, Diane's Chosen had pulled out her alchemy kit, and was experimenting with some of the materials I had given her.

When Diane finally got back, her body froze, and she had her Chosen walk her through completing the experiment she was undertaking. Afterwards, she turned to face me, clearing her throat. "I spoke with the representative of the Iron Forge about your question. They don't have any experience with transformation skills, so they aren't entirely sure what will happen."

My shoulders slumped when I heard that, but Diane quickly continued. "However, they are eager to learn, and asked that you handle the experiment with your current bike. Then, whether it succeeds or fails, they want me to mail it back to them for study, and they'll trade it in for a new one. In exchange for that, and the Dragon Form skill I got yesterday, they'll be sending me a new creation of theirs to try out."

"Another vehicle?" I asked, but Diane shook her head.

"No, it's something else. I'm not sure if this device exists in some form in your world, so I don't know how to describe it for you. It's a weapon, but I'll just show you when they send it over." She promised, and I nodded.

"Right, so just try it out, and see what happens…" I muttered, taking a deep breath and pulling the bike out of my inventory. Just to be safe, Diane collected her alchemy table and retreated back nearly a dozen meters, all the way to the edge of my Ghost Zone.

I steadied myself, and then channeled my Dragon Form skill into the bike. There was the sound of grinding metal as the frame shifted. Wing-like fins spread out next to each of the tires, and the metal along the chassis took on a scaled pattern. Finally, the front-facing barrels and the exhaust were transformed to draconic mouths.

Diane flashed a thumbs up when she saw that the bike didn't explode beneath me. "Alright, now drive it off the ledge. If it can fly without your platforms, we'll have information to give to the Iron Forge."

I bit my lower lip anxiously, revving up the engine. When I accelerated, a gout of flame shot from the exhaust, propelling me forward. The moment the tires left the stone floor, I felt a sense of weightlessness, feeling as if I was about to fall. However, instead, the flames shot out stronger, creating enough force to make me glide forward.

Once I accelerated again, I found myself able to climb upwards. Though, without any form of solid platform beneath the bike, my legs squeezed against it, afraid that any motion would cause me to flip over.

With the experiment finished, at least as much as I was willing to do, I dismissed the dragon transformation on the bike. The exhaust sputtered, and I quickly created a platform beneath the bike for support. However, the engine simply sputtered again, unwilling to continue forward along the path that I created.

My face paled at the realization that I had broken the bike, and I turned back to look at Diane in concern. Don't worry. She sent me over private chat, too far away at this point for my voice to reach. Like I said, they promised a replacement. Just get back here and hand it over to me. I already recorded the test run.

Nodding my head, I picked up the broken hunk of iron and rubber, using Glancing Steps-X to return to Diane and hand it over to her. "Thanks." Diane said with a small nod. "Development studios like this are always looking for people to test their products in unusual ways. Depending on how well this new weapon works, I might sign up to be a tester for them later."

Now I was even more intrigued. What type of weapon could she have in mind? Diane didn't elaborate, simply running off towards the city. At around the same time, I saw an elven woman in an elegant dress, escorted by a pair of guards as she approached the side of the waterfall. "Mister Drake? Are you present?" She called out.

Must be someone from the local office. I thought to myself, disabling my Dragon Form and Ghost Zone. "I'm here." I waved, startling the two guards. "Sorry, I like to practice my stealth whenever I get the chance. It's saved me more often than not."

The woman nodded her head, seeming unsurprised. "I assume that's one of the techniques you used to secure your safety yesterday. First, I would like to apologize. Due to the oversight of our office, you were allowed to experience such a scene."

I raised a hand, stopping her apology. "It's fine. It's not your fault. There were some players that had it out for me. From what I can tell, they must have bribed the group that went in ahead of us."

"We've come to a similar conclusion." The woman said. "Our master appraiser identified the one who enchanted the rocks strewn about, and told us that it was the very man who acted as that group's tank. Because of this, their team has been charged with intentional sabotage of a city's dungeon, and our guards are looking for them as we speak."

"Unfortunately, both the team in question and the one that assaulted you previously have both left the city. As things stand now, we have no method of bringing them to justice." She let out a long sigh as she said that. "Dungeon Sabotage is a serious offense. Had it not been reported in time, and the stones lost their effect, the boss monster may have left the dungeon and attacked the city while we were unprepared. I understand that players like yourself may be capable of dealing with such monsters, but just the one boss would have been able to kill hundreds of civilians in the time it took us to bring it down."

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I nodded my head in understanding. After all, I wasn't really a player to begin with. "I'm sure. That's why I wanted to report it as soon as we got out. I would have done so right after we entered, but it seemed like they had someone watching the entrance. I didn't want to alert them too quickly."

"Probably a good idea." The woman agreed. "Regardless, I had another question for you in regards to your dungeon run. The guard on duty said that you cleared the entire dungeon, and the respawn times support this. We don't have much information on the rewards offered by the final boss, due to the difficulty in reaching him. Would you mind telling us what you received? If you are uncomfortable sharing this information, I understand."

"I don't particularly mind." I said, nodding my head. "Aside from the normal loot from the miniboss, we did get a skill that wasn't listed in the booklet. It's called Dragon Form." After saying that, I activated the skill in question, my scales, tail, and wings reappearing. "It seems to grant the user a draconic appearance, and increases their basic abilities according to their specialty."

The two guards looked shocked as I transformed. In this form, I looked similar to a lizardfolk, though with large wings behind my back. Perhaps a halfblood cross between a lizardfolk and a batfolk would create a natural appearance like this?

"I see…" The elven woman said, studying my form. "I'll be sure to update the dungeon's information. Again, my apologies for this incident."

"It's fine." I shook my head once again. "Is there anything else you need?"

"No, that is all." The woman responded with a smile. "Thank you for your consideration." She gave a small bow, turning to leave with her escort. Once they were gone, Diane faded into view, looking in the direction the group left.

"Guess that's the end of that?" She asked, though I wasn't sure. Something about the way she described this event made me think that this wasn't over for us yet.

"We'll see. How did things go for you? Did you get what you wanted?" I asked, and she quickly nodded her head. Diane then pulled out a new bike, letting me take it into my inventory again. After that, she retrieved two silver weapons from her inventory. They were long and sleek, with a curved handle and a rectangular body ending in a short tube that reminded me of the bike's forward barrels.

"These are experimental guns created by the Iron Forge." Diane said, holding up the weapons. "I don't really need two of them, since they're somewhat cumbersome to load." To demonstrate, Diane pulled a rectangular container out of the handle of the gun. "This is the magazine, which can hold twelve skill shots."

"Skill shots?" I questioned, and she nodded her head, focusing. The magazine gradually blackened, starting from the base and rising up in small increments.

"This gun is technically classified as a wand in the system. Thus, it can only handle ranged skills. The magazine is a special device that can 'contain' up to twelve single-use enchantments. However, since you have to pre-load the skills, you need to pay the full mana burden when you load them in."

After saying that, the magazine fully blackened, and she slipped it back into the gun, before pointing it off towards the horizon. "I already enchanted this gun with Ghost-X while you were talking just now, to keep it silent." As she said that, she pulled the trigger. A black bolt shot out of the gun at a ridiculous speed, darting off into the distance.

My eyes widened as I watched the display of the weapon, thinking how to best use it. "Can I examine one of those magazines? If you have a spare, I mean."

Diane nodded, pulling one out from her inventory and handing it to me. "They gave me four, so I have some backups. I think they planned for you to take one of the guns yourself, but it's pretty redundant for you. With your traits, you can't enchant Magic skills onto them easily, and you can already fire off Martial skills as much as you want."

"Maybe, but…" I focused, enchanting the magazine with twelve shots of Martial Intent-X, before handing it back to Diane. When Diane accepted the magazine, her eyes widened in shock. If the cost was paid upfront by the one that loaded the skills, I could enchant the magazine with my high-level Martial skills, letting her fire them off without needing to pay the cost herself.

Diane switched the magazine in her gun, loading the one I just gave her, and aimed it at the horizon. When she fired the gun, a large ball of energy shot out at high speeds, crashing into a sand dune over a dozen kilometers away and causing a large eruption of sand.

After testing the gun, she looked back at me in contemplation. "Can I get you to load two of my magazines? One with that skill just now, but more compressed if you can. As for the other one, that shadow skill you used before."

Naturally, I wasn't going to refuse, and she fired off the rest of the shots from that magazine, emptying it to hand back to me, along with a blank one. I enchanted them both with her requests, condensing both shots down to the thickness of a finger. "Thanks. Guns aren't exactly normal ninja weapons. However, if the gun can be fully silenced like this one, and can be used for deadly sneak attacks from a distance, I'd say it definitely qualifies."

As she said that, both of us froze briefly, a notification appearing in front of us from Wisteria. A new mission had come in for the two of us, though this one was definitely different than those the league had assigned before. This time, we weren't after monsters, but normal players.

Furthermore, the targets of the assassination were Grog's team, and the team that preceded us in the dungeon the night before. Due to their blatant disregard for the safety of NPCs and sabotage of the dungeon, the League placed a bounty on the, Grog's team was to be killed three times each, while the team that directly sabotaged the dungeon was to be killed five times.

As for their location, there were reports that they had left for the capital of Ilsan. Beyond that, we'd need to find them ourselves. Also, as this was a League-sanctioned mission, we were permitted to attack them in the city, so long as we ensured no harm came to the NPCs.