Level 1 Fallen

As Diane walked over to Jacob, aiming her gun at his head, she pulled out one of the other magazines, tossing it over to me. "I'll need a refill at this rate." She said calmly, though she seemed satisfied with the performance thus far. I nodded, taking my head and enchanted the blank magazine with more shots for her.

Jacob's eyes widened, opening his mouth to speak when his head suddenly burst open, a small crater forming on the ground beneath him. Diane turned towards the town center, mentally counting down and lifting her gun. "He's not running out--" Jacob managed to get out before falling over dead again.

The others quickly realized what he was trying to say, their eyes widening. One by one, they began to activate their own skills, desperately struggling against my Martial Intent-X. I could actually feel the pressure, two of the players managing to lift themselves up enough to draw their weapons. "Power Att-" One began, but I swiped my hand forward, sending a condensed blade of flame to cut off his head.

"Diane, you've got another one spawning. It's one of Jacob's." I said, tossing the magazine back towards her. After that, Grog finally respawned again, only to receive a chop to the back of his head from Gabrielle, knocking him out.

"How many skills can he use at once?" One of Jacob's men asked incredulously as he watched the headless body falling beside him.

"That's the Munchkin King!" The priestess from Grog's group shouted out, alerting everyone to my identity. "He's got endless mana or some shit!"

"Why didn't you say that sooner?!" Several others shouted out in unison. They gave up on trying to force their bodies to rise, and instead aimed their hands in my direction. I could see them channeling skills, wanting to hit me with the biggest shot that they could manage.

I took a deep breath, deciding to put on a show. Although my current form didn't have a dragon's breath, I could imitate one with Flame Projection. Thus, I exhaled, covering the entire trapped group in flames. Doing so naturally forced those channeling to cancel their attacks, while Diane clicked her tongue.

"If you kill them all at once, I won't be able to keep up with the respawns." She pointed out, firing another round at Jacob as he appeared again.

"I'm just crippling them, not killing." I told her, carefully controlling the fire. I had practiced shaping the fire in all sorts of ways over the last few days. This time, I was attaching it almost exclusively to their arms and legs, just enough around their heads to scorch every breath they took.

Diane rolled her eyes, already in the rhythm of killing those who respawned. Once they met their quote, it was Gabrielle's turn to incapacitate them. You sure you're okay with getting this much player attention? Diane secretly asked in a private chat.

Not much choice in this situation. We've got our mission, and the only way we can fight all of them at once is if I pin them down like this. Otherwise, do you think we could deal with a dozen level one hundred players all unleashing their attack skills?

Diane arched her brow when she read that message. Maybe. But not without collateral damage. And Gabrielle's watching me like a hawk to make sure that I don't hit any buildings.

Sounds right. Right now, we're winning because of the element of surprise. If they found us first, they could launch their first volley before we were ready, and I might not have been able to heal through that. This is the only way to make sure that we complete our mission without getting on her bad side.

Diane hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded her head. Once she was done with her first magazine, she tossed it back to me to load it again. I could hear the choked cries of the players, and even saw a few unrelated players gathering around outside the blockade set up by the guards. It looked like they were drawn to the commotion, especially after my identity was revealed.

I kept pinning our targets to the ground, letting Diane execute them one by one while ensuring that they weren't able to recover from their injuries. Whenever someone looked like they were starting to heal, I burned them again. This also made sure that they couldn't log out easily, otherwise this would all be for nothing.

This continued for over ten minutes, their screams soon turning into hoarse, muffled whimpers as more and more unconscious bodies were lined up together with Grog's. Once we had finished the last execution, I disabled both my Dragon Form and my Martial Intent-X. "We're done here." I looked at Gabrielle after confirming that the mission was completed. "They're all yours now."

Gabrielle nodded her head in approval. "Good to see you keep your word." She said, before gesturing for her guards to collect the criminal players. "How long are you two planning to stay in Ilsan?"

I glanced towards Diane, who shook her head, and looked back at the bearfolk woman. "We're just passing through."

After I said that, Diane followed up. "We'll be heading to Port Draco after this." I was surprised when she said that, as I was under the impression we'd be going to Yellowkeep. Or was she just trying to throw Gabrielle off?

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Seeming to catch my glance, Diane shook her head. "There are three main port cities in Ilsan. Yellowkeep is the closest to Evergreen, so that's where I originally planned for us to go to get a ship. Now that we have the Dragon Form skill, I'd like to go to Port Draco, and see if there are any dragon-related skills that we can grab there to synergize. Maybe we can get a decent skill fusion out of it."

Realization dawned on me, and I nodded my head in agreement. Unlike Manamill, Port Draco actually had a draconic themed name. There should have been even more draconic dungeons there. Though, this also meant that another chance to loot would be arriving soon.

"Well, I won't keep you, then." Gabrielle chuckled, shaking her head. "And Drake, if you see Kelly again, tell her I said for her to stop by sometime. I've not seen my sister in years."

"I'll keep that in mind." I nodded, turning to follow Diane as she walked towards the city gates.

"Just so you know." Diane glanced back at me as we walked. "I'm not planning to have you butcher a ton of dragons this time, even if we find some. I haven't had the chance to sell most of the materials you got for me before, so I can't clutter my inventory with more goods."

"It hasn't sold yet?" I asked in surprise. "Even if it's been less than a day, I expected dragon materials to sell almost immediately."

"That's part of the problem." Diane grimaced, letting out a long sigh. "They're too popular. If I list them normally, I won't be able to get most of their value. I made a deal with a reputable auction guild to sell it through them, and because of the large quantity of materials, the auctions are being spread out over the next three days. I just send them the goods being auctioned on the day it's sold, and the next day they send me the profit."

"This is how most high-value goods are sold, because it lets people pay with either player currency or game items. The auction house evaluates the item, and then when it's time to pay the seller, they can choose to either accept the traded item or have the auction house pay its estimated value. Groups like the Iron Forge are rare, because they are operated like a business themselves."

I listened to her explanation, nodding my head in understanding. "So, it will take a few more days before you get the money from those materials, but you'll get more than if you just sold them yourself." I clarified, to which she agreed.

"Pretty much. I already got a ton of offers from private buyers, but I know from past experiences that they'll never really pay you what they think the item's worth. That's why I've been using this auction house guild in various games for years now."

As she said that, we reached the eastern gate of Ilsan, and there was actually a road leading away from the city. Unlike in the rest of the nation, the ground here only had a small layer of sand before hitting solid stone. Without hesitation, I pulled out my bike, and the two of us climbed on it. "What do you know about the dungeons in Port Draco?" I asked, revving the engine and starting to drive down the road. It felt… so much nicer than having to multitask and create my own path with my skills.

"Not much, really." Diane answered quickly. "I didn't settle on going to Port Draco until after you showed me what Dragon Form could do. I just assume that it should have some skills we'd want, because of its name. Though, I don't expect that they have the same types of dragons as Manamill does, or else those types of materials would be all over the market by now."

"Do you want to do some quick research while I'm driving?" I suggested, and Diane nodded her head, logging out. Her Chosen gripped the back of my shirt, seeming far less confident sitting on the back of the bike than her player.

In order to comfort her, I slowed the bike down considerably, allowing Diane to relax. "What type of skills do you think there will be?" She asked, though I wasn't sure myself. Still, it was clear that she just wanted to strike up a conversation.

"If I had to guess? Probably something like flame breathing. There might be a dragon summoning skill, but I doubt it. There's got to be some catch for why these dungeons don't produce a steady supply of dragon materials."

Diane gave a small nod, still gripping the back of my shirt. After a few minutes, the grip loosened, and I heard Diane's voice again, this time far more steady. "I checked, and there are three dragon-themed dungeons in Port Draco. Each one has a dragon-themed skill or trait as a relatively common chest drop."

"The first is the Dragon Tower, where you have to fight a ton of mini pseudo-dragons. The skill you can get there lets you summon a pseudo-dragon familiar. The second is the Dragon Cave, where you fight Earth Dragons, a type of large, burrowing lizard. This one offers a five-star trait called Dragon's Greed. Anyone with this trait will no longer be able to obtain normal loot from any source. Instead, everything will be automatically converted to its coin value when the player loots it."

"That one is absolutely horrible for us." I said, and Diane seemed to agree. "What about the last one?"

"The Sea Dragon's Palace." She began. "It's a level ninety underwater dungeon. You have to go out to sea just to enter the dungeon from a small island. It's far less popular than Ember Flight, because you can't tackle the dungeon without some way to breathe underwater. However, according to an article written by Karlson, this dungeon offers a skill called Dragon Pulse. It should be a Martial skill, similar to an internal version of Dragon Form."

"According to his article, there are stories of Fallen using the Dragon Pulse skill to increase their power for short bursts, giving them the strength of a dragon. If you want to aim for a true dragon transformation, you'll probably want to fuse Dragon Form with Dragon Pulse. The only question is how we raid the dungeon…"

"Are you able to make us a water breathing potion? Or a scroll with the same effect?" I asked, glancing back at her. "You should have the Breath rune now, right?"

Diane blinked, but slowly nodded her head. "I can try. I don't know how long the scrolls will last, though. I'll need you to appraise them. Though, why haven't we reached the city yet? You should have been able to get there a long time ago."

I chuckled dryly. "Your Chosen wasn't comfortable with the speed, so I slowed down for her. We'll get there soon now." I said, and Diane's eyes widened in realization.