Level 1 Fallen

It only took us a couple of minutes to reach Port Draco after that. Judging by Diane's assessment of the three dungeons, the only one that we were really interested in was the underwater dungeon. However, before we could even attempt it, we would need to give Diane plenty of time to create either scrolls or potions that would let us breathe underwater.

Thus, as soon as we arrived, we found ourselves an inn to stay at. She went to her room to work on the equipment that we would need, and I once again began to work on training my projection skills. These skills were leveling surprisingly well, likely because they were balanced to only be used rarely, thanks to a high mana burden.

That would explain how I was able to get Martial Intent-X so quickly, even though I started training it weeks later than my stealth skills. I thought to myself, shaping the fire and water in front of me into various different shapes. Their sheer versatility alone was enough to warrant being called a signature skill, such as when I use Martial Intent-X to create platforms, or to press down on enemies.

I didn't often have to think of skills in this way, only working on how I could train them myself. However, if I looked at how they were intended to be trained, I'd learn what skills would be faster to master.

I trained like this for another three hours, eventually bringing both of the skills to level forty-three. Just seven more levels, and I would be able to evolve them. However, even with how often I shaped either fire or ice into a sword or other weapon, I never managed to unlock a skill like Fire Slash or Ice Slash.

I'll ask Diane about it once we are done with the dungeon. Maybe someone like Karlson has posted something on the subject. I thought to myself, before hearing a small knock on the door. "Come in." I called out, assuming that it was Diane.

Sure enough, the door opened, and the halfling girl stepped inside. She quickly closed the door behind herself. "Did you manage to make anything?" I asked, and she nodded her head.

"I did, but I still don't know their durations yet." As she said that, she walked over and placed five scrolls and five potions on the bed. "I made plenty of extras, just in case there was any use for them. Though, I don't have enough ingredients if we need any more potions. None of what you gave me before is suitable for this."

I gave her a small nod, and began to appraise the scrolls and the potions both. My face scrunched up when I read the details, and Diane immediately became worried. "Did the crafting fail?"

"Not quite… the problem, like you said, is the duration. The potions only give up to a minute of water breathing, and the scrolls do five minutes. There is some slight variation in length, but they are all right around there. Even if just one of us were to go into the dungeon, we'd need more than twenty scrolls to last us a full two hours." Diane scowled at this news, realizing that she had clearly not made enough.

"What about your rune writing?" I asked, and her head perked up to look at me. "You said that you can make temporary pseudo-enchantments, right? Have you experimented with how long they would last?"

Diane hesitated, shaking her head. So, I grabbed my helmet from my inventory and put it on, gesturing for her to give it a try. She took a deep breath,stepping forward on drawing one rune on either side of the helmet.

At first, I didn't feel anything unusual. There were no status effects that popped up for me, and no messages. So, I did the only logical thing. I created a ball of water, and wrapped it around my head, startling Diane in the process.

Despite the water surrounding my head, I still didn't feel any trouble breathing, as if everything were normal. However, there was the chance that this was just a side-effect of the skill, similar to how Fire Projection wouldn't burn me.

Thus, the next step after dismissing this water ball was to create a bubble around my head with Martial Intent-X, and then fill it with water from my wand. At this point, Diane's eye was twitching as she watched me in disbelief.

"Are you… okay?" She asked, and I gave her a thumbs-up. Despite switching to water created from the Create Water enchantment, I was having no problems with my breathing. Though, talking was another matter entirely, with Diane's voice sounding distorted.

Instead, I typed out a message to send her. It seems to be working for now. How's the mana burden on your end?

Diane glanced off into the corner of her vision. "There's a small chunk of it that seems greyed out, like when I used Dragon Form. However, it's not burning any more than that."

I gave a small nod as I listened. In other words, it's reserving your mana. If that's the case, it might not have a set limit, as long as you don't dismiss it. Try using it on your own mask, see if you can have two of them up at once.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Diane nodded, drawing the runes on her facemask. As soon as she did, my eyes widened, and the water rushed into my lungs. Panicking, I dismissed the bubble holding the water in, and began healing myself while coughing up water.

Diane gasped in surprise, rushing over towards me. "Are you alright?!" She asked, and I continued to cough up water, holding out a shaky thumbs-up.

Once I had cleared my lungs of the offending water, I cleared my throat and sat upright again. "Okay… so you can only have one rune marking up at a time. Or maybe just one of the same type. That's good to know. Painful, but good to know. In that case, you can make the scrolls for me, and use the runes yourself."

Diane looked like she was about to protest, but I shook my head. "If there is a time limit on the runes that we don't know about yet, you'll be able to redraw them on your mask far more quickly than if you had to swim over to me to draw them. This is the safe move for both of us. My only concern is if we can even use the scrolls while underwater."

Diane hesitated, eventually giving in with a sigh. "You don't have to worry about that. The old types of scrolls, you would have to pull out and activate like equipment. However, the type made through Scroll Crafting can be activated directly from the inventory."

Well, that was a pleasant surprise. "Okay, then if you could make me another twenty water breathing scrolls, I think we'll be good for the dungeon." I told her with a smile, and Diane nodded her head begrudgingly.

"Alright. If we knew the maximum range and duration of these runes, I'd just let you challenge the dungeon yourself. But I don't want to risk the runes cutting off if you enter a dungeon without me."

That seemed like a perfectly reasonable concern to me. I'd hate to enter the dungeon, suddenly drown, and then spawn back in the city.

With that, Diane left to continue crafting more scrolls, and I resumed my training. This time, I decided to shape the water and fire into a larger, more complex shape. Specifically, I wanted to try turning them into copies of myself. If I couldn't create a Fire Slash skill, maybe I could create a Fire Clone skill instead?

It took about five minutes for me to shape the fire clone, using a water mirror I created to reference my own appearance. The flaming copy of myself simply stood there, staring unblinkingly at the wall. I had created the form of a fire clone, but not its function.

However, I was starting to get an idea on how this worked. Next, I dismissed the projection and repeated the process with water. I had plenty of time until Diane finished the set of scrolls, so I wanted to try to experiment.

I repeated this process, alternating between fire and water. Each time, I created the shell of the clone more quickly with practice. And then, after half an hour, I was able to immediately create the body of a clone with a thought, whether it was fire or water. But still, the shell was just that. Next would be the moment of truth to determine if I was right about how these skills were generated.

Taking a deep breath, I focused. Instead of just activating Fire Projection, I channeled it, attempting to add the effect of a minion's intelligence to the projected clone. I had the solid image in my head of the clone, which could act on its own, but could itself only use Martial skills, adding a fire theme to each.

While channeling, I visualized it firing a flaming bow, slashing with a burning sword, and even creating a solid shield of projected flames. I lost track of how long I was channeling the skill, continuing to expand my imagined actions for the clone until finally, I felt something click.

The body of the fire clone began to move subtly, its chest rising and falling. With a grin, I dismissed this clone and repeated the process while the images were still fresh in my mind. Like when I was making the body, each time it became more clear.

After the third successful cast, I received a notification, alerting me that I had learned the skill 'Fire Clone'. Without hesitation, I repeated the process for water to earn Water Clone, and then downcast my Martial Intent-X, creating Ki Clone.

I was sure that each of these were considered intermediate skills. If at all possible, I would like to use demotion skill books to reduce them to their basic levels, and then train them up. However, we had only a single skill demotion book left. Looking at the three skills, the easiest decision would be to use it on the Ki Clone skill, as it did not have an elemental modifier. My Ki Clone would be able to use both Water and Fire Projection. However, none of the clone types could create their own clones, even from different skills.

However, this did clear up why I wasn't able to properly create weapon skills with my projection. I didn't need to channel the skill to modify Fire Projection to make a flaming sword. That was just a natural application of the skill. On the other hand, I did need to modify the skill in order to create working clones, which ultimately led to the creation of these clone skills.

I hesitated for a moment, before messaging Diane to ask her opinion. She might even be able to buy demotion books from other players if I was lucky enough.

Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed with her response. Sorry, Drake. I've been keeping an eye on the market whenever I go offline. Any time a Skill Demotion Book or Enchantment Skill Book is listed, it's almost immediately bought up.

I even tried reaching out to some of my friends near Slitherhold to see if they could farm some for me, but the dungeon is constantly being raided by the town's guards, and any books they bring back are immediately bought by merchant players.

I clicked my tongue, thanking her for the attempt. In the end, she agreed with me that the last book would best be used on Ki Clone. As I used the demotion book on Ki Clone, it downgraded into Ki Shadow, which caused a projection of ki to follow behind any Martial skill attacks I made while it was active.