Level 1 Fallen

As I waited for Diane to finish the scrolls for me, I experimented with the new Ki Shadow skill. Well, as much as I could within the inn room, at least. First, I created an ice sword and gave a light slash while maintaining the new skill. As I slashed, I carefully watched the trajectory of my blade, noticing a faint, yellow glow follow behind it.

This didn't really tell me much, so I tried slashing faster. This time, I saw the distinct outline of both my arm and my blade lagging behind my sword. However, the lag was miniscule, maybe a tenth of a second? Certainly not enough to hit anyone that my first strike would have missed, though that was to be expected of a basic skill at level one.

While I wanted to try out the power of the shadow, I didn't have a suitable target. I'll just keep the skill active, and see how it works in the dungeon. I thought to myself with a nod, before the door creaked open. I abruptly turned, relieved to see that it was Diane returning.

"I've finished making the scrolls." She said, and I could see from her bloodshot eyes that she had been focusing intently for quite a while. She must have wanted to make them with as high quality as possible. As I thought about that, she opened the trade window. "Just to be safe, I made thirty in total. Can you confirm that they're enough to last for two hours?"

I nodded my head, quickly appraising the scrolls. "Looks good." I smiled, flashing her a thumbs-up. "The average quality improved slightly. With all of these, we could even go for three hours."

"Let's not push our luck." She grimaced, shaking her head. "In that case, shall we go see if there's a free time slot for the dungeon today? I've still got enough time before I need to log out."

"Sounds good." I said, stepping towards her, before hesitating. "First, though, we should probably visit the bank, just to be safe. I want to store the backpack for now." I gestured my thumb towards the bundle on my back. "Since we're not going to be harvesting the bodies, there's no need for me to have a massive amount of inventory space, and I don't want to risk it getting damaged."

Diane nodded her agreement, and the two of us left the inn to visit the local bank. Thankfully, they were able to let us store the backpack, and then we went to the local dungeon office. When we arrived, and saw the schedules for the dungeons listed on the wall behind the clerk, it was clear that we'd be able to get in right away.

The Dragon Tower actually had quite a few time slots reserved, more than I expected, as reservations were planned for up to a week in advance. Maybe they expect that the pseudo-dragon familiar skill will evolve into a proper draconic familiar? That would make sense for the skill evolution, but I wouldn't be able to easily take advantage of it, and Diane didn't seem too interested.

Next was the Dragon Cave. From what I saw, there were only three reservations made across the entire week. Having all of your drops converted into money was a rather niche thing to want, but I could understand the appeal.

As for the Sea Dragon's Palace? There wasn't a single reservation planned for the entire week. There was even a special notice saying that the office would pay players to raid it, via an open quest. From that, it seemed as though the dungeon hadn't been challenged in a long time, and monsters from it were starting to leak out into the open waters. As this was a port city, that was sure to cripple trade.

The two of us walked up to the clerk, a dogfolk woman. Without even turning to face us, she nodded her head. "Dragon Tower? When do you want the reservation?" She asked in a tired tone, reaching out to grab a form.

"Actually, we're planning to challenge the Sea Dragon's Palace." I said, and her hand froze.

"Really?" She asked, her gaze snapping to look at the two of us. "You two have a way to tackle that underwater dungeon?"

Diane and I both nodded our heads, not revealing our method. There were likely several skills suitable for fighting underwater, but they were rather rare. There was no need to specifically tell her that we were using the 'heretical' scrolls.

Still, the clerk let out a faint laugh. Not one of scorn, but relief. "Finally. How much time do you need? No, it doesn't matter. Take whatever you need, and just report back when it's cleared. Oh, and you'll need to fight a miniboss before you can enter the dungeon."

"A boss monster emerged from the dungeon?" I asked in shock, and she nodded her head.

"Yeah. It's the Sea Dragon Prince. It's been guarding the entrance to the dungeon for the last week now. Unless you defeat it, you won't be able to get in." The clerk said in concern. As she did, the quest window appeared before us, challenging Diane and I to clear the Sea Dragon's Palace.

I glanced over at Diane, and then back to the clerk in confusion. "If this dungeon is becoming such a problem, why don't you seal it off?"

"If we could, we would." She said, shaking her head sadly. "The key for this dungeon was lost back before the recent surge in players two months ago. Originally, the dungeon was only unsealed when someone came to challenge it. However, since the key was lost, the dungeon has been permanently unsealed."

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I couldn't help but grimace when I heard that. For someone to steal the key of such a troublesome dungeon and intentionally unseal it, clearly they were looking to make things difficult for the city. However, Wisteria hadn't given us a mission for this, despite knowing that we were in the area. That meant that either the person who stole the key hadn't been identified, or they were too strong for us to handle. Or, perhaps they had long since left the area after taking the key.

"We'll finish the dungeon." Diane said in a firm tone, tugging on my sleeve and nodding her head towards the quest window. I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but the quest reward was none other than the Dragon Pulse skill that we were here for. Not the skill book, but the actual skill itself. This was certainly an enticing way to get people to clear the troublesome dungeon, by giving them a guaranteed method of earning the 'jackpot' skill.

It made sense that the leader of the local dungeon office would have learned the skills from the dungeon that they manage. Seeing this, I nodded my head in confirmation. Compared to Ember Flight, it shouldn't be too difficult to clear this dungeon out, even if it was oversaturated.

Seeing that we accepted the quest, the woman sighed in relief. "Talk to Captain Slithers at the port. He'll show you where to go. We have a respawn point set up on a small island next to the dungeon, but it's in range of the wild boss, so you'll need to get there with your own methods."

That wasn't a problem to the two of us, and we both nodded and left. "Just to be sure, but the bike isn't waterproof, is it?" I asked, and Diane shook her head.

"Probably not. From my understanding, they tried to mirror how motorcycles work where I'm from, just replacing conventional fuel with mana. The engine uses a very small, controlled fire spell as part of its design. This helps it save on mana burden, but it also becomes totally useless if it gets flooded."

My back stiffened at the idea of breaking the bike again. "Okay… let's not risk that, then." I said, before a thought occurred to me. "By the way. You said that you enchanted one of your guns with stealth to make it quiet. How many enchantment slots do they have?"

"Just one each, because of all the other work that went into them." Diane shook her head, before looking at me. "Why?"

"Have you used the slot on the other gun yet?" I asked, and she shook her head. "Would you mind if I enchanted it for you?"

"...Are you going to blow your arms up again?" She narrowed her eyes as she asked that, and I quickly shook my head.

"I'm going to use a Martial skill, don't worry. There shouldn't be a backlash this time."

Diane narrowed her eyes further for a moment, before nodding her head and handing the gun over. I accepted it carefully, closing my eyes and focusing. The pistol gave a subtle glow as it accepted the enchantment, and I appraised it. My eyes widened, seeing what seemed like a critical success with the enchantment. This was only the second time that I had managed to get such a result, and I grinned, handing it back to Diane.

Diane, unable to appraise the new enchantment, arched her brow suspiciously. "What did you do, Drake?" She asked, but I shook my head.

"It'll be better for you to see for yourself." I said, and her eyes narrowed again. Regardless, I continued walking, heading towards the docks with determined steps. I wanted to see the result of this new enchantment myself, as well.

Even before we reached the docks, we could see the dark clouds forming over unsteady water, lightning twisting within the clouds. Every now and then, a large, serpentine form broke over the surface of the water, only to dive back down.

When we arrived at the docks, there were a number of different beastfolk standing around. Some of them were loitering in front of ships, or piles of boxes. The clerk at the office hadn't told us what Captain Slithers looked like, so I looked around, spotting a lizardfolk standing before a small ship.

I walked up to him and waved. "Are you Captain Slithers, by any chance? The clerk at the Dungeon Management Office directed us here."

The lizardfolk looked at us, and let out a light chuckle. "And I suppose she didn't say what to look for, did she? Hey, Slithers! You got a couple of fresh meat here!" He called out, and a figure emerged from the boat.

Rather than a beastfolk, which we had been primarily seeing since we entered Ilsan, this was a dwarf with a small, stocky build. He glared at the shouting lizardfolk, before marching over towards us. "You lot were sent by Beatrice, then? I suppose you'll be wanting to visit the dungeon?"

"That's right." I nodded my head as Diane remained silent next to me. "She said you could point us in the right direction."

"Not much else I can do." He said, gesturing for the two of us to follow. As he did, he pulled a spyglass out of his inventory, handing it first to Diane once we climbed a set of stairs leading to a viewing platform. "Aim it over there, girl." He pointed off into the distance, towards the raging storm.

Diane furrowed her brow, but nodded, lifting the spyglass to her eye. As for me, I used my Scout skill, narrowing my eyes to zoom my vision in. It was faint, but I could make out a rocky outcropping in the water. It was too distant and blurry for me to be able to get there directly with Glancing Steps-X, but I could easily make it there within three steps.

"That there is the Sea Dragon's Rest, the respawn point we arranged next to the dungeon for the sake of convenience. Once you land there, there will be no turning back until you defeat the Sea Dragon Prince. We won't be able to send anyone to rescue you if you can't make it, either." He added, and we nodded our heads in acceptance.

"Once we get there, where exactly do we need to go to find the entrance to the dungeon?" I asked, and the man seemed surprised by our willingness.

"There's an arrow carved into the rock on Sea Dragon's Rest, pointing you in the direction. Just watch the bottom of the sea, and you will naturally find the palace." After that, he took the spyglass back from Diane, and began walking back towards his ship. "I wish the two of you better luck than the last unlocky sods that thought they could challenge it. They stopped respawning a few days ago."

Mine and Diane's eyes widened when we heard that, looking at one another. To stop respawning, there was only one possible answer. Their players had set a respawn limit for their characters, and logged out between deaths. However, whether the players ever intended to log back on, or had deleted their accounts, we couldn't know. If a respawn limit was set prior to account deletion, would the Fallen be permanently erased after a set number of deaths?