Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 167: A Stone’s Throw Away

There were multiple reasons why I had chosen to split off from the others in order to make my own preparations. For one, I wanted to test the reactions of the elves that were stationed in Ella’s city. I was cure that they wouldn’t openly attack me again before the battle broke out, but this would let me see if they were actively watching me. Especially given that I was maintaining my Ghost-X skill the entire time. Aside from a few elves, nobody else would be able to see me in my current state.

Thus, I walked along the outer perimeter of the city, making my plans while diligently cultivating my water and fire skills. If they broke through to the grandmaster level before the big fight, that would be for the best.

As I was walking the perimeter, I detected two sets of eyes on me. One was Jafar, the elven archer from before, and another was an elven woman with short, black hair. Both seemed to be watching me from the walls, and I could see Jafar’s eyes narrowed in frustration.

My preparations lasted for roughly two hours, long enough for me to walk along the outside of the city’s walls. Once I was done, I informed Ella and moved back into the city itself. There had been three skirmishes during that two hour period, though it was mostly just one dragon at a time flying over to harass the city until either Jafar or the other elf started attacking them.

Thanks to this, I learned that the other elf was a caster that specialized in wind and water skills. Given that the vast majority of enemies in this realm had a fire attribute, this made her extremely valuable in Pyrrhos.

Once I made my way back into the city, I was quickly met by Ella and the others. Accompanying Ella was a human man with a bald head, looking to be in his early thirties. He wore a full suit of metal armor, and had a bright smile on his face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, King Advent,” he said, extending his hand towards me.

With a small nod, I shook his hand, before turning to face Ella. “This is Killik, the one I told you about before. We were just discussing our plans when you messaged us.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to pull you out of a meeting. Is there any news from the rift?” I asked curiously.

“Thankfully, they managed to get the situation under control when Leowa, one of their grandmasters, stepped through. We shouldn’t have to worry about the rift being taken anymore. However, anyone traveling between the rift and here would still need to be wary of ambushes,” Ella explained with a weary sigh, clearly concerned.

I couldn’t blame her. If she lost this war, it could lead to everything that she had worked for in this world being destroyed in an instant. Although the top players were blessed with excellent traits, the time had finally come where they had to bear the risks that came with those traits.

“If we manage to push them back, what are the odds that we can launch a counter-offensive?” I asked cautiously, looking at Ella, Killik, Diane, and Bella. “Would we need to march all the way to his nation, or would we be able to settle it at their camp?”

Killik blinked in surprise, before putting on a thoughtful expression. “If we planned to settle it as a normal game war, we could end it at the camp. However, if your intention is to turn a war of extermination back against the dragons, we would first need to travel to their true stronghold. A war of extermination only ends when all cities controlled by one nation have been destroyed.”

Hearing that, I looked at Ella, but she shook her head. “I’ve only got one city so far. Since the main metric of leveling your kingdom is based on population, I’ve been putting everything I can into enhancing my capital. Once I run out of area to expand, I’ll begin work on a second city. It wasn’t cheap hiring a city planner to help out, even with the elves’ help.”

My eye twitched at the mention of a city planner. I knew the value of such a thing after having created the Sunset Isles. A blueprint innately capable of calming monsters around it and generating controlled dungeons… I was looking forward to when my own Architect skill finally reached the grandmaster rank. Unfortunately, that was still a long ways away, as that skill was only just approaching its master rank now.

“Given the time, the dragons should also only have one city,” Bella pointed out thoughtfully. “And given their size… how many dragons could actually fit in a single city?”

Diane and I looked at each other, seeming to have the same thought. Most likely, the city on the surface was only a facade, and most of the dragons lived in a dungeon city. At least, that was my initial assumption.

As I was thinking about that, there was a loud crash from the distance. Plumes of smoke rose beyond the walls, and Ella let out a tired sigh. “Looks like they’re attacking again,” she said as she moved towards the source of the disturbance.

The six of us made our way to the wall, where we saw a dozen dragons launching various breath attacks. Most of them collided with a barrier that rose up around the city, crackling and shimmering with every strike. This was undoubtedly part of her city’s special benefits, a barrier that enemies had to wear down if they wanted to attack the city itself.

Other attacks struck the wall, leaving darkened scorch marks. Nearby, Jafar was already readying his bow, eyes locked onto the leading dragon. Without a moment’s hesitation, he launched the spear-like arrow, only for his brow to twitch when the arrow shattered against a silver barrier that appeared around the target dragon.

“Looks like they’ve come prepared this time,” the other elf quipped, retrieving her own staff from her inventory.

Meanwhile, I observed the dragons, noting that there were no players among this batch. Although the dragons were fairly strong, they did not appear to be so strong that I wasn’t confident against them if we were to fight one-on-one.

Just then, a much louder crash rang out from the north, far away from our current position along the southern wall. “I’ll go look,” I said immediately, taking Bella and Diane and using my Glancing Steps-X to teleport along the wall, soon reaching the northern side of the city.

There, I saw a gaping hole torn through the barrier of light, which shattered like glass. Beneath the hole, a flaming stone settled within a crater on the ground. Before I had the chance to say anything, Diane was already typing away, likely informing Ella about the severity of the attack.

If they shattered the barrier in one strike, that means that a grandmaster should have appeared. With that thought in mind, I scanned the area, spotting a figure resting on a distant mountain peak. The figure was a lazily sprawled dragon, its head lifted in this direction. Although there was only a single dragon, and it was still so far away, I knew how little that mattered. The scene of Kelly slaughtering the raid boss of the spirit dungeon from across the map, using only a single palm strike, flashed through my mind.

“What do we do?” Bella asked cautiously, her eyes fixed on the distant dragon as well. It was no surprise that she could see the figure so far away, given her skillset. However, it seemed to take Diane a bit longer to spot them.

“If this is the work of a single dragon, they might just be testing our reactions,” Diane answered. “How we react here could determine their future plans.”

Nodding my head, I decided to save my preparations for now. They’d only showcase their true power when the enemies were closer, anyways. “In that case, let’s see how they think of this,” I muttered with a small grin, taking a deep breath.

Activating my Walking Fortress skill, I stretched it out to its maximum range. It was said to be able to create entire cities in one go, so I knew that its range needed to be quite absurd. However, even so, that range did not extend to the mountain where the dragon sat. At least, not at my current skill level. Instead, I teleported myself closer, until I was just two kilometers away from the mountain.

Suddenly, the dragon trembled, its wings flapping in alarm. The mountain beneath it shook, massive hands rising from the stone to grab its neck and legs. At the same time, golden blades of light flew at its underbelly, swerving through his legs to strike at his stomach. Although the blades caused little damage, they succeeded in infuriating the dragon.

With a loud roar, he flexed his body, shattering the stone hands attempting to restrain him. Then, he fixed a harsh gaze on me, mouth opening to utter a single word. As soon as that word was spoken, a giant shadow appeared around me, the flaming flowers seeming to dim. Looking up, I saw that a meteor was crashing down towards my location, far bigger than the one that had destroyed the city’s protective barrier.

Not wanting to be caught in the blast, I immediately teleported away, returning to the city wall. Bella looked at me in exasperation, shoulders slumped. “Did you really need to go poke the dragon like that?”

“Yes. Yes I did,” I replied sincerely. “Don’t worry, I held back my biggest tricks. There are a few things that I want to save until the battle really starts. Until then, I couldn’t just let him keep throwing rocks at the city.”

“And what were you going to do if he decided to throw one of those at the city?” She asked, pointing towards the giant meteor that fell on my previous position, just in time for the deafening crash of the collision to reach the city’s walls. The blast carried with it a rolling cloud of dust that flung our hair wildly, but I could only chuckle bitterly.

“I don’t think that he can use ones that big so easily. Otherwise, there would be no need to play around with the smaller ones. Either he can only use those within a certain range of himself, or he needs to condense them to reach the level of destructive power that can pierce the barrier in one shot.”

That was my reasoning, at least. There was still the chance that he was just playing around, and not taking this war at all seriously. However, if that was the case, we’d have no hope of actually winning this war. Thus, I had to choose to stick to the optimistic assumption.

In the distance, the dragon glared at the city for a moment, before turning and flying off towards their camp. “At the very least, we know that they have no less than one grandmaster-level dragon in their ranks,” Diane said with a long sigh. “That’s more than we knew before. And, judging by how Jafar’s arrow was blocked by the dragons earlier, he shouldn’t be a grandmaster elf. Meaning that we are currently at a pretty severe disadvantage if they truly do decide to escalate.”

At this, Bella and I could only nod our heads solemnly. Although a single grandmaster skill might not seem like much, but it was ultimately a qualitative leap. In addition, possessing such a skill showed that the user was experienced enough that they had trained the skill to perfection, assuming that they didn’t just pick it up from a quest or skill book. And judging by the scale of that meteor, I would definitely say that it was properly trained. Whether it was trained from the novice level, I had no idea, but the power behind that meteor was enough that it made me give up any notion of blocking it with my own skills.