Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 174: All The World’s A Stage

I could feel a dull pain building in the back of my head as we blitzed across the landscape. Not from the overuse of skills or forcing myself to multitask, as I had done before. Rather, this was most certainly caused by trying to focus on the constantly shifting environment around us in order to pinpoint each teleport point in rapid succession.

This went on for… I don’t even know how long. I vaguely noticed that we passed by a half dozen large islands, and maybe one small continent, before Diane patted my neck and turned me more towards the south. After that, it was only about fifteen minutes before mountains rapidly entered my vision, large castles built with white or black spires.

Third castle on the left, the small city. That’s the capital of Everdusk, Diane messaged, and I let out a small grunt, teleporting twice more to place us at the city’s gate. Immediately, both she and Bella dismounted, and I returned to my normal form.

"How are we doing for time?” I asked while massaging my forehead, feeling the dull pain gradually fading away.

Diane glanced off to the side, giving a relieved sigh. “There’s still a while left before the reset. Let’s have breakfast first, and then I’ll call my friend to let him know that we’re in the neighborhood.”

Bella was busy straightening her hair out, which had gotten rather messy from the constant wind. “Breakfast sounds good, yeah.”

We were still under the effects of my Ghost Zone, and it didn’t seem like anyone had spotted me fly in. That, or my rapid teleportation was just too fast, and they didn’t have time to spot where I landed. Either way, we entered the city under stealth, and looked around for a restaurant. Although I had my enchanted menu, I didn’t really want to set up one of my houses right outside a foreign nation’s gate. That seemed… rude, to say the least.

So, we found a small restaurant, where we revealed ourselves and had a simple meal of eggs and toast. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to fill us up. By the time we were done eating, a man in a black cloak stepped into the restaurant, looking around. It didn’t take him long to spot us and making his way over.

Immediately, I noticed that his footsteps were silent, much like Diane’s when I first met her. His gaze, hidden beneath his black hood, was sharp. “King Advent. Ladies Kagemura and Greenwood.”

Diane responded with a small nod of her own. “Drake, this is Micah. He’s the one I told you about. He leads the group we’re here to meet.”

The man, Micah, gave a low bow. I could see throwing daggers strapped to his chest, just beneath his robe. The glint of metal was all too obvious with my detection skills active. “It’s good to see you at long last, Lady Kagemura.”

Diane rolled her eyes lightly at the title, gesturing for Micah to pull up a chair. “Can you explain what you know about the dungeon for my friends here? We had to rush to make it on such short notice, so I only gave them the basic summary.”

Micah readily agreed, sitting down and crossing his arms in his lap. “I can assume that all three of you will be joining the Dark side in the dungeon, so I will focus my explanation there.”

“Upon entering the dungeon, everyone is prompted with a system menu, asking them to choose their faction. Afterwards, most people will be directly assigned a post related to their skills. However, some people have mentioned that they were given a choice. We believe this is because their skills overlap with multiple roles in the dungeon, allowing them to choose which they want to take.”

“Currently, the known roles available are Officer, Infantry, Assassin, Medic, Mage, Knight, Archer, Civilian, and Scout. However, we have reason to believe that there are still more roles that can be unlocked with the right abilities. Each role has its own mission, through which War Credits can be earned. Depending on what role you get, you may also have access to unique rewards that you can purchase with those credits.”

Listening to this, Bella looked at the man in confusion. “There’s a Civilian role, too? That doesn’t sound like an appropriate role in a war like this.”

“That’s right. We were also confused,” Micah quickly explained. “So far, only three people have gotten the Civilian role. They were all low level, with few skills, so we think that it is an option for those with less ability to be able to participate. According to the reports from those who received the roles, their main missions ranged from supplying other units, delivering messages, or cooking for the soldiers.”

“So, to get the credits, you’d ideally want a role such as Mage or Assassin that would let you see a lot of combat?” I mused aloud, but Micah shook his head.

“Apparently, the amount of credits earned for the same task differs depending on your role. If an Officer, meant to command soldiers and direct formations, charges the frontlines and kills the enemy leader, they will receive less credits than an Assassin whose mission was specifically to assassinate that same leader.”

“The best way to earn credits is to fulfill your assigned role to the best of your ability.” Micah then turned to look at the three of us. “Currently, we’ve gone through the dungeon three times. The storyline is the exact same each time, so we’ve started to develop a strategy. The only differences that arise are those caused by other participants.”

“For instance, the leaders of the two camps are always Sylvia Sunborn and Dylon Shade. If either leader is killed early on, there are replacements dispatched from their respective nations within six hours. I’ll send the list of important figures we’ve compiled to Diane later, and she can share them with the two of you.”

“One final note, though. From what we have seen, it is possible to receive promotions within the dungeon. Doing so won’t give you any new skills, but your tasks do evolve. One Assassin who showed exceptional promise in the second run was elevated to the rank of Duke’s Shadow. When he went back for the third run, he said that the new role was available to him as a starting option.”

My brow perked up at that, realizing the implications. If the promotions could carry over between runs, that meant that there was likely a way to reach the upper ranks of the scenario, maybe even replace the leaders of the respective camps.

After saying all of this, Micah stood up and offered one final bow before disappearing. Well, he activated his stealth skill, though I could still clearly see him as he turned and left the restaurant. “So, what role are you planning to go for?” Diane asked, and I found that both she and Bella were looking at me.

“I’m… not sure?” I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. “With my skill spread, I could go for Assassin, Scout, or Infantry. Honestly, I could do any of the roles to a passable degree, aside from Medic.”

“Vitality of the Forest,” Diane pointed out with a small smile hidden behind her mask. “You might not be a priest, but that is a passable healing skill.”

My brow twitched at that. “Okay, so I could go for any of the roles, then. I don’t know what options I’ll have, though. If I were to list my specialty, it would definitely be closer to Assassin. Maybe Mage, if I could use my projection skills for that.”

“I think you should go for Civilian, if it’s an option,” Bella said, catching both Diane and myself by surprise. “Well, with your level, it’s likely that it will appear. If it does, you’ll be able to perform far above the standard of a civilian, and may qualify for an exceptional promotion, right?”

Diane gave a thoughtful hum at that. “She’s got a point. In situations like this, a role like Civilian could be the dark horse of the entire dungeon. Or, it is just a background role for those without the ability to contribute directly. It’s impossible to tell without more information.”

After a moment’s hesitation, I let out a small sigh. “I’ll keep Civilian in mind if it appears, but I’ll take a look at my options first. With my skill spread, it’s likely that I won’t be directly assigned like Bella would.”

“Eh? Just me?” Bella asked in confusion. “Wouldn’t Diane instantly be assigned to the Assassin group?”

“She has too many magic skills, since her Chosen wants to be a mage,” I pointed out. “She’ll definitely be given the choice of either Assassin or Mage, maybe Scout. Though, she’s definitely going for Assassin.”

Diane immediately confirmed this with a firm nod, glancing off to the side. “The files from Micah just came through, I’ll send them to both of you now.”

As she said that, I saw a brief pink in the corner of my vision, and several documents were sent over, detailing various figures within the dungeon as well as background information. This kind of thing would definitely come in handy in a story dungeon like this.

There were multiple missions detailed in the documents for most known roles, though these missions only covered the first two days. After that, there were likely too many variables from the actions of other players to develop a proper strategy guide.

“How long until the dungeon reset?” I asked, and Diane glanced at the time.

“About an hour. We should get going.” After saying that, Diane pushed off from the table and began to walk off. I quickly paid for our meal and followed after her, with Bella walking alongside me.

Once we were out of the city, I summoned the car, and we drove above the road towards a large gate in the distance. The left side of it was pure white, decorated with glowing bird wings and floating clouds. The right side, however, was pitch black, filled with jagged cracks and carved with the moon and stars.

There were two camps next to the gate, one on either side. Tensions were visibly high between the two sides, though neither attempted to interfere when anyone approached the gate. They did not ask for affiliation beforehand, even as we drove up and stored our car away. For once, I hadn’t driven under stealth, since our presence here would soon be known regardless.

This had led to many people seeing us arrive, some players clearly jealous about the ‘flying’ car. Regardless of their thoughts, we simply walked up and entered the gate.

“See you on the other side,” I said in a joking tone towards the other two. Though, it wasn’t clear where any of us would be stationed within the battlefield dungeon. There was even the chance that we wouldn’t meet until the end of the week.

Still, the two offered small smiles as they walked in alongside me. Black and white energy surrounded my body, and I was given the prompt Micah had warned us about. Naturally, I chose to join the Dark faction. However, the screen that appeared next surprised me.

Scanning for suitable roles…

Scan complete. Please choose from among the available roles below.

Civilian

Mage

Infantry

Officer

Assassin

Scout

Archer

Knight

Medic

Noble

Instructor

Grandmaster

My brow twitched as I looked at the available list of roles. Not only were all nine of the known roles listed, but there were three that Micah had never mentioned. Noble has to be because it detected that I’m a King. Or at the very least, my trait. If I choose that, I’ll immediately be an influential figure.

Instructor doesn’t sound too bad. I have plenty of skills that I could teach the warriors, though I likely won’t see the battlefield that often myself. On the other hand, the Grandmaster role will likely be exclusively overseeing the battlefield and fighting other Grandmasters.

I looked at each of these new roles, thinking them over. I didn’t have the local reputation or proper knowledge of the scenario to take on the Noble role. At the same time, while I was confident that I could survive against a normal Grandmaster in a fight, my raw stats were still far too low to confidently say that I could kill one. Most likely, only Fallen like myself could even see those last two roles at this point in time.

Thus, I ultimately decided to go with the Instructor role. Although I could join Diane as an Assassin, or Bella as an Archer, I wanted to see what this unknown role could provide. At worst, I would be wasting a week and get fewer rewards than the other two, but I didn’t see that being an issue. I could already see a plan forming in the back of my mind.

Instructor has been selected. Applying to scenario. Modifying identity for scenario context.

I was unsure about that last prompt, but soon opened my eyes, standing beneath the twilight sky. I was just outside of a large tent, dressed in the same armor that I had previously been wearing. A black-skinned human ran up to me and saluted. “Sir Advent, the recruits are waiting for you!”

I blinked briefly, but nodded my head for him to lead the way. As he did, another system window appeared in front of me.

Current identity: Drake Advent - Instructor.

Significant background details: Despite your low level, you trained harder than anyone else, reaching a level of skill acknowledged even by Grandmasters. Because of this, you were granted the last name Advent, and placed in charge of educating promising young recruits.

When I read through that summary, I was even more confused. If this was based on a war between the Dark and Light factions of Umbrahallow, there shouldn’t have been a concept of ‘low levels’ like that. However, as I was following behind my guide, I flipped through the document that Micah had given us.

On the second page of the document, there was a description of the scenario’s backstory. This battle did not take place in any form of this world’s history, and held concepts that the NPCs of Umbrahallow had been entirely unfamiliar with prior to the arrival of players. These concepts included the normal mechanics of Fallen and Players, as well as the various systems associated with them.

I clicked my tongue at this realization. If I had known that ahead of time, I likely would have just gone with the Assassin role. Although the background summary from the system said that I was respected, I wasn’t sure how much respect I could really expect with my level. Well, I’ll find out soon. Either way… this should be an interesting dungeon week.