Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 193: Slaughter Montage

After splitting up from Bella and the others, I shifted into my dragon king form. This would give me the largest amount of experience possible while I was grinding. Then, I took a deep breath, and plunged towards the shadowed portal near the border of the forest, the entrance to the Shadow Fields dungeon that Nuoda had told me about.

Once inside, I stretched my senses out as far as possible, taking in my surroundings. The Shadow Field was a dark region where pitch-black beasts were constantly fighting one another. Because each beast was over level three hundred and fifty, just navigating this darkness was dangerous for most people, regardless of whether or not the beasts would intentionally attack.

As for me, my greatest objective here was to harvest corpses. Actual combat was secondary, though I knew that I would need to participate in the battles myself if I wanted to expedite the production of corpses.

Once I had ascertained my surroundings, I activated one of my newly evolved skills, Forest Titan. The ground beneath my feet broke as countless rocks and vines traveled along my body, reinforcing my draconic form and making me even larger. I used this skill for two reasons. First, it would act as a layer of defense and recovery, but more importantly… because it would extend my reach.

Without delay, I teleported to the nearest corpse that I could see, throwing it into my inventory without delay before teleporting to the next. I wasn’t worried yet about disassembling the corpses, just gathering them up first. Disassembly could wait until I had either gathered all of the corpses within the range of my True Sight, or when my inventory was filled.

Once my inventory did fill up, I rapidly disassembled all of the corpses I had collected, letting the blood and viscera fall to the ground with a wet squelch. I didn’t concern myself with keeping any of the materials, as they would only use up my inventory space. Admittedly, I felt a small pang in my gut at the wasted parts, knowing that even a single corpse could be sold for upwards of two platinum, while I was throwing away dozens of them at a time.

Once all of the corpses on the ground had been turned into… well, much messier corpses on the ground, it was time for me to join the fray. I focused on the nearby conflicts, making sure to keep my stealth active. As soon as any beast looked like it was close to death, I would ambush it, using a combination of Assassination and Internal Strike to attack the back of their heads.

Before their opponent could react to the giant, wooden claw finishing off their prey, the defeated monster would be dragged into my inventory, and I was off to the next fight. This was the routine that I had set myself, one that I would have to maintain for the entirety of the day.

After the first hour or so, my mind seemed to grow numb to the grind, operating almost mechanically. Ambush, kill, harvest, repeat. If any creature failed to die in the first hit, or its opponent lashed out at its prey being stolen, I used Killing Stare while going back into stealth.

Four hours in, and the ground was littered with gore. Every beast created wet, squelching noises on the ground as they fought one another, while some seemed content to temporarily rest and gnaw on the bones and meat littered around. Meanwhile, I could only growl, killing what I could kill.

At one point, I tried to use a combination of skills to create an automatic turret that would attack the monsters for me. However, this turret was not under the same non-aggression effect that players were in these resource dungeons. As soon as it appeared, it wasn’t even able to fire off a single shot before being swarmed by shadow beasts.

Every time I felt as if I was getting tired, I used Internal Recovery. It wasn’t perfect, but it kept me going a little longer, with me only stopping when this healing no longer seemed to provide any benefits. At that point, I left the dungeon and slept outside, still in my dragon king form. Then, as soon as I awoke and ate, it was back to the dungeon.

I couldn’t say how long I spent in there. Sometimes, the sun was out when I emerged to rest, and sometimes it was dark. Thankfully, the dungeon seemed to have some kind of effect to clean itself over time, which was no doubt how the monster corpses hadn’t just kept piling up in the thousands after not being collected for so long.

Eventually, I felt a small tug at the back of my awareness, my eyes dull from the constant slaughter and harvesting. At first, I ignored it, but then it happened again. In the corner of my vision, I noticed that I was receiving a message from Diane.

The dragons have come, she wrote, causing me to slowly blink. It took me a minute to register the words, my mind having drifted while I was stuck in the same grind.

How long has it been? I responded, staying in stealth and making my way towards the dungeon gate.

Five days. Are you alright? You haven’t said anything this whole time. I could feel her concern for me through the message, but I shook my head.

Sorry, I was pushing myself to train. What’s the situation with the dragons? I shifted back to my normal form, using my cleansing wand to remove the gore covering my body. Looking at my skills, I was very annoyed by the fact that Scavenging Mastery had not evolved. More annoyingly, it was at level ninety-nine, just one step away.

If I had just a little more time, I could have finished my training and achieved my goals. Just as I was ready to close my skills, I spotted two of them that had evolved during this time. I must have accepted the evolution without giving it a moment’s thought.

As I thought about that, Diane’s response came. One of their grandmasters showed up, the one that likes to throw around meteors. He didn’t attack right away, but called Kelly out. From what I can gather, he’s trying to talk her out of joining the fight.

My eyes narrowed sharply when I heard that, and I stepped out of the dungeon. The bright light outside briefly blinded me, but I quickly adjusted. In the distance, I saw the giant body of the dragon, and Kelly standing before it. She didn’t seem intimidated by the dragon, simply staring up at it as it talked to her.

With a quick teleport, I appeared next to the duo and dropped my stealth. For once, I actually seemed to catch Kelly off-guard, the bear-woman having not sensed me prior to my reveal. Naturally, the same was true for the dragon as well, both looking at me in surprise.

“This does not concern you, whelp,” the dragon hissed, glaring at me. “Begone, before I skip the pleasantries.”

Kelly, however, seemed to notice something, a small grin forming on her face. “I dunno, I think this concerns him quite a lot. Aren’t you lot planning to attack his kingdom?”

The dragon growled threateningly, his gaze drifting to Kelly. “Are you foolish enough to stand with a failing nation? I only offer you this chance out of courtesy. If Fallcry falls, then as its citizen, you will not be able to escape the punishment.”

Now it was Kelly’s turn to sport a bloodthirsty grin, cracking her knuckles. “I’d be more concerned about your infant king. If you can attack us, naturally we can also strike back. Are the dragons prepared to serve a ‘lesser race’ if they lose?”

Incensed, the dragon roared in fury, flames spewing from its nostrils. “Insolent wretch! If you wish to suffer so badly, we will grant your request!”

Without another warning, the dragon’s mouth opened, a jet of flames pouring down towards Kelly. She took a defensive stance, preparing to activate one of her skills, but I was a step faster. I extended my hand, and a black sphere appeared behind me. Immediately, it was as if the flames had never existed, silently being erased, while the sphere grew slightly.

“I’ve received your declaration of war,” I said flatly, holding my hand down at my side. “Now, get back to your camp, unless you want some help getting there faster.” As I spoke, I generated a spear of darkness in my hand, ready to release it if he tried to attack again.

The dragon glared at me, a rumbling growl shaking the ground I stood on. “I’ll remember this, mongrel king. You escaped death last time thanks to Erebus, but he won’t save you anymore.”

After saying that, the dragon flapped its wings, ascending into the sky and flying off to the south. It seemed like their camp was trying to avoid being flanked by potential reinforcements from the northern portal. At the same time, it presented us with the risk of being flanked if they called in reinforcements of their own.

As the dragon flew away, Kelly turned to look at me. “That’s quite the bloodthirsty look you’ve got,” she remarked with a grin. “I heard from your friends that you were going through some special training to prepare for this, and it looks like it paid off?”

I hesitated at that, not entirely sure how to respond. “Not quite. I wasn’t able to get the skill that I wanted.” Turning my head, I looked at the floating orb behind my body. “But, I was able to get a couple of other upgrades.”

This orb was the final evolution of the Black Flame Aura, known as the Infernal Hellstar. As long as it was active, I could absorb any flame into it within my line of sight, and use the energy of those flames to create infernal constructs. This was one of the two grandmaster skills that I had evolved during my training, since I had kept my aura on the entire time.

“How confident are you that you can handle this?” Kelly asked in a serious tone. “Personally, I’d rather not find myself shackled to a nation of dragons, but I can’t handle the entire fight by myself.”

Thinking of the other skill that had evolved, I hesitated on how to answer. I didn’t know if they had other spies watching the area, waiting to uncover clues, so I couldn’t outright tell Kelly what I had gained. All I could do was nod firmly. “As long as they don’t have even stronger forces than when they attacked Ella, it should be alright.”

Almost as soon as I said that, a message window appeared in front of me. No, it seemed to be in front of Kelly as well, and likely everyone in the city.

Black Scale Empire has declared war on Fallcry.

War type: War of Conquest - If Fallcry is defeated, it will become a vassal state of the Black Scale Empire.

Countdown until war: 23:59:57

“They’re not wasting any time this time,” I chuckled, walking towards the city.

“They know that the League won’t get involved with this kind of war,” Kelly grinned, clearly amused by the situation. “You’d best not disappoint me, kid.”

“I’m just worried that they’ll stage another attack on the rift to draw you away right before the fighting starts,” I responded, shaking my head. “That would fit their behavior before.”

“What are you going to do, then? Finish up your training so that you’re ready for tomorrow?”

Hearing that, I shook my head again. I could certainly bring Scavenging Mastery to its peak if I were to devote even just a few more hours of hard training. “No, I need to spend the time available planning. I can’t afford to lose track of time. Besides, the skill I was trying to master would need time to build up its effect, even after unlocking. Better to focus on organizing the city.”

Besides, there was another skill that was sitting at level ninety-nine as well. If I had to choose which one I wanted to master first, and which would be the easiest, it would be Glancing Steps. Like Kelly said, there was nothing saying that the dragons couldn’t be attacked if they were willing to attack others.