Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 200: The Best Laid Plans

Following Diane’s lead, I set up our mansion off to the side of the foggy valley, where the lights of the windows were just barely visible to most of the other camps through the fog. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but Diane had specifically asked me to use the largest, most extravagant house I had made for this stay.

Honestly, I would have expected her to want me to use one of the smaller, simpler huts that wouldn’t draw much attention. However, she insisted that this would be the best for our current situation. 

As we started to set up for lunch, Diane went through and opened all of the windows to the dining room, saying she wanted to let a breeze in. Shaking my head, I assumed that it was all part of her plan.

As always, we each placed our orders on the enchanted menu to summon our desired food. Bella and I went with a simple steak with a side of potatoes. And, while Diane did also list that down first, she then proceeded to list a series of extra dishes such as spaghetti, roast beef sandwiches, curry, and grilled chicken.

While this wouldn’t cost me anything extra to summon with the menu, I knew for certain that Diane would not be able to eat all of this. Not by a long shot. Then, looking towards the windows, I found my eye twitching slightly.

Are you trying to make everyone jealous? I asked through a private message, causing Diane to perk up.

Are they already gathering around outside? That will make this so much easier later. She smiled as she sent that response. Right now, we are showing that we have warm, well-made food and soft beds. Meanwhile, they have whatever rations they can buy from the nearest village and probably sleep on the ground.

For those that don’t care about their Chosen, they’ll just log off during mealtimes to get their own food. However, hardcore roleplayers will try to live out all of the hardships that they would otherwise make their Chosen endure. Over time, this naturally leads to a connection with their Chosen, so they would try to satisfy their needs as well.

As she typed the message with one hand, and cut into her steak with the other, Diane mused aloud. “Bella and I should get a bath after this, probably. We’ve spent most of the last twenty-four hours driving, so we could do with a chance to relax.”

Bella looked like she was about to speak up, but Diane shot her a quick look. For those that envy our situation, they are highly likely to come forward and present their own offers. For instance, letting me ‘buy’ an earlier slot in the queue with a free meal and a hot bath. To them, it’ll only be a brief respite before they return to their camping life, since the sooner they let me in the dungeon, the sooner I’ll leave.

However, this could cut our stay here from a month down to just a few days if we’re lucky. That’s why, don’t put up the stealth perimeter tonight. We need to make a show of how well-off we are even when camping out in order to entice more people to act.

My brow twitched again as I read her message. Aren’t you worried that someone will get angry and attack the house? What if it gets destroyed because a player got mad at us for showing off.

However, Diane simply smiled. Then you can just make a new one. Your skill should have leveled up since you made this house, right? You might even be able to make a better one now. Besides, knowing you, you have the blueprint for this place saved, so you could make it again in just a few minutes. Even that would send a message to the players, letting them know that we can live like this without worrying about any monsters or bandits.

Although it was frustrating, she had a point. If I were to remake our current mansion with my Walking Fortress skill, using the blueprint I had saved, it might not even take me a minute. Admittedly, I wouldn’t be able to remake all of the furniture that we had to buy manually, but that was only a small part of the process, and we could salvage the furniture from this house.

That said, I could also just work on making a new one, now that I had the Interior Designer leveled up a fair bit. I was still far away from hitting the grandmaster level, but it was enough to add some convenient effects to the house, such as making the bath self-heating so I didn’t have to heat the water with my fire skills.

With a sigh, I responded to her message. Alright. I’ll let you handle the other players, then. Just remember that we need to keep Bella’s identity as a Fallen a secret. 

Don’t worry, I know how to handle that. In the meantime, to give the image that I have authority over the house, why don’t you go explore the area after we have our bath? If you’re here, everyone will just assume that you’re the one that they need to talk to. And, who knows, you might find something interesting, since I doubt many people here have skills that can completely pierce this thick fog.

I simply nodded my head in understanding. Diane knew how to handle the players better than I did in this situation, so it was best to leave the ‘negotiations’ to her.

After we finished eating, I helped the duo heat the bath and sat outside, watching the steam rise up to join the ambient fog. Of course, for the sake of privacy, I always disabled my True Sight whenever it was time for them to bathe, not wanting to peek at them in the bath.

Once they left the bath, Diane gave me a subtle nod, and so I stood up and left, making sure that my exit was visible to the several players that had moved closer to watch the house.

After I was certain that they had seen me, I teleported off into the distance. If anything happens, let me know.

With that said, I began to wander the foggy landscape with my True Sight scanning the area. To my surprise, it seemed like there weren’t any monsters that spawned within the fog. I had expected there to be creatures to keep the would-be assassins on their toes, putting them in a constant state of vigilance. Instead, there was not so much as a single goblin or wolf.

What I did find, however, was a number of concealed caves hidden around the hill. Most of these caves were covered with a layer of foliage, or even had a boulder blocking the path. But regardless, all of them only continued for a few meters before suddenly ending in a swirling vortex.

That’s right… They were all dungeon entrances. My lips pursed as I watched some of these entrances, before suddenly seeing a figure in a form-fitting black cloak emerge from one of the less-concealed openings. He pushed past a layer of foliage, carefully readjusting it to cover the opening, and then made his way back towards the camping area.

Now, I had a real conundrum on my hands. Do I let Diane have her moment of negotiating with the other players to get earlier timeslots for the dungeon, which she has been preparing for since I got here, or do I reveal that there were actually eight dungeon entrances scattered throughout the area?

I let out a long sigh, telling Diane that I was on my way back and needed to discuss something with her.

When I arrived, I found a curious-looking Diane sitting in the living room with Bella. “What’s wrong, Drake? I figured you’d be gone for more than just half an hour.”

“It was actually that long?” I shook my head, clearing away those thoughts. “Not important. I found something while I was out, and I thought that I should let you know.”

Seeing her curiosity growing, I turned to look at Bella first. “Bella, you read up on the other Archetype dungeons, right? Is there anything different between them and this one?”

Bella hesitated, seeming unsure where to begin. “Well, I mean, all of them are completely different externally. The only common factor is that they offer rewards based on how one follows along with a specific concept.”

“And for a dungeon that only lets one person in at a time, they must all have crowds gathered outside them like this one, right?” I questioned, and Bella pursed her lips.

“That… I’m not too sure on, honestly. There wasn’t much information for anything like that in the book that I read.”

“Drake, what did you find?” Diane pressed more directly, her eyes narrowed.

“Seven other entrances to the dungeon,” I answered with a sigh. “They’re not all entirely unknown, either. I caught someone sneaking out of one while I was searching. Some of them are just hidden behind foliage, so you won’t see it unless you stumble upon it accidentally. Others are more concealed, requiring you to move large rocks out of the way.”

“I think that the reason why this area is covered in such thick fog isn’t just to ‘set the mood’ for the dungeon, but also to obscure the location of the other entrances. With most people being unable to see normally here, they would just go for the dungeon that is plainly visible, right?”

Hearing my explanation surprised the duo, who fell into silence. Diane seemed especially thoughtful, crossing her arms in front of herself. “That… would make sense. In a way, it could be another way to train an assassin, since an assassin should always be looking for alternative methods to enter a target location.”

“Right. I’d bet that the other Archetype dungeons have multiple entrances as well, though whether they’re concealed through another method would be impossible to say without going there myself. They might just be sitting out in the open for all I know. Since the information wasn’t listed in Bella’s books, it could even be something that was deliberately concealed to match the aesthetic for each dungeon.”

Diane nodded her head. “Okay, new plan. Drake, can you take me to one of the more concealed dungeons, and then look around to see if you can find any more in the surrounding area? They might not all be connected to the same hill. I’ll enter the dungeon using the excuse of wanting to see if there was a new dungeon in the area.”

“Bella, if anyone asks, just tell them that I stepped out with Drake to explore while you kept an eye on the house. Since I’m already last in the queue, nobody should find it strange that I want to get a look at the surroundings. After I come out of the dungeon and ‘confirm’ its identity, we’ll tell the players around here how many entrances there are. However, we won’t tell them where the entrances are, that way they will be encouraged to go and hunt them down themselves.”

“If we really wanted to be mean, we’d tell them that there was one more entrance than there really was. As people began to search and find the existing entrances, they would come to believe that our report was correct, and frantically search for the missing dungeon entrance.” Diane let out a low chuckle as she said that. “We don’t need to go that far, though. I’m sure that everyone will appreciate the queue being cut down to the single digits.”

Despite her words, I could clearly tell that Diane was annoyed upon finding out that her scheming to entice other players with luxury had been for nothing. “Most likely, only a few of the players waiting around even know that there is another entrance. Otherwise, the player you caught would have just turned around and gone back inside, rather than returning to camp to join the queue,” she continued.

“The only reason to do that would be if they wanted to keep the other entrance that they discovered a secret while maintaining their own position in the queue. After being here for so long, they know that they can’t just disappear without people getting suspicious unless they were done with the dungeon. And if that was the case, they’d blow their own cover the moment someone else wandering around caught sight of them.”

“To avoid sharing the benefits with other players, they keep the entrance they found a secret, likely only going to it after they finish their turn in the main entrance, at which point it is not unusual for them to leave to go to town or something.”

“Regardless, even these people should only know about one or two other entrances, and there should not be many aware of even that much. Otherwise, they would have stumbled across each other while going to or from their ‘secret’ entrances by now.”