Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 203: No Strings Attached

For the next three days, Diane practiced for the dungeon in between her allotted attempts. This practice included everything from how she walked to having me set up a parkour course for her. Of course, when the other players saw this course, they asked me to make another one for them as well, so I was able to make a small amount of money through that.

Meanwhile, Bella continued her studies in the Sage’s Sanctum, only occasionally leaving when it was time to eat. Since her skills were no longer being restricted, she even learned a speed-reading skill, allowing her to speed up her studies substantially.

As for my own training, I was just a hair away from level one hundred of Dragon Shifter. Even with my dragon king form, this skill was training at a painfully slow pace. If it weren’t for me wanting to get another grandmaster skill under my belt, and a potentially powerful one at that, I wouldn’t be spending almost all of my time transformed.

As I was thinking about that, I saw Diane leaving the cave through one of my sentries, her eyes showing her joy. Transforming back into my normal form, I teleported to meet her. “Completed?” I asked, and she gave a firm nod of her head.

“That’s right. I found a hidden compartment in the target’s room, so I was able to pass the final test,” Diane reported, clearly pleased with herself.

“What rewards did you get?” Given the final reward for completing the dungeon that Bella had told us about, I was quite curious what else it would provide.

“Each trial focused on one of three skills, awarding experience for them. Infiltration gives Sneak, Tracking gives Patience, and Killing gives Sneak Attack. Reaching level ten in any trial gives enough experience for the related skill to reach the third tier.”

Listening to her explanation, I couldn’t help but blink. I knew that Diane had already learned the Ghost skill from me, so she had lost her basic Sneak skill tree. In other words, she should now have Ghost-X, as well as whatever Stealth traditionally evolved into. “I understand the other two, but what is Patience?”

Diane thought about how to explain it for a few moments. “Basically, it rewards you for taking your time to study a target. The novice level reveals weak points to strike for extra damage. The intermediate level increases the chance of applying a status injury like ‘bleed’. The master level, called Silent Predator, gives increased damage.”

“Theoretically, if you combined Silent Predator and the Unseen Blade trait that you get for mastering all of the trials, it should be possible to take out bosses of the same level. Of course, this requires you to be hidden long enough to reach the full effects of Silent Predator, so careful positioning is still required.”

I nodded my head at that, looking back towards the manor where we had been staying previously. “Let me just pack up, and then we can grab Bella to visit the puppet dungeon. Hopefully by now she’s found some information on the dungeons that she was needing.”

The two of us returned to the manor, putting away anything that couldn’t be stored as part of the house, and then teleported to retrieve Bella. Since Diane had already notified her that we were coming, she was waiting for us with a smile on her face.

“Find anything good?” Diane asked, giving a wave towards our elven friend.

“Yeah. It’s not an Archetype Dungeon or anything, but I found records of a couple new dungeons in the primary realm that focus on firearms, as well as a suggested training method. Once we’re done with the puppet dungeon, I was hoping that we could go and check it out?”

I nodded my head in agreement, reaching my hands out for the two. “Sure. For now, let’s get going. Hopefully, the puppet dungeon won’t be too crowded.”

After I said that, I teleported the two of us away, back to the outskirts of the foggy area. Once we were in the car, I started driving off, allowing Bella to guide us. Since neither Diane nor I knew where our destination was, the navigation was left entirely to her.

Thankfully, it seemed like the puppet dungeon was only a couple of hours of driving away from the Archetype Dungeon. Though, a couple of hours driving in this car meant it was days, maybe even weeks walking on foot.

“What level is this dungeon we’re going to, anyways?” Diane asked curiously. “I don’t think you mentioned that when you were telling us about it before.”

Bella quickly thought back, providing an answer almost immediately. “The Puppeteer’s Playground is a level two-hundred and fifty dungeon. Given the level difference, we might have a little bit of difficulty, but it shouldn’t be too hard for the three of us.”

“That said…” Bella glanced over at me, a flicker of concern on her face. “From the drawings in the book, the dungeon isn’t big enough for you to use your dragon form, or other really big skills. The layout is like a carnival tent with cloth-covered walls, with a dungeon mechanic that targets anything that exits the boundaries of the dungeon, taking control of them like the puppet mobs. This includes people as well as skill effects.”

“Okay… so Forest Titan and my dragon forms won’t be usable,” I said with a faint grunt. “Probably too small for Walking Fortress, too.”

In fact, most of my options were limited in an enclosed area like this. I’d need to be careful with any of my projectiles, since it sounded like they could turn around and be fired back at us if they went ‘out of bounds’. Still, at least it wasn’t as bad as the instant death mechanic that could be found in the sea dragon’s temple that Diane and I once raided.

“Anything else that we need to know?” I asked, and Bella thought about it.

“Not that I can immediately think of. There was only the one main mechanic, but the dungeon’s map was included in the book, along with a couple hidden passages for treasure chests. Though, with the two of you here, I didn’t think the map would be all that necessary.”

That made sense. While my big attacks were largely invalidated by the dungeon’s rules, my senses wouldn’t be impeded at all. If there was a hidden path that I couldn’t find, even with True Sight, then I doubted that they would include it in a publicly available book.

After a while of driving, Bella realized that we were coming closer. “Oh, it’s just up ahead. Look for the big red tent,” she said, causing me to perk a brow. A big red tent was rather easy to pick out in an otherwise green landscape, so I kept my eyes on the horizon.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for it to come into view. There was indeed a large tent with red and white stripes positioned in the grassy meadow. However, it was not alone, instead surrounded by a large number of other buildings. “Did your book happen to mention the dungeon being in the center of a city?” I asked, and Bella slowly shook her head.

“N-no, it was supposed to be at least an hour’s walk away from the nearest settlement,” she answered, and I let out a sigh. It seemed that the book was somewhat outdated, or else this was a newly erected city.

Either way, I drove us down to the edge of the city, where we got out of the car. Immediately, I noticed something off about the surroundings. Although they looked lifelike on the surface, I could see multiple mechanical joints hidden beneath the armor of the guards standing at the gate. Likewise, several of the people walking within the city appeared to be puppets as well.

Diane seemed to pick up on this too, sending me a curious glance. “Monster breakout, or the lord of the city mastered the skill?”

I shook my head, unable to come up with a confident answer. If this was a case of monsters breaking out of the dungeon, the players that I could see would either be unsuspecting victims of a trap or more cleverly concealed puppets themselves. I was more inclined, however, to believe that this was a case of the city’s lord having reached a high level with the puppeteering skill.

After putting the car away, the three of us walked towards the dungeon, where one of the guards mechanically lifted his head. “Welcome to No Strings Attached, or the NSA for short. If you have any questions, please ask them to any available guard.”

Diane’s eyes immediately widened at the name of the city, though I couldn’t help but pose my question. “Who is the leader of this city?”

The guard took a moment to process the question before answering. “No Strings Attached belongs to the Limitless Guild, with the Questing King as its lord.”

“A king as a city lord?” Bella asked, confused. “Did he not found his own kingdom?”

Diane, however, quickly understood. “The Questing King isn’t one of the ones who created his own kingdom. Instead, he went the path of establishing an organization, and has made a few cities in various nations.”

“You know about him?” I looked at Diane, who nodded her head.

“The ‘king’ is just a title indicating that he has a ten star trait,” she explained calmly. “The Questing King’s main trait is a massive increase in the experience he receives. However, he can not receive ‘character experience’, used for leveling up, through combat. He can only level up by seeking out Fallen and undertaking quests with high experience rewards, hence his title.”

“On the other hand, his skill experience is also magnified, so he quickly masters any skill that he learns. He’s one of the few people who I’d say masters skills faster than you.”

That caused alarm bells to ring in my head. If he had stronger skills than me, but also all of the stats from leveling up, we could be in trouble if we ever got into a fight. Seeming to understand my concern, Diane shook her head. “He can’t train all of his skills at the same time, since they still have a mana burden. But, just measuring how long it takes for him to take a skill from the novice to the master tier, he is probably faster than you.”

I let out a small sigh of relief at that. Although it wasn’t a guarantee that I would win against someone like that, I was also not guaranteed to lose, either. “So, he learned the puppet skill, quickly trained it to a high level, and then created this puppet-themed city around the dungeon?”

“That seems to be the case,” Diane agreed, and the three of us walked past the gate guards. Oddly, despite all of the puppets walking about, I did not detect any form of wires or anything controlling them. From what Bella had previously described about the skill, I had assumed that there would be discernible mechanisms for controlling each puppet. After all, one of the skills that can be learned in the dungeon is how to attack with wires.

Instead, I only sensed a small core inside each puppet, pulsing with energy at regular intervals. Although it could be assumed that this core controlled the puppets, what was it that controlled the cores?

Thinking about this, I couldn’t help but imagine that the Questing King didn’t just stop at the master level, but instead trained the skill to perfection, and these autonomous puppets were like the projected entities that I created with Martial King. If that was the case, this skill had terrifying potential.