By the ti Diane logged back on, she found herself not fighting a band of monsters, but sitting at a stone table, drinking tea out of an earthenware cup. “...I feel like I missed sothing of grave importance.” She muttered, setting the cup down and looking around.
At that point, Bella had cald down for the most part, though her eyes were still red and puffy from crying. “You good now?” Diane asked, and Bella sniffled, nodding her head.
“Y-yeah… sorry. I just… I was really overwheld.” She admitted, her shoulders starting to tremble again.
“Hey now, no need for more tears.” Diane quickly said, before looking at . “I talked with Iron Forge. They agreed to let pay for most of the upgrade with a trade. They want you to enchant your Martial Construction onto a skill book for to send to them. You don’t have to downcast it, they want the interdiate version.”
Seeing my confused expression, she explained. “They want it for multiple reasons. One, if one of them with a higher mana level trains the skill, they can make warehouses. Two, if they find a more energy-efficient way of activating the skill, they can enchant it onto the vehicles they make to allow for the creation of smooth roads wherever you drive. In addition, this is an incredibly rare skill that they can’t get elsewhere.”
I nodded my head, not seeing a downside here. “In that case, are we getting a new vehicle, or are they just putting an attachnt on the bike?”
“I told them that we already have an enchantnt book, so I’ll send it to them when we get back to town. As for what we’re getting…” Diane hesitated. “They gave options. We can get a sidecar, but I’d rather not. It still takes out the joy of riding a bike for , since the smallest one would typically go in the sidecar.” She pointed to herself for emphasis there.
“Our other options are two of the other vehicle types they have in production. One is… okay, how do I explain this to a pair of Fallen…” She crossed her arms in thought. “One of them is larger, almost like a wagon, but more armored. The other is smaller, sleeker, and faster. Both of them can comfortably sit five people, and have basic weapons installed like the bike.”
“How fast does each one go?” I asked, since the main reason we want the vehicle is to get around faster, not for fighting.
“The truck, the armored one, goes around a hundred and eighty kiloters at the limit. That’s the fastest that its engine can withstand before taking damage. The sports car… it can easily double that, maybe more if you push it with your skills. Normally, such speeds could only be achieved on a long stretch of flat road, but with you around… we can get that anywhere.”
“I’d rather take the car, then.” I answered with a nod, and Bella blinked, seeming to have trouble processing these numbers. “It sounds like this ‘truck’ is slower than the bike. If we’re worried about armor, my skills will reinforce it better than any steel plating.”
Diane nodded her head, briefly logging out. However, this ti, she was back in under a minute. “Okay, car it is. I sent them the deposit, and they’ll trade it for the skill once we get back to town.” After saying that, she handed one of our two remaining enchantnt skill books to , which I used to quickly enchant Martial Construction.
“Now, shall we do so hunting before we head back?” She asked, pulling out her daggers. “I desperately want to stab sothing.”
I chuckled, nodding my head and standing up. “Let’s go. I’ll demolish the house once we’re outside.”
“That seems like… a bit of a waste, doesn’t it?” Bella asked, but I disagreed.
“On the contrary, if we leave it out here, it could beco a nest for monsters, hiding inside and waiting for soone to co in and relax. It’d be the perfect bait.” I said, and she slowly nodded her head.
Once we had gathered all of our things and left the house, I pulverized it with a giant pestle, grinding it into tiny fragnts and dust. Bella’s eyes widened once again at the sight, but Diane seed perfectly used to such things. “Find us sothing stab-worthy.” She said, and I nodded.
Closing my eyes, I projected my sight upwards, and then began scanning the area. “Beyond the hill to our left. I’m seeing a four-legged lizard with black and green scales, and a long body. My Observe skill identifies it as a Blackrock Lizard with poison and earth-attribute abilities.”
“Let’s kill one and see how much it’s worth.” Diane said, leading the way. “Bella, try to fire a few arrows when you can. Otherwise, stay next to Drake. Drake, protect Bella with your stealth field, and send your clones to help tank for .”
I nodded my head, following behind her with Bella as I sent my clones forward to support Diane. When we reached the top of the hill, Bella was surprised to find Diane fighting giant lizards more than five ters long. She was scratching at it with her daggers from various angles, while my clones were working in tandem to flank it.
Gulping, Bella drew her bow, firing off a single arrow before imdiately ducking behind . She didn’t even wait to see if her arrow hit or not. Admittedly, it did hit, and even sank into one of the wounds that Diane had made previously. The lizard roared in pain, looking around before being distracted by those fighting it in lee combat.
After a mont, Bella peeked back from behind , noticing that the monster wasn’t charging at us. Gathering her courage, she began firing more arrows, trusting in my stealth field.
Diane looked over in our direction, nodding in satisfaction and letting Bella get a few more hits. Afterwards, she slipped beneath the lizard’s body, her daggers glowing with a bloody light. As she was sliding beneath the monster, she quickly stabbed upwards, the light around her blades flashing.
The lizard froze, blood leaking from its lips before it collapsed to the ground. Diane rolled to her feet, nodding her head and already moving onto the next one. “Sa plan. Drake, go collect the body.” She shouted out, drawing the attention of another lizard.
This hunt didn’t continue very long, as we only killed five such lizards. Not because we ran out of targets, or even because Diane got bored. Rather, it was because she finally slowed down enough for to tell her that the bodies were only worth about one gold each when fully dismantled. Even in the rare chance that one of them evolved into a Blackgold Lizard during dismantling, the price only increased to five gold.
Having thoroughly lost her motivation, Diane let out a sigh, shaking her head and sheathing her daggers. “We’ll find better prey another ti.” She said, comforting herself and looking at Bella, returning to her stoic deanor. “How’s the experience?”
“G-good.” Bella nodded quickly. “Better than what I’m used to. I managed to get five levels from that.”
“Good to know.” Diane responded, walking back towards the road. “For now, let’s head back to town. Drake, how long do you think you’ll need before you’re ready to leave?”
“I don’t entirely know.” I shook my head. “I’m working on learning a new skill, but my instructor is insisting on teaching it the hard way. After that, she’s planning to teach one through a simple quest. However, our training won’t start again until Monday.”
Diane furrowed her brow, but ultimately nodded her head. “Can you do anything to train for it on your own ti?” She asked.
“Maybe. I watched her perform the training herself, and I should be able to create simple analogs for the training materials with my skills.”
“Do it.” Diane said as she pulled the bike back out on the road, gesturing for Bella to sit behind her. “Once you’ve got both skills, we need to leave the city.”
“Did sothing happen?” My eyes widened in concern, but she shook her head.
“Not yet, but there are too many players in Elvenwall. The longer we stay, the more we risk soone recognizing you. And we can’t give you a new disguise in the city without arousing the suspicion of the citizens.”
Listening to her explanation, I gave a small nod. “In that case, you two head back early. I’m going to do my training out here, where I don’t have to worry about being disturbed.”
Bella looked over in surprise. “Are you sure? What if you get ambushed by monsters?” After saying that, she hesitated, shrinking back. “Sorry, that’s not really a problem for you.”
I smiled slightly, shaking my head. “I’ll be fine. And when I’m done, I can get back to the city in under a minute. For now, just stick with Diane, and make sure to keep your disguise up.”
She nodded her head at these words, lightly holding onto Diane’s waist as the two drove back down the road, leaving to my own devices. Since I had already decided how I could reproduce Jana’s training thod, it was easy for to set up. First, the glass tank and the balloon could both be replaced by my Martial Intent-X, adjusting the density and durability to replicate glass and plastic respectively.
Next, I used Water Intent-X to fill both the tank and the balloon, and created a simple stone platform for it to rest one. From there, it was only a matter of repeating my training from the day before.
However, I soon discovered that there was a notable difference between my training now and when I was with Jana. Because all components of this training were created using my own energies, I innately felt the force that was being transferred. It took so effort not to allow my control of the techniques to slip, popping the ‘balloon’ with a false success, but I could feel as the force brushed against it.
This allowed to experint far more effectively than I could before. I could strike from different angles, and with different amounts of force. Any ti the ‘glass’ broke, I just nded it with a thought and continued. I experinted with both one hand and two hands, even striking two different sides of the tank at once.
Thanks to this enhanced training, I was able to pop the balloon of energy that I made after only a couple of hours of practice. However, I wasn’t satisfied with that, as I couldn’t be sure whether or not I really popped it with the force of my strike, or simply by hoping that it would pop and having my skill react to that.
Because of this, I continued to train throughout the night, adjusting the paraters over ti. I’d make the walls of the tank thinner, or the balloon stronger. Since I didn’t know the exact specifications for the equipnt that Jana prepared, I wanted to be sure before I went back to her.
Of course… this caution began to fade when the system itself acknowledged my efforts, granting the Shallow Palm skill. I couldn’t help but let out a soft cheer once that happened, as it confird my progress. Now, I was properly ready to face Jana’s training on Monday.
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