The days passed, and we quickly settled into our routine of training in the local area. The dungeon islands we decided to inhabit seemed to drift in a wide circle, so we never had to worry about coming close to any mainland. Of course, there were ships that sailed by now and then, but it was easy enough for us to hide ourselves until they passed.
During this time, Bella was able to almost catch up to Diane, reaching level one hundred and twenty, while the latter was at one hundred and twenty-two. According to Diane, the highest level players were starting to enter the low two hundreds, so she was feeling a little eager to face stronger challenges.
However, high level dungeons weren’t as common in the ocean as we first suspected. Aside from the ghost ship dungeon, we hadn’t encountered another level two hundred dungeon in our time at sea. Granted, that didn’t necessarily mean that Diane would lose out against those stronger players. She had excellent combat instincts, and received an all-around buff whenever she was fighting alongside me thanks to my new King of All Trades.
Speaking of skills, I managed to evolve three more skills during this period, though only one of them was particularly impressive. Blindsight evolved into Tremorsense-X, allowing me to more accurately perceive my surroundings, even underground. Aside from that, the skills that evolved were Driving and Architect, neither of which offered a substantial benefit with their evolution.
If we had a little more time to train, I had a lot of skills that were on the verge of an evolution, especially among my intermediate skills. But, this was the day of the big patch, so we were packing up to leave.
“Got everything?” I called out to Bella and Diane, standing outside next to the car. Since we weren’t planning on returning to this house, I planned to thoroughly demolish it before we left.
“Think so.” Diane nodded, her brand currently dim. Her player had said the previous night that she would probably be logging on a little later today, wanting to get as much information as she could from the developers before logging on.
“Yup! All set for me!” Bella chimed in, seeming far more cheerful after spending time away from Evergreen.
With a nod, I conjured a giant pestle, slamming it down against the house to crush it into fine dust. Although my Martial Construction skill had advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching level 44, it was still faster to just crush the house into nothing. That, and it was far more satisfying to break something than to simply undo its construction.
“Let’s go, then.” I said, hopping into the car with the others and driving up into the sky. “Let’s just head generally east for now, until Diane’s player logs on. She might have information about where we need to go to get everything started.”
The girls seemed to agree with me, so I turned the car and started driving east. Admittedly, after Driving evolved into Advanced Handling, the ride was even smoother than before. I couldn’t feel the hum of the engine, leaving the interior almost perfectly quiet until Diane turned on the radio.
“This is it, folks!” The announcer boomed over the radio. “We’ve synced up with the official website, and the Demonic Invasion patch is about to go live! If you’re not in a city, be careful, because this is it! The patch hits in five… four… three… two… one… now!”
Right on cue, a system window appeared in front of me, detailing the patch notes for this major update. For the most part, they matched what Diane had previously explained. However, there were two main additions.
First, there was the addition of ‘resource dungeons’, which were described as non-combat dungeons made for people specializing in gathering skills. I couldn’t help but wonder if Butchery qualified for that. Probably not, since it can be used in any normal dungeon. Herbalism, maybe.
The second was the source of the demonic invasion, which turned out to be planar portals scattered across every continent. Demons could emerge from these portals, as could monsters from various other planes. The patch notes didn’t mention where these portals were exactly, but I knew that we needed to find them fast. These portals would become the new frontlines against the demonic invasions, which meant that we had to get through one before it was sealed off.
With that in mind, I focused, channeling King of All Trades through the car. Immediately, it rocketed forward at an intense speed, causing the girls in the back to yelp. “A little warning, Drake!” Diane shouted in protest.
“Sorry, no time to waste. We need to get over the mainland as soon as we can to try to find these portals.” I called back, knowing that both of them would have read the patch notes as well.
As I was driving, the song on the radio ended, and the announcer spoke up again. “This just in, folks! We’re getting reports from our sources across the globe about the portal locations. On the Northwest Continent of Fal Nua, we have three sightings! The first is in Evergreen, ten kilometers east of Elmberg. The second is in Farro, seventy kilometers northwest of Mattercross. Finally, the third is in Garna, sixty kilometers south of Black Ridge. Happy hunting, players!” He called out, before moving on to start listing other continents.
“Diane? Can you guide us to Farro?” I asked, glancing back at Diane as I turned the car to angle it more north.
Diane nodded her head, eyes wide as she began to look through her system map. “J-just keep going in this direction. We’re already over land. Our current speed is…” She looked at the speedometer, eyes widening further. “O-okay, we’ll be there soon.”
Almost immediately after she said that, her brand lit up, her face hardening. “Drake, we need to head to Farro, that’s–” She began, but I cut her off.
“Already heading in that direction. They announced the portal location on the radio.” I said, causing her to blink in surprise.
“Ah.” She muttered, looking out the window and seeing how fast we were going.
“Did you learn how to set up a kingdom?” I glanced back at Diane, who nodded her head.
“That’s right. Right now, the option won’t appear. However, once we reach unclaimed land, there will be an option for you to claim it. The website said that there will be challenges for every aspiring kingdom to face before it can be established, but they didn’t elaborate. They did say that the kingdom will gradually grow over time as it gets more residents. And that every plane has its own natives.”
When I heard that, I nodded, lowering the car to only a hundred meters to watch for the portal. “Did they give any details on the planes themselves? Anything that could help us once we’re through?” I asked, though Diane shook her head to deny it.
“They only said that there are dozens of different planes, each as big as the main map. Beyond that, they want players to explore for themselves. Oh, but the portals don’t always connect to the same place. They did say that there is a schedule, and the portals fluctuate, but we’ll need to learn both the schedule and the destinations on our own.”
I nodded my head again, my eyes locking onto a giant rift in the distance. It stood two hundred meters tall, and was a swirling vortex of energy. At the base of the rift, knights had moved to surround it, with several players already crossing through.
Deciding that it would be wise not to just barrel through the portal at top speed, I slowed the car down. In addition, I wrapped it in a projected barrier, finally driving through the rift unseen by those below.
The car trembled slightly as it passed through the rift, soon emerging on the other side. However, the sight here was unusual to say the least. The rift, on this side, sat at the junction of a desert, a dense forest, and a giant mountain range. A river ran north from the base of the rift, but these three biomes felt wholly wrong next to each other.
It wasn’t as if the forest gradually gave way to the desert. Instead, it felt like there was a hard line dividing them. On one side, you had a scorching, dry desert, and on the other was a humid forest. “Let’s head south…” I said with a shake of my head, following the border between the forest and mountains to the south. If we were going to find any form of civilization here, this would be the place rather than the desert.
I liked to believe that I had an edge over regular players when it came to travel speeds, so I pushed the car to accelerate again. I wanted to get far enough away from the rift that other players wouldn’t immediately become a problem.
About ten minutes after driving like this, I spotted a small village down below, resting on the rocky side of the biome border. Without hesitation, I drove the car down to the outskirts of the village, and stowed it away after the three of us got out.
“Well… let’s go meet the neighbors.” I muttered, the other two nodding their heads. “Don’t pull out your weapons unless you absolutely have to. I don’t want to cause problems for anyone.”
We walked towards the village, and I dropped the Ghost Zone as we approached. The residents, which seemed to be beastfolk, didn’t appear to notice us at first. However, there was a loud shout from one child when it saw us walking over.
In response to the shout, several adults came running, readying spears and bows. “What are you?!” One of them questioned loudly, looking at the three of us. As I observed him, I grew more curious. He had the ears of a bear, but the tail of a cat, and distinct scales along his forearm.
“We mean no harm.” I said, lifting my hands in a placating gesture. “We’re new Players to the area, just looking to explore.”
“Players?” The man questioned, looking at his fellows. “Has anyone ever heard of them?” My eyes widened in surprise at that. If they didn’t know what Players were, did that mean that they were all NPCs? I didn’t see a brand on any of their foreheads, at the very least.
Curious, I appraised them, finding that they did have levels, but those levels varied pretty heavily. In general, the older members of this race seemed to have higher levels, suggesting that they were able to increase their level either through training or just by naturally aging.
Diane cleared her throat. “‘Player’ isn’t a race. It’s a type of being chosen to be inhabited by another person from a higher realm. Those chosen this way can level up, acquire skills, and undertake missions to grow stronger.”
“Levels? Skills?” One of the men questioned, seeming unfamiliar with the terms in this context. “What is it you Players want here?”
“Peace.” I answered calmly. “We can’t represent all players, but the three of us just want to learn more about this world. To the north, a great rift has appeared, connecting to various realms. The place we come from is among those newly connected regions.”
“The Demon Rift?!” One of the adults called out in alarm.
“W-we’re not demons!” Bella interjected before they could get carried away. “We fight the demons, too. The rifts can connect to multiple locations!”
“Easy, Chana.” An elderly voice spoke up from behind the group. They turned to look back, spotting a woman with a hunched back walking over. She had the ears of a cat, but also wings on her back. “They don’t seem to mean any harm. If demons had gotten this far from the rift, we would have heard about it by now.”
