It didn’t take long to find Nuoda and tell her about the new dungeon. Thankfully, it wasn’t very far, and anyone could reliably access it, so long as they could handle any monsters they found on the way. It would probably not be long now before monsters began to trickle back into the area around the city.
In the process of informing Nuoda, we also learned that Bella’s swimsuit would be ready the next day. In a perfect world, I would have purchased another resource dungeon to further invest in Fallcry’s future. However, I decided to hold back.
At the present time, Fallcry simply didn’t have the means to harvest from any more dungeons. It could barely protect itself without relying entirely on Kelly. I was worried that buying any more resource dungeons would just stretch our forces too thin at the current time.
How do other players deal with this? I thought to myself, deciding to ask the only other ‘king’ that I knew of. I opened my friends list, and sent a message to Ella. Are you free to chat for a minute?
Gimme sec, almost done with dungeon! She fired back quickly, before going silent. I had to wait about ten more minutes before she got back to me. Sorry about that. New dungeon appeared near my place, so I’m trying to farm it.
My eyes lit up slightly, as this confirmed my hopes. So you’ve already established your kingdom, then?
Yeah, I settled in Pyrrhos. It’s a fire elemental world with the Pyrrics, a race of flame-element humanoids. Why’d you ask?
I took a deep breath, sending my main question. What are you doing to get extra workers? Guards, craftsmen, and even players.
The response from Ella took quite a while to send, likely needing to think over her answer. For players, I just posted on the forums and people started coming over. For Fallen, I’ve got an alliance set up with Evergreen, so they sent me some guards and other workers.
And there was the crux of the problem. Because of my unique situation, I wasn’t in a position where I could easily ask another nation for an alliance. At best, they’d just refuse me, as I have nothing of value to offer them. At worst, they’d want my trait for themselves…
Are you worried about laborers on your end? Ella asked curiously. I guess guards would be pretty hard to come by for you. Though, I read on the forums that there’s something that could help, if you’re interested.
Might as well see what it is. I responded, though I didn’t initially have much hope.
If you upgrade your nation enough, you can supposedly set up a Knighthood system, according to the devs. Knights are NPCs or weak Fallen that receive a level and skill package based on their kingdom. Though, they only have that package as long as they are acting as city guards, and the system supposedly has an upkeep cost.
My eyes widened as I read that message. If that was the case, it would be perfect for me. My city was filled with weak Fallen and NPCs with no combat potential. How much do I need to upgrade my city?
They didn’t give the exact numbers, so I can’t really tell you there. I just know that you need either more people or more cities to reach the goal.
I nodded my head at that response, my thoughts cooling at the prospect. In order to get guards, I needed to upgrade my kingdom. However, that required me to get people… it was a vicious cycle that I wasn’t entirely sure how to break.
“By the way.” I spoke aloud, turning my attention to Diane, who was walking alongside me. “I’m surprised that we haven’t had players coming here, looking to become nobles of Fallcry.”
Diane shook her head. “I spoke with Nuoda about it the other day. There have been a few guilds that sent her a message when she revealed herself to be the Chancellor. However, they didn’t have particularly good reputations, so she declined them. She only wants to accept trustworthy individuals to start our first few cities.”
Although it was frustrating, it made sense. “What about the Iron Forge? Did you manage to reach out to them?”
Diane glanced off to the side, sighing. “Unfortunately, they were already scouted by another nation run by the Crafting King. He’s been gathering up all the major workshops to become a craftsman’s paradise. I’ve been trying to get in touch with one of my old guilds from a past game, but they’re currently in Aetheris. It’ll take them at least another week to migrate to Chimeris.”
I sighed, nodding my head. “I’ll see them when they get here, then. If you’re recommending them, at least I don’t have to worry as much.”
After that, we made our way back to the manor. I had some preparations that I wanted to make for our upcoming trip, and Diane said that she wanted to create some scrolls and potions, just in case.
The next day came, and we gathered at the eastern gate. A small crowd had gathered around to see us off, though that wasn’t my main concern. “You sure you want to come with us?” I asked, looking at the last-minute addition to our party.
Nuoda smirked, nodding her head. “Yeah, I heard about the rewards. Since it’s just for a couple days, I’ve left Ennolf in charge of the city.” She said in a relaxed tone, though I couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Shouldn’t he be coming with us?” I questioned, causing Nuoda to blink.
“Huh? Oh! Sorry, no, Ennolf can’t really swim. He does like to fish, but it sounds like the fish wouldn’t be biting even if there was something our level for him to catch. Instead, he asked me to try to get him something from the rewards.”
I hesitated when I heard that, but it didn’t seem like it was a problem for Ennolf. Maybe that was because they were still able to see each other when they logged out, so they weren’t against doing their own things in the game.
After a long, drawn-out sigh, I nodded my head. Bella climbed into the passenger seat of the car, while Nuoda and Diane sat in the back. “Just to be clear, you’ve ridden in one of these things before, right?” I asked, earning a rich, hearty laugh from Nuoda.
“Yes, I’ve ridden in a car before, don’t worry.” She said with a bright smile, though Diane gave her a pitying look.
“Good, just wanted to make sure.” I said, turning the car on and focusing, the path projected in front of us leading up into the sky. I hit the gas, and the car shot off like a bullet, empowered by my Advanced Handling and various buff skills.
A shrill cry emerged from the back, and I turned my head to see Nuoda scrambling to grab onto something, her eyes wide in horror. “What the–why are we going this fast?!” She asked in shock.
“Oh, he’s just getting us to cruising altitude.” Bella chirped, utterly unbothered by the speed. “We’ll pick up speed once we don’t have to worry about any obstacles in the way.”
“I thought this was a car, not a jet…” Nuoda shuddered, her eyes still wide.
“Didn’t you say you’ve ridden cars like this before?” I asked in confusion, turning to look ahead. “Also, what’s a jet?”
Diane simply chuckled in a knowing tone. “A jet’s a vehicle designed to fly in the air at high speeds. And most cars usually don’t reach their top speed even once in their lives. On the other hand, you use your skills to raise the top speed, and still push the limits. Not to mention, we don’t have to worry about a bumpy road like most players would.”
After saying that, she looked over at Nuoda. “You can relax. Drake’s making the road in front of us, and he’s had a lot of practice at this point. If I didn’t know the system well enough by now, I’d assume that he would get a special skill for doing this. You wouldn’t even notice if we ran off the road, since he’d just make another one for us before it became an issue.”
Nuoda was just starting to relax, when those final words caused her body to stiffen up again. “Does that… happen often?”
“Like I said, we wouldn’t know.” Diane retorted, a playful glint in her eye. “We could be falling right now, and we’d have no idea.” When she said that, Nuoda’s eyes darted out the window, making sure the projected road was still beneath us.
“…You have an evil streak in you, Diane.” Bella laughed, shaking her head. “Don’t worry, Nuoda. We’ve never once gotten into an accident with Drake. Trust me, he’s more scared of this car getting damaged than you are. He knows how much it would cost to replace it.”
“…If something happens to this car, I’m just flying us around as a dragon from now on.” I retorted, focusing my gaze ahead. Even if I could eventually afford a new car, I didn’t think that I would be able to trust myself enough to drive it if I managed to crash a car while driving in an empty sky.
That seemed to help Nuoda relax a little bit, releasing the death grip she had on her door. “Well… at least now I understand how you all got around so fast.”
“Oh, if we just cared about speed, Drake could teleport us a lot faster than this.” Bella said, before pausing. “I don’t know if he could take three people with him, though. Maybe if Diane climbed on his back, we could each take a hand.”
“The car is much better.” Diane grunted at that mental image. “I don’t want a piggyback ride across half a continent. We don’t even really know how far it is to the sea.”
“Right…” Nuoda nodded her head, slowly starting to understand. “We don’t have a proper map of this realm yet. We’re not even entirely sure if there is an ocean, are we?”
“The theme of the realm fits.” I answered, eyes focused ahead as I leveled us out above the clouds. “With so many different biomes, there has to be an aquatic one. We just need to keep driving in a straight line until we either find it or circle back around to Fallcry. That’s why I wanted an extra day for the trip, just to be safe. If we can’t find the ocean within ten hours, I’ll turn around and go back to the portal.”
“I’d hope that won’t be necessary.” Diane said, pulling a face. “With how fast the schedule changes for the portal, it would be annoying to try to get where we wanted to go.”
After that, the car fell into silence as the girls watched the rocky landscape below, looking for any sign of a shift in biome. We flew past several monster territories, ranging from giant lizards to insects, and even giant humanoids.
It wasn’t until four hours later when we saw our target. An expanse of blue water stretched out across the horizon, causing Bella’s eyes to light up with excitement. Seeing the ocean, I let out a satisfied sigh. “Okay, everyone. Let’s establish some rules. We don’t know the level range on this coast. Also, Nuoda’s level is already really low, so we all have to stay within the area of my Ghost Zone.”
“I’ll appraise monsters when I can, and try to find a more isolated area where I can make our house for the night. Tomorrow, the monsters in the water should be safe, but we will still need to keep an eye out for any monsters on land. No letting your guard down just because this is, as Diane would call it, a ‘beach episode’.”
