I didn't go back to Elvenwall on Saturday night, nor did I go Sunday either. Instead, I spent that time training. After mastering the method behind the Shallow Palm, I wanted to brush up on other skills that I hadn't used in a little while, such as Counter Attack, Sunder, or simply Unarmed Expertise. At the same time, I wanted to test out each of the various skills that I hadn't tried yet with my draconic transformation, just so that I would have a better understanding of the effects.

Most of them were fairly self-explanatory. The only one that I absolutely refused to try again was when I used Hawkeye-X as the medium. Every scale on my body seemed to turn into an eye. I had three hundred and sixty degree view, but at the same time, my vision was split into thousands of different segments, each one like a window into a narrow field of view.

I almost threw up just from the sensory overload of that form, and immediately cancelled it. I was sure that there was someone that would be able to handle input like that, but it wasn't me.

It wasn't until Monday morning that I went back to the space just outside of Elvenwall again after grinding down the temporary house that I had been staying at. Jana was waiting for me with a grin, already standing next to a filled water tank, the balloon floating inside. "Finally back from your solo training?" She asked, and my eyes flicked a bit wider. "I got curious when I heard you never came back, so I went to check on you briefly. Saw that you seemed okay, so I didn't stick around."

I nodded my head, walking over. I lightly slapped the side of the tank, controlling the force I released how I had trained over the weekend. Jana's grin only grew as the balloon within the tank silently burst, but the tank itself didn't shatter.

"Looks like your training really paid off. Guess all those extra skills you have aren't just for show." She said, the quest completing itself. Because I already had the skill, it instead gave me more experience for it. Counting the levels I already had, it brought the level of Shallow Palm straight to fifteen.

As Jana put away the tank, I watched her carefully. "You said that you also had a quest for me for Perception?" I asked, and she nodded her head, pulling out a gold coin.

"Yup. It's quite simple. I'm going to flip this coin, and you're going to watch it. If you can accurately tell me what side it landed on before I reveal it, you'll complete the quest." Although this quest sounded difficult, expecting someone to keep their eyes on a rapidly spinning coin, that wasn't the case.

Since there were only two possibilities, then even a blind guess would have a fifty percent chance of success. Given that I could likely repeat this test numerous times, it was essentially just a free skill.

Jana flipped the coin with her thumb, causing it to fly into the air. I focused my eyes, tracking the skill with Hawkeye-X as it descended. With my dynamic vision, I could just make out the coin landing face-down on her hand before she covered it up. "Tails." I said, and she revealed the coin. Sure enough, the quest was completed, and I had my Perception skill back.

"Any other skills you'd like to train?" Jana asked, putting the coin back in her inventory and placing her hands confidently on her hips. However, I shook my head.

"My friends and I are getting ready to leave today. They were just waiting for me to finish my training." I told her. Knowing Diane, she probably mastered the skills that she was given on her first day. That would explain the stabbing technique that she used on the lizards.

"Friends? Thought it was just you and the girl." Jana said in a confused tone, before I nodded towards a space behind her.

She turned around, and saw both Diane and Bella walking over. I had informed them that I was on my way back to town, so they must have been ready to leave too. Jana grinned teasingly, looking back at me. "You work fast, ladykiller. Never thought I'd see the day when Bella ran off with another party. She's a bit of a troublemaker, so you be sure to take care of her now." She said in a knowing tone, and I simply grunted, nodding my head.

"You ready to go?" Diane asked calmly as she walked over. When I gave another nod, she reached into her inventory, pulling out a large vehicle that put the motorcycle to shame. It was about five meters long, and completely sealed. Inside, I could see two seats in the front, and three in the back, as well as a strange wheel in front of one of the seats.

The exterior of the car was dark green with a scale-like pattern on it, something I was almost positive Diane either requested from Iron Forge or painted on herself. I did my best to control my reaction, not wanting to tip Jana off that this was my first time seeing a car. However, I couldn't stop the twitching of my lips as Diane walked over to the right side door on the front. "Get in." She said, pointing to the opposite door, where the strange wheel was.

I followed her instructions, getting in the car as Bella calmly climbed into the back. Jana kept blinking in confusion, showing the reaction I was trying very hard not to show. "This is a button ignition. Press the button next to the wheel to start it. Left pedal brakes, right pedal speeds up. The wheel turns it left or right, like the handlebars of the bike." She said, going through and explaining step-by-step the various operations of the car.

"There's also a radio that connects to a player-run station, air conditioning, and heating. The red button reveals the hidden weapons, which you can use the same way as with the bike." As she explained, I tried my best to take in the information, gripping the wheel uncomfortably.

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Seeing this, Diane hesitated, before sighing. "Let's start with a test drive. Create a road for us with your Martial Intent-X, and make sure that it's wide enough for the whole car. Then, you can start slow and get comfortable driving."

I nodded my head, starting the car up and slowly driving it up a projected ramp, leaving the confused Jana behind. It felt… almost wrong. In the bike, I could feel the wind in my face, the vibration between my legs. In the car, though? There was no wind, there were almost no vibrations. The inner space was quiet enough that I could hear Bella's breathing in the back seat.

"Normally, a car like this would come with seat belts for passenger protection." Diane explained, leaning back in her seat as I slowly began to pick up speed, experimenting with turning left and right. "However, this was made for a fantasy game world. Since players need to be able to quickly exit the vehicle in case of a monster attack, certain safety features were left out. In later versions, they said that they want to include a module with a respawn stone."

I listened carefully, my eyes flicking to the speedometer every few seconds to check our speed. Without feeling the wind against my face, or even crashing against a projected barrier to shield us from the wind, it wasn't as easy to judge how fast we were going. "Where are you wanting to go next?" I asked, and Diane glanced back towards Bella.

"From what Bella told me, and what I learned on the forums, there are two cities that I want to visit while we're in Evergreen. Neither one of them is particularly close. First, there's Quick Heights, a port city along the northern border almost five hundred kilometers north of us. Second, there's Blazewood, which is near the far west of the country. That's where Slithers would get those skill books he mentioned before."

After saying that, Diane hesitated. "There's also one other stop that I'd like to make, but it's not for a few days."

I glanced over in confusion, and she cleared her throat. "A player idol group is holding a concert in Managlow this Friday, and I'd like to try to see it. They're apparently really popular, and they tour all over Evergreen to perform."

I couldn't help but smile slightly, nodding my head. "In that case, why don't we go to Blazewood first, and see what we can get there? We'll set a deadline to leave Thursday at the latest, that way we can be sure to make it to that performance in time."

Diane listened to my suggestion, but then paused. "But, if we do that, we'll only have a few days to get the skills in Blazewood for you." She said hesitantly, but I dismissed her concerns.

"If that's the case, so be it. If Quick Heights isn't improperly named, I should be able to get some speed skill there. Since I already have my construction skill and the support skill, I'd rather miss out on more attack skills if I had to choose."

At that, Bella leaned forward, her head between Diane and I. "Can we really go all over Evergreen in just a week with this thing?" She asked in amazement, and Diane smirked.

"If we wanted to, we could easily visit both Blazewood and Quick Heights today, depending on how long it takes Drake to get comfortable driving. When we eventually leave Evergreen, my plan was to have Drake just drive us over the ocean."

Bella's eyes went wide at that, before she looked at the two of us again. "Am I really not going to drag you two down? I'm hardly strong enough to fight on your level at all."

"That'll change soon." Diane said in a confident tone. "In our party, Drake's sort of an all-rounder, since he keeps picking up random skills. However, his main role is the tank. Mine is melee damage, and yours is ranged damage. Ideally, I'd like to have a mage or a healer join us, but I don't want to have to plan around other people too much. And Drake can basically handle the mage part on his own."

"I'm, as she so eloquently put it, the Muscle Wizard." I said with a chuckle, and Diane's eyes widened. "Your chosen told me."

"Traitor…" She muttered under her breath.

"Speaking of which, we should have probably brought this up before." I began, gripping the wheel. "Here in another month or so, there's supposed to be another big patch. After that patch, the GMs are going to be filming Diane and I on a regular basis to promote the game to other players. You're not going to have to worry about seeing them or anything, it will just be something that happens out of our perception."

"However, at the time, we weren't really expecting to have a third member of our party with us. Are you alright with that arrangement? It'll mean that players find out about you being a Fallen." When I said that, Bella stiffened, and Diane glanced back at her in concern.

"If it's okay… can you tell me the purpose of the arrangement? On your end, I mean." She said with a gulp, and I nodded.

"I'll be earning a special resource that I can spend to directly question the system governing the world, asking about skills, items, and other benefits. This will also help me get resources for Diane more easily." When I said that, she looked in confusion between Diane and I.

"I'm sorry if this sounds weird, but why are you so interested in getting resources for her? Like, her specifically? Shouldn't you be selling the resources yourself, and just splitting the coin with her?"

Hearing Bella's question, I glanced at Diane. "You didn't tell her?" I asked, and Diane shrank back slightly.

"It never really came up… But, if you're going to be with us, I suppose you deserve to know." After she said that, she turned back to Bella, explaining her situation in her world, as well as her past. Bella's eyes grew wide, her face going pale.

Once Diane was done explaining, she gave a small shrug. "That's why Drake's so dead set on helping me gather resources to sell. I don't just sell it for coin, but also the currency players use out of the game."

However, Bella quickly leaned forward, grabbing Diane and pulling her into a hug while loudly crying. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were dealing with something like that!" She said, tears streaming down her face. "Don't worry! We'll get anything we can for you, okay?! Just leave it to us!"

I couldn't help but chuckle, shaking my head. Bella had gotten far more open with her emotions, now that she didn't have to put on an act all the time.

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