Over an hour after we set out flying, we began to see the city of Fallcry on the horizon, and the village nestled against the forest a short distance away. With my detection skills, I could make out several members of the Twisted Eye within the village, though they were not wearing their traditional magic robes. Instead, they were leather armors and dressed like typical bounty hunters.

  To my surprise, none of them seemed overly uncomfortable with this change, walking around with their hands on their weapons in a state of passive readiness. “I can see some players in the village,” Pandora called out from my back. “Land here, and I’ll go to investigate.”

  Nodding my head, I landed several hundred meters away from the village, setting down as gently as I could. Pandora jumped off from my back, clearing his throat and running a hand through his black hair. As he did, his hair changed to a long, flowing red. He blinked, and his eyes changed to green. Then, he began rolling his shoulders and adjusting his body shape.

  Soon, he was no longer a well-dressed man in his early thirties, but rather a young woman in her twenties. He went so far as to change his outfit into a leather tunic with a short, brown skirt, and placed a pair of daggers at his waist.

  Finally, he dipped into the forest, only emerging once he was outside of the area of my Ghost Zone. From this distance, it was hard to tell what he said, but I knew that it would probably be nothing over the top. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself, and Diane’s friends were all experienced roleplayers.

  As I was about to enhance my senses to get an idea of what was going on, Diane sent me a message. Wisteria’s about to arrive. She was waiting for us to show up, so she could teleport to us. Raise your body a little bit and spread your wings to block as much of the view of the ground around you as possible. Once she’s here, she’ll enter stealth and make her way to the village.

  I did as Diane instructed, lifting my body as if stretching, my wings spread out to either side. Those still on my back shook in surprise, with Rimu laughing. “Easy there, big guy. We’re still up here.”

  “Sorry,” I responded, noticing a brief spatial distortion below my right wing. I caught just a flash of red hair before it disappeared. “I’m not used to carrying this much weight on my body at once.”

  “Understandable. I know I’m quite heavy,” Dwayne said in an apologetic tone. “Honestly, I was surprised when you were able to carry me at all. I’m curious about the mechanisms behind your flight. Though, for now, we need to remain mounted, just in case. If there are players in the village, they might be problematic. If so, we’ll have to detour to go to the dungeon city first for supplies and to set our respawn.”

  I nodded my head, seemingly agreeing with them. As I did, Diane sent me another message. I’ve just consulted with Wisteria. When we encounter each other later, the three of us are going to fight her. Even with us limiting our abilities with these disguises, it would be hard for the Twisted Eye players to fight us. Since your role is a stealth-based dragon, focus on abilities that suit that. I’ll essentially be playing a shadow mage, and Bella will be an archer. However, you may need to keep an eye on her, and use your construction skill if you hear her call out a natural attack. Other than that, I’ll leave the choice of skills up to you.

  Once two of the three enemies have been killed, Bella and I will rush to you, making a show of us fleeing the fight. I’ve arranged with Nuoda for three individuals who have learned Transform to assume our appearances and arrive near the end, when the battle is already over. If I’m right about how the system handles these sponsorship clips, it will take our intentions into consideration and not reveal our identities if we take this level of precaution.

  With that, her messages ceased, and I could tell that she was starting her own preparations. A few minutes later, Pandora returned, looking pleased with himself… herself? I wasn’t even sure what to call Pandora at this moment. “Okay, it looks like it’s just a standard defense force from the city, since the village is too close to the forest,” Pandora said with a cheerful smile.

  “You sure,” Dwayne questioned, slowly dropping down from my back together with Rimu. “It seems a little much for a detached defense force.”

  “I thought so, too,” Pandora nodded in agreement. “Apparently, a child from the village was recently abducted, so they posted a bounty for local monsters. We can use this as a chance to draw them into the forest where nobody can see. We’ll need to act fast, though. Once the players know what’s up, they’ll probably alert the city.”

  After saying that, Pandora turned to face me. “After a quick round of combat to test ourselves against the local group, we’ll head for the dungeon city. For that, we’ll be relying on you, Cassium. This hunt will divert their focus away from the dungeons to the west, and increase our chances of sneaking in. If they’re too strong, we’ll need your help in getting out of the area.”

  I grunted softly, nodding as I looked at the village. I could see Wisteria now, mingling among the normal players. If I hadn’t known to look for her, I’d have completely missed her. “Fine. Let’s get this over with fast. I’m curious about that dungeon city.”

  Pandora gave that same bright smile again. “Got it! I’ll go and handle the preparation. Dwayne, take them to find a good ambush location.”

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  Dwayne didn’t hesitate, turning to lead the way. “Alright, come on you guys. Cassium, can you cover your tracks while you move? It would be too obvious if they see dragon tracks in this forest.”

  I thought about that for a moment. As a ‘phantom dragon’, it made sense for me to be able to erase my tracks when walking. Thus, I nodded my head. “If I use one of my skills, Pass Without Traces, I can remove any evidence of my passing.”

  To demonstrate, I lifted one foot off the ground. The grass and soil, which had previously been crushed under my weight, returned to normal within moments. Naturally, this was just a simple use of Instant Fortifications-X, not some new Pass Without Traces skill. However, there was no way for them to tell the difference.

  “That’s good,” Dwayne sighed in relief. “In that case, Rimu will bring up the rear to watch for scouts. Typically, we like to take up a position about a half-hour’s walk away, to give time for Pandora to settle into his role and find targets. After that, it’s just a matter of patiently waiting.”

  I didn’t argue with him, letting Bella and Diane continue riding my back as I followed behind Dwayne. As we walked, I constantly used my skill to cover my tracks, keeping the ground just as pristine as it was before I passed through. It was at this moment that I was thankful for my training when building the Sunset Isles, allowing me to do something like this naturally.

  True to his word, we stopped our walk about thirty minutes into the forest, taking advantage of my stealth field to avoid the wandering monsters in the forest. “Wow, man,” Rimu noted from behind me, looking up in surprise. “It’s amazing that you’re able to keep this skill up for so long. You haven’t taken it down since we left your camp earlier, right?”

  I blinked, looking back at him as I realized my mistake. In truth, I should have been more careful, only using my Ghost Zone in brief bursts as needed. Thankfully, Diane answered before I had time to think of an excuse. “It’s partially because of his racial, which makes stealth skills cheaper and easier to train. He’s also trained this one beyond the evolution level, just to reduce its cost as much as he can. Between those two, he can keep the skill active constantly.”

  “However, if we decide that we desperately need a higher degree of stealth, he’s been ready to evolve it for a while.” Diane patted my back as she said this, offering the explanation both for Rimu as well as myself. In other words, I would ‘evolve’ the skill in order to flee from Wisteria later. “The downside there is that the evolved skill would start burning a large amount of mana again, so we’ve been saving it as a trump card, or for when monsters start being able to see through his stealth.”

  “Smart plan,” Dwayne praised. “For now, it seems like this level of stealth is enough to deter monsters in the area.”

  After saying that, we reached a large clearing next to a hill. At the base of the hill were a few large stones, which Dwayne nodded appreciatively at. “This will be our position. I’ll hide among the rocks, and Rimu will be with me. Lia, can you hide in the branches of the tree? As a dryad, that should be the best position for you to act from. As for Cassium and Nyx, I don’t know enough about your races to find ideal positions for you, but I trust you can handle it yourself.”

  Bella nodded, moving to climb one of the nearby trees as Dwayne began typing out a message. At the same time, I carried Diane up to the top of the hill, perching there and removing the others from my Ghost Zone. Now that I had their eyes off of me, I created a Ki General, commanding it to remain in stealth and support Diane with Instant Fortification based on her actions.

  Knowing that the others couldn’t hear me, I let out a low sigh. “Acting like this is tiring,” I confessed to Diane, who slipped off of my back with a knowing grin, stretching her arms.

  “Don’t worry, it’s almost over. Once Wisteria and the others get here, we’ll be able to finish this quest. Not to mention the extra information we got.”

  “Speaking of…” I looked down at her curiously. “Is it really so easy for players to trust each other? They shouldn’t have told us about that so easily, right?”

  “They probably didn’t tell us everything,” Diane shook her head with a knowing tone. “Not because they don’t trust us, but because they felt like the information was unimportant to them. But that’s how typical players are. If your interests align, you’re a friend. Even if you’re meeting for the first time. That’s probably especially true for monster players, since they don’t get as much social interaction as normal ones.”

  “In their eyes, we’re basically novices to the game, even if we have impressive skills. The fact that we didn’t know about the dungeon cities meant that they were able to play the role of a mentor, and teach their inexperienced juniors how to play. All in all, I’d give them a seven out of ten as players. They have good etiquette towards other players, but they’re not immersed enough to feel anything when they are playing a clear villain role.”

  “Normal good guys would feel guilty, whereas psychos would be happy for the ability to kill without punishment. For them, they don’t see any of it as real, and refuse to immerse themselves in their roles. In other words, they’re casual gamers. I’d bet anything that all three of them are playing in sleep mode, and that’s the only way that they can get enough time to play a game like this.”

  I nodded my head in understanding. While she threw out a few terms I wasn’t entirely familiar with, I was able to make out the gist of what she was saying. “If they are just doing this casually, doesn’t that mean that they are more likely to delete their character later?”

  Diane thought about it, before shrugging her shoulders. “It could go either way. It depends on how their lives are on the outside. If they have other games to turn to, they might just leave their characters in limbo and abandon the game without ever deleting the character. They might check in every few days for a while to see if they’re still in jail before giving up. Or, if they decide that it’s hopeless from the start and don’t have any other games to play, they may delete their character within the first three days.”

  As she was explaining that, I heard a faint voice at the edge of my perception. My head turned, and I could see the distant party approaching, led by Pandora’s new disguise. And at the back of the party was none other than Wisteria herself, blending in like a normal Chosen, her burnt brand covered with a headband.