Once the ship set sail, I found myself sitting on the deck, watching the waves. Looking over at Diane, I was immediately thankful that neither of us seemed to get seasick, though I shouldn't have been surprised with her. Knowing her history, I expected she played some form of pirate game at some point and was familiar with seafaring.

"This your first time on a ship, kids?" Slithers asked, walking up to us with a chair, setting it down next to us.

"In this game." Diane nodded her confirmation, and I did the same. After all, in the eyes of Slithers, I was still a player.

"Well, I don't know how it is in other games you've played. In other parts of the world, maybe, but you don't have to worry about pirates along this coast. Demons, maybe, but that's what we got you two here for." He spoke with a chuckle.

"Do you run into them often?" I asked, and he nodded.

"That's right. Though, that's usually when we head deeper into Evergreen. This time, we're just stopping at Elvenwall. It's our first time opening trade in nearly a month, so we want to make it count."

When I heard that, I looked over curiously. "Elvenwall? What sort of dungeons would be associated with a city name like that?"

Slithers paused, before letting out a laugh. "Ah! You don't know, do you boy? Not all cities in Evergreen have dungeons. They break the norm for most of the continent, because they're so often attacked by demons coming in from the sea. So, they have a bunch of cities along the coast, some of them with no dungeons at all."

"Elvenwall's one of those. Although it doesn't hold a dungeon, it controls the mouth of the Decaran River, which flows all the way to the heart of Evergreen. It's their biggest trade city, because goods can be easily and safely shipped up and down the river without having to worry about demonic attacks along the way, so long as Elvenwall stands."

"How long will it take us to get there?" Diane asked curiously, and Slithers looked up at the sky.

"The wind's not exactly in our favor, but don't you worry. We've got wind mages to help with that. Assuming we don't get delayed, we should be there in about a day and a half, maybe two days." My eyes widened slightly at that. I had started to get used to the speed afforded by our motorcycle, which could easily move a dozen times faster than this ship. However, Slithers mistook my expression, laughing again. "That's right. The Serpent's Scale is one of the fastest cogs of Ilsan. You just rest up, and we'll be there before you know it."

After he said that, he stood up, grabbing his chair and walking back towards the cabin. I couldn't help but look at Diane. "Are we sure we shouldn't just use the bike?"

Diane couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "It's fine. We already agreed to provide security. Besides, this is a good chance for you."

Seeing my curious look, Diane explained. "If you keep watch, you can train your Scout skill. You can also practice your projection skills. And if you get bored of those, you can use your water dragon form to dive into the water and hunt."

I hesitated for a moment, checking my skill levels. Whether it was Scout or the two projection skills, they were all three about to evolve to the master level. Additionally, Adrenaline Surge was finally about to evolve, as was Camouflage. "Did you plan this?" I asked in surprise, knowing that Diane could have easily suggested that we take our bike to cut the trip down to just an hour or two.

"Yes and no." She answered with a shrug. "I knew that you should have some skills on the verge of evolution. There are some that have been going for an unreasonably long time without progress, and you've been training so hard lately. At the same time, if we approach Evergreen through the proper channels instead of rushing in, it might be easier for us to find what we want. You are still looking for wood and ice-related skills, right?"

I paused at that, nodding my head slightly. "I can freeze my Water Projection, so I'm not as worried about ice. However, it would be good to get a wood skill. Typically, wood skills excel in defense and vitality, so a proper one of those would be able to significantly enhance me. Especially if it's a Martial one, but I won't hold my breath there."

"We'll see." Diane nodded her head. "I already got my profit from the auction of those dragon components. Most people paid in cash, but there were some good items mixed in, as well."

When I arched a brow, Diane gave a cheeky smile, holding up three fingers. "Three sets of Enchantment and Demotion books. Because of the scarcity of these books, they were able to buy up an entire Red Dragon's materials. Unfortunately, this auction really prides itself on anonymity, so I wasn't able to get in contact with the buyers to purchase more."

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My eyes went wide when I heard that Diane had managed to secure three more sets of books. That was a huge boon to us, especially. Typically, when we were planning our dungeon trips, we would only care about the basic-level skills offered by dungeons, that way we could train them to perfection.

With demotion books in hand, we could target dungeons with intermediate skills, and then demote them to the basic level. Or, since there were enchantment books too, we could modify a magic skill into a martial one, like we did with Fire Shaping and Water Shaping. I somewhat doubted that there would be an equivalent Wood Shaping skill, but even just a recovery and defense skill would be crucial.

Though, I took a long look at Diane, hesitant. "Were you at least able to make back the money you spent on the bike?" I asked, and she looked surprised at the question.

After that, with a soft chuckle, she nodded her head. "Yeah, don't worry. Like I said, most people paid with actual money. If everyone could use rare items to trade, they wouldn't be rare items anymore."

I let out a long sigh of relief, leaning back in my seat. "That's good. I was worried you might not be able to pay your bills if we didn't find anything good to sell soon."

Diane blinked at that, before shaking her head with a small smile on her face. "Don't worry. The country I live in doesn't charge residents for long-term stay like mine. I still have to pay if a major treatment is needed, but I don't have any monthly bills or anything like that. I sell items I collect in order to pay for luxuries, like the cost of playing the game itself or food that doesn't come out of a single-serving cup."

Well, that was certainly a good thing to hear. That had been bothering me ever since I learned about her condition in her world. If she had to pay regularly for her treatment, then we would have to find more and more valuable materials. However, if the money was just for luxuries, then we could relax a bit more.

Still, I gave a nod to her at that. "You go rest. Since this is going to be a two-day trip, we'll need someone on night watch. If you can handle that?" Her weekly checkup wasn't for a couple of days yet, so it should line up with the schedule.

Diane agreed, standing up and heading to the cabin. "I'll get some rest, then. Just make sure you do too, later." She urged, before vanishing into the cabin.

Meanwhile, I took her advice and began to train my skills, briefly startling some of the sailors when they saw fire manifesting in front of me. Once they realized I was simply training, they went back to their stations.

Given that I was preparing to 'advertise' my presence to the world in the coming months as part of the deal I made with the GM, I decided that there was no need for me to hide my training methods. Besides, it would have been more unusual if I simply vanished for hours at a time while training under stealth.

It wasn't like these sailors were going to have anyone to talk to about it during this trip anyways. So, with peace of mind, I focused on my training, my eyes sweeping the horizon to scan for any potential threats to the safety of the ship.

During the first long day of training, the skills I had been keeping an eye on finally evolved, doing so within the span of a few hours. Predictably, Fire and Water Projection both turned into Fire and Water Intent-X. Unfortunately, those two skills didn't fuse, but they were just elemental variants of Martial Intent-X. Adrenaline Surge reached level 51, which told me that it was already a Master skill, and I had not picked it up from the novice level.

Scout turned into Hawkeye-X, allowing me to project my vision outside of my body. When I tested it, I could project my vision up to fifty meters away. The distance would probably increase with skill level, but… this was not an easy skill to train while moving like Scout was. It was incredibly disorienting to not have my vision attached to my body.

Finally, Camouflage turned into False Identity-X. As expected, this was just a direct upgrade of the Camouflage skill, but it allowed for a complete redesign of my physical appearance, including race, gender, and everything else. There was just a limit to how short or tall I could make myself. And, of course, it didn't let me affect my status. Wisteria had already told us that was the effect of a grandmaster-level skill.

Still, as a test, I was able to perfectly replicate Diane's appearance, and even her voice. Though, I only held that form for a moment before reverting, not wanting to create any misconceptions. At the very least, my false brand should no longer be at risk of discovery. Though… now that I thought about it, did I really need the false brand anymore?

Yes. Yes I did. I might be willing to advertise my status to the players in order to get the necessary benefits, but there were still too many other Fallen that would cause problems. For instance, the elven nation that we were heading to. Although the respect of the elves for players was immense, their disdain for halfbloods like myself ran just as deep. If they learned that I was a halfblood Fallen, it would make our stay in Evergreen far more difficult than it needed to be.

Especially if they learned that I was a 'Failure' halfblood. There was the chance that they could even try to kick me out of the country entirely for that.

So, for now, it was better to maintain the false brand, even if I was willing to reveal my ability to cast skills at no cost. In the worst case scenario, a player would tell the elves about my identity to stir up problems. But, if that happened, I now had more than enough confidence in completely changing my identity and continue traveling in Evergreen.

As I was thinking about that, the sun began to set over the horizon, and Diane emerged from the cabin to relieve me. Part of me wanted to stay on the deck to keep her company, but she practically shoved me into the cabin, telling me how I needed to rest or else I'd be useless for my next shift, which earned a round of laughter from the watching sailors.

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