We kept driving for over an hour, Diane walking me through how to use the car any time I was confused. Personally, I wasn't even sure how something this big still counted as equipment. Just how big could vehicles get before they could no longer fit in the inventory?

When I asked that question to Diane, she said that it depended on how many people it could carry. Five seats was the upper limit for an item that could be stowed in the inventory. Anything bigger, and it would be considered a large-scale transport, and would have to be stored in an independent garage.

In other words, we wouldn't be getting a vehicle better than this any time soon. Though, on the bright side, she informed me of some other features that had been worked into the car, partially thanks to our earlier test with dragon shifting the bike.

Apparently, they had modified their existing vehicles with certain skills in mind. One branch of skills included were healing skills, with the vehicles able to repair themselves if a healing skill was channeled through them. When I heard about this, I felt myself relaxing considerably, as I had been worried about breaking yet another expensive vehicle.

Gradually, I began to feel more and more comfortable driving, willing to increase the speed to its limit without using my own enhancement skills. "By the way." Diane looked back at Bella, then over at me. "Find somewhere for us to park for now. Before we hit the next city, I want you to enchant the gear we got for Bella back in Elvenwall."

I nodded my head, angling the road downwards and began a slow descent towards a large hill nearby. I didn't see any roaming monsters, so it would make a good spot for us to take a break. Once we were stopped, Diane walked me through turning the car off, and then we all got out. Diane walked to the back of the car, and began laying out pieces of equipment on the trunk.

There was a simple brown tunic with brown shoulder pads, black shorts, fingerless elbow gloves with leather bracers, brown thigh boots, a black headband, and finally a bow. "Everything has three slots." Diane told me, and I nodded my head. "Bella picked it out mostly for the style, but this gear's just temporary until she catches up with us. I've already asked Hammerhead to make her a proper set of high level gear in advance."

"Y-you really didn't have to do that." Bella said hesitantly, looking at the gear. She was still wearing her bulky mix of medium and heavy armor, but there was a longing in her eyes for the gear displayed before her.

I simply chuckled, shaking my head. "Let's do this." I said, moving to the headband first. I downcast a Stealth skill, making it a passive effect of the headband. However, rather than putting her into stealth, it just lowered her presence to a normal value. After that, I put a stacking enhancement of all attributes on each piece of armor with my Duke of All Trades-X.

Again, because I wanted to make this a passive effect, the power of the buff was considerably lessened, but the stacking effect would easily double her overall stats.

Finally, the last enchantment I put on her gear was a modified Internal Recovery-X on all but the headband. However, instead of having it heal Bella specifically, it was designed to repair the armor if it got damaged. When I explained this to Diane, she arched her brow, shooting me a look.

"Shouldn't you prioritize Bella's safety over the safety of the equipment?" She asked, with Bella rapidly nodding her head in agreement.

I simply chuckled in response. "If something happens to Bella and she dies, she can respawn. However, if she takes a fire dragon's breath, and her armor gets destroyed, she would respawn practically naked. Are you still sure that you don't want self-mending armor?" That was probably the sole reason that I hadn't changed out of the set Hammerhead made for me, due to its innate blood repair.

Hearing my explanation, both girls went pale, quickly shaking their heads. Diane even quickly swapped back to her old equipment, laying her new set out on the hood next to Bella's and giving me a firm look. Chuckling, I took my time to give the self-repairing enchantment to Diane's gear as well, and she let out a sigh of relief as she re-equipped everything.

"As for your bow… there are a few things that I could do with it." I looked over at Bella. "Personally, I have Empty Bow Expertise, so I don't use arrows. However, I don't know if that would have a mana burden associated with it. It isn't listed in my skill window, and is just treated like a proficiency. So, if you'd like, I could just teach you that skill directly through a quest instead."

Bella hesitated for a moment, before shaking her head. "I'm already working towards that skill on my own. I already reached the limit of Bow Proficiency, so I just need to practice Ki Arrow a bit more. For my bow, can you put on something to increase my critical strike chance?"

I gave a nod, enchanting the bow with Detect Weakness and Assassinate. "I'll leave one slot free on your bow, just in case we come across a skill we like later." I said, and she took the gear from the trunk of the car with a smile. Without hesitation, she swapped to her new equipment. A shimmer surrounded her body, and she was immediately adorned in the new equipment, which displayed her figure far better than her old armor.

With this rest stop taken care of, we hopped back in the car and began driving. This time, Diane showed me the compass on the dash of the car, and helped me use that to navigate our way to Blazewood.

This drive took several hours, during which Diane and Bella spent the time talking and getting to know each other better. It seemed that they had spent quite a bit of time together over the weekend while I was training, and had quickly become friends. Personally, I was quite happy with that fact.

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About four hours into our drive, I could see the city of Blazewood on the horizon. Oddly, the entire city was surrounded by what seemed to be a burning forest, the canopy lit up like a sea of flames. Despite this, there was no sign of panic from the citizens that I could see. I suppose that's why they call it Blazewood. I thought to myself, driving the car down to the road just outside the forest, where we all got off.

After getting my backpack out of the trunk, I stowed the car away, and we began walking into the city as Diane described the skills we were targeting here. Originally, the only skills we were after here would be Burning Blood and Arbor Force. The former allowed the user to ignite their blood, damaging them in exchange for increased physical attributes. In addition, the user would gain a fire attribute to any melee attacks.

The latter was a skill similar to Fortitude of Nature. However, this was a specifically offensive skill, which allowed the user to create plant-based weapons as long as they were in a natural environment.

After Bella joined us, though, Diane added the Fire Arrow skill to our list of targets. Although this skill was basically useless for me, it would be nice for Bella. Especially if she could fuse it with Ki Arrow and Bow Proficiency to create a fire version of Empty Bow Proficiency.

The problem was that each of these skills dropped from different dungeons. And given how popular Evergreen was with players, there was a chance we might not be able to hit all three dungeons before leaving. Diane looked at me after explaining this, as if silently telling me that this was my last chance to change my mind on which city to tackle first.

I simply shook my head, continuing to walk through the path in the flaming forest. "We'll aim for Fire Arrow first if we can. After that, Burning Blood and Arbor Force, depending on which is available."

Diane sighed at my decision, though nodded her head in resignation, while Bella gulped nervously. She looked like she was about to ask if that was okay again, but both Diane and I shot her a look that made her shrink her neck back and nod.

Soon, the two of us approached the city gates, where we were met by a pair of elven women with slim builds holding spears. When they saw us, they smiled brightly. "You must be Drake and his party." One of them said, surprising me. She caught my reaction and giggled. "The guards of every city were given your pictures after you left Elvenwall, so we could welcome you properly wherever you arrived. Though, it's been only six hours since then, so I am amazed you made it all the way here so quickly."

"We have a player vehicle." I explained, and the two nodded their heads, having heard about the car as well.

"Very well. If you don't mind, you can feel free to tell us what skills you're looking for in Blazewood." The first guard explained, while the second seemed to be typing a message. Likely letting whoever was in charge of them know that we had arrived. 'As long as there's a suitable teacher here, we can help you."

Diane and I looked at one another, before Diane took the initiative to speak. "We're on a time crunch, since we need to be in Managlow by Thursday night. Right now, we're looking for the skills Fire Arrow, Arbor Force, and Burning Blood. We would prefer to be able to run the dungeons, however, as that would allow us to help level Bella up."

The guards, upon hearing that, put on a rather interesting expression. "Fire Arrow's not a problem… most guards here know that, even. However, Arbor Force and Burning Blood… I'm not sure if there is anyone currently in the city with those skills."

It was my turn to be confused. "I could understand people not wanting to learn Burning Blood. However, Arbor Force seems like it would be a great skill for elves to learn."

"Oh, it is!" The guard nodded her head emphatically. "A month ago, there were dozens of elites that had mastered the skill to its second or third stage. However, there was a recent deployment order with the last patch, and our elites were sent to Ashenfort to depart for the front lines."

"Normally, there would still be people capable of teaching the skill, but it is a very rare drop that you can only obtain from the final boss of the Verdant Forge. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to secure another copy of the skill for our own people."

I pursed my lips, able to read between the lines there. Normally, the smart thing to do would be to have players bring the skill book back if it dropped, give it to a Fallen, and then have that Fallen issue a quest to teach the skill to the players. However, the fact that they didn't have anyone with the relevant skills was a sign that players had been refusing to give the skill book to the elves, even if they would only have to perform a minor task to get the skill themselves afterwards.

Or, perhaps the elves were too unwilling to ask this of the players, due to their intense desire to please them. No… if I thought back to Grog and his party, the most likely answer would be that players lied about obtaining the skill at all, that way they could feel like they were monopolizing it for themselves as a trump card.

"If that's the case, I'll have someone teach me--" Bella began, before I cut her off by shaking my head.

"Like Diane said, we would prefer to run the dungeons to get you experience at the same time." In addition, this would minimize the risk of Bella being discovered. I turned, looking at the guard who had been sending messages. "Can you try to arrange dungeon reservations for us? I would rather prioritize getting the Fire Arrow skill above the other two."

"Of course." The guard nodded her head quickly, sending another message. "I'll ask them to reserve the earliest time slot available for you. If you would go to the player inn, I'll have a messenger alert you when the time comes."

I thought about it for a moment, before shaking my head. "It's fine. We're not fans of large crowds, so we'll camp out. I don't want to be treated like a celebrity or anything by other players." After saying that, I looked down the path we came from. "Two hundred meters, on the right hand side. I'll set our camp up there, and you can deliver any necessary messages there."

The guards looked surprised, before a look of realization dawned on the one that we had originally been speaking with. "Your construction skill, right? There are Fire Treants in this forest, but they shouldn't appear that close to the road. Additionally, they rarely move, and will just attack anyone that approaches where they are lurking."

I thanked the guard for her advice, before turning around to leave with the other two, speaking to them in party chat. This city seems even more popular for players than Elvenwall. It would be best not to risk staying at a public facility. Too many players could recognize Diane and I.

That was the reason why I had rarely left my room when we were at Elvenwall, as I didn't want to take the risk of being recognized. Now that I had my construction skill, there was no need to take such a risk at all. And the guards seemed more than happy to file for the dungeon reservation on my behalf.

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