Fate Online: Shadow

"Hmmp!"

Micheal snorted as he flipped backwards, and a flash of swordlight flashed below him while he's in mid air,

.

"What the fuck!? How the hell does this guy evades all of our attacks!? And can someone tell me if the game even have that kind of a skill!?"

A wizard screamed in anger when he saw Michael evading their attacks by back flipping multiple times!

"F*ck! You can fight like that in the game!?"

"That's pretty sick, are those real life skills or those are just some skills of an assassin?"

"But the question is, who the heck is this guy? He just came out alone looking ragged from the Forest of Despair!"

The scene happening is causing a huge ruckus among the onlooking players who got attracted by the angry yelling and shouting of the party battling Michael.

A few minutes later.

"Bastard"

Michael cursed as he kicked the body of the hunter on the ground before it disappeared, before making his way over towards the nearest human settlement that's just a mile away from his location, as he could even the silhouette of the tall walls of the place with how wide the plain he's currently at, but not before picking up his spoils of battle.

He ignored all the people who tried to recruit him after seeing how he easily dispatched a party all by himself, but he was actually wary of them, as he wouldn't be able to take care of them if all of them jumped at him at the same time.

And what he did earlier wasn't easy, and in fact, you need to have a good coordination of your skills, an advantage in both levels and equipment, ones' luck, and how noob your opponents would be.

And everything listed above were all present when he fought the team of players earlier, and it's not like he's the only one who could do something like that, as there were also others who could do what he did, like Genesis and the others, and let's not even forget those veteran experts who's been playing virtual games for many years already.

"Hey! Don't go! Let's talk!" The players yelled from behind him.

Michael also had another reason for ignoring them, and that is because his equipment durability is really low right now, and if gets himself into another fight, then there's a high possibility that he would lose all of his equipment when their durability reaches zero, and he doesn't want for something like that to happen, especially with how high end his equipments are.

"Finally here"

Michael said, breathing hard, while he observed his surroundings, and he could see some words plastered on the tall wall in front of him, and the wall is so high that it's almost as tall a ten story building.

[Stormwind Fortress]

'Another fortress' Michael thought to himself.

The Stormwind Fortress, is a heavily guarded city with a size of twenty football stadium combined together and was built in a wide plain called Kanto Plain in Sunrise Empire, and with different monsters surrounding the place all year round, from goblins, to lone wolves, horned rabbits, even bears could be seen roaming the plains, and of course, there are also those players killing the monsters, and bandits hiding in the mountainous region near the fortress.

In fact, there are actually multiple fortresses built around the borders of the Forest of Despair, it was because the kingdoms and empires near the forest would always suffer from a beast tide every few years, and that's the reason behind the fortresses, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers are stationed all year round, and would only thin out after a beast tide.

Michael then entered the city, along with NPCs, and players alike as they passed through a huge gate, and under the gazes of the soldiers stationed at the gate.

Unlike the soldiers back at Elwynn Fortress who are dressed like Roman Soldiers, the soldiers in Stormwind Fortress are instead donned in armor similar to the ones that the ancient chinese soldiers used to wear during the Warring States Period, and their weapons are mostly spears and along with a sheathed sword on their waist, as they stood erect like their spears, and Michael could certainly feel the aura of ferocity around them, he wouldn't even doubt that they would immediately pounce into someone who looks totally suspicious.

And when their eyes landed on him, they stared at him for a bit, but their focus is mostly directly to his tattered attire, before averting their eyes away.

After all, Michael looks like someone who had just returned from a long war with how tattered he looks right now.

So he immediately made his way to the forge after asking for directions, as he really wanted to get his equipment get repaired badly.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Michael could already hear the sound of metal striking against metal as he slowly got closer to his destination, and a few moments later, he arrived in front of a two story building, and at the entrance of the building is a plaque hanging above the doorway, with an anvil and hammer engraved on it, and the words "Desmond's Forge" written beside it.

Michael entered the building and what he saw first are not..humans, but small but burly people whose height only reaches over Michael's waist, and there are three of them smithing at the back of the store.

'Dwarves?'

Michael thought in surprise, he heard them before, especially from stories, but mostly from movies.

'So there are dwarves in this world'

He thought as he made his way to the counter, there are also players and NPCs alike in the shop, either getting their items repaired or just window shopping.

It was finally Michael's turn after two minutes, and arrived in front of the counter with a somewhat good looking blonde woman manning the counter.

A few minutes later, Michael came out of the forge looking good as new after getting his equipment repaired.

Michael then headed somewhere, and half an hour later, he arrived inside the outer section of an army barracks inside the fortress city, and unlike Haven City, where players could get quest inside their City Administration, Stormwind and Elwynn Fortress are very different, as the army would be the one issuing the quest, and anyone could apply for one as long as its within their abilities.

He arrived in front of a long wooden board, with many quest pinned on it and currently surrounded by a crowd of players, racing over each other to get the relatively easy quest before the others could get them.

'Slaying a dragon? Are these people nuts?'

Micheal thought that he read it wrong, so he moved forward to get a closer while pushing those on the way without a care if they're even angry, and when he got a closer look, he realized that he was seeing things, and he even thought that the army is crazy enough to issue a quest like this.

[Slay a Dragon]

Kill the Forest Dragon that resides inside the Forest of Despair.

Rewards: 50,000 Gold Coins, Title: Marquis, and pick two items of your choice inside the Empire's Treasury.

Difficulty: SSS

"This people are really crazy!" Michael mumbled in disbelief at their audacity to target that dragon that almost killed him before.

After all, the place where he met that dragon is at least over twenty miles from here, and it took almost a week to reach this fortress, and he doubts that someone would even take this quest right now, especially with how low level the current player base.

He doubts that they could even leave a scratch on it with their flimsy weapons!

Meanwhile, the players around Michael slowly trickled down as they slowly chose the quest that they wanted to take, before making their way towards the officer that records everything around the place.

"What the f*ck man!? I got this first!"

"F*ck you! We all clearly saw that I was just about to take this off when you suddenly butted in!"

Michael looked over, and saw two players verbally arguing with each other, while one of their hands is resting on a quest pinned on the quest board.

Michael then ignored them, and so is the others, as something like that happening is already a very common sight among them.

In fact, the game has two different ways to get a quest, one of them is directly getting it from an NPC, while the other one is by going to a quest board and personally rip off the quest posted on it and report to the officer on duty. It was very unlike the first one, where the system would show you a message window regarding your quest, while the latter would only show up after the officer on duty confirms it.

While browsing through the multitude of quest in front of him, a thought suddenly occurred inside Michael's mind.

'Wasn't Tina situated in Sunrise Empire?'

Michael thought, making a note to ask her later of what town or city she's currently at, and probably help her level up.

After all, he heard from Dylan that his sister is having a hard time inside the game because of how lame her game mechanics are, and that no one wanted to team up with her no matter how pretty she is.

Which made Michael and Dylan helpless, as they didn't expect her to be that bad, and right now she's still stuck at Level 10, and hasn't advanced since as she kept dying from the monsters she's trying to kill.

Then he went back to the current matter at hand, as he continued looking around, but most of the quest that is hard but had abundant rewards are all concerning the Forest of Despair, which would leave him scowling as he's got enough of that place, because he was already stuck inside that place for almost a month even though a few days only passed in real life, but the rewards for it was at least worth the trouble as he managed to level up four times, reaching Level 25, and finally beating the player called Solitary Tempest by a level, someone who's been dominating the Leaderboards since the beginning.

But until now, he still couldn't find any quest suitable for him, and if that happens, then he wouldn't have a choice but to go the hard way, and look around the city for NPCs who'd give their own personal quest for him to complete in their stead.

And just as he was about to reach the end of the quest board under the glare of players whom he kept pushing around, and these people actually wanted to rage at him, but when they saw his information full of question marks, they courage slowly died down like a small kindle.

Micheal was just about to rip it off from the quest board, when another grab it at the same time as him, he immediately turned his head towards the owner of the hand, and saw a man as tall as him, with a huge greatsword on his back, clearly someone of the Barbarian class, and he looked really menacing right now, as he glared at Michael with hostility and arrogance, probably because he's Level 20 and not that far off from Michael.

"Let go bo- Offt!"

The man didn't finish, as Michael interrupted him with a Spartan Kick on his stomach, sending the huge dude flying for at least three meters, and who landed on the ground on his back, along with a resounding thud.

The man groaned as he hatefully glared at Michael who had just ripped off the quest on the board, and Michael on the other hand, walked passed him, and gave him a wide grin as he looked down at him.

And the soldiers who are stationed around them was about to make a move and apprehend Michael, but they immediately stopped when their eyes landed on him.

And it's not because he has a high prestige, but it was because the badge he had gotten when he advanced to a new class or profession, and these soldiers immediately recognized the insignia on it, it was a badge signifying that the person is a citizen of Sharval Kingdom, which is a kingdom on the other side of the Forest of Despair.

And they didn't want to cause some trouble to someone who was able to cross that despairing land that they wouldn't dare to try, and that said person even managed to arrive here alive, but at the same time, it was also thanks to his high Fame.

In fact, when Michael successfully crossed through the Forest of Despair, he had actually received 10,000 Fame, which is seriously high even for him, and because of it, the NPCs would try to ignore some of his actions as long as it doesn't break their laws around here, like suddenly killing someone in broad daylight.

Unless he does something as excessive like that, they would turn a blindeye to his actions.

The players around them were surprised that the soldiers didn't even try to do something to Michael and just gave him a quick glance before ignoring him, and the players who were waiting for good show to happen were shocked, as they could still vividly remember the two players who fought here a few days ago, got themselves killed mercilessly by the soldiers.

The players glanced at each other and saw the disbelief in their eyes, then they put their attention towards Michael, while thinking to themselves of the heck he is that could even make these battle hardened soldiers act like that.

A few minutes later.

Michael left the army barracks after the army officer recorded the quest he wanted to take.

[Bandit Extermination]

Due to the limited number of soldiers in Stormwind Fortress right now. The bandits inside Dosier Mountains, southwest of Stormwind, has been running rampant lately, robbing and killing people making their way towards Stormwind Fortress, causing a drop in wares and produce lately.

Exterminate twenty of them and bring back their bandanas as proof.

Rewards: 100 Gold Coins, +300 Prestige and +100 Fame.

Difficulty: C+

Failure: You will need to pay 5 Gold Coins as compensation.

Progress: 0/20

Michael then walked around the city, talking to NPCs and asking for directions for where a certain shop is or whatnot.

After getting the proper directions, Michael made his way towards the potion shop just two blocks away from his position, located at the northern part of the city.

Ding!

"Weclome"

The clerk of the shop immediately greeted him upon arrival, and the inside are pretty busy too, as there are a lot of players also looking around the displays inside, but Michael immediately got what he came here for and bought a total of ten Greater Healing Potion, a gold coin each for a total of ten gold coins before leaving the place, as he wasn't a casual player like the people inside who only wanted to travel and sightsee inside the game.

Meanwhile.

A group of people are watching Michael's every movement since the start, when he left the army barracks to where he came out of the potion shop and until right now as he headed towards the western gate of the fortress.

But even though Michael had already discovered them halfway through when he was heading towards the direction of the potion shop, he just ignored them, because he's pretty sure that they were probably that Barbarian earlier and his friends, and must have come to cause him trouble.

"Boss, it seems he's finally leaving the city" an assassin who blended through the crowd and cautiously followed behind Michael reported to his guild leader, while his eyes captured Michael's every movement without batting an eyelid.

"Good, this time, we'll kill this bastard who took the bandit extermination from us! We'll make a move once he's a bit away from the city. Don't even bother hiding yourselves in there, I'm pretty sure that bastard has already noticed you guys" their guild leader said through the guild chat.

"Yes!" His members replied in excitement.

These people, especially those players who are considered core of the guild have been really eager to kill Michael. After all, they had been eyeing that quest for a long time now, and they have taken that quest twice but failed all the same, until they decided to upgrade their levels and equipment before taking it again.

They weren't even worried that someone or another party would take it as they knew how difficult that quest is, and people from the nine major guilds would not even look at it as they are too busy looking for dungeons and trying to complete them.

And of course they wouldn't have minded if it was just another normal bandit extermination quest, but the bandits this time are special, as they had already accumulated a lot of valuables from their robbing since the army had no time to deal with them this time.

In fact, the bandit extermination quest is not something ordinary, it was because their guild leader managed to hear it from one of his members that the bandits seems to have acquired a very important treasure map, but the information about it was kept under wraps and that only the high officials in the city knows about it.

And their guild leader only found about it when one of his members was doing a quest as a waitress at a certain high end restaurant and managed to accidentally overheard it about it from one of the drunken nobleman.

At first, they thought that it was just some nonsense from someone who's drunk, but their suspicions were confirmed when they noticed some of the nobles were secretly dispatching their men and sent them to Dosier Mountains where the bandits are turtling themselves in, but it seems it had all ended up in failure as they continued to dispatch their men everyday since a week ago.

This was the reason why their guild leader ordered them madly raised their levels and equipment during the past few days even though they were clueless about the reason behind, and their leader was really excited at the prospect of gaining a treasure, and the player who discovered it and reported it to him was even rewarded for it.

But just as they were about to set out for it, and in high spirits, they suddenly received the bad news that someone had beaten them to it.

Their guild leader was of course infuriated about it, as they have been preparing for days and they haven't even told it to their regular members on what they are about to do, with the core members the only one knowing about it.

'It seems trouble has once again come knocking to me' Michael bitterly smiled as he realized that the people who had been following him until are still on his tail, and they weren't even bothering to hide anymore after he exited through the western gate.

'It seems I was too harsh earlier, and it seems there's something more behind the quest that I just took' he thought, as he realized that the people tailing behind him and the Barbarian that he had taught a lesson earlier are now all wearing guild emblems.