Fate Online: Shadow

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"She's really gutsy that she still followed me all the way up there earlier"

Michael chuckled, as his eyes scanned his surroundings while hiding inside a thick shrubbery, and all around him are trees, and different monsters roaming about, their levels ranging in between Level 20 and 25.

But what Michael didn't know is that, while Solitary Tempest might sound awesome inside the game, her real capabilities in the real world is just mediocre, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that her real skills in the real world is just enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the weakest Five Blade assassin.

Michael then checked the map that Master Shanks gave him before to determine where he's currently right now.

He discreetly unfurled the map on the ground, where there is a blinking white dot, representing him, but there aren't those red dots that represents enemies like a typical game would, even though he's surrounded by monsters at every direction.

"Oak Tree Grove"

Michael mumbled, then looked up at the towering trees that's as tall as a ten story building, wondering to himself if they were really oak trees with how tall they are.

The Oak Tree Grove as its name suggests is made up of towering oak trees, within the Dosier Mountains, home to many species mostly of the bird and monkey species, and some wild rabbits.

"But...why the heck are these monsters moving in groups?"

Michael mumbled with frustration, as he wouldn't be able to dispatch them one by one if all of the monsters move in groups of twos or threes.

'Dammit, i wanted to increase my level here while doing the quest. I just didn't expect that I would get myself entangled with an entire guild, and there's even the troublesome player called Solitary Tempest. I'm pretty sure that she's really eager to kill me right now'

Michael thought to himself, and he wasn't worried that the guild called Golden Shield would find him, because they would need to comb the entire mountain for that to happen, especially now that he's already broken off from their relentless chase.

And if Michael found out that Solitary Tempest is actually Amanda, then he would first wonder why she's playing knowing that someone is targeting her.

And even if he knew, he would have found out that Amanda is temporarily living with Jenny, whose house is always on high alert 24/7, a privilege for the rich.

Meanwhile.

A large group of players are currently moving about around Dosier Mountain, and and just as Michael had predicted, they are currently looking for him, but more like looking for an easier path to reach his location, and even Amanda who already knows that Michael is at the other side of the mountain, knows that it won't be that easy to get to him, as they would need to traverse through dangerous monster territories, and even though they are not as strong as the Mountain Trolls from before, their casualties would certainly stack up if they move in with a large group, and they may not be even twenty or even ten people who would be able to survive and arrive at the other side of the mountain if they got ambushed.

And moving in small groups is also not plausible, as they would certainly face an entire team wipe.

So they can only resort to the old fashion way, mapping out the place they have been to.

But they weren't the only people there, as there are also soldiers who are disguising themselves as mercenaries, and by soldiers, they are men of those nobles who are competing with each other to kill the bandits and acquire the treasure map in their possession, but they had already faced multiple setbacks because the monsters are truly powerful, and the terrain of the place is not even suitable for their army to move around, so the bandits have been relying on the terrain and the monsters as a natural barrier, while at the same time, fighting the people who are coming for their heads in guerilla warfare.

Of course, if it was a proper squad of soldiers from Stormwind Fortress, then they wouldn't even have the chance to even put up a fight against them, and they are just lucky that the army is currently occupied by something else and doesn't have the time to deal with them for the time being.

"I should stop wasting my time here"

Michael decided, knowing that he wouldn't be able to kill even one monster here if all of them are moving in groups, then he started making his way towards the direction of where he had guessed the bandits would be hiding in.

Of course, Michael knew that there's more or less fifty percent that they would be there, as he was just using his previous experience when he had also fared against some dangerous mountain rebels in a country called the Pearl of the South, so he really has a lot of knowledge regarding guerilla warfare, and if he is right, then the bandits should be there hiding.

After all, the game was created by human hands, so they should at least based some of the actions of monsters or humanoid monsters in some of the real life situations.

Michael's figure continued to flash through in between the trees, as he dashed forward while running away from the monsters that he had aggroed.

A few minutes later, Michael arrived on a land between the first and the second mountain of the Dosier Mountain range, and the place is called, Valley of Alnuut.

The valley is very lush with trees, streams and all kinds of vegetation, where many kinds of monster roams about, from slimes, foxes, bears, and goblins, but what made Michael almost exclaim in ecstasy, is that he saw two humanoid monster that's currently collecting water from a stream through a large jar, along with their red name that goes by…

[Dosier Mountain Bandit]

Level: 23

HP: 1000/1000

MP: 300/300

[Dosier Mountain Bandit]

Level: 25

HP: 1100/1100

MP: 350/350

And the valley is really closed off, with only one exit and entrance that Michael could see, and that's where he had just walked through from to enter the valley.

`I didn't expect that I would stumble them here of all places. What's with my luck lately?' Michael thought, as he stealtilymade his way over towards the bandits.

'I wouldn't have found this place if I hadn't jumped off that cliff. I should thank those assholes for chasing me all the way here'

Michael tried to follow them, while slowly evading the monsters around him, especially the Hind Bears, kobolds and the goblins that thrives inside the valley, as he didn't want to have a conflict against them right now.

After much difficulty, Michael has finally managed to close the gap between them, as he continued tailing behind them from a ten meter distance, where he could finally briefly hear what they have been talking about with each other.

"Dammit, those nobles...harassing us since they found out...treasure map the boss has required!"

And the closer the Michael is from them, their conversation became clearer to his ears.

"It's because of that traitor that those dogs of the empire found out about it"

"Yeah, I actually didn't expect that our Vice Leader is actually a former noble, he wanted to exchange the information about the treasure map to those dogs in the Stormwind Fortress, so he could be pardoned from  his crimes!"

"That idiot probably didn't expect that the boss would find out about it just after he babbled about it"

'A treasure map?' a question mark popped up above his head when Michael heard the words coming out of their mouth.

'This must be the reason why those as*holes are hell bent on trying to kill me. They must have learned about the treasure map on the hands of bandits, and they wanted to kill me because I beat them to it on accepting this mission, but they probably didn't expect that I had just learned about the hidden mission behind this Bandit Subjugation'

'But it's just a quest, they could have just went and hunt the bandits, so must they have wanted to use the quest as a cover and at the same time, hide the information about it so it wouldn't spread to the other players'

Michael laughed inside.

'But they sure are pretty capable to have learned something about this, but why hasn't the army personally made a move against the bandits? I doubt that they would let something like this all alone, unless they don't really care about the contents of the treasure map or the nobles found out about it first and ordered gag order for it so that the army wouldn't learn about its existence'

'If it's the latter, then calling this game as a second world wouldn't be an exaggeration then'

Michael thought as he continued tailing the two bandits, while he remembered about a post in the game forum, who had dubbed Fate Online as the second world.

'I wonder who is the brain behind this game'

Michael thought, as his figure flashed and arrive behind a human size boulder, as he gazed down at two bandits below who are now ascending the rocky terrain of the second mountain.

The place around Michael is void of vegetation and instead the place is a home to many rocks and boulders of different sizes, and calling this place a small quarry at the foot of the mountain wouldn't be an exaggeration for this place.

Meanwhile.

Solitary Tempest had brought others to the cliff where Michael had jumped off earlier, and one of them is the guild leader of Golden Shield.

"You sure that he had jumped off from this to that?" the guild leader of Golden Shield, Lone Sparrow, looked at Amanda and pointed at the other side of the cliff wide eyed, where there is a twenty meter drop from the cliff where they are standing at.

After all, the fall might not be that much for Michael but in the eyes of others, that shit is really high.

"Tsk, pussies" Solitary Tempest clicked her tongue, and her comment made the others twitch in anger as they didn't expect that she would look down at them that much that she would even go as far and call them pu**sies.

Solitary Tempest walked over and from her hand, she shot a line of rope towards the nearest tree, as the grappling hook at the other end of the rope coiled itself on one of the tree branches.

Solitary Tempest then took off the rope from her grappling equipment and tied it around a study rock.

"Let's go!"

She yelled at the others and zip lined down the rope.

The others looked at each other with amazement in their eyes before they followed after her.