Fate Online: Shadow

During the last few days that Michael wasn't playing the game.

A couple of huge changes happened in the game, one of the notable ones is that Edyrem Alliance had successfully arrived in the capital after days of escaping and fighting from their pursuing enemies.

But the problem didn't end there, after all, their decision of escaping to the capital is practically walking inside the lion's den voluntarily, and now, they'd need to be on guard on two fronts, one is inside the city and the other is the uprising army led by the alliance of Blackskull, Illusionaire and Kunlun Guild.

While on the other hand, an undercut seems to have swept through throughout the continent as players had noticed that every kingdom and empire of every race seems to be preparing for war as they had started amassing weapons, food, and conscripting people into their army.

Being players that they are, they immediately smelled the scent of a huge quest, but until now no one had figured it out yet, even the famous information brokers from the black markets don't have a single to what is happening.

But even with that, the players' anticipation grew as no one is dumb enough not to realize that a war that involves the entire continent will happen soon.

Meanwhile.

"Surprisingly, the grey orcs actually stopped pursuing us the moment Shadow finally came back," said Storm Moonlight while picking up some kindling to start a fire while looking at Shadow who's currently preparing for a meal before they start their journey, and in the background are their pets who are playing with each other.

"I wouldn't be surprised as this forest is truly perilous, and I've been following those Grey Orcs ever since and they suffered a lot of casualties because they always move in large numbers, making them an alluring preys to those large monsters," Chakram said as he snapped his fingers, and a small fire appeared on his fingertip and used it to start the fire.

Of course, starting a fire inside this dangerous forest is practically asking for predators to come and eat them, but...the most unusual thing that happened so far ever since they stepped inside this forest called Snowy Forest is that they had never suffered any monster attacks, except from common monsters like goblins, kobolds, slimes, and whatnot, but those large monsters like trolls, werebears, golems, and the likes would instead just ignore them unless they were attacked first.

And instead, the ones who suffered the most are those Grey Orcs who would always happen to locate their location would be the ones who had suffered a lot instead.

And this unusual phenomenon made the members feel weird and warier at the same time as they don't know what is wrong with the forest.

But on the other hand, the only ones who probably don't have anything to do are Cereal Killer, Moniker, and Black Sparrow as all of them are just dozing off or doing their own thing, while Solitary Tempest and Storm Moonlight are helping Michael with the cooking preparation.

"Old man, what do you think about this forest? It's really unusual, isn't it?" said Cereal Killer towards the old looking man in assassin attires who is sitting just beside him while leaning on the same tree.

Black Sparrow looked at him with one eye with the other eye closed, and then he gave their surroundings a glance before replying to him.

"Well, the forest is very lush, the grasses are nice and it has a lot of good wild food even when there's a pile of snow around unlike in the real world"

Cereal Killer felt irked with his answer as a vein bulged out on his temple. After all, he wasn't asking if the forest has a lot of good wild food or whatnot.

"I'm not asking for that, I'm talking about the weirdness of this place. Every monster whose levels are way behind us doesn't seem to want to attack us and always avoids us except for those weak asses common monsters that we see every day like the group of goblins earlier, and we've been playing this game for a few months now, and I've never heard of this kind of phenomenon from any players, and since when have monsters been so kind not to attack humans, right?"

Chakram who is sitting on a branch above them suddenly opened his mouth.

"Of course it's weird, especially the weather. Back in the surroundings of the village, there's a blizzard once or twice every day, but here, the weather is like the last days of winter combined with spring, and you're not an assassin or a hunter, but ever since we entered this forest. I've always had this feeling that we're being watched. So my hunch is that a more powerful monster than those we have seen so far is either protecting us or…"

"Or what?" said Cereal Killer quickly as he really can't understand why this old man always makes his words sound like its a suspense or something even when it's not.

Chakram grinned with his eyes closed and said, "Or...that monster already had dibs on us"

Cereal Killer shivered when he heard that, "You make it sound like we're some kind of a menu in a restaurant"

"Aren't we? Take out those goblins, kobolds, slime, black wolves and the other monsters weaker than us, that makes us the weakest race in this forest full of bloodthirsty monsters who's eager for human flesh"

Cereal Killer's face scrunched up when he heard Chakram hypothesis, and couldn't help but have a thought.

'These people are really weird, are retired soldiers always this weird? But at the same time, I couldn't help but admit that his hypothesis does really makes sense'

Michael had introduced Randy and the others to Dylan as retired soldiers, whom he had just grown close to because they were the buyers of his parents' former house, and at the same time, Michael also made the excuse that he's interested in learning how to shoot a gun, where Dylan had even started learning how to shoot one because of it and always drags Michael to go to the shooting range with him, and lastly, to learn the military martial arts from them.

Of course, that kind of lame excuse wouldn't work on someone who's not easy to trick, but Dylan is sometimes very naive, and maybe, on the other hand, he just trusts what Michael had told him as there's really no reason for Michael to lie to him...right?

"Don't listen to him, it's just that we're too awesome that the monsters are avoiding us"

"Shut up"

Cereal Killer snorted at Shadow who's standing before them with two bowls in his hands while laughing at them.

"Here, eat up"

"This one's good, right?"

"Just eat, geez, why are you being such a picky eater even inside the game?"

Shadow clicked his tongue as he handed one bowl annoyingly at Cereal Killer, before handing the other bowl to Black Sparrow.

- You have consumed a High-Grade Beef Burgundy.

- For one hour, your Health will increase by 300 and your Defense by 20.

"Wait, what? Did your Cooking skill went up by another grade?"

"Yeah, it's already Intermediate"

Cereal Killer and the others were amazed at how amazing a production class can do.

Before, whenever they eat the same meal provided by Shadow, they would only receive an additional one hundred points in Health and ten points in Defense, but now, the buffs they received rose by at least twice or more.

"Damn, it even became more delicious. We should've made sure you at least rose it to Advance, then we would have received better buffs from it"

Chakram couldn't help but admit that the taste became better as he ate his food like there's no tomorrow, while the others gave a nod of approval while eating theirs.

Five minutes later.

Shadow and the rest quickly packed up and tidied the camp, as Cereal Killer started giving the rest some buffs that raise their maximum mana by a hundred, as the others also use their own.

"Let's go, since those monsters wouldn't attack us first. Let's attack them first, but let's start with those Werebears first since their the only monsters among the powerful ones that we can take down"

They slowly made their way towards the place where they saw the Werebears before, and unbeknownst to them, they didn't notice a chilly gaze looking at their group from afar.