Fate Online: Shadow

"Hahaha"

Shadow is currently hiding and lying on top of a tree branch while looking at the new ring on one of his fingers with admiration, while his other hand is playing with a dagger.

"Did that Bircorn dropped this item though? And who is Tarrasque?"

Shadow had been wondering who that ancient being called Tarrasque was.

"Is he the ancestor of the Bicorns or something? But if he is, then the origin of this is ring questionable because the Bicorn that I went after wasn't even a Boss monster to begin with, so it shouldn't be able to drop an item of this value"

"Anyway, I should continue what I was doing before I encountered that Bicorn"

Shadow quickly sat up and jumped down from the tree, and surveyed his surroundings after he landed.

Sniff.

Sniff.

Right after he landed, Shadow suddenly started sniffing the air.

"Why am I suddenly smelling something burning? Is there a group of monsters camped near me?"

He quickly came into the conclusion that there must be a group of monsters camping just near him as he would have certainly heard if there was a battle going on just near him.

Shadow didn't even think that there might be other players like him, who had stumbled in this troublesome place.

Swoosh!

Shadow's eyes turned into a dot as he quickly rolled to the side as an arrow flew past him and struck a tree a few meters away behind him!

Swoosh! Swoosh!

"What the..heck!?"

He once again rolled to the side before diving behind a large tree for cover as two arrows once again shot forth from somewhere in front of him and flew towards him and struck the two locations on the ground from where he was earlier.

"Is it a player? No?"

Shadow thought it was a player who attacked him because of how accurate those shots were, but he quickly erased that thought when he saw that there weren't any notifications that a player was the one that attacked him.

Shadow took out his dagger and just leaned on the tree as he waited in silence.

As a real assassin, patience is what they're known for, and he'd like to see who has the longer patience between him and the attacker, as he sure knows that whoever is attacking him is also waiting for him to lose his patience as no movements or attacks had followed after he hid.

On the other side, a figure crouching between through thick shrubberies is also watching the tree where Shadow is hiding at, as that figure also waits in silence like a hunter waiting for its prey to show its weakness.

Meanwhile.

"Ho~ so that human had finally met one of them, huh? Kuhahat!"

The dragon Ragnar, who had been watching Shadow all this time couldn't help but chuckle at the meeting between two people skilled in assassinations.

*****

Swoosh!

Thwang~!

An arrow was let loose and struck the cloth that Shadow had stuck out of the tree's protection.

The cloth had just appeared into view when an arrow had already struck, which made Shadow sighed in amazement.

"Heh~ so that person is still there huh, and it seems whoever it is. His or her concentration is still high"

Hiding like this might seem dumb as this is only a game and Shadow wouldn't really die the moment an arrow strucks him, but Shadow had already deem that his attacker is a very skilled archer that even if he charges out of his hiding spot and sprint towards the direction of his attacker, he is only confident that he could dodge three to four arrows at most.

"But if I use my [Sprint] and raise my movement speed. I could quickly close my distance to my attacker and see who it is. After all, based on how fast the cloth was struck earlier, my attacker isn't that far away from me, and there's at least twenty to twenty five meters of distance between us"

Shadow had already obtained some rough information from when the cloth he used as a bait was struck under a second!

"Whoever it is, his or her bow is comparable to a compound bow in the real world, and that's only a normal attack. It will even be faster if the person is using a skill behind the attacks"

If this was an ordinary map, then Shadow would have certainly charged out by now!

But he is already deep into Snowy Forest and almost reaching the core lands of the Wildlands, so Shadow didn't want to be careless as he knows that his attacker's level is certainly higher than his!

He's not just sure why his attacker is not doing anything and not actually trying to circle around him and shoot him dead.

So Shadow also didn't do anything and just stayed at his hiding spot and instead started eating beef jerkys he had for this kind of occasion where he's stuck.

*****

Meanwhile.

"Why is that bastard just sitting there and not circling around that human and attack him?"

Ragnar who had been watching them was also similarly confused as to why that archer is not circling around Shadow.

"Is that bastard an amateur or something?"

Ragnar was growing frustrated because he was anticipating a big show to happen earlier, only for it to end all for naught!

"Seriously"

He could only wait in silence while lying sideways with his head resting on his palm while floating in the air above the forest.

On the other side.

The person who had attacked Shadow is still attentively watching the tree at where he had hidden.

"A human, are humans already capable of traversing all the way towards here? Even if he had managed to walked past the snowy outer region with abnormal climate, getting past the Orc Tribes that lives on the bordering mountains wouldn't have been an easy feat even if he was a skilled assassin"

"Did something happen while I was away from the tribe? Are the Orcs embroiled in a war or something that a human had managed to actually get past them?"

Question upon questions surfaced inside the person's mind hiding within the thick brushes.

And then the person smiled and muttered, "But this human is interesting, his perception of danger is actually so high that he had managed to dodged all of my arrows. Just what you'd expect from a human who had managed to step foot all way out here"

"But did you really think that by hiding there, you'd still be alive after encountering me? Fat chance!"

The person giggled with a malicious grin as the person planned to camp Shadow until he got tired and went hungry that he'd have no choice but to leave his hiding place.

"Let's see, if you'd still hide after feeling immense hunger. I can wait for you for days~"

Five hours later.

On the other camp.

"Hmm...it's been over five hours and staying here is a waste of time. Whoever this bastard is, does he or she actually plan to camp me out for days?"

Even though he had the patience to wait, Shadow couldn't help get irritated.

After all, he's not getting paid by becoming a sitting duck here and waiting for his attacker to go away!

"Dammit, this bastard is forcing me to use this!"

After contemplating for a minute, Shadow gritted his teeth and took out something from his [Storage] space.

It was brown in color and in the shape of a stick, roughly eight inches long and one inch in diameter.

Dynamite

Damage: 800-900

An item that hadn't appeared in decades! An item that shouldn't even exist has once again resurfaced!

Something that can only be made by someone who is proficient in the way of explosives. It has a blast radius of 12 meters.

Beware, it packs a punch!

Cooldown: 0 second

"Kukuku, I didn't expect that I'd actually be forced to use a dynamite in this place. I bought five dynamites for two hundred gold from Moniker, and I'm now actually gonna throw a forty gold worth of item like it was nothing. You bastard, whoever you are, I'd make sure to kill you and get all of your items to recoup my losses!"

"Thought it's a good thing is this an item cannot be produced easily, or it would throw off the balance of the game" said Shadow as he couldn't help say those words when he had once again seen the description of the item on his hands.

Meanwhile.

When Ragnar's eyes landed on the thing on Shadow's hands, he couldn't help but quickly sat up straight and stared at it with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"What...is that...no way. How come that thing is still circulating? Did that human make that? Wait, was the explosion that happened a few weeks ago in the mountains because of that? Dammit, so those Orcs weren't lying when they said it wasn't because of Magic, but an actual explosion!"

The edge of Ragnar's right eye couldn't help but twitch when he remembered a particular memory that happened a long time ago.

"It's either this human or one of his companions that could make them, or they had just discovered those explosives in some kind of an ancient ruin"

"Right! It's probably that or Sonya would have punished them by now as she'd certainly be able to detect it on them"

Ragnar quickly came to that conclusion thinking that Sonya would have certainly punished Shadow and others before, but sadly, she didn't know about it because those items were hidden in the [Storage] space of Moniker, or Sonya or any other monster at her level would have certainly confiscated them the moment they discovered it.

"Damn, he just got his ass in a large trouble with that. Now, this is what I call an awesome show!"