Fate Online: Shadow

When Michael entered the apartment, he could hear the TV running some late night program from the living room.

He walked over to the living room and saw that Alice had already fallen asleep on the sofa.

Michael then took a blanket from a nearby cabinet, and covered her with it, before making his way over to his bedroom, and entered his gaming cabin as he still had two more hours to play before the limit is reached.

Shua!

Michael appeared near a rundown village in the middle of the Forest of Despair, but it wasn't abandoned, as its another village of High Orcs, similar to the ones that the people from Blackskull was trying to raid before.

Michael even wondered if they actually succeeded on it, but at the same time, he felt that they probably didn't as he even needs to thread carefully around here, and travelling in a large group would make them have a huge target on their backs, especially if they stumbled upon a monster territory, whom the owners are very territorial.

After all, Michael had already experienced getting chased by a pack of large wolves before, and he even almost gotten himself killed if it wasn't for his [Shadow Dance] skill that managed to save his small life.

And getting chased by a pack of Level 25 monsters isn't a pleasant experience.

So what is Michael doing here?

Well, he's planning to steal something from the High Orc Chief of this tribe, which is something he needs to do to finish a quest he had received before he ventured inside the Forest of Despair.

Of course, he could have just did it with another tribe, but this is the weakest tribe so far that Michael had encountered inside the forest, so it he decided to target this one, as he was already too deep inside the forest and monsters are already growing stronger.

Well, maybe the tribe in front of him is not weak though, they just have fewer numbers than the few similar tribes he encountered so far, but the fewer their numbers are, the better for him as he could sneak inside better even though it would be of much difficulty as the higher the level of the monsters are, the more sensitive they are towards their surroundings.

Michael then pulled out his dagger from its sheath and reloaded a bolt to his small crossbow attached to his left armguard.

He then snuck through a hole in the wall that he discovered before and went passed it, a rundown wall that protects this Orc Village, and what greeted him pass that are huge thatched huts with wide entrances.

After all, Orcs are at least two times the size of normal human adult, they're that big.

'Ugh, this place is so disgusting' Michael thought in disgust, as he smelled the pungent smell coming from the scattered carcasses and sh*ts around the place.

'Humans must have been like this too...during ancient times' he thought before he started sneaking around the village, carefully sneaking pass the High Orcs who are either sleeping or just walking around the place.

Then Michael successfully arrived near a huge thatched hut in the middle of the village, where he could hear someone or something snoring loudly from the inside, that Michael could even see the hut shuddering lightly.

'Now then...how do I sneak inside?' Michael thought carefully, as he knew that one tiny mistake could lead to his death and would waste the time he used to travel all the way here.

'What a troublesome quest' Michael cursed, and thought how stupid he might have been by taking this almost impossible quest.

After all, he had already died and almost gotten himself killed multiple times during his time inside this land, forsaken of humans.

Michael slowly made his way over to the side of the hut as carefully as possible as he doesn't want to alert the High Orc wielding an axe, standing at the entrance of the hut and the other Orcs around him.

He slowly raised his body, and peeked through a small hole, where he could see a little bit of what's inside the hut.

There's a huge orc inside, even bigger than the ones running around the place.

The orc is so big that it's even bigger than Shaq, the retired NBA athlete by at least half of Shaq's height.

And Michael could see that glaring rows of question marks hanging above its head, and right now, it's sleeping soundly on the rough ground surrounded by pile of bones from different species, but Michael could spot a human skull at its feet.

And Michael even wondered how does a high level monster can't even sense someone hiding near him, someone who's clearly even weaker than itself.

He continued moving around the hut, peeking through the small holes to look for the item he's trying to steal, like a peeping tom would do.

Which would have been really creepy and disturbing if Michael is doing this in real life.

'Found it' Michael exclaimed in happiness when he spotted a silver chalice mixed through a pile of bones, just at the back of the High Orc Chieftain.

Then Michael suddenly turned into a shadow and appeared beside the chalice, where he immediately picked it up and threw it inside his [Storage] space.

But the moment Michael appeared inside the hut, the Orc's Chieftain's eyes immediately snapped open and swung its right hand downwards towards Michael!

Michael hastily dodged as he rolled forward, and made a run for it towards the exit, leaving him only with less than half of his health left!

ROAR!

An angry roar reverberated throughout the orc tribe!

BANG!

The hut burst into pieces as the High Orc Chieftain came charging towards Michael, with eyes red full of anger, then its people followed behind their leader when they finally awoke from their stupor and quickly followed behind, while the others who were already in front tried to obstruct Michael but resulted in failure as he dodged them like a slippery eel.

'Shit!' Michael cursed when looked back, because he saw a huge but crude axe covered in something being hurled towards him!

Shadow Dance!