Fate Online: Shadow

"I was right, they really wanted us to chase after them to lure us into a trap" Michael smiled, as he started coating the bolt in his hidden crossbow with poison.

"Let’s go! We’ll head deeper into the swamp, let’s see if they have the guts to follow us deep inside"

"Huh? Wouldn’t...Wouldn’t the monsters become more powerful then? We might even accidentally meet the Wild Boss if we head deeper! We’re doomed if that happens"

"Don’t worry, at best it would just be around Level 24 and 25. We’ll just run if that happens, Hahaha!"

Michael laughed, not all that confident that he could take on a Wild Boss by himself on this level now, as he had long noticed that a monster gets smarter the higher level it is, and reading their attack patterns would become a bit harder from now on.

Michael then led the way, as Tina followed behind him with the two little pets playing around them.

An hour later, the Surging Brothers are once again on the hunt.

"Dammit, we have already scoured the entire outer area of this swamplands, and we haven’t seen a single soul. Could it be that they had already left?" Surging Tide complained.

"Impossible, I saw them heading inside, and if they left, they should’ve left from here as the monsters on the other side are more dangerous!" Surging Wind glared at Surging Tide.

"Wait, they couldn’t have...could it be that they decided to head deeper inside? If they really did, then they have so much guts! A lizardman tribe is inside that place, that’s asking themselves to be killed!" a thought suddenly occurred to Surging Flames, as he laughed with ridicule.

"Let’s go, I’m pretty sure those two are already goners by now"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Hmmp!" Surging Flames just snorted and started walking away, while the Surging Wind and Surging Tide looked at each other first and shrugged their shoulders before following behind Surging Flames.

Meanwhile.

Just as Surging Flames had thought, Michael and Tina did stumble upon a Lizardman tribe, and right now, they are currently being chased after by a group of five Level 22 Lizardmen.

"How the heck did this happen!?" Tina screamed in terror while running for her life.

"Shut up, and just run! They will stop chasing us when we reach dry land!" Michael yelled as he also ran for his life through the muddy swamp.

And if it wasn’t for Michael attacking the monsters behind them, delaying their movements for a fraction of a second, then Tina would’ve been killed by now as her movement speed is slower than Michael, especially with the mud beneath their feet hindering their movements.

Swoosh! Clang!

But then, a Lizardman suddenly threw his rough looking spear made from some kind of wood towards Tina who’s back is facing them, but Michael immediately jumped towards the spear’s trajectory and block it using the side of his dagger, and the force behind it threw him backwards, and just in time, his feet landed on dry land and slid off backwards.

And just as Michael had predicted, the group of lizardmen suddenly stopped in their tracks, they started hissing towards Michael and Tina before turning back as they headed back towards the direction of their tribal village.

But Michael just ignored them, and furiously looked around their surroundings, looking for a place suitable to sneak attack them.

"Come on, let’s go back to the village, it seems it’s not our day today" Michael smiled, as he tugged at Tina’s arm to follow him.

"Uhmm.." Tina made a sound before following after him.

While deep inside the swampland, Tina once again gained a level while Michael is already near Level 26, just missing a little bit of that five percent left, which he probably need to kill at least seventeen to twenty Level 23 to 25 monsters, or maybe lesser if he hunts monsters above level 25 or if he manages to kill a Wild Boss by himself or with a team.

"Don’t let them get away! They’ve tricked multiple people already! There’s a twenty gold coins bounty on each of their heads!"

"Get them!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! Clang! Clang!

Michael and Tina was just about to exit the forest where they’re at, when they heard yelling and shouting lace with anger and rage, along with the sounds of battle.

Michael signaled Tina to follow him, and led her to small trench he spotted and hid there, and a couple of moments later, the voices slowly drew near them, where the two of them immediately recognized the voices among the commotion.

"The Surging Brothers?" a question marked appeared on top of Tina’s head, as she turned her head towards Michael, whom the latter nodded in agreement, and gestured for her to stay still as multiple footsteps are heading towards their direction.

"Godammit, how did they find out about us!?"

"How would we know!? Just run till we lose them!"

"Isn’t it better if we head towards our hideout, and let the traps kill them?"

"Then what? A horde of players would certainly come for us if they know where our hideout is! Dammit, I didn’t expect that someone is actually rich enough to put a bounty on each of our heads!"

The Surging Brothers argued with each other as they past by where Michael and Tina are hiding in, not even a clue that the people they have been looking for earlier is just right there, under their noses!

After a few seconds later after them, an angry mob past by as they chased after the three brothers while roaring angrily.

"It seems those bastards had finally gotten their just desserts! Hmmp!" Tina snorted and stood up from their hiding place, while two cute little heads popped out from the hiding hole and jumped out of the small trench, and started looking around them.

"Heh, I doubt it, those people aren’t that easy to kill or else they wouldn’t have survived in this place doing only banditry" Michael disagreed with her, shaking his head while he dusted himself off.

"No matter! The next time we meet them, we’ll surely kill them!" Tina snorted, as she clenched both of her fists, her eyes burning with passion.

"Hahaha, then you better improve your game mechanics than relying that you have a more abnormal attack damage. Right, how the heck is your attack damage higher than Surging Flames who’s even a four levels higher than you before?"

While the two of them are just walking out of the forest, Michael has suddenly gotten curious and asked Tina.

"Now that’s a secret right there" Tina just smiled at him.

"Stop acting mysterious and just tell me"

"Not telling!"

Tina laughed as she ran towards the direction of the village, while her little hawk clumsily flew behind her.

And on the way to the village, they saw a lot of new players struggling at killing the small monsters, some are even being chased around by the monsters, which is really humiliating to see as it’s just a chicken chasing after them, and there are even girls screaming in fear and crying their eyes out.

It would have been worse if there are blood involved while killing the monsters, or else, a lot of people would certainly suffer from a trauma from the multiple killings, and they might even go insane and start treating the real world as a game.

Looking at them made Michael smile as he was reminded of his time as a newbie inside the game, but at the same time he also felt somewhat kind of sad when he saw the players laughing and enjoying the game with their friends as he never experienced it during the early days of the game.

’Now that I think about it, there’s only three days before the month is over, and where the game would enter its second month, and it would also be the time that Amanda finally opens her business’

’I’m pretty sure that Jin already has his eyes on Amanda’

Michael thought, as his eyes flashed with a cold gleam, while he suddenly grinned coldly, which made the little rabbit hanging on one of his shoulder shiver in fright as it started to furiously looked around.

A few minutes later, Michael and Tina finally arrived at the village called Calderock Village.

It is a place protected by hills on its key positions, including the two entrances to the village, and is fully fortified with logs supporting the only two ways to enter the place.