Fate Online: Shadow

"Hello colonel, I’m Phantom" a young man in cleric garbs said.

Shin just raised an eyebrow, and pointed towards the crystal in the shape of a diamond in front of him and said, "Pour your mana in the crystal"

"Ye..yes" the young man stuttered from being stared at by this cold looking soldier in front of him, he even had the absurd thought the soldier is a real person and someone not made of strings of data.

The young man had just put his hand over the crystal, when a visible change quickly occurred as speckles of orange lights appeared within the crystal.

"Passed! Next!"

Shin inscribed the name of the player before he shouted towards the crowd with a nonchalant look.

The next in line was Michael’s team with Emma taking the lead, who walked towards Colonel Shin with confidence.

"Hello" Emma said with a smile before putting one of her hands on the crystal, and the same scene from before happened.

"Passed! Next in line!"

Then Tina came over, then Casey and the others. After that, it was finally Michael’s turn, and when Michael stood in front of him, there was a visible change in Shin’s expression compared to the others who came before him. If he was wearing a stern expression before, this time his face is very amiable.

"I’m here to join the expedition colonel" Michael smiled.

Shin smiled as his eyes flashed, "Of course, we’d love to have someone like you on board, especially for someone who’s able to cross the Forest of Despair by himself"

Michael laughed, and put his hand on the crystal before him while thinking, ’The intelligence network of a country is really something, it seems people like him knows me, or probably just heard about me. Well, it could be related to my fame too’

Then the crystal flashed with with an orange hue, which is something very different compared to the other users who came before him.

Shin’s eyes lit up, as he suddenly thought of something.

"Are all of you in the same team?" Shin asked.

"Yes" Michael said.

"Will you join the quest to clear up the monsters inside the Forest of Despair?"

Shin asked, which is something surprising to Michael’s team as Shin didn’t even personally ask the other users before them.

Expedition Force to Blood Forest (Forest of Despair)

Beyond the border of the empire was a wilderness full of dangerous monsters of different capacity. A place where no one would easily venture inside without an army, the Forest of Despair.

With the empire’s soldiers, clear up the monsters of a specific monster territory called Blood Forest, and specifically thin out the population of the Blood Wolves to control their current staggering population that’s disrupting the cycle of life inside the forest, while at the same time, capture their cubs for the empire’s purpose of replenishing one of their most important cavalry army.

Difficulty Level: D+

Deadline: Within 20 days

Michael smiled and said,

"Of course"

"Welcome aboard then, Sir Hunter" Shin smiled and shook his hand.

"Glad to be here" Michael said, and realized that it’s probably just because of his new title, Sage Laura’s Student.

"Don’t forget about us"

"I want to join it, too."

"Same here."

"Thank you for your invitation to the quest"

"It would be a great honor to help the empire!"

Rick was the last one to accept the quest, who was clearly kissing a--.

You have accepted the quest.

"Our army will be move early tomorrow morning when the first ray of the sun appears from the horizon, so please don’t be late or you will receive a military punishment" Shin warned.

Michael just nodded and left with his team, under the stunned gazes of the other users.

When they had just left the barracks, Tina suddenly ran in front of him, blocking his path.

"You...how the hell did you do that?"

"Uhmm..that was sick!"

Tina asked curiously, while Emma nodded beside her, while the rest of the team are also curious about why someone like Shin would be very respectful to him.

"Hahaha, it must be because I have a really high fame compared to the others" Michael laughed, as he didn’t really know how to properly explain it to them. After all, he can’t just go bragging that he’s just one of the few lucky players that has a Sage as a teacher, right?

After all, bragging about something which is certainly not only exclusive to him sounded really dumb.

Because if he ever decides to brag, it should be something only exclusive to himself!

Like being the most powerful person in the world!

"Come on, we’re not idiots you know" Tina snorted.

"Hey, it wasn’t just me. He was also very respectful towards you when it was your turn earlier" Micheal said, sneakily trying to divert their target to annoy with their questions.

And his plan was a success.

"That’s right, he was also very respectful talking towards you Tina, so what’s the reason behind it!? Tell us." Emma quickly turned to Tina along with the rest, which made Tina perplexed at the sudden turn of events...except for Harrison who’s looking at Michael with a smile on his face, as he clearly knew that Michael tried to divert their attention from him.

Michael also looked at Harrison, and suddenly grinned like devil which immediately sent a chill down his spine!

Harrison stiffly turned his attention towards Tina while thinking to himself, ’Shit! This guy is scary, just who the hell is he? He’s not a monster wearing a human’s skin, right? F*ck that smile! It was scary as hell!’

Well...the dude’s not wrong.

*****

When the first ray of sunshine hit the ground, the expedition force immediately moved out from the fortress under the gazes of envy and excitement.

Two hundred users, colorfully attired, and one thousand NPC soldiers attired in the same set of armor marched out of the Western Gate led by General Ouki and towards the direction of the Forest of Despair, as the small monsters around them ran away from fear.

Along the way, the big monsters like the lions and wolves, were terrified by the size of the troops, and were cleared off the path by the soldiers, ensuring the safety of the first leg of the expedition, and at the same time, General Ouki even personally came to just greet Michael which made the other users wondering who the heck he is. Emma even started flirting towards Michael after that which annoyed Rick greatly, and that he even recklessly challenged Michael into a duel...which resulted in him getting ruthlessly defeated in under ten seconds, and what happened didn’t even disrupt the flow of the march.

A few minutes later, the vanguards made a stop before the forest, causing a complete halt for the marching soldiers and users alike.

*****

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