Fate Online: Shadow

Receiving the news of a potential event of the same caliber as the previous Undead Horde, everyone quickly made preparations for their journey back.

The sea route is one of the ways to travel to the other side of the continent and most notably the safest while braving through the Forest of Despair is considered the most dangerous of them all.

So every guild in the game had their own ships that they had purchased, those ships might not be the best out there, but they could at least do the basic function of transporting people.

However, with the emergence of the Sea Race, this route might not be the safest route soon since the former group would certainly take action and block the sea routes to isolate both sides of the continent from each other.

"Hurry aboard! We need to leave as soon as possible!" Minerva said as she ushered their players to board the ship they had bought before.

There's a single-masted ship that's currently docked at the harbor. It was a ship they bought from a merchant who wanted to upgrade his ship to a bigger one and at the tip of the mast, it has the insignia of the Flame Rose Guild fluttering through the wind.

"Hoist the sails, we're leaving!"

With Minerva and Cereal Killer being the last two to board the ship, the sails of the ship quickly unfurled and the journey back finally began.

Dragon Valley.

"Damn, I wonder how many monsters are there?" Shadow mumbled to himself as he slowly felt bored while waiting for the horde to pass through his hiding place.

"There are at least twenty thousand of these monsters"

"I see, that's a-ahh who are you!?"

Shadow was just casually asking himself, but he didn't expect that there would actually be an unknown voice to answer it and he got so startled that he almost fell down from the tree.

Fortunately, the tree branch is incredibly thick, and walking or even sleeping on top of it wouldn't be impossible.

Looking behind him, Shadow saw a red-haired man in a blood-red robe standing before him with his hands behind his back and casually smiling at him, looking like a good uncle.

Looking at the human before him with his weapons drawn, the man just casually smiled and said, "I didn't expect that I'd actually stumble upon a human this deep into our valley, interesting. Hmmm? This smell…"

The man sniffed the air in Shadow's direction before saying, "This smell…it smells like Sage Laura. Hmmm…are you her descendant?"

Shadow immediately felt relief washed over him the moment the man uttered the name of his master. His back was covered in cold sweat as he clearly felt death looming over him the moment the man in the blood-red robe appeared.

Finally relieved from the pressure he had felt earlier, Shadow slightly let his guard down and slowly stood up, "I'm not her descendant, but I'm her student. I'm Shadow, who might you be sir?"

[???] [Level ???]

Shadow curiously asked as he could only see a row of question marks while looking at the characters floating on top of the man's head.

"Me?"

The red-robed man squinted his eyes before suddenly running his hands through his hair, and with a squint of his eyes like he was trying to riz him, he said, "I'm the Lord of the Dragon Valley, but I'm more commonly known as…Erebus, The Dragon King"

Watching his actions, Shadow had the sudden urge of wanting to vomit, but he immediately kept his composure when he heard his following words.

The Dragon King!?

"It is an honor to meet you, Lord Erebus. I am Shadow, but-"

"Don't think too much. Instead, why have you come here? Hmm…is it about that again?"

Shadow was about to ask why Erebus showed himself, but the latter cut him off and uttered some words that made it even more confusing for him.

"Lord Erebus…what do you mean by that? Did you already know my purpose for coming here?" Shadow carefully asked since he was worried that Erebus might have somehow found out about the Dragon Egg in his possession.

"Didn't your Master send you here to steal my Dragon Herb?"

Thinking that Shadow was feigning ignorance, Lord Erebus felt a little annoyed and slightly raised his voice.

Hearing that it wasn't about his Dragon Egg, Shadow released a sigh of relief before turning his attention to the herb he had mentioned, "Dragon Herb? I don't believe I've ever heard it before?"

This time, it was Erebus' turn to be confused, "What do you mean you haven't heard of it before? You brat, stop acting ignorant! You weren't the first of her students to venture into my valley before and steal from me!"

"But…but I don't really know anything about your Dragon Herb and it's my first time hearing about it"

Shadow shrugged his shoulders, at this point, he didn't even care if the Dragon King before him wanted to kill him. He was even a little annoyed that Erebus was forcing him to admit something that he wasn't even planning to do in the first place!

I'll just drop a level and an item at most! Trying to force me to admit something I wouldn't even do in the first place? Bahh!

Watching the puny human before him, Erebus suddenly let out a hearty laugh and said, "Alright! This is how you want to play it huh?! I'll play with you! So if it's not about my Dragon Herb, then for what purpose have you trespassed into my domain?"

Damn! He added even another crime on top of trying to frame me, what a bastard! Seems like my previous Seniors really did come here and stole some of his herbs! Should I come clean? After all, I've already wasted a lot of time venturing this far, f*ck it! Why should I even be afraid of this big lizard?! It's only dying once in the game!

"Look, Lord…Dragon King!" Shadow enunciated each word slowly.

"First of all, I have no idea about any Dragon whatnot Herb! So stop trying to force me into admitting that I came here to steal from you!"

"Secondly, I came here because I wanted to hatch my Mutated Dragon Egg by borrowing the power of Mount Rasborg!"

"Lastly, if you just want to kill me by making up some lame excuse, then f*ck you!"

"Whaaaaat?"