Fate Online: Shadow

In the mansion, inside a luxurious Victorian style room.

Michael is currently seated on a luxurious-looking long sofa, and in front of him is a table that has multiple teacups filled with tea, fruits and two different kinds of cakes.

On the opposite side of the table is a man around mid to late fifties who has a mustache and a long beard that reaches his chest, and right now he's looking at Michael with narrowed eyes, and sitting beside the man is a busty woman around the same age as the old man, and the said person is looking at Michael with a pleasant and shock expression on her face.

The two people are respectively Duke Arnold Cympyr and his wife, Helen.

And on the sofa, left of Michael is their daughter Beatrice who's currently wearing a scowling expression on her face while staring at Michael.

Michael didn't care about how they are looking at him, as he just continued to devour the food in front of him.

Why?

It was because he was receiving temporary buff effects from the cakes that he had just eaten and tea that he drank.

Buffs that would last for an entire six hours!

Which would certainly increase his leveling speed!

He had gotten two buffs, where one of them increased his movement speed by five percent and the other one raised his attack damage by ten percent and health regeneration by five points per second, which is really amazing as the health regeneration would work on or out of battle.

"Is that news true? The Sea Tribe is preparing to invade the continent?" asked the Duke as he bent over his body towards Michael as he intertwined his fingers together.

"Yes Duke, my friend and I were exploring a nearby abandoned dungeon that is being occupied by a group of bandits, and accidentally discovered a floating orb called Gate. Which is obviously a portal, and from what I've learned so far, only high ranking members of the Sea Tribe are able to create a passageway through the use of a crystal orb" Michael answered while taking a huge bite on the cake in his hands.

"Abandoned dungeon? Are you talking about that dungeon beside a mountain just a couple of miles west from here?" Beatrice suddenly opened her mouth when she heard Michael mentioning an abandoned dungeon.

"Yes, I think it was once called Dwarven Cave," Michael said while shrugging his shoulders.

In fact, Michael was very surprised to learn that there are dwarves here. Of course, it would have been weirder if there weren't any dwarves as Michael once did meet a Sage Druid who was a Half-Elf back in the Sharval Kingdom.

"That is certainly bad news," the Duke's wife called Helen said, sounding really worried somehow.

"This is the reason why I boldly approached Miss Beatrice because I need to report this matter to my master, and I was hoping your family could help me with it"

Michael finally stated his purpose in meeting the duke family. If other players knew that Michael could easily meet any aristocrats whenever he wanted to. Those guys would probably die in envy, and probably angry at the fact that Michael doesn't really look and sound excited at meeting nobles.

After all, even meeting a baronet and talking to them is already a hard thing to do, and taking a quest even from the lowest ranking noble would net them a lot of rewards, much less a Duke.

Michael doesn't actually care even if the noble is a Duke, a King or even an Emperor! With a Sage behind him, he could practically walk sideways like an arrogant second-generation young master!

With a powerful teacher behind him, getting missions and meeting nobles makes it easier for him complete things that he couldn't do without proper backing. After all, this is a game and not the real world, everything depends on luck, chance, hard work and a little bit of fairness in there.

"Your teacher?"

"Yes Duke, does your family have a teleportation portal or something that could send me in the Sharval Kingdom or somewhere near the kingdom?" Michael asked while looking at Duke Cympyr.

"Well, there is a teleportation platform nearby but.."

The duke hesitated for a few moments before he continued, "But it's in the neighboring Orvon Kingdom, at the Church of Freya located at their capital city, Orion"

"Ohh~" Michael looked at them, realizing the reason behind the Duke's hesitation earlier.

It was because the Orvon Kingdom is hostile towards Cympyr Dukedom, where the former has been trying to invade the latter for two decades now.

The two nations have already created huge bad blood between the two with how many deaths both sides had suffered during the past two decades of their war, which clearly cemented a deep hatred and rivalry between the two, especially towards the common populace who had lost their loved ones because of the war.

Michael wouldn't even be surprised if a huge war would suddenly erupt from out of nowhere that would embroil the other neighboring kingdoms because of the two.

"Father, the Sea Tribe! Could it be...is there a chance that the Sea Tribe are the reason behind that the Mountain Trolls that had always been amicable suddenly started rampaging like a group of mad beast!?"

Beatrice suddenly stood up from her seat, as she suddenly came into a grave conclusion.

Hearing her, the husband and wife suddenly had grave expressions on their faces. It was because the Mountain Trolls before had never descended from their mountains and never attacked anyone unless they were provoked.

But this time, a group of them had descended from their homes and started attacking villages here and there like a group of mad beasts, and their rampaging spree was just recently quelled by his daughter and her knights.

And now hearing what his daughter said, the duke suddenly had a terrible thought that his duchy might be one of the frontlines in a Race War in the future if the information that Michael had given them is true.

Meanwhile, Michael had a surprised and skeptical look on his face as he stared at Beatrice.

"Wait..the Mountain Trolls are amicable creatures?"

"That's odd"