Fate Online: Shadow

The Skeleton Archer tried to wriggle around to no avail. It was because the sword was embedded halfway through the cave wall, leaving the Skeleton Archer stuck on the wall with no way of getting out unless someone pulled the sword out.

Slash!

The Skeleton Soldier suddenly appeared behind Michael and slashed him on his back.

\"Ack! Crap!\"

Due to his amazement from what he did, Michael had completely forgotten the fact that there is still another monster trying to kill him.

Michael rolled forward and slid in a half-circle with his hand as he faced the approaching Skeleton Soldier.

\"Tsk, a single strike from these bastards always reduce at least twenty five percent of my health points\"

Michael clicked his tongue and took out his hammer from his Inventory. It was because he recently discovered that aside from attacks with holy attributes, blunt weapons like a war hammer are also very effective against monsters made of bones.

He was just using a sword before as he was used to using one than a war hammer that he had never once used before, including outside of the game.

\"Die!\"

Michael rushed towards the Skeleton Soldier and ruthlessly swung the hammer on his hands and smashed it on the side of the Skeleton Soldier.

Crack! Crash!

The sound of breaking bones was accompanied by the sound of bones flying everywhere, as the war hammer in Michael's crashed the Skeleton Soldier into two through its waist.

\"Haa…haa...haa\"

Michael started panting as he leaned against his war hammer as he eyed the bones on the ground slowly disappearing into motes of light.

\"This new update of the game sucks\"

Michael was talking about the new update of the game that happened a couple of days ago, where the devs had put an additional status for the players to look out for, and that is Stamina.

Players need to look out for the status of their Stamina as it somehow plays a more important role than maybe their health or mana. As the constant action of doing something like fighting, running, and some other things that need the consumption of energy on their bodies would reduce it.

Let's just say that before a start of a battle, a player would have their Stamina at one hundred percent; however, along with the decrease of Stamina during a fight, their damage output also decreases.

It would also affect their movements if their Stamina is on the low side, and on the worst-case scenario, they might even fall into sickness or even die of fatigue.

Michael took a bit of rest before making his way towards the trapped Skeleton Archer and killed it by smashing his weapon on the top of its head.

He looked at the sword stuck on the wall and decided to leave it as it's already on the verge of breaking down with the constant wriggling of the Skeleton Archer earlier, and with the current level of his Blacksmithing Skill, repairing it is beyond his current abilities.

\"F*ck, I've never felt this tired before. Even when the time I assassinated that tyrant king before, I wasn't even this tired\"

Michael complained as he leaned against a rock while taking deep breaths.

\"This must have been how those soldiers during the medieval era felt after a long skirmish against their enemies\"

\"F*ck sword and magic, guns are still the best\"

\"I wonder if there are people who could make a gun here? Well, there are Elves in this world, so the famous Blacksmith Race, the Dwarves should also exist, right? I wonder if they make a gun, a flintlock pistol would be good enough\"

\"Well, it would only be possible if the devs or the A.I running this game made it possible\"

Michael must have been so freaking tired that he's now starting to talk to himself while eating the beef jerky on his hand.

But even though he is complaining a lot right now due to his current circumstances, the smile on his face never went away.

It was because he managed to raised his level by another three more level ups, bringing him from Level 34 to Level 37.

Michael opened his player status and started assigning his points, and when some of his skills reach Level 10, a change suddenly occurred.

[Your Stealth have reached its maximum potential and won't grow any further unless you learn another ability aligned with your skill]

[Your Shadow Blur have reached its maximum potential and won't grow any further unless you learn another ability aligned with your skill]

[Your Shadow Dance have reached its maximum potential and won't grow any further unless you learn another ability aligned with your skill]

\"Huh?\"

Michael tried to add another skill point on the three skills, but the adding button had become greyed out, making it impossible.

\"What does it mean that I need to learn another skill? Is this game making me pay again to learn a new one? My god, I'm not even an Assassin anymore, I wonder if I can still learn them\"

Then he just shrugged his shoulders, as he decided to deal with this problem later after he gets out of this place. Michael quickly added the remaining stock of Skill Points that he had been saving up on Backstab, raising it to Level 9 from Level 5.

\"Now, I just need to figure out where the Boss Room is, and again, maybe there's another floor below this Fifth Floor?\"

But before continuing on the dungeon exploration, Michael quickly went around the place and started picking up the japtem scattered around him, mostly skeleton bones and the leftover equipment of the Skeleton Monsters, where he already planned to melt the equipment and turn them into Iron Ingots or something similar before selling them.

Moving around, Michael didn't see any more undead monsters roaming around the current dungeon floor.

\"Are you freaking shitting me right now?\"

Michael rubbed his temples as he's starting to grow frustrated after seeing that there's another staircase leading below, and he's currently standing before the dimly lit staircase.

\"This better be worth it\" Michael mumbled to himself as he slowly descended on the stairs.

In fact, this dungeon wasn't supposed to be explored by someone of Michael's level, and it was only supposed to be discovered later into the game when Players are around Level 50.

And the only reason that Michael was able to come this far into the dungeon was because of his abnormal status during the early days of the game, where he had racked up a lot of Attribute Points due to certain lucky circumstances that he had stumbled upon.

Due to it, Michael's current attributes are actually comparable to a Level 43 Player. Meaning, he is at least six levels higher or maybe more than the current player base, even the Devs are baffled at this, as they can only watch on the side and can't do anything as the System Goddess certainly wouldn't allow them to interfere with the matters inside the game.

And because of this, the devs had labeled Michael as…

\"This brat is an Irregular. His current stats are not normal!\"

\"How the hell did this bastard even manage to receive so Titles, and that almost all of them is something that raises a player's stats!? Can someone explain to me how this happened!?\"

\"This person is destroying the balance of the game, even the famed Solitary Tempest can't do something to suppress him\"

\"Well, we can't really do anything to him, and Freya wouldn't nerf him as that jerk got those things he had fair and square\"

\"Fair!? Are you telling that his luck is on drugs or something!?\"

That was the conversation that the game devs had when they first took notice of Michael's abnormally high rate of quest completion and his freaking devil's luck.

\"Goddammit!\"

Michael cursed when he suddenly slipped down by five stairs, startling the hell out of him.

\"There wouldn't be any ghost on the next floor, right? I'm f*ck if there are\" Michael gulped down nervously.

A minute later, Michael finally reached the end of the stairs.

He stopped at the last stair, then Michael leaned his body forward and peeked at the left and right on the passageway before him.

Michael heaved a sigh of relief and finally stepped down from the last stair.

Ding!

[You have reached the 6th Floor of Seth's Undead Lair]

Then Michael noticed that his pet is once again available for summoning, and quickly summoned the jade rabbit.