By the time Lin Fang arrived at the Greenwood forest, it was already crowded by hordes of players. Greenwood Spirit was weak in itself, but its escape abilities were nothing short of terrifying. Also, the forest was its home ground where it was like a fish in water giving it another advantage.
Their was another reason that Lin Fang chose this place for his plans. That was the presence of a monster called shapeshifter in the surroundings, it was a weak monster specialising in ambush. What was troublesome about it was that it had an ability just like Human Appearance which allowed it to transform into an NPC to ambush players. But its technique had a major flaw, if it failed in its ambush, it was too weak to fight back, even against a level 0 player but all this had nothing to do with Lin Fang. What he needed was just a cover to hunt the players and gain exp.
He could careless about the rest, with a monster like this present, even if his first attack failed and his identity of a demon was known, people would treat him like a shapeshifter. No, one would link him to the Devil WarGod thus saving him quite a bit of trouble.
As Lin Fang moved through the forest no player cared for an NPC like him, some even maintained their distance thinking that he was a Shapeshifter, but not many players did so because their were many NPC adventurers in the surroundings, most had heard the rumour about the treasure from players and come to try their luck. Also Lin Fang was now wearing a leather armour on his chest hiding his black shirt, he had also removed the cloth covering his face and left his broken black wooden sword so no one linked him with the 'Black Expert'. As Lin Fang looked around he found that most player were moving in large groups as they entered the forest, each group having at least 10 players. Their was also a large group dressed in similar clothing but they seemed to be waiting for something as they chatted among themselves.
Seeing this Lin Fang couldn't help but frown, originally he thought that some of the players would enter in solo or in groups of 3 or 4 making it easier for him to hunt but, the solo players didn't enter at all, those who came roamed outside and looked for teams not daring to enter alone. Lin Fang feeling confused checked the forums as he entered the forest. Only then did he learn of what happened, as it turned out many solo players entered in the first wave but they were all hunted down by the fast Greenwood Spirit, they couldn't even see what happened to them before they died. Some smart players realised that the monster wasn't hunting down large groups so they started forming groups to slowly incircle the area and start reducing it to find the monster.
'F*ck', Lin Fang thought, the Spirit was totally stealing his idea, how could it be so shameless.
As Lin Fang moved around the area he met many groups people, all of them were moving in large numbers and looked at Lin Fang as if he was a fool. How could Lin Fang care what they thought, he was feeling very frustrated inside and angry at the fact that his well thought plan had failed. Where would he find another nice cover like the shapeshifter. An hour had passed since the game started and many players had got their preferred classes, the gap between them and Lin Fang was decreasing.
Just as Lin Fang continued his journey he came across a solo player who seemed to be on watch. He was dressed just like those guys who stood outside in a group. Lin Fang was happy that he nearly cried, but this didn't affects focus. He calmed his heart down as he entered stealth and slowly approached the player.
He had a a high defence armour and a nice looking long sword, his face was covered in a helmet so he couldn't see his face, their was only one vital spot exposed, the neck. Lin Fang slowly approached the man taking out the dagger. Just as the distance between them closed to less than 10 meters the man seem to notice something and he pulled out his sword as he shouted,"WHO'S THERE?"
Lin Fang was so startled by his reaction that he nearly gave his position up, how could a level 0 player notice him, that was only possible if...
Lin Fang's eyes narrowed as he thought of the possibility, this was going to be more troublesome than he thought. Since the other person knew of his existence their was no point in hiding he thought as he kept the dagger in inside and moved out of his stealth. The moment he came out the other person attacked without restraint, Lin Fang was scared out of his wits looking at the sword point coming towards him, if that sword touched him his Human appearance would break and the other guy would find his demon identity and, it would hurt like hell.
"Stop!", Lin Fang shouted as he dodged the other guys sword,"I Come in Peace." Lin Fang said the first dialogue that came to his mind, he realised that his target had also said the same thing before he died in his hands. This, wasn't a good sign.
But the other guy seemed to be more honest than Lin Fang, he was surprised that Lin Fang could dodge his attack, after he heard his words he hesitated for a moment but didn't lower his vigilance,"Explain why you were approaching me?", he asked with his sword raised. It was clear that if he didn't get a satisfactory answer, he would kill Lin Fang.
Lin Fang cursed the 8 generations of this guy before smiling at him awkwardly and lying," I wasn't approaching you exactly, I was trying to look for the Greenwood Spirit, I was just in stealth so I wouldn't be found and killed by it too easily."
The player seemed to believe Lin Fang as he lowered his sword, after all most players treated NPC's as fools who couldn't think for themselves, they only treated strong NPC's well, the rest could go to hell for all these players care. As for him going alone, many people tried their luck some died a fool but others made it big. Who was he to question this NPCs life decisions?
Lin Fang snickered in his heart as he tried to pass by the fighter. What he didn't expect was that the guy would still raise his sword to block his path.
Lin Fang looked at him with a questioning gaze although he was already feeling annoyed in his heart. First the plan didn't go his way and now even this guy was creating trouble.
"Sorry kid, The Eight Hands Iron Guild is about to attempt to kill The Greenwood Spirit, I would have to ask you to clear the are, we already have a bunch of people creating trouble for us north of here, I don't want it becoming more troublesome than it already is, please leave."
Although the man said please, his sword clearly stated what would happen if he refused. But what he said made Lin Fang's eyes glow, a guild this early the game was impossible unless they came from another game, and the fact that they had enough players to fight against so many solo players when all of them were spawned in random villages clearly showed how high their numbers were. What intrigued him the most was the trouble up North...
But first he would have to take care of this guy,"Okay, Okay, no need for swords, I am just a weak rogue, I don't think I will stand any chance anyway against a level 3 boss but what about that guy." Said Lin Fang as he pointed behind his back.
The person also realised that he had left his post when dealing with this kid, he immediately turned around to stop the other guy. What he saw was a calm and quite scenery without and person. Just when he was feeling confused, he felt a crisis approach him.
Without thinking about it he jumped to the side, he felt a terrible pain in his neck as blood flowed out of his neck, fortunately he survived the attack, unfortunately he was injured.
"I can't believe I fell for a cheap trike like that", He said as he used a hand to cover his bleeding neck while he lifted his sword with the other one to take a combat stance.
"Oh! Its not you, its me.", Said Lin Fang as he kept the dagger back on his belt and pulled out a short sword. As the guy looked at the demon marker on Lin Fang he couldn't help but smile bitterly,"Shapeshifter, Of course." The game didn't differentiate between NPC's and a player of the demon faction because their was only 1 player on their side and if the A.I showed that he was a player when he fought, the Demon WarGod wouldn't have a chance at survival.
Lin Fang snickered at him but didn't say anything, the guy was injured right now so it was the best time to attack, thought Lin Fang as he rushed forward. He used the sword to aim for his neck, the other person seem to anticipate his move as he blocked it flawlessly. Lin Fang felt shocked that the other person could block his move, he hadn't tried a head on fight before and his movements were a bit clumsy but shouldn't he have the advantage of a better class, he grumbled inside his head, the other guy was even injured for goodness sake.
Meanwhile, the person who blocked was even more surprised than him, his back was already covered in cold sweat. Just what kind of shapeshifter was this, his strength was equal to him, a newly advanced warrior, even though he was in an injured state the injury wasn't as bad as it looked, maybe it was level 1 monster, he thought excitedly, if he could kill it he would surely gain a lot of exp.
Their battle continued for a little while without any conclusion, while Lin Fang was a clumsy fighter, his enemy seemed quite practised but the class difference made them roughly equal. Lin Fang was only aiming at his weak spot, his neck but he was guarding it pretty well. As time went on the fighter got slower, he was losing too much blood.
Lin Fang as noob to fighting of course didn't notice this, on the contrary he felt like his fighting skills were improving by the minute. As time went on he realised that even though his fighting skills were improving(Author: LOL they are not), they were not enough to bring this guy down quickly. if aiming for his neck won't work, he would aim for the next best thing, his eyes...
"Hey! I am tired of this game, I will let my next attack decide wether you live or you die", Lin Fang shouted at him. The other guy didn't say anything but raised his sword as if agreeing with him. He had already given up hope of killing this shapeshifter, this guy was too weird, he just hoped he could make it out alive. Lin Fang charged towards him with the short sword in hand which was already full of dents due to this battle, as he raised his short sword towards the other guys neck, the warrior readied himself by diagonally aligning his sword and opening his legs. Just when their swords were about to meet, Lin Fang did something unexpected. He threw the sword at him and ducked through the gap between his legs.
The warrior used his sword to block the incoming sword as he tried to close his legs to stop Lin Fang's advance, a pity he couldn't do it and Lin Fang passed through. He turned around quickly to protect his vitals when a hand suddenly hit the hole for the eyes in the helmet..
"AAH-", he screamed in pain as he felt his eyes burn due to the sand. that was also the last sound he produced before Lin Fang cut his throat using the dagger.
The moment the warrior died a notification rang in his ears:
{Congratulation Player Fallen Angel, twice you used a special type of ability to defeat your enemies helping you earn a new title}
When Lin Fang searched the other persons body he was so happy that he laughed out loud, the rewards of this battle were amazing. He got over 10 coppers, a long sword and a 100 exp. 5 times of what he got from a no class player and of course the title.
He checked the stats of the long sword first:
Long Sword(UnCommon)
Ability:None
Stats:+1 Attack
No wonder his short sword completely broke under the warriors counterattack, his weapon was a grade better than him. Lin Fang had a foolish smile on his face as he looked at its stats, he now had 2 uncommon items and the game hadn't even been online for a day yet.
After keeping away his loot he excitedly checked the new title:
{Title: Bastard
Ability: When you fight your enemies, you use every cheap move their is to win, this title increases the effectiveness of all new, innovative and not so common moves to help you achieve victory}
Lin Fang felt speechless looking at the title.