Battle Master Online (The Tales Of The Shield Knight)56.76%

41***Dark Corners

Area20

ABANDONED LUBIS FOREST VILLAGE

The Abandoned Lubis Forest Village, a place buried in the dense foliage of the Lubis Forest, where the sun can only barely penetrate the cover of blue, green, and purple, casting an eerie glow over the vicinity. Twisted, disfigured trunks of brown and black held these leaves up in the air, making the area look even more ominous! Vines a poisonous mix of purple and green hang in every single space, many reaching down to the floor of the forest to draw nutrients from the soil, many more choosing to be parasitic, and the others just deciding to hang suspended in mid air! Up to eight varieties of hostile mobs alone, travers the land ranging from levels in the 40s, to some in the 60s! Some even go to the low seventies!!!

The village itself, was in shambles to say the least! Just about every building either had at least one tree growing through it, vines overtaking it, or both, and there wasn't a single construction that was fully in one piece! For every stone building present, the damage could range from a wall missing, to there being literally just a shell of a building there! And the wooden buildings might as well have been built into the trees and muck underfoot! A good find when it comes to living arrangements, would be a place with one room partially intact, or a place with the cellar not covered with roots or infested with Giant Yotapedes ()! All of the buildings with signs of life were half wrecked building patched up with either tarp, roughly cut planks, animal hide, vines, cobble, or some combination of these!

BMO Lore suggests that a large battle between previous Battle Masters, the Golden Sun Alchemist, who's name is only hinted at in certain Lost Dungeons, and the Toxic Marksman, who's grave lies in the Lubis Forest and is actually the focus for one of the many hidden missions in the game, fought for 20 years without rest, changing the landscape and the biological set up of the forest! The toxic looking trees might be what starts the assumptions, but the presence of Melted Gold in the ground, and the existence of toxic pits that can insta-kill you, beg to support that theory.

Needless to say, no sane person under Area25 would come here, as it's dangerous getting in and even more so getting out. But to those that can do so, the trip would be worth it as there are two things that are game changers here, the Lubis Mushroom, () and the Underground Player Black Market, a place where you can get your hands on anything you couldn't get find in the regular areas! Mystic Loot, Stat Foods, Cursed Items, Backdoor Game codes, NPC Slaves, even other player accounts () making this a treasure cove to those who want to come here!

One thing should be noted though. To buy anything, you need to either pay real money, or barter. And bartering may get so out of hand, you may have been better off scraping your savings together and paying them in real life!

In this area, a man was walking with a cloak on, a hood covering his face. Not really odd, considering this is a place for shady dealings. He pulled out his watch, took a look at it, then made a smooth turn into an upcoming alley between two stalls, one selling potions and poisons, the other selling expensive looking cloth that'd probably tear to pieces with the slightest hitch on a branch! He ignored the persistent silver haired old lady and the busty, yet worn out looking dark-skinned woman of the respective stalls as they try to coax him into buying junk, but he already knows his way around these places, and promptly ignored both.

Two hulking men were found in the pathway. Ripped beyond compare, one was wearing only Cut Cargo Pants cut off at the knees and knee high boots. He was half demon born, black horns and blue skin speaking to his water essence origins, and jutted out lower jaw pointing out an ogre side. He had a large axe at his side. The other one was an elf. Seems to be an Essence Martial Artist by his build and the slight glow of his Fingerless Gloves. He wore what looks like a Leather Button Vest, but it might as well be made of Tree Bark for all he knew under this lighting! His Cliff Alpaca Leggings () were not as hard to identify though. He couldn't tell if they were NPCs or not. It's hard to tell from a glance in the villages.

They both saw him at the same time, and leaned up off of the wall they were resting on. The man could already tell where this was going, and moved his hand a fraction closer to his equipped Bronze Short Sword! The men walked side by side right in front of him and didn't even try to move as he drew closer.

"Oatototo!" The halfling said with a loud booming voice as the man walked straight into them! "Well look at this Rendel! A little goblin thinks he can bump into us without even apologizing!" He barked out with a loud laugh! No one was gonna stop him anyway, so why not!

"Yeah, Boris! These kids nowadays, don't seem to know manners!" The elf replied in mock disappointment, "Maybe we should teach him some!" He ended, his voice a weird grate that made him sound like the classic villain yes man.

The man mumbled an apology, and made to go around them. The half demon stopped him!

"Oi, where do you think you're going, eh?!" he said straight into his face! The man's digital nose almost turned off due to the sensory overload! He could guess with full confidence what he had for breakfast 2 weeks ago!

The man's nose twitched, and he squinted a bit, but he ignored the bulking wall, brushing off his hand, and just walked away.

"You bastard! It's your funeral now!" he shouted out in both anger and shame from the unexpected response! He swung out his axe, and launched a severing blow at his head from behind!!!