'Run run run!'
His luck couldn't be any worse, or so he thought, little did Banks know that the current predicament he found himself in was due to his own imprudence. The human assassin flickered through the forest as his life depended on it - it did. He leapt on bushes, ducked on tree branches and dodged arrows, marvelling at the fluidity of his mobility while cursing inwardly his lack of research.
'What's going to happen if they kill me!?'
*WHOOSH!*
His thoughts were interrupted by an arrow that graced his cheek and lowered a bit of his HP.
[Banks - LVL2 - B]
(HP: 930/1012 / AP:320/320)
He ducked his head just in time to dodge another one with haywire the entire pursuit.
...
"Sweetheart why don't you stop for a bit and we can talk this out~" The luscious - almost tempting - voice of the demoness rang from behind him, no hush, seemingly uncaring of the traversed distance as if the only one with stamina was himself.
'You sound like a vengeful ex. No way I'm stopping, hell no!'
[Higher Demoness - LVL10 - C]
[Demon Grunt - LVL5 - D]
[Demon Grunt - LVL5 - D]
He had checked up on their status, three of them, all shrouded in a dangerous red aura that told him that they were far from being enemies he could match. It wasn't a surprise.
'There was this sign foretelling dangers at the entrance of this forest, and yet here I am... but the forest looked so pretty, what was I supposed to do? turn around?!'
It had been all too peaceful, one blue slime here, another green slime there... levelling up to level two on the second day... it wasn't that bad. Now he was being chased by relentless bloodthirsty demons in the forest of lamentations, an address that didn't bode well.
'Should have known better than to keep walking straight when the big 'Welcome to the Forest of Lamentations' showed up in front of me'.
The periphery of his gaze fixed on the demons chasing after him, they didn't have a particular formation, if anything they all looked like crackers pursuing green leaves. Their skin was red, they had horns and they wore rather polished clothing. Wicked smiles on their faces that prophecised nothing good.
'The name, their level and their rank. I assume if their rank is so low then even if I were to kill them, they wouldn't drop anything good, right? I mean... this armour is not bad and it is just rank B... the strongest among them is a rank C. I have no business with them, they're too over level'.
Leaping across branches he realised that little by little his senses increased, 'I'm starting to feel tired, but not by much... there is not a gauge for stamina in this game but I know I've been running faster and for longer than I can do in real life. It is a game after all... this is actually quite fun'.
Upon noticing that they were already quite far away, he thought about his plan to squeeze out of this situation. The sun was hanging out in the sky, but it would soon fall as daylight only lasted three hours in this world, just like the night with a silky moon hanging above the clouds.
The last thing he wanted was to be stranded here upon logging in, 'Who knows what sort of creature could spawn nearby?'
"The little rat is quite slippery, don't lose sight of him!".
Upon reaching a dense spot in the forest, Banks knew it was time to try 'that' out. It was the item he had received together with the starter pack.
[Lightless Cloaking Bead]
It was a pebble the size of a pearl.
'A legendary item created from the blessing of the goddess of water, a single one of her tears shall allow the user to become momentarily invisible, aura-less and odourless for ten minutes (It can only be used once a day, attacks and stealing are not permitted during the duration of the spell)'.
Upon placing the bead in his hand, an option prompted him to activate its effects and he accepted. The next second he saw his waving arms becoming translucid as he ran!
...
"I have lost trace!" Yelled one of the grunts, shooting arrows upon witnessing the slightest movement.
"He must be using a camouflaging spell. Stay on guard and keep an eye on waving bushes!" The sexy demoness stated with a halberd in hand, they all went quiet, intending to listen to the smallest of noises.
'They're clever' Banks thought while crouching behind a tree roughly fifteen metres away, 'I can't stay here... this bead only works for ten minutes and they look like they have enough patience to wait that long'.
Just when he was about to take his leave ever so slowly, he bumped into something.
!!!
The problem was... there was nothing there!
*WHOOOSH!*
An arrow came flying his way faster than a thunderbolt which he barely dodged.
"There he is, go go!".
"Be careful!" A seamless voice stated right before he flickered away from that place, aware that he and whoever he just bumped into, had been found by the demons.
The person's accent was so strong that he could barely recognise it as English, the person was Asian, but he couldn't tell where from.
"Run run!" Banks yelled in a whisper, intending to make his steps as nimble as possible, something that the person next to him wasn't doing. Clearly, that individual was also using a cloaking bead and that was the reason why they were unable to look at one another.
'They're going to find us because of this idiot... wait, I can use him... if they find him instead of me-'.
*WHOOOSH!*
All he could do was shut his mouth when out of nowhere the person's body showed up from the nothingness, he had used a spell which was an attack and hence, the camouflaging stopped immediately.
Green fire engulfed a small portion of the area and transformed into a ball of flames that shot towards the incoming aghast demons.
!!!
'That's cool!' Banks was awed by the display only to end up disappointed when the female demoness, now in all seriousness, slashed her halberd forth, slicing the pillar of green flames in two like it was nothing.
By the time the fire cleared, she sought her prey with excitement but sighed in disappointment, they weren't there anymore.
"So it had been two rats this whole time?~ keep your eyes open... they may be heading to the house of lamentations".
"Yes!".
**
**
[Miyagi Sensei - LVL10 - C]
Only after having fled a good enough distance from the demons and further into the forest did Banks pay attention to the other person in front of him. A male dark-skinned elf with a dark cloak and golden eyes.
'Miyagi? from Karate Kid? So he's Japanese?' He assumed many things just from the name but they could all be wrong. The person could be just a fan of the movie.
From what he heard before the person was certainly Asian but he couldn't tell whether the person was Korean, Singaporean or whatever... having met many Chinese people in the banking industry, he was certainly not Chinese.
"Uso! Rank B as a level one? I see, you bought the starter pack. Okanemochi desu ne? (Rich person?)".
The line pretty much confirmed he was indeed Japanese. As they ran, Banks' camouflage also receded; he assumed it was due to him grasping Miyagi's wrist which could be taken as an offensive action in a PVP scenario.
"You either speak English or Japanese but don't do both!".
"Amerikahito (American)? Igirisuhito (English)?"
"American..."
"Excuse my bad English. My name is Miyagi-sensei, Yoroshiku (Nice to meet you)!".
"Yoroshiku onegai shimasu (Nice to meet you)... wait... english please!".