Infinite Realm

"How about now?" The player lifted up his hood and revealed the face underneath.

"It's you…!" Xue Yan exclaimed.

Lu Zhen took a close look at him before he recalled where he had seen this player before. It was Reeves, the [Guardian] that had previously aided Xue Yan back in Black Grill's Cave [1].

"What are you doing here?" Lu Zhen asked him with narrowed eyes.

"What? I can't be here?" Reeves smirked.

Lu Zhen and Xue Yan frowned at his response. Coming from the way his comrade had addressed them alongside his attitude, they felt that he was here to cause trouble.

'But how did he know where we are? Was he on a lookout? Impossible. There are many different routes we could have used to head to Black Grill's Cave. His teammates don't number so many so he couldn't up all the spots. He couldn't have just guessed either.' Xue Yan thought.

"There has to have been someone tailing us but his teammates aren't that skilled. So it has to be someone else. Also, after your display of strength, it feels fishy as to why he would look for us. Even more still, he's looking for the other two." Xue Yan whispered to Lu Zhen.

"I see. Well, we don't know what is going on here but they aren't enough to stop us." Lu Zhen smirked.

"Are you guys done with the couple whispering? Come on now, let's fight." The other player revealed his hood to show the face as Revees' teammate from back then, Blue Banana.

"Fight? Why do we have to do this though." Lu Zhen acted pretentiously.

"Why? Isn't it obvious? Your friends took something the belonged to us and you still have the gall to try and explain yourselves." Reeves said as he unsheathed his weapon.

"Just you two." Lu Zhen smirked. "You're not enough."

"Why don't we find out first." Reeves replied.

Lu Zhen suddenly bolted at him, like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. Lu Zhen's intention in conversing with Reeves was to make him drop his guard down. He already knew that Reeves was targeting him after that question Blue Banana asked him earlier.

Lu Zhen was an [Assassin] and so, his avatar's physique was created in the direction of speed. Being a level 7 [Assassin] at that, he was far faster than a level 6 [Guardian] or [Swordsman].

Before Reeves could even make a move to attack, Lu Zhen had already reached him and slashed down with his dagger. Reeves was slow to react but not by much, as he somehow managed to bring his great-sword in front of himself, blocking Lu Zhen's dagger from approaching him.

*Clang*

Lu Zhen didn't retreat despite having his advance blocked. He swung his dagger multiple times at Reeves hoping to get at least one strike past him.

"Ha!" Blue Banana was initially stunned by Lu Zhen's quick movements but regained himself and dashed towards the two, swinging his sword at Lu Zhen. Lu Zhen retreated backward, spacing himself from the two and returning back to Xue Yan.

"You really are a tough one. You almost got me there even." Reeves chuckled as he wiped the sweat on his forehead. He wasn't lying when he said that. Lu Zhen had almost killed him if he hadn't reacted timely. In that second Lu Zhen had arrived before him, Reeves felt as if he was a rodent targeted by a swift and ferocious eagle. One second, no, one millisecond of delay would lead to unchangeable results; one that he would surely regret.

"Hehe. I really wonder what makes you think you can kill me with that little strength of yours. Even worse, your friend over there should have similar capabilities to you. That's just poor." Lu Zhen smirked.

Reeves and Blue Banana frowned as a dark shadow cast on their faces. From the short clash just now, Reeves knew that he wasn't Lu Zhen's match. Lu Zhen seemed faster and more agile than him. This could be attributed to him being an [Assassin] but the fact that Lu Zhen was stronger than he was, was incomprehensible to him. Nonetheless, it was still a fact that they indeed weren't strong enough to take on Lu Zhen one-on-one. But that was only in a one-on-one circumstance not like this.

"Tell us where those two are and I won't make things difficult for you guys." Reeves asked, hoping to get an answer to the question Blue Banana had asked before.

"I don't know who you're talking about." Lu Zhen shamelessly denied. If one said that Lu Zhen didn't know who they meant back when the two wore cloaks, now their identities were revealed, it would be exaggeratedly far-fetched to say that he didn't know who they spoke of.

"You…" Reeves gritted his teeth in annoyance but eventually calmed himself from bursting out.

"Do you really want to die just like this? For a bunch of people that don't really matter?" Reeves asked him.

Lu Zhen chuckled in response. "Haha. Do you take me for a fool or what? I already know that you won't let me off too so why bother? Show me what you got cause it will take more than the two of you to defeat me alone."

"We will see about that." Reeves said as he took his cloak off completely, revealing the gear underneath alongside the shield that hung behind him. The armour he wore was a shiny silver heavy armour suited for physical classes that focused more on [Strength]. Compared to the creations of modern-day blacksmiths, the armour was a bit lousy but one shouldn't judge it just based on its looks. Unlike the silver armour, the shield was actually yellow in colour with a bit of brown lining the edges and giving it a weird charm that made it look considerably better than the heavy armour.

The rank and tier of Reeves' armour were unknown but Lu Zhen speculated it to be of the Mid-tier Mortal rank. As for the shield, he presumed it to be of the same quality as Reeves' armour. Lu Zhen wasn't so sure about it and so, he didn't let his guard down.

As Reeves held up the shield while also wielding his great-sword, his aura changed noticeably. If before, Reeves was like a determined warrior with great strength and a terrifying blade, with the shield in hand, he became a mountain that could blitz through any blockades or impediments.

Blue Banana dashed from the side with his sword in hand, while Reeves went straight towards Lu Zhen with a shield in one hand and a sword in another.

"Show me what you got." Lu Zhen smirked as he dashed towards Reeves.

. . . . .

As Sato, Fudo, Yato, Katsuo and Seiichi were heading deeper into the Stone Creek Forest, they discussed what to do once they reached Black grill's Cave. Due to the fact that Yato and Katsuo had just started, Sato and the others couldn't just leave them and teleport back to their last location. At the same time, they can't just begin the raid from the very first floor of the Outer region after all, that was a pointless endeavour for Sato and Fudo, both of whom wouldn't be able to gain any experience points from the monsters there.

"Why don't we just head over to our last stop directly? We do have 3 extra [teleportation runes] for that right?" Fudo asked Sato.

"That would indeed be nice but these guys would easily die from a scratch from those monsters. Sending them there would be no different from sending them to the depths of hell. Since we ourselves would be busy facing the monsters, we would barely have enough attention to spare to protecting them. They would have to keep their concentration to its highest and that would lead to them spending more stamina." Sato sighed.

"Don't worry. I can do that." Yato smirked.

"You sure? Both you and Katsuo are physical classes unlike myself. In other words, you would have to stand at the front lines. You sure you could survive out there?" Seiichi asked back with a small smile of derision. As a long-ranged player, he didn't have to worry about himself. Also, Seiichi was a level 6 player, so he had the ability to survive on his own there unlike the two level 0s.

"Tch. Just wait and see." Yato replied.

"Ai. You two just lie arguing." Katsuo commented.

As the group kept moving forward, they overheard a sound that though not loud, it was quite audible to draw their attention.

*Clang* *Clang*

"What's that?" Katsuo asked.

"This sound? A fight…?" Seiichi said, unsure of his own statement.

"Let's stop wondering and go check it out. Right Sato?" Yato asked.

Sato the other hand, wasn't interested. "Let's keep going."

"Come on. Why?" Yato complained.

*slap*

"Ouch." Yato held his head. "What was that for?" Yato complained as he glared at Fudo.

"If he hadn't done that, I would have done so myself." Seiichi smiled.

Fudo blasted at Yato. "Are you being stupid or what? What concerns us and the battle up ahead? What if we get drawn into an unnecessarily guild fight? Did you lose your gaming sense all these while or what?"

"Uh?" Yato was stunned.

"He's right. We might end up witnessing something we shouldn't and get targeted by whoever's there. It's best to just ignore it and head to our destination. After all, aren't we in a race against time or something." Seiichi explained.

"True…" Yato said softly with a look of realisation.

"Though you guys are right, it still wouldn't hurt to check it out, right? We just have to be careful and send one of us at most. Who knows, we might profit from it?" Katsuo said in Yato's defense. In their group, apart from Seiichi and Sato, Yato was closest to Katsuo. So close that they could be called best friends.

"What you say does make some sense but who will go?" Sato asked back.

At that moment, all eyes seemed to land on Seiichi.

"Huh? Me? Why?!"

"Because your eyesight has been improved by the game and you should be one of the fastest and most agile among us. You might not be an [Assassin] but your class still has some similarities in stealth." Sato explained.

"Blame yourself for choosing [Ranger]." Yato spread his arms out with nonchalance though a huge smirk was visible on his face.

Indeed. Though the [Ranger] class was suited for sniping from long distances, in other to achieve this, one has to be able to be as stealthy as possible. After the game had launched, a few players had discovered that the System had given [Ranger] class players a few minimal passive advantages in this area. Though it was minimal and even worse when compared to the [Assassin] class, half bread is better than none.

"Fine then." Seiichi replied with discontent though he still went forward.

AN :

[1] Chapter 103