16 Question

"Nah, don't worry about it. It's normal. Now, my real question is, Who are you Ryan to be able to fight at such a high level against me when you have never played the Assassin class before."

Shesmu's question made both Ryan surprised—Leo, even more so. He looked at his friend with an incredulous face. "Wait what? You almost beat Shesmu in combat?! How?!!"

Ryan, surprised at the turn of events, just shrugged and said, "I don't know. I just went with the motion and my body did all the work. Everything felt so natural to me that I didn't even have to think about it."

Ryan's remark left Leo with an open jaw. "You cheeky bastard! Just because you got to do something good for once doesn't mean you get to brag and flex like that!"

Shesmu, on the other hand, had a serious look on his face. That's very weird, very suspicious. I would get it for him to be so good if he was a pro player at some other game before, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

In the end, Shesmu just smiled and dropped the train of thought. The only way he could confirm his suspicions of Ryan was for the latter to admit them. And Shesmu wasn't so much of a prick as to force an answer from someone he barely got to know.

"Hahaha, seems like you're a natural at this game. That's great! We could be a really nasty team together."

"Oy!" Leo exclaimed. "Don't just throw me off the picture just yet! I too have some nasty parries, just so that you know!"

Ryan raised his eyebrows at Leo's claim. "Oh really? I don't remember that last time we played Demon Heart. I remember us specifically get team wiped because some idiot tank forgot the boss timings."

"Ehh, really? Did that happen?" Leo avoided Ryan's judging stare and started whistling away.

"Hahaha, oh, I'm sure you have some nasty parries. A tank is the heart of the team, and you shall be a great one."

I know you will. Shesmu's toughts were the continuation of his speech. Looking at the current Leo, he could see traces of his future self. Heart of the lion—Leo of Black Moon.

Hearing Shesmu's praise, Ryan clicked his tongue while Leo had a smug look on his face.

"See? Even Shesmu can see my greatness! Hahahaha!"

Shesmu coughed twice to get back the attention of the team. "Anyway, let's stop idling around. We already lost a lot of time, we can talk while walking."

The two nodded and followed after Shesmu. As they made their way through the forest, Shesmu heard something move in the bushes. He signaled with his hand for Ryan and Leo the direction in which to go.

The trio made their way through the bushes, their feet tiptoeing the ground. They made sure not to step on any branches so that they didn't alert whatever was behind the bushes.

Finally, they saw the creature that made the noise. A white rabbit, eyes as red as a ruby, hopping around in a patch of grass.

Excited, Leo made a motion to stand up and catch it before Shesmu stopped him dead in his tracks. He signaled him to stay low and wait.

As they did, the trio kept looking at the rabbit hopping around, eating one blade of grass after the other.

Soon enough, what Shesmu was waiting for came. He signaled for Leo and Ryan to look up the tree branches. There was a short green creature stretching a bow and aiming at the rabbit. With a motion of its hand, the arrow bolted from the bow and struck the rabbit.

"Kiri! Kiri!"

Three more goblins went out of the bushes surrounding the area and took hold of the rabbit. That's when Shesmu gave the signal to fight.

Just as the ranger goblin made its way down the tree, Shesmu pounced at it and slashed its neck. A green slash was all it saw before its head rolled on the ground

87

Fatal Damage Activated: Instant Kill!

Killing the ranger goblin instantly, Shesmu focused back on the other three. Once they saw Shesmu kill their brethren, they dropped the rabbit to the ground and took out their knives.

Leo charged at them with his shield while Ryan waited for the most opportune moment to strike. The goblins dodged Leo's attack and circled him. However, before they could even get a chance to hack away at his leg, Ryan disappeared from his position behind one of them—a grin plastered all over his face.

Shesmu didn't stand idle either. He used his Dash skill to teleport behind one of the two goblins left. He diagonally slashed the vile's back, leaving a deep wound across it. Without stopping for even a moment, he struck once again—at the goblin's neck this time.

The two goblins Shesmu and Ryan engaged fell on the ground at the same time—dead. The last vile, seeing its comrade falling like flies, turned its back to flee. Ryan pouced at it with incredible speeds and pierced its back with his dagger.

"Kiri!"

The last goblin screamed one last time before falling to the ground.

"Whew!" Leo exclaimed in surprise. "That was fast!"

Hearing Leo's praise, Ryan had a smug look on his face. "Huhuhuhu, praise me more! Muwahahahahaha!"

Shesmu chuckled in response while sheathing his sword. "Ok guys, let's continue hunting. It's probably best if we reach level 2 before entering the first danger zone."

"Oh, yeah, about levels. I'm 75% of the way to level 2, what about you guys?" asked Ryan.

Shesmu checked his EXP bar quickly before replying, "Same."

"Oh, nice. I'm actually at 50% even though I didn't kill any of the goblins."

"Oh, interesting," Ryan responded. "Seems like this game has a Party Exp sharing system. Pretty nice."

"Yeah, that definitely helps," added Shesmu. "But more importantly. Check out your inventories. Maybe these monsters dropped something."

After a few seconds, Leo responded, "Nothing here."

"Oh, I have something," Ryan cut in. "Some goblin loincloths, knives, and a bow."

"Oh okay. That doesn't seem too useful, maybe we can sell them later?" commented Leo.

"Yeah, most likely," Shesmu responded. "Either way, let's go. Nothing to stay here for."

As Shesmu said those words, the party of three heard a scream from inside the forest.

"No, stop! Kyaaa!!!"