Fate Online: Shadow

Chapter 541: Night of Deep Talks

"But just to be clear, why are you giving away these titles man? You could have sold them for millions, but you're just giving them away"

At the backyard of the house, Michael and Dylan are hanging out by themselves and the latter just happened to remember to bring up the subject they had just discussed earlier and was confused about in the living room.

"Because the land is sleeping, and it should be put to good use. Most importantly, I need people I can trust right now if I want to hand these titles away. I can't just randomly invite outsiders now can I?

Besides, the members of the two guilds are already more familiar on most of the ins and outs of the land, so it would be easier for them and the progress will be a little smoother" Michael brought up a few reasonable points that Dylan didn't have anything to argue with.

Dylan shrugged his shoulders and muttered, "That's still a lot of money gone down the drain though"

Michael looked at him funny and said, "Stop it, you're not broke anymore"

"I can't help it if money is involved, it's like an occupational disease" Dylan chuckled as he took a chug of his cold beer.

"It's nothing, what I'm really bothered about is the stalemate of the two forces on my borders. It would make traveling hard for Neverwinter. I don't even know how they'd be able to feed all those monsters with their numbers.

Do you think there's a high chance they would rebel if they go hungry?" Michael was a little worried about the situation in the game; the current scenario pretty much isolated him and his village from the rest of the continent and he didn't even have a single clue why that green haired woman in the game had mobilized such a huge force, then suddenly had them stop at the border.

"Oh about that, there's a rumor going around that it was because of the recent sightings of monsters from the Sea Race and that they had taken over a small land along the coastal area, not sure what kingdom was affected though" Dylan shared when he remembered about a rumor that has just been recently making a ruckus in the game.

"Wait, what? How come I'm only hearing about that now?" Michael was extremely surprised that he immediately turned his head to Dylan with a bewildered expression on his face, the mouth of the bottle of his beer just barely touching his lips.

"We just found out about it like 3 hours or so ago" Dylan replied with a shrugged and started looking for something on his phone and showed it to Michael, "Here, take a look at this"

Michael scooted beside him and looked at his phone and saw the following words, [Sea Race Monsters Spotted! Is this a sign of a Second Continental War?!].

Then he looked at the publisher of the article and saw that it came from a reputable source, [GameLeaks], a blog site that's always the first in the know about the happenings in the game and would have been mistaken as another website of the game company because of how fast it receives the latest news.

As Michael read through the article, he noticed something weird while reading it and said, "But how come the place where they were sighted was never mentioned?"

"That's what makes it weird" Dylan said after hearing his words.

"Yeah, it's like..they were asked to share the news, but were prohibited from sharing the crucial information about the event" with years of experience under his belt, Michael quickly formulated a solid speculation behind it.

"That…that actually makes sense" Dylan looked at his friend in surprise.

Noticing the looks he was giving him, Michael snorted and said, "What? It isn't that hard to grasp the crux behind it"

"Seems like there's a high chance that my hunch that we'll probably meet the Sea Race at the place we'll be going to is gonna turn out to be true"

Dylan smiled and suddenly said something that made Michael stare at him wide eyed.

"What did you say? What do mean by those words?"

Dylan shrugged and replied, "Just a hunch and we never told this to anyone outside the guild yet, but the location of the Quest is also along the coastal areas. When I read that article earlier, it made me think that the King actually knew about the existence of the Sea Race making a landfall on one of his territories but carried out a gag order to prevent any ensuing panic.

It would also explain the sudden influx of people around the area of the Port City. So wouldn't it make sense for the Monster Horde that suddenly appeared almost at the same time that we received our request? It's like the true heavyweights of the continent were already aware and wanted to end it as silently as possible, but in the end, they were eventually forced to employ such a huge hand"

"And that would explain the stalemate at the borders" Michael continued, now deep in thought.

"What's the reason behind it though? Had the situation already gone beyond saving that they had to mobilize a horde of powerful monsters instead of banding together first? And if you're right about your speculation, wouldn't that mean that your guild is walking right towards danger?"

Dylan flinched a little as he suddenly grew a little worried, Michael noticed it and tapped his shoulder and said, "Even if you're right, aren't the kingdom troops moving with your guild? Just stay behind them and let them take the frontline. I don't think that they'd be too dumb to make you guys their meat shields"

Dylan rolled his eyes and replied, "Easier said than done, what if you're actually right and they indeed use us as their meat shields?"

"Hmmp! Well, we can't rule that out"

Michael let out a snort then he continued, "But if that ever happens, I have an item that will be a huge help to you. I'll send it later by mail when I get back"

"What is it?"

"You'll see"

Then silence came to pass as the two silently gaze towards the night sky.

"I suddenly miss high school"

"Yeah~ me too"