Rioneed: VRMMORPG

Ibro felt that this was a question for herself and was not directly related to him. But nevertheless, he answered,

"You can trust me. And if I told you that what you are aiming for is also my goal, would you believe me?"

Aya landed her gaze upon him for a while before saying surprisingly,

"Did you announce your success in the legendary quest to make me talk to you? Won't you be subjected to any risks as a result?"

Ibro laughed bitterly before saying,

"You do not know how gravely dangerous the situation we are all in. They will do anything to stop anyone if someone tries to change their plan or obstruct them. They are watching every Heptian player in the game.

The announcement of that legendary quest and my existence wasn't part of my plans. But yes, I did that to get your attention."

"Why am I so important to you? We have only known each other just now."

He actually didn't know the answer to this question. He questioned himself before but with no result. There was something deep inside him that kept him pushing himself towards her. The only reason he could think of was her past. 

She was a legendary figure after all in his past life. Maybe he liked her or maybe she was like his idol. But deep inside him, he knew these answers were wrong. There was something else that he didn't know yet. Nevertheless, he replied,

"Now isn't the time to talk about things like this, you should log off now and secure yourself. We will talk later when you return. I'll be waiting for you."

She looked at him for a long time before closing the call. Ibro took a deep breath to expel all the worries in his heart.He returned to look in the area around him. He was on the verge of leaving the 10th-level map towards the huge mountains in front.

The wilderness around him was devoid of anything except for scattered groups of trees of different variants.As for the mountains in front of him, they looked like a giant wall extending along with his sight. 

His aim was not to climb any of them. He wanted to head towards any of the valleys scattered on the borders of the wilderness with that rocky mountain world.

The clashes between the players and thug strongholds in these valleys are not a rare event. Many of the quests that players could receive in the city adventurer hall are related to the destruction of such forts.

He moved cautiously on a road that was not likely to be used by other people. He was now officially on these criminal's turf so he must be extra careful. Every path here leads to a different stronghold, so he picked one and walked into it.

After walking for about half an hour, he found himself in front of a wide entrance to a valley between the mountains. There was a high wooden fence at the front of this valley, with a height of approximately 10 meters.

There was a small simple wooden gate in the middle of the fence. On the sides of the gate, there are two very primitive observation towers. Despite this primitive aspect of the fort entrance, it did not deceive Ibro. 

He knew very well that behind this fragile fence were no fewer than five hundred monsters. 

He carefully watched this stronghold. After a long time of observation, he noticed a group of patrol teams entering and leaving the stronghold from time to time.Ibro had an idea that he wanted to try. 

Ibro's goal was to kill these patrol teams. The number of each patrol team ranged between five and ten monsters.

Despite their small numbers, it was a suitable number for him. He aimed to reduce the number of these monsters gradually.Ibro knew that his plan carried a lot of risks. There was a great chance that it would fail, but he did not have a better plan right now.

He moved lightly, taking advantage of his Speed attribute, around the fort. Despite the rough mountainous nature of the place, he found many places that he could use to escape and hide, which he found a small cave around 10 meters above the ground. He used this as his place to hide and plan for his attack.

A few minutes ago, he spotted a group of monsters moving slowly in the area looking for any intruder. Far from his distance, he could see a patrol team and he could guess that their number was close to ten. 

He started watching them closely. They are walking towards the area near him. He quietly grabbed his newbie staff as he prepared to kill them.

The surveillance patrol moved closer to him until they were about fifty meters away. Ibro used the Observation skill to find out their information.

Polrad Monster: Elite monster, level 10. HP: 19,418

Polrad Wizard: Elite Monster, Level 11. HP: 30,000

In front of him were nine Polrad monsters under the command of one Polrad wizard. 

It seems that this fort was under the control of the Polrad monsters. He did not remember any details from his past life about them but this did not bother him.The game was full of endless monsters so it was natural that he didn't know all of them. From his place, he chose his target. 

That wizard was a nightmare to him, so he must get rid of him first. He grabbed the staff and said in a low voice,

"Basic Confusing skill."

His staff glowed in a dim black light followed by a flash of light that moved towards his target. In less than a second, the black light bumped into the body of the Polrad wizard.As a result of this skill, the wizard turned into a lethal weapon to the monsters immediately.

After the first moment of activation of the skill, the magician turned to attack his comrades ferociously. Many skills are launched without stop to attack all monsters without any discrimination.

Initially, everyone was confused without knowing where the attacks came from. Within seconds, three monsters were already killed. By then, they found out that their commander had betrayed them.

They drew their swords and started to attack the wizard with fury in their minds. They need to kill the wizard and avenge their allies. When they reach him, they have lost two additional monsters to his hand. Ibro did not let them reach his puppet so easily.

"Basic Black Blow skill."

His staff glowed again to launch a flash of black light towards the area under the feet of the Polrad wizard.

It explodes in a flash as a bomb creating a dome of black light. Ibro's skill covered an area of 3 meters * 3 meters. It was enough to cover all of the monsters inside it.

The skill caused his Magic Attack to double for 10 seconds. That meant that each monster would get roughly 100 damage points per second. Concerning how big these monster's HP are, that skill would only cause a small damage to them.But he wasn't fighting them alone. 

That wizard would take their remaining HP and kill them. The mixture of his two skills was the most effective way to get rid of his enemies efficiently.

In front of him, black sparks appeared moving in the area of his skill, and every second passed, a loud bell sounded in his ears, informing him of the death of his enemies.After the end of his skills, he did not find any monsters left alive. He knew that he had succeeded in his plan. 

He checked the System Prompts to find nine identical prompts of killing the Polrad monsters and one for killing the Polrad wizard.

"System Prompt: Player succeeded in killing the Polrad monster. Player succeeded in killing a monster beyond the player level. The Player will get XP * 3. The Player got 2268 XP."

"System Prompt: Player has successfully killed the Polrad wizard. Player succeeded in killing a monster beyond the player level. The Player will get XP * 4. The Player got 4,536 XP."

Within fifteen seconds, Ibro managed to gain more than 25K XP. He climbed down from his hiding place and went towards the battlefield. 

He checked his spoils. Every monster left behind a group of copper coins, while Polrad wizard left him two silver coins.

He quickly collected these coins and unfortunately, none of them left any equipment behind. He didn't stop and moved quickly to find another group of monsters. After a quarter of an hour, he found a group similar to the previous one.

He repeated his strategy to get rid of them. Although his strategy was effective, the time spent looking for them was big. So within three hours, he only got rid of six groups. 

If he continued like this, he would need a full day to get rid of one stronghold. Although in the end, he would rise to level 8, he didn't want to waste time like this.

The main problem was the time he spent searching for these patrol teams. If there was a way to find them quickly, it would be better. He sat in a small cave in the mountains, thinking of a way to find them faster.

Although he watched these monsters for a long time already, he hadn't yet found the pattern of their movements. Would he wait for them near the stronghold gate then?

What about the noise of the battle? Wouldn't it draw the attention of the main force at the stronghold then?