Shadow Rogue

Wielding two daggers, Chu Rui leaped into the Forgotten Forest without a second thought.

Watching the excited Chu Rui, Ye Zifeng and the others looked at each other helplessly and quickly followed. The first time they arrived, everyone walked with extreme care, afraid of triggering some boss and getting wiped out. But not Chu Rui, that guy just crashes in the moment he arrives. They were lucky that the strange mist was only on the outer ring, with only a few monsters. Although they were a bit stronger than regular spawns, there was no way they could defeat the whole team. What’s more, they had a crazy, overpowered freak running in front of them!

It was only after ten minutes of running into the Forest that monsters started to appear within 500 meters. No wonder why they couldn’t hear anything from outside the forest.

This was the forest. Although it was a bit strange, it was still a forest; the system wouldn’t just randomly spawn water-dwelling monsters. The majority were still jungle creatures like cougars, tigers, and lions. With Chu Rui, all of these mighty beasts were treated like young lamb, slaughtered without haste.

Under Ye Zifeng and the others’ directions, Chu Rui hacked his way through. His horrifying attack power awed the team. This thief might as well be defying the heavens.

They walked for another half hour before arriving at the Feng Hawk’s nest. The nest hosted about a hundred or so hawks. Looking at the flying monsters, Chu Rui was speechless. Thankfully this was a class quest for Hunters; if he had to kill these things it would be a real pain in the ass. What, was he supposed to shoot down all of those birds one by one with “Final Stand”?

Ye Zifeng and the others have come here many times, and were familiar with the terrain. They climbed up a massive, towering tree. The trunk was well over ten meters in diameter, and grew in a strange way; its branches hung low and intertwined with neighboring plants.

Although Feng Haws could fly, the system didn’t make them too annoying to deal with. Their maximum flying ceiling didn’t go over twenty meters. Maybe their nests were in the tree, and the birds would attack when they scaled the tree. Their attack range was seven meters, so if the group tiptoed carefully, they wouldn’t attract too much of the hawks’ attention. Although Chu Rui didn’t know what spawns lurked under the tree hole, judging from the situation, close-combat classes were the way to go. Each Feng Hawk was like an airplane glider, its blinding speed made it impossible for a mage to aim properly. The branches were hard to move around with, so they were basically fish in a barrel. A scream for help would only last about two to three seconds before getting pegged by the high-critical Feng Hawks.

The map was great for the Warrior-class. Its decent defense could hold against the Feng Hawks’ attack easily, unlike the Revenant who could only tank through damage and have no way of fighting back whatsoever. It was a disaster for Thieves like Chu Rui, who relied on 1v1 battles. However, he wasn’t any average Thief, his health and defense was just as good as any Revenant, and enough said about his attack. The nearby Ye Zifeng could only sweat at the sight of his power.

Skipping across the bulky branches and jumping from tree to tree, the path took Chu Rui’s team an hour to get across.

“Brother Sly, it’s here!”

Ye Zifeng sliced several hawks at once, and pointed.

Looking at the hole, Chu Rui felt speechless. Who in the hell did this, they must be really talented. If you drill a hole in the trunk below, it won’t be very surprising, but this hole was driven into a massive tree branch well over twenty meters above ground. It was a wonder than Ye Zifeng and the others even found this place at all.

“Wait, you haven’t been over there before?”

Chu Rui pointed towards the end of the giant tree branch. A giant Feng Hawk stood at the end of it, undoubtedly a boss monster.

“Of course!” Ye Zifeng stammered, “That’s the Feng Hawk Boss, last time we tried really hard and brought down half of its health, but this thing is just too broken, it flew outside our attack range and called minions to help. I don’t know if it’s attack range or something, but it won’t go near 10 meters of the tree hole. Thankfully it can’t, or else we would be all wiped out before even entering the damn hole.”

Listening to Ye Zifeng’s words, Chu Rui’s eyes narrowed slightly. Under observation, the hole was about thirty meters away from the boss. The Feng Hawk is a Lv. 16 monster, even if the boss was also Lv. 16, its awareness range was only about 10 meters, but the chasing distance should at least be thirty! Ye Zifeng’s words about it stopping near the tree hole was truly strange.

“You guys wait here; I’ll go check it out!” Chu Rui couldn’t keep his curiosity waiting, and disappeared from the group’s sight with his sneaking ability.

The bare tree branches were wide enough to make a small road, but the height below made it seem like a walking wire.

After entering sneak mode, Chu Rui’s speed decreased 80% at thirty meters, so he should be able to go unnoticed.

Twenty meters!

Fifteen meters!

Ten meters!

Twenty of the thirty seconds available sneak time had passed. Chu Rui’s distance between the Feng Hawk boss was only ten meters. In this area, the branches extended past the shade of leaves, and Feng Hawks flew all around Chu Rui. He had completely entered their main nest; if he were to drop sneak mode right now, he would most likely be shredded to bits by the hawks.

Looking at his situation, Chu Rui ground his teeth and kept moving. When his sneak mode was nearing 5 seconds left, he finally breached within three meters of the giant Feng Hawk boss. He could see each of its glowing feathers, which were sharp as knives. Its beak was like a pointed razor, glinting under the harsh sunlight.

Staring at the mighty hawk boss, Chu Rui gulped and prepared to retreat. If he slashed his way through the nest at first, then he might’ve had a chance, but now he was too far behind the enemy lines. Even if he had three heads and six arms, he could never defeat the fifty to sixty Feng Hawks and the boss.

Just when Chu Rui was about to leave, the Hawk Boss suddenly flashed its wings and leaped upward. Thinking his presence had been discovered, Chu Rui ran for his life. But the Hawk was just tired of kneeling on the ground, and flew to warm its aching bones.

The startled Chu Rui turned around to leave, but he saw something at the corner of his eye. Under the sunlight, there was a blinding radiance!

A treasure chest?

Chu Rui’s eyes widened, and a glimmer of delight shined in his pupils.

In the world of “Kismet”, besides hidden quests and missions, there are also treasure chests in some special areas. Even though chests were a step lower than hidden maps, it was definitely weighted more than a treasure item. According to the official forums, chests were usually at extremely well-hidden areas, and weren’t easy to find at all. Most chests were guarded by a powerful beast; the stronger the monster, the map was more dangerous, and the chest was naturally more valuable.

As for items in chests, there was nothing clear on the forums. Maybe weapons, maybe armor, maybe jewelry, maybe skill books, maybe potions, maybe scrolls, maybe quest items, maybe coins, maybe treasure maps…. The possibilities were endless. There were many players who vented that they ran off to some crazy place, went through all difficulties and hardships, and didn’t even see a sliver of treasure. For that many players to not run into a single chest signified just how valuable it was.

Chu Rui never imagined that he would run into the legendary treasure chest here. On the high tree branches that were thick as logs, with tens of Feng Hawks and a mighty boss, even a whole army wouldn’t be able to get the treasure chest. After all, the branch was only slightly larger than the others, anyone would fall down after losing their balance. If one wasn’t extremely powerful, no one would ever succeed in charging over and breaking the chest open.