VRMMO: Passing of the Sword

Blue Maple fell asleep as he was thinking.

It was apparent that the sense of danger that this game was giving him was far from enough. He didn’t care about his own safety at all, and he could even fall sleep in such an environment.

However, Blue Maple had a habit of maintain his vigilance, so he didn’t enter a deep sleep while he was easily awoken by a system notification.

“…A demon transport party has appeared in the vicinity. You can choose whether to proceed.”

Blue Maple woke up blurrily, and he could only barely hear the final part of the game announcement. However, that didn’t matter as long as he was awake.

“Ah ~”

Blue Maple yawned as he woke up. There wasn’t a single ray of light through the dark and gloomy weather as he opened his eyes with no trouble, except he was feeling a little dazed from just waking up.

Blue Maple’s first reaction was to survey his surroundings. He confirmed that nothing strange was happening before opening his announcement record to see the announcement that had just come.

The announcement was: “You have felt a weak demonic undulation, and you can confirm that it is a demon transport party through close inspection. Furthermore, the party is transporting provisions for defensive capabilities, while it is a relatively powerful party compared to your current strength. A demon transport party has appeared in the vicinity. You can choose whether to proceed.”

Blue Maple didn’t hesitate when he saw this notification as he quickly opened the transport party’s coordinates.

A radar appeared in Blue Maple’s mind as soon as he opened the coordinates, and the radar covered everything within ten kilometers around him.

There was a red spot to his Northeast, and it was slowly moving. It looked like it was shifting towards the East, and it was about four kilometers away from him.

I’ll intercept them by moving straight North.

Blue Maple thought to himself as he immediately got up to move. He hadn’t prepared anything much anyway, and he was essentially trying to complete this quest empty-handed.

Vanishing shadow, activate!

Blue Maple immediately became like a Thief in the moment that his skill was activated, and he went into stealth mode. He didn’t want to be discovered by the so-called demon scout when he was moving.

Blue Maple surveyed his surroundings instinctively and contemplated instinctively as he entered stealth mode.

This environment seems ideal for targeting single enemies. However, it’s subpar for guerrilla battles.

Blue Maple’s instincts had returned to their original state.

Blue Maple suddenly frowned as he thought, and he muttered something to himself.

“Indeed… I don’t like being a Thief…”

The reason was because as soon as he started using this class’ skills and those techniques that he was familiar with, he would unwittingly revert to how he was before, something he really wanted to avoid.

Boring.

Blue Maple started moving towards the North and prepared to ambush the transport party.

Ten minutes later…

Blue Maple determined a location for his ambush after estimating the transport party’s direction and movement speed according to his radar. That place was a path that was casually paved, and the surface appeared rough while all the stones and rocks seemed like they occurred naturally and hadn’t been moved.

Seems like it’s a path that was opened impromptu for transport.

Blue Maple continued speculating as he considered his surroundings, and he retreated into his mind to look at the demon transport party’s location.

It’s almost time. They should be here in a minute.

Blue Maple confirmed the party’s location as he summoned his weapon. He didn’t want to run into the situation of alerting the demons when they were about to fight due to the undulations from summoning his weapon.

Blue Maple’s weapon of choice in this game was an exquisite dagger. He had obtained this dagger from killing a Boss from before, except he never used it.

Half a minute later…

A wave a hurried noises that sounded like hoof stomps could be heard East from Blue Maple’s location.

Blue Maple lay prone behind a large boulder for safety reasons while he maintained his stealth mode. He figured that a transport party like this probably had a scout with them.

As he predicted, Blue Maple could detect an aura upon that temporarily paved path. This came from his natural instincts, much like that of a wild beast. Even though he didn’t know where the source of this aura was, he knew that what was coming wasn’t anything good.

Blue Maple activated Vanishing Shadow’s active effects once he detected this aura’s presence, and he entered a buffed invisible state.

Blue Maple didn’t know whether scouts had the ability to detect stealth, so he had to do this just to be safe. Blue Maple probably wouldn’t do this in usual times, but he was a Thief in this moment, so everything came to him naturally and unwittingly. He was being very careful.

“Clack, clack, clack…”

The ‘scout’ passed, and the party appeared within Blue Maple’s field of vision after half a minute.

They’re here!

Blue Maple focused all his attention from the moment that he could see them, and he was completely in the character of a Thief.

The two demons who led the transport party were riding wild beasts that seemed like horses but weren’t actually horses. They had very sinister appearances, and their bodies were riddled with spikes. They looked very similar to how Tovilis was like when he was demonized.

A long party trailed behind them. There were fifty escorting demon soldiers, while there were five of them who seemed like leaders. There were five transport vehicles.

These were the numbers that Blue Maple had obtained from the moment that he finished surveying the transport party.

Five cars… I think I have to burn them all, eh? Blue Maple felt uncertain as he thought to himself. Old Man Fang didn’t explain properly, but Blue Maple thought that he probably had to burn every car for his endeavour to count. Even if he didn’t finish burning every single car, he definitely had to attack a few more transport parties to complete this quest.

Blue Maple still had thirty seconds left in his buffed invisible state, and he didn’t know how effective he could be in this state. Therefore, he still remained prone behind the large boulder.

I shouldn’t make a move if the opportunity isn’t right. I shall just treat this as collecting enemy intelligence. Blue Maple thought to himself. This was how Blue Maple was like when he was playing as a Thief, and the carefulness and vigilance that he had.

Blue Maple waited quietly for the party to come closer. When the two leading demons arrived in front of Blue Maple, he held his breath and didn’t move an inch.

The two demons seemed like they didn’t detect Blue Maple behind the large boulder, and they maintained their solemn expression as they rode their unknown steed and left.

The party is quite disciplined, indeed.

Blue Maple thought to himself as he watched the expressionless demons who were leading the group, along with the demon soldiers who were moving behind them like machines.

This party was very disciplined. They weren’t chatting away or joking with one another, and every single one of them had solemn looks on their faces. Blue Maple even suspected that demon soldiers had been brainwashed, or something.

Half of the party had already gone by, while Blue Maple’s buffed invisible state was already over. He felt a cold shiver when his invisibility had ended as he didn’t know whether or not he’d be discovered.

This was a test that he had to make. Otherwise, if he couldn’t enter his buffed invisible state when he voluntarily revealed himself next time, he would be in big trouble.

Blue Maple eventually realized that his concerns were unnecessary. Perhaps, that was because the demon soldiers had low ranks, while the five demons who appeared a little stronger didn’t possess abilities that could detect Blue Maple.

Seems like the only two real threats should be the two leading demons. As for how powerful they are, I’ll just test that out right now. Blue Maple’s eyes grew focused as he prepared to make his move.

However, Blue Maple wouldn’t foolishly reveal his aggressive intentions. Instead, he concealed himself well as he sneaked over. Blue Maple probably would have perished a long time ago if he didn’t even know how to do that.

Blue Maple’s target was the last transport vehicle. He wanted to burn it from the get-go because he also wanted to test whether the pearl could immediately start burning the transport vehicle.

There was a demon who was sitting no top of this transport vehicle. This demon was the relatively stronger one within the ten of them escorting a single vehicle, while the nine others were evenly split beside the vehicle. They followed the vehicle’s movement, and there was one demon who followed behind.

If I want to get close enough to use the pearl, I probably have to deal with one demon before I can get close to the vehicle Then, I have to engage in some hit-and-run and guerrilla battle so I can continue burning the other vehicles…

I can only afford to kill them within a few seconds.

Blue Maple’s eyes suddenly grew sharp and focused as his thoughts stopped there!

I have more than 550 mana, so I can use a full set of Looming Shadow abilities. I can probably instantly kill one demon along with some of my own skills. But how fast will the other demons reinforce their comrades? Forget it, I’ll just try it out.

Blue Maple continued thinking as he activated Vanishing Shadow’s active effects beforehand. He waited for half a minute so that he could enter his buffed invisible state again after killing a demon or burning a vehicle.

Blue Maple followed behind that demon, and he made sure he was in a very casual state so that he didn’t release any hostility or aggression.

The cooldown on Vanishing Shadow’s active effect was over, and Blue Maple made his move!

Blue Maple closed in on the last demon soldier behind the vehicle. He came within five meters, but he didn’t immediately attack but continued closing in instead. He waited for the moment when the demon soldier realized that something was wrong,

Void Backstab!

-1403!

Dizziness!

Blue Maple didn’t attack the demon’s weak spot behind his neck, so his damage was a little low. Blue Maple wanted to disable his enemy first, to be safe, so that he had a higher chance to successfully backstabbing his enemy.

“Ambush!!!”

All the demons around immediately discovered Blue Maple. However, Blue Maple didn’t care about all that. He wanted to kill this demon as quickly as he could!

He combined a normal horizontal slash with Cold Light Slash, using his dagger!

-1180, 1642!

Blue Maple made another horizontal slash and followed up with Shadow Slash!

Blue Maple’s body suddenly transformed into a shadow as he flickered in between the demon. Every flicker caused a single instance of damage as black-colored blood spurted in all directions!

-1137, -1345, -1468, -1334!

Still not dead?!

Blue Maple dealt nearly 10000 damage, but this demon soldier still wasn’t dead. The demon’s displayed hit points had about 20% remaining.

How highly ranked are these demons, exactly? Blue Maple felt a little speechless.

Blue Maple could already essentially ignore any pressure that higher-ranked beings exert. That was the reason why he dealt spectacular amounts of damage. However, he couldn’t see the demons’ exact attributes, so he couldn’t calculate his damage properly.

Blue Maple was about to continue dealing damage when his enemy suddenly recovered before he was supposed to. Furthermore, the other demons around started closing in!

This demon recovered and was about retaliate when he realized that Blue Maple had disappeared!

Hidden Attack!

Blue Maple saw that the demon soldier had recovered before he was supposed to, and he quickly reacted to this new development. He didn’t use another disabling skill, and neither did he use another explosive damage-dealing skill to kill the demon soldier. Instead, he used Hidden Attack’s invisibility buff to sneak onto the transport vehicle!

Blue Maple pressed the pearl, which he had already hidden in his palm, onto the vehicle!

Blue Maple directly used 10% of his Heavenly Fire at the same time, and an enormous flaming circle erupted outward that pushed away all the demons around!

“Boom!”

Blue Maple’s Heavenly Fire exploded and repelled the demons around him as he successfully activated the pearl.

“Rrng…”

“Boom!”

Three seconds passed before the pearl completed its channelling and unleashed terrifying flames!

The entire transport vehicle was instantly engulfed in flames!

The demons who wanted to come forward and stop Blue Maple before this were forced back by the terrifying flames once more, while those demon soldiers were also wounded as a result!

The soldier that Blue Maple had originally attacked was only left with a thread of hit points.

Blue Maple was perfectly fine amid the flames, and he could feel that the amount of Heavenly Fire that he had just expended was being replenished.

However, Blue Maple didn’t foolishly absorb all the energy around him. Otherwise, the frightening blue flames would be extinguished, and he would have wasted all his effort.

Therefore, Blue Maple decisively used his Airborne Somersault three consecutive times and left this vehicle!

Blue Maple also left the corpse of a demon solder behind as he killed the half-dead demon soldier along the way.