Level Is Everything

Nice to see you

「As expected, I am still underestimating the tempest wolf capabilities. 」

Ryou is currently running for his life while trying his best to dodge the attack from the tempest wolf. As he died three times to it, he is now familiar enough with its attack pattern. The tempest wolf is taking full advantage of its ability to positioned itself behind any player and launching an attack from that position to achieve a critical hit.

That is why whenever the tempest wolf seemed to disappear from his sight, Ryou always dodged to the side and make the tempest wolf hit nothing but air. That being said it takes a lot of mental stress and it accumulated fatigue on him.

Finally, he is nearing the place of the shield bearer. His target priority is the thief, the shield bearer and the mage at last. The thief should be the first to be taken care of since he has the highest agility and it will be able to notice the other if he realizes that something was going on. The second target is the shield bearer because he is able to tank the tempest wolf and giving Sakura's party a chance to survive. The third will be the mage who is able to deal a lot of damage. Lastly, using the tempest wolf to kill the swordsman and Sakura will make the plan complete,

His first plan was executed flawlessly but it seemed now that he will have a hard time succeeding it all the way through.

「Just a little bit more. He should be around here. 」

Ryou deduction was wrong because after a long time, he still couldn't find the shield bearer.

「Did the thief notify them and they decided to go back to the village? 」

The thief did notify them but it was far different from what Ryou is thinking. They were notified but they decided to regroup before going back to the village. After all their survivability is higher when they are together.

Dodging from the tempest wolf for a long time finally take a toll on Ryou. He dodged its attack but it wasn't a perfect one.

-50

Ryou is now only left with 10 health point. He is now contemplating whether he should try to find Sakura or give up his plan entirely.

「Ah, I can't let all my hard work goes to waste. 」

Taking out a red potion and drink it, Ryou health is now full again. However, his dodging isn't as good as it was in the beginning and he keep getting damaged. Luckily no critical hits are received or he will be gone for good.

「This is my last potion. If I didn't find her, I guess I can only go back to the village by dying on the tempest wolf's fang. 」

After all, if the plan is failed, Ryou didn't lose anything except his potion and some time. The plan in the first place was to expose Sakura's true nature to the party and if he can get her killed in the process it will be such a big bonus.

「Ah, found them! 」

When Ryou was about to give up, he finally found Sakura's party. Everyone was there except for the thief who died earlier.

"Leader, should we go back and group up with Kiba before we hunt more monster?"

The leader Roy was thinking about what to do. It sure is a pain in the ass having to face with the tempest wolf but with his understanding of it, the tempest wolf should have long ago leave the area after killing Kiba. The only variable with it is the scene of an arrow that is aimed at the tempest wolf after Kiba's death.

In fact, a player can still observe their surroundings after they died while under one-minute delay to be resurrected or being respawned at the safe point. Kiba couldn't see it clearly about who is the one attacking the tempest wolf however there is a big possibility that it was the one who is KS-ing their monster and he thought that the tempest wolf is just like any other regular monster and is easy to kill.

Roy also think that it was another time to rack up some good points in front of Sakura. After all he know that all of his party member are interested in her.

"I think it would still be okay if we hunt thunder wolf around."

By the time they finished discussing they finally realized that Ryou is coming at them. Sakura didn't notice that it was Ryou at first because he is running frantically with his life and keeping his head looking backwards to see where the tempest wolf is.

"Leader, look at that."

"Judging from his clothes it was apparent that it was still the starting equipment cotton shirt. It seemed that it was the boy that Kiba mentioned earlier. What a bad luck for the boy to be chased around by the tempest wolf."

Sakura's party however overlooked one thing. For Ryou to be able to survive for that long being chased by the tempest wolf, he surely has something more than luck.

「Alright, let's pretend to be asking for help. 」

"H-h-help me!" Ryou cried out in desperation. Sakura felt that the voice sound familiar but she couldn't tell why.

"Leader, should we help him? Against the tempest wolf I guess we can buy him some time to escape."

Actually the shield bearer said that just to increase Sakura's impression of him. They know very well that they can't defeat the tempest wolf and if the leader decided not to help the boy, Sakura's impression of their leader will decrease. Indeed, it was a wolf eat wolf world, stabbing someone in the back for a girl wasn't rare at all.

"Help? Of course we will help him. For someone like us helping him was just a matter of being want to help or not."

Even though he says that, the leader feel that it was such a waste of time and effort. It will just be easier to let Ryou dies and let the tempest wolf disappear afterwards.

"Let's do this."

John the shield bearer immediately takes out his shield and readied for battle. Levi the mage already started to cast a spell too. Roy is preparing his sword too while Sakura being the idlest one still pondering at why the boy seemed familiar for her.

Ryou run past Sakura's party and looked at how the battle unfolded. John skillfully used "taunt" and the tempest wolf are forced to attack him. Levi's "frost bite" also executed successfully and causing the tempest wolf to be frozen in place. The skill frost bite will deliver ice elemental damage and causing the enemy to be frozen for 1-2 seconds. Usually at this time, the party will decide to fall back but for the sake of showing off, they are willing to hang on for a couple minutes against it. Afterwards, they can brag to Sakura about how amazing they are to be able to keep the tempest wolf at bay.

Roy then followed up with using "bash", a swordsman skill that have a chance of causing stun for 1-2 seconds depending on the skill proficiency. Sakura on the other hand still spacing out, thinking at why the voice sounds familiar. She decided to take a closer look at Ryou before she finally realized that it was him.

"Ah, it's you!"

Sakura let out a high pitched cry as an arrow flew from Ryou's bow straight in the middle in-between her eyebrows.

"Hello princess, it's nice to see you."

----

Name: Kibarok      Unique ID: 945077102

Level: 8                  Race: Human

Class: thief

HP: 180/180          MP: 110/110

STR: 6                    Atk: 6 + 20        Def: 2 + 10

AGI: 18                  Matk: 1              Mdef: 1

VIT: 2                    Cast: 0.97          Aspd: 0.88

INT: 1                    Hit: 3                Crit: 1               

DEX: 3                  Stat point: 0

LUK: 1               

Equipment:

Iron dagger (Atk 20, Dur: 50)

Leather armor (Def 5, Dur: 40)

Leather shoes (Def 5, Dur: 40)

Skill:

Detect lvl 2

Hiding lvl 2

Quick strike lvl 1

Steal lvl 1

Backstab lvl 1