The Glenfort Plains was a large land mass located south of the village. The plains consisted of sizable field known as the Fallow Fields, a dirt road that connected the village with the western forests, and a long flowing river known as the Glenfort River which ended with a large waterfall that led to the Cursed Quarry. John recalled the tasks Daedalus and Allegra asked him to do. He had to go to the Fallow Fields to collect some spider silk for Majerio's explosives and the Glenfort River to retrieve the stolen materials from the goblins. Since the Fallow Fields was closer to the village, John decided to head over there first.

In the past, the Fallow Fields was a flourishing plot of farming land that produced a large percentage of the crops that the villagers in the Glenfort Village sold for profit. However, now, a group of bandits - vagabonds who were too lazy to find honest jobs and murderers who enjoyed killing - had taken over these fields, driving out all of the farmers and any adventurers who were hired to take them down. Now the fields were plagued with bandits and beasts. And so, after an hour of hiking, John arrived at the borders of the Fallow Fields. The land, once flourished with numerous types of crops, now home to many types of weeds and plain grass. John surveyed his surroundings and saw a figure far out in the distance. The figure was a human. Now, in this place known as the Fallow Fields, the only humans out here could only be bandits.

John unsheathed his two weapons and stealthily neared the Bandit, carefully making sure that he didn't make any sounds. Just as he was within attack range, he heard a loud crunch. John froze and looked down. He had stepped on a stray twig! John peered at the bandit in front of him hoping that he didn't notice...but unfortunately, he did. The Bandit, as soon as he heard the crunching sound, turned around immediately with his cutlass in his right hand. As the two humans looked at each other face to face, John was able to clearly see the appearance of the Bandit. The Bandit had red hair with a red bandana masking the lower half of his face. The human before him wore a green and white shirt with brown pants and dark leather boots. His face showed an expression of surprise when he saw John. This was the chance that the young Shadow Walker needed.

John thrust forth his sword and pierced it into the Bandit's side, causing the injured man to reel back and tumble onto the ground. John could see that he had dealt more than fifty percent of the Bandit's health. The young warrior raised his sword once more to unleash a sword and dagger combo, however, the enemy before him took out a ball-shaped object made of what looked like gray-colored paper. The Bandit threw it onto the ground hard causing the ball to explode as smoke flew out and enveloped the area. Taken by surprise, John inhaled some of the smoke and uncontrollably coughed a couple of times. After a few seconds, he regained his posture as he held his breath waved the smoke away. The Bandit must have used this item to vanish from John's view, either to run away or to sneak attack him. Suddenly, John heard a rustling sound coming from behind him. He immediately turned around and swung his sword.

SLICE!

His sword made contact with flesh but the enemy wasn't the bandit from earlier...it was someone else. The new enemy, who had jumped back just in time to avoid a deeper cut, was an older man with white hair and a full white beard. The man was skinny with well-toned muscles. He had on a leather chest armor which covered a red A-shirt. This bandit wore purplish-gray pants and metallic kneeguards. He had a curved blade in his right and a curved dagger in his left. To avoid confusion, John decided to term him as a Bandit Swordsman. The Bandit Swordsman eyed John carefully. The last attack from John nearly killed him, which put some fear in him and discouraged him from charging in again. The Bandit Swordsman circled the young Shadow Walker before suddenly calling out to someone. Could it be the other bandit?

John turned around and held his sword up to block any incoming attack. However, none came...or at least none came from his front. A sharp pain erupted from his back. That bastard had just tricked him and slashed his back! Fury swelled up from within John as he spun around and tried to unleash a Piercing Strike towards the Bandit Swordsman. However, another sharp pain coursed through him, this time coming from his right side. How did that happen? This time, John only turned around halfway. It turned out the first bandit did not run away after vanishing. Instead, he had hidden from view and sneak-attacked when John's guard was down. John roared in anger and recklessly charged towards the Bandit. He brought up his sword and pierced into the Bandit's chest, penetrating his heart...or at least it would have happened if not for his two bleeding and aching wounds. As he tried to complete his attack, the pain shot forth in doubles and snatched his strength away. Without his strength, his sword arm fell to his side. At this moment, John could hear another swinging sound coming from behind him, he turned around and saw the Bandit Swordsman swing his sword straight for him. John reflexively stepped back and avoided a serious injury. He winced in pain since even though he avoided the serious injury, he did not avoid the shallow one.

John knew that he needed to attack too. He can't just stand there and become these two bandits' punching bag. He eyed the two opponents and cautiously backed away from them. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw the Bandit rushed towards him. John grunted through his pain and threw the dagger towards the Bandit. The surprised Bandit tried to dodge the dagger throw but was struck nonetheless. The dagger embedded itself deep in the Bandit's shoulder causing him to stagger a couple of steps back. The Bandit reached over and tried to pull the dagger out...but that was as far as he got.

The scenes changed abruptly for the Bandit. Hmm? Why was he staring at his feet? Or rather...why was his feet on the side? And the answers to those questions will never be answered by the Bandit himself. Naturally, this was because he was dead. While the Bandit was focused on pulling the dagger out of his shoulder, John had used the momentum from spinning to generate enough force and swung his sword towards the Bandit. The force of the spin transferred into the force of John's sword attack and with one clean swipe, he beheaded the Bandit.

"Sonny!" The Bandit Swordsman screamed in pain and anger.

"So that was your son, eh?" John muttered, "Well, you'll be reunited with him soon."

As if the Bandit Swordsman had heard John's mumblings, he cursed the young Shadow Walker to go to hell and rushed towards the young warrior with his sword raised high in order to execute a powerful strike. But, John did not give that chance to the bandit. Swiftly, the young man used all of his remaining strength to thrust the sword towards the old bandit. The sword pierced into the reckless bandit, puncturing one of his lungs, and caused the bandit to miss his slash. The Bandit Swordsman grabbed onto the blade of the steel sword and pulled it off of him. He flung the sword away even though it was still in John's hands. But John...clever, clever John...he had anticipated the Bandit Swordsman's move and used the momentum of the flinging to swing the steel sword in a full circle straight for the bandit's neck. With a mighty slash, the Bandit Swordsman's head rolled to the ground. After the battle, John immediately fell on his butt. He was, as the locals described it, "dead tired". John reached into his bag and pulled out a small healing potion. He took a sip, tentative of its taste. Having found the taste to be a bit sour like unripe fruit, the young warrior downed the potion and waited for the effects to occur. And the wait wasn't long. Soon after John drank the small healing potion, a hot feeling spread throughout his body and he could feel the wounds on his back start to close. Soon after, he was back to full health with a few minor scars. With these miraculous drinks in his bag, John felt more at ease as he continued searching for more bandits. After looting the bodies, the young Shadow Walker headed deeper to the heart of the fields.

"Oh?" John mused as he saw another Bandit Swordsman.

The bandit was busy pissing on a tree, his weapon leaning next to the tree. The young Shadow Walker held up his sword and carefully approached the enemy. John charged at the bandit once he was just a few meters away. The continuous rustling of the grass startled the bandit causing him to wet his pants. He tried to turn around to see who it was but John did not give him a chance as the young warrior lunged forward and gave a powerful kick to the bandit's ass. The Bandit Swordsman crashed into the tree and screamed in pain as his genitals bruised from the force of the kick. The bandit pushed himself from the tree and grabbed his sword. Just as he was about to turn, he was pierced in the back by John. The Piercing Strike penetrated through the Bandit Swordsman and exited his gut. The bandit glanced at the sword poking out of his stomach and spurted out a mouthful of blood. John pulled out the sword causing the man to fall to his knees. The Bandit Swordsman roared in anger and struggled to stand. The young Shadow Walker frowned and slashed with his steel sword. A slash mark welled up from where John's weapon had ran across.

The Bandit Swordsman roared once more as he leaned on the tree for support. He did not fall down again. The bandit turned around and pressed his back on the tree. He held up his sword and swung it down as hard as he could. John tried to deflect the sword attack with his dagger, but the sudden burst of power from the bandit caused the sword to break through the dagger's defenses and embedded deep in John's shoulder. John winced in pain and dropped the dagger in his hand. As the bandit began pulling the sword out of John's shoulder, the young Shadow Walker reached up and grasped onto the sword with his right hand. No matter how hard the bandit tried to pull his sword away, John won't let go. Without his weapon, the Bandit Swordsman was full of openings. John raised his steel sword and chopped at the bandit, ending the poor old man's life quickly. As the bandit slumped lifelessly to the ground, John grabbed the sword in his shoulder with both hands and pulled it out. He tossed the bloodied sword to the ground and drank another potion of healing. Afterwards, he looted the body for anything valuable.

"Whew! These bandits are so poor!" John lamented as he pulled out less than a hundred silver from the Bandit Swordsman.

Suddenly, he froze. Someone...something was snarling behind him! John slowly turned around and saw a Feral Wolf! Why was it here? Could it have been attracted by the smell of blood? The wolf had dirty silver fur with glowing yellow eyes and large sharp canines. Its body was bent and its ears folded back. It seemed as if the wolf was afraid of something. Was it scared of John's killing aura that leaked out after he killed the Bandit Swordsman? The young Shadow Walker reached out his hand and tried to calm the wolf down, however, that did not go as planned. Because of John's open hand, the Feral Wolf mistook the fingers as fangs bearing towards it and lunged to attack. The Feral Wolf nipped John's hand causing him to jerk back. Swearing at his bad luck, John pierced his sword towards the Feral Wolf and stabbed into its side. The wounded wolf yelped before taking another bite at the young warrior's bitten hand. John clenched his wounded hand and punched the wolf square in the jaw, knocking it back. Then, he mercilessly hacked at the wolf and cut off its head.

After killing the wolf, John heard some voices nearby. More bandits! From the sound of those voices it seemed that the enemies were moving closer to his position. John retrieved his weapons and quickly found some tall grass to hide behind. Soon, two Bandit Swordsmen came by. They were discussing something about how their boss had wanted to send some elites to attack the village to the north of them...wait! The village to the north...isn't that Glenfort Village?! John tried to listen to some more but couldn't because the two bandits saw the corpses.

"Holy shit, look at that big wolf! Who could have killed it?" One of the Bandit Swordsmen - Bandit A, as John nicknamed in his mind - exclaimed as he spotted the beheaded Feral Wolf.

"You're right! Such a waste though. The pelt is badly damaged and you won't be able to sell it for a good price." The other bandit - Bandit B - mused.

As they walked towards the Feral Wolf, Bandit A exclaimed once more. "Hey...isn't that Gerald?!"

"What? You're right. Gerald's dead! Do you think it was this wolf that done him in? Like they killed each other?" Bandit B responded as he knelt before the corpse and checked the body.

"How can that be? With Gerald's capabilities, I'd be surprised if he didn't piss in his pants and faint."

"Hahaha...but then...who killed Gerald?"

"Look at his wounds. All blade marks. Could there be an intruder?"

"If that's the case, then we need to report this to the boss immediately!"

The two bandits quickly stood up and dashed past John's hiding place. It was at this moment that John emerged from his hiding place and gave a swift kick at Bandit B, knocking him tumbling to the ground. Before Bandit A could respond, John unleashed a sharp Piercing Strike into Bandit A's stomach and slit his throat. Then, the young warrior pulled out the sword and swung his dagger upwards, causing a long bloody tear to appear. John didn't stop his attacks there as he spun around and, using the momentum of the spin, chopped the bandit's head clean off. All of this happened in just a couple of seconds. John quickly glanced up and found that Bandit B had already made a run for it. The young Shadow Walker couldn't let the bandit go. If the bandit was to report back to their boss about him...then the consequences could be dire. John hoisted his sword and, after taking a couple of steps towards the bandit, launched the sword forward like a spear. The sword pierced into the Bandit Swordsman. The force of the attack knocked the bandit down.

The young warrior rushed towards the collapsed bandit and swept his foot into the bandit's gut. John reached over and pulled out the sword. The bandit arched his back in pain, just enough to reveal his front to John who then threw his dagger at the enemy. The dagger struck into the Bandit Swordsman's shoulder knocking him onto his back. In a fit of desperation, the Bandit Swordsman swung his sword and managed to slice open John's leg. The young warrior grunted in slight discomfort. Using both hands, he swung his sword up and cut off the bandit's arm. The Bandit Swordsman howled in pain as he tried to madly ward off his opponent with the dagger in his remaining hand. John stepped back and waited for the wounded man to tire out. After a few minutes, the Bandit Swordsman laid on the floor, barely breathing as blood continued to flow from his wounds. The bandit's eyes were hazy as he saw a blurry figure walk up to him. The blurry figure raised something in the air and then...blackness.

After beheading the bandit, John retrieved his dagger and bandaged his wounds. It was unfortunate, but he had realized too late that he had only one more healing potion left. He still needed to go to Glenfort River, so he decided not to drink the last potion until he had no other choice. Once his wounds were bandaged and blood stopped flowing, he crouched down and looted the bodies for any silver. That was when he pulled out something strange. It was elliptical and sticky. What was this weird object? John pressed the object between his fingers and...pop! A thick sticky gooiness spurted out all over John's fingers. Ugh! What was this shit? It even smells! Strange...this looked like yolk of some sort. Could this be an egg? But whose egg was this? Suddenly, a hiss emitted from behind him. John turned around and held his sword up. There, in front of him, was a large spider...larger than that of a full-grown dog. The gray spider had blood red eyes and large red fangs dripping with what looked to be poison. John guessed that the spider may have a high resistance to poison as well, which meant that Neurotoxin Stab would be ineffective to use. This spider, known as the Plains Spider, was staring at his right hand. At first, John thought it was just looking at him and its eyes just happened to be staring at his hand. However, when John moved his hand back and forth, the spider was following the hand's movements. John couldn't help but wonder why was that. Then, like a bolt of lightning, it hit him. The egg!

That must have been a Plains Spider egg! No wonder! The Plains Spider was staring at his hand and hissing up a storm. This spider clearly had no intentions of letting him go. So, John had to take the initiative and land the first hit. He lunged towards the spider, startling it and pierced the spider with his steel sword. However, who would have thought that the spider had a really tough exoskeleton as the sword was only able to open up the tough shell and leave a shallow wound. The spider hissed with anger and squirted out a long stream of spider silk at John's feet. The sticky web made it hard for John to move. However, the spider had underestimated the swiftness of a Shadow Walker. Even with the slow debuff of the Web Trap, John was able to quickly deal a powerful strike to the Plains Spider's open wound. This time, John was able to cut deep and nearly split the spider in half. The Plains Spider hissed a couple of times before teetering to the ground. After the spider died, John cut himself loose and approached the spider. With a few stabs of his dagger, he opened up the spider's body and removed the spider sac which was used to produce spider silk. Having completed his objective, John did not hesitate to leave the area. He did not want to know what would happen when the other bandits found out about the dead bandits. John quickly left the fields and headed over to the river to search for the goblins and retrieve the stolen materials.