End Online: Volume 2

by D Wolfin

‘She doesn't know what she is getting herself into.’

  I laughed inside my mind as I took off. The extra thirty percent plus agility bonus surprised me. It didn't exactly make me feel lighter or like I was running faster, but each time I pushed off one of my feet it was like I was throwing the world behind me.

  I actually felt somewhat of an out of body experience while running behind Fen. Glancing around me at all the trees I notice something out of the corner of my eye. There was someone chasing us, about ten meters behind me. They are incredibly quick, running almost as fast as I am.

  I make a sharp turn to stop whoever it is, only to see a man in a white cloak made of a trimmed fur. I see an exact image of me.

  Moments after I stop, all of a sudden the image breaks into a mist and is gone in seconds. Is this what the afterimage of me running is?

  'Oh no! I completely forgot about the race with Fen!'

  Coming to realize that I was the hare who had just stopped for a break I take off in the direction the wolf had gone, leaving the image of me standing there behind. Activating 'Perceptual Sight', I used the heightened senses to weave through the trees much smoother, travelling through them faster than before.

  As I break out of the woods, Iceridge is on the horizon and Fen is only a hundred meters in front of me. If it wasn't for the new class skill, I would have no chance of winning this race. But right now I have the speed boost to overtake the wolf with half the distance left. Speeding over the landscape I make sure to keep an eye behind me in case Fen tries anything.

  And without a doubt the she did, she was so eager to win that she stooped to trying to sabotage me. Shooting ice bolts at me and in front of me.

  Strangely enough though, she tried to interfere with my afterimage and not me. The 'fake' me also appears to be slightly more than just an image of where I was before. I imagined the image dodging the incoming attacks and to my surprise, instead of following the path I took, it seemed to follow my directions.

  Running and trying to give directions to the mirage of me was incredibly difficult, to the point that even with the system assisting my commands the image dodged the attacks rather awkwardly. Eventually one of the attacks connected, immediately dispersing the image into mist.

  'She can't see me! All that is visible is the afterimage!'

  It was incredible information that would be useful in the future, as is the fact that the dismissal of the afterimage reveals my location. It only takes the stunned wolf a moment to recover before she sent more ice bolts, this time aimed at where I actually was.

  But I had already left behind another after fake, swerving around the poorly aimed spikes of ice and lengthening the lead even more. It would be a little different in a confined space where my speed would be limited, but in the open expanse like this I clearly have the advantage.

  The entire trip back I maintained the lead, touching the walls of Iceridge first. Fen was clearly in a bad mood. Her cheating had failed, causing her to lose the chance to order me around for a day. Well, I suppose maybe I will still play with her tomorrow like she would have wanted. I need to see how much easier my agility will rise. It was around the point of being at a standstill and not increasing very much, before getting the class skill that is.

  "Fen, I'm sorry, but you will have to wait outside for today. I don't have another scroll, but I will get one for next time if I can."

  The wolf let out some kind a snort and turned around, disappearing into thin mist that dispersed almost immediately.

  'I catch her in my locker once and now she has no problems coming and going whenever she pleases? Sheesh, what a bad sport, she only lost a race.'

  I, on the other hand, am incredibly happy with the ability to create afterimages. I feel like all of a sudden I have run into a great fortune, gaining the upper hand in battle.

  Putting aside all the self-gloating about my new class skill, I walk through the gates of Iceridge in order to sell the loot I have collected.

  Inside the main courtyard, an incredible scene comes into focus. Thousands of players are blocked up all the way to the church, like some peak hour traffic jam. As I get closer I pick up various voices in the crowd.

  "What the hell is this? I'm just here to buy the cooking skill and I have to wait in this frigging line?"

  "I've been here for twelve hours already! How long is this going to take?"

  "Everyone! I'm a celebrity in real life, make way!"

  "Screw this! I will just buy food from stores. Hey! Get out of my way, I want to leave!"

  Seems like over half the players from Iceridge have converged on this point to buy the cooking skill. It has been about twenty four hours since the update so most of these players must be tired and frustrated.

  My limbs start shaking slightly and all of a sudden I notice how weak my body is feeling. It isn't like how weary you feel when your health drops low, but almost like all my strength was being sapped away. Looking at my hunger bar I witness that has dropped below twenty percent!

  'It was still at a hundred percent an hour ago! What happened to it?'

  My thoughts roam back to the race. It looks like physical activity will deplete the hunger bar faster than it would naturally drop. Well, that certainly will make me pay closer attention to how often I use my speed. I probably should not use it unless I am in battle at the very least.

  First, I need to sell all the loot I have collected. Planning on selling the most valuable items first, I walk into the jewellery shop and approach the young female clerk.

  "Excuse me. I have some jewellery I would like to sell."

  "Oh! Umm," The young lady turns her eyes away from me, acting incredibly meek, “W-what would you like to sell?"

  "I have five pieces of jewellery here,” I place the items on the counter in between us, “some appear to be of higher value than others."

  "I-I see. By looking at them, how does f-fifteen gold for the lot sound?"

  She seemed to be stammering a lot. Looking at the face in between her blonde bangs, she for some reason would not look me in the eye. Was she trying to rip me off?

  "Do you think you could inspect them on more time?" I was happy with fifteen gold but I don't want to be ripped off if they worth more.

  "Ah! Well, they aren't really worth any more. B-but would sixteen gold be better for you?" She seems incredibly nervous. She wasn't like this last time.

  "Yes, that should be fine. But please remember in the future I really do not appreciate being ripped off."

  "Of-of course!"

  The clerk grabs a cloth out of her back pocket and gently dabs her forehead and cheeks, removing the cold sweat from them. I passed over the goods and once I received the money, two short messages appear in front of me.

  You have extorted an innocent young female clerk. Word of your deeds has spread throughout the land. Guards and NPC's alike will be more cautious of you.

  Infamy + 50

  Total Infamy: 50

  With your true identity hidden, you have become known as the ‘Hooded Man'. Any infamy or fame gained with this identity will only be applied to the person known as the 'Man in the Hood'.

  If any NPC’s discovers your true identity both reputations as 'The Hooded Man' and 'Lost' will be converged.

  New Title: (Hooded Man)

  Effects:

  - Grants the holder a second identity.

  - True identity hidden from all analysis skills.

  - If true identity is discovered, this title becomes invalid.

  'What the heck is this? I didn't intimidate anyone!'

  Thinking back I recall how 'Aggravation' got upgraded to 'Intimidating Aura' before becoming a part of my class skill. I glance back through it and see that it is indeed there, I must have not paid enough attention to where it speaks of my intimidating aura.

  Plus, this title is extremely weird. It seems almost custom designed for me, but I assume anyone would get a similar title if they hid their identity for long enough.

  I don
't particularly feel much from gaining a bit of infamy. it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway.

  My next destination was the blacksmith, where the enormous blockade of players ended. I was fortunate the rusty armour sold for a great deal more than the rusty weapons. It turns out that scrap metal is sold by weight, and a chest plate can weigh up to fifteen times a standard sword.

  Although, even the blacksmith seemed to be intimidated by my aura, despite the tough visage he usually gives off. I may have walked out with a few more coins clinking in my coin bag but it had cost me another ten points of infamy.

  I didn't even dispute his price, accepting what he originally offered still led to me gaining infamy.

  At this point I had forty five gold coins in my possession. But that was reduced to thirty once I purchased a large quantity of cheap cooking equipment. I also stocked up a large quantity of proper precooked meals that had a decent lifespan, not that rubbish sugar food I had in my inventory.

  One of the store clerks threw in a free water canteen with my purchase of food. But at the end of the day I garnered another fifteen infamy from the purchases, proving that every transaction with an NPC resulted in an infraction of infamy.

  It is slowly turning into a bad situation. If I don't do anything about this my infamy is going to rise every time I trade with an NPC. Eventually they will refuse to even trade with me and in the worst case scenario, I will even be denied entrance to the city.

  I had originally considered purchasing some new skills to fill my newly freed skill slots, but one glance at the crowd of players that seemed even larger than before deterred me from doing so.

  'I don't really need any new skills at the moment. Plus, the cost of them for me is enormous.'

  Leaving the main courtyard behind me I travel around all the parks I am aware of, restocking my pile of herbs I use for healing myself and potion creation.

  Inspecting the information of herbs I have gathered, my improved herbology also bears fruit. Where I previously could not determine any information about an unknown herb, I can now view the herbs name even if I don't know the effect of it. 'Green Paralysis Herb' and 'Fire Flower' were two of the herbs in my inventory where the revealed name provided decent idea as to what their effects were, but there was a 'Black N' herb that I could not discern the effect of.

  I left the city shortly after that, there was nothing left for me to do other than gather unnecessary infamy points.

  Fen was back in the game and waiting outside the town. She seemed to be ignoring me but she quietly followed behind me as I headed off towards the 'Unknown Goblin Lair' for more training.

  I was completely broke again, spending my last thirty gold coins on two scrolls of shrinking.

  ***************************************************

  ***************************************************

  -Fen-

  It was the first time Lost logged off in front of me that it happened. When I saw him disappear I desperately tried to find out where he went. From the point where he vanished I remember feeling some kind of distortion, making all the hairs on my body stand up.

  Pushing myself into the distortion I felt like I was a trying to push myself into a tiny rabbit's hole. After pushing on it for long enough however, it began to slowly be forced open by my body. Sliding deeper and deeper into the distortion I eventually seemed to fall in.

  I fell for a long time, until I came out the other end of whatever kind of tunnel it was.

  I was in a small room, and it was decorated extremely strangely. There were odd seats and furniture, not to mention all the mysterious machines around. Lost appeared to have left from here already, but unlike the earlier distortion, I could not tell where exactly where from or to.

  I notice I was also a lot smaller than usual, the same as when he cast that spell to shrink me. I transform into my human form with a motion of standing up, getting a better view of the room. The alien view outside of the window was especially terrifying, I knew I had somehow left my world and entered another one, but it was such a shocking sight.

  I haven't revealed my human form to Lost yet, he is possibly the only one I can't show it to. After all, not only am I terrified I might frighten him away with it, but it would also be far too embarrassing for him to see me without clothes on!

  I had quite a lot of time to myself exploring this strange room before he got back. I spent most of it sitting on a couch playing with a strange machine on the table. After poking it a few times all of a sudden a black liquid came pouring out, spilling all over the table and even onto the floor.

  Panicking, I found some kind of fabric cloth in the strange kitchen to wipe up the mess, which soaked it all up and surprisingly was still dry afterwards. There are a few cups on the table so clearly this stuff must be for drinking.

  Placing the cloth down on the table, and one of the cups on top of it. I press the same button on the strange drink machine, picking it up and holding it over the cup so the strange liquid filled it. The cloth soaking up the rest that overflowed.

  'Bitter!'

  The drink was horrible, how could someone drink this? I spent an hour taking little sips from the cup. Half way down the drink had gone completely cold. I couldn't drink anymore even if I tried, so I poured the rest of it into the magic cloth.

  I was lying down on the couch, completely exposed in my human form, when Lost appeared again. Fortunately the couch was facing the other way, so he could not see me, but it did not help my anxiety.

  In my panic to get out of there I somehow recalled the feeling of the distortion, easily reopening it and entering back into my world, transforming into the wolf as soon as I got there. I was not a moment too soon, Lost appearing only seconds after me.

  After that incident it was almost as if I was connected to the other side of the distortion, easily able to move in between. There was also the feeling that rather than entering into that other world, I was returning to it.

  I started entering Lost’s room time he disappeared back to the other world. Only, I got a little to overconfident and got caught.

  It was the day that he gave me the fluffy red and white hat. When I returned to the other world, the hat I was wearing had fallen over my eyes, causing me to walk into a cupboard.

  Lost, hearing a strange noise that surely was not supposed to be there, came rushing over. That was when our eyes met, and I knew there was no escaping this one.

  “Have you seriously been logging out into my VL every time I leave End Online?! Is that even possible?!”

  His voice contained an extremely large amount of surprise. He used some strange terms I was unfamiliar with, but I could tell that at least he wasn't mad like I thought he would be.

  He didn't do anything else, not expecting a wolf like me to be able to answer him, so he walked off shaking his head. He was completely gone by the time I came around the corner to follow him.

  I transform back into an eighteen year old girl. Sitting on the couch, I have slowly acquired a taste the black liquid over time and could pleasantly drink it now. It was quite a risqué scene, but there was no shame as long as no one ever saw it...

  ***************************************************

  When we returned to what Lost called 'End Online' he proposed a race to me back to the city, Iceridge. He also promised he would do anything I liked for a whole day!

  I had a few thoughts about what I would do, but having him play fight with me would be a waste of an opportunity. Maybe we could go hunting for the succubus and cause her pain. He did say he would do whatever I wanted!

  I made up my mind as to exactly what I wanted. Steeling my resolve I eradicated the goblin in front of me and took off, eager to get as much of a lead as I could. I was extremely confident in my speed, but I was more than aware of how fast he was. It was that speed of his that originally impressed me after all.

  The contest took us through the woods where I somehow managed to create a large gap between us. But hi
s speed was somehow beyond what I remembered, closing the gap by the time I was half way towards the city.

  The terrain was rough, and four legs should technically hold the advantage, but he kept closing the distance. Before he got too close I sent off some ice bolts to slow him down at the very least.

  I finally hit him with one but for some reason he disappeared as if he was never there! Another image of Lost appeared slightly in front of me. I have no clue what he is doing, but even as I continue sending ice bolts at him, every time he all of a sudden is no longer there but somewhere else instead. Each time he moves he is even further ahead too!

  The rest of the contest was so unfair I got angry at myself for not doing better. If I was in human form I would have been faster! The same human form I wanted to reveal to him, then use my demands to have him buy me clothes and spend a day with just me! No hunting, no parties, just him listening to my demands for a day!

  Fuming I retract myself from the world, back to the 'Locker'.

  ***************************************************

  ***************************************************

  -Lost-

  We spent the entire next week in the 'Unknown Goblin Lair'. I was a little concerned that Verde hadn't logged on since the incident. I really wanted to apologize to her.

  I had also been back and forth to town multiple times already, just to sell loot and ensure I have enough shrink scrolls for Fen. Thanks to that my infamy has climbed to a grand total of 145. The guards were already warning me to watch myself.

  "Fen, let's head down to the next level, we are already strong enough."

  I was already too strong for the goblin warriors, to the point it would have been one hit kills if I had weapons more appropriate to my level. Not only that, but I had also figured out the secret methods to silently activating my new sacred arts.

  We walk down another small ridge along a wall to get to the third floor.

  It was strange down here. The air was just as dry as the rest of the dungeon, yet there was a humidity in the air that even I could feel through my cloak, causing me to start sweating. We run into the first group of goblins down here. It is another group of ten, but only five of them are ordinary goblins. Three are goblin warriors, and the other two are something new, wearing torn robes and twisted oak staves.