End Online: Volume 2
Page 6
"Analyse!" Calling my skill I see their name, confirming my suspicion.
Name: Goblin Mage
Level: 65
Health: 412
Magic: 332
Stamina: 0
??
Yes, they exist, goblins with brains.
Without giving them time to react, Fen and I sprint forward to take the initiative. My speed becomes extremely confined when fighting the goblins in close quarters, preventing me from creating false images of me half of the time. Thankfully I learned to fight before I had them, so I am more than competent.
While running down the corridor however, I can take full advantage of my speed, leaving afterimages for the goblin mages to shoot their fireballs at. Which they do.
The goblins are stunned for a moment, but they seem to lack enough brainpower to actually think about the situation and continue attacking,
As we get closer, Fen launches her signature ice bolts. Meanwhile, tuning my mind to operate my afterimage, I use about forty percent of my stamina and activate 'Back Stab'.
All I need to do is manipulate the shadow image behind to attack the target. It would not do any damage though, it's all just for show. But once I do that I can allow the system to teleport me behind the opponent.
The movement is quite simple, while the enemy is concentrating on the enemy in front of it I appear from behind and deal a critical hit.
Just like I do on this goblin mage, Its magic may be powerful but like all mages, their physical defence is weak and a critical hit from me leaves it with less an a quarter health remaining.
I quickly finish it off and move to the goblin mage next to it, removing the bulk of the goblins firepower. I am currently a little sour however as Fen is getting at the very least two of every three kills. My level had grown to level 46, but Fen's had grown to 49.
My Agility had shown significant growth too, gaining about seven points. Not to mention my intelligence stat is back up to ten thanks to casting the magic from the scrolls of shrinking.
Using scrolls doesn't improve intelligence much, but it does raise the stat slowly. My class skill began to increase in level as well, but the growth was incredibly slow and apart from weapon damage increases, the rest of the bonuses increased slowly as well.
Name: Lost(Man in the Hood)
Health: 453/640
Stamina: 214/237
Lvl: 46
Lvl UP: 44%
Str: 54 +5
Agi: 178 +40
Dex: 53 +25
Int: 10
Mnd: 38
Lck: 20
Infamy: 145
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
Class Skill: White Warrior (SLvl 4, 12%)
[Unavailable]
Potion Production (SLvl 11, 68%)
Mining (SLvl 1, 0%)
Smithing (SLvl 1, 0%)
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
I had personally thought the third floor of the dungeon would be harder than this.
Fen and I continue exploring the third level relentlessly, If we didn't I would not make enough money to afford Fen's shrink scrolls.
It turned out the wolf had satiety requirements as well, and consumes about five times what I do. It had only been a week and the massive quantity of food I stocked up was already nearly exhausted.
I wander around with Fen for the good part of a few hours, eliminating various groups of goblins.
We enter an area slightly larger than the rest, the path opening up into a large area. My eyes go straight to the centre of the room, resting on a typical wooden chest.
'Loot!'
Well, I do consider that it is probably of a trap or that the chest is trapped itself, but the possibility of gaining items I can sell far outweighs that.
There appears to be no signs of any goblins in the area, and inspecting the trap revealed no obvious trap triggers, but then again I do not have any kind of trap detection skill. Without any other method of determining if there is a trap or not I open the chest.
Inside I can see the loot on the floor of the chest, but a loot menu also appeared in the chest, facing upwards.
Loot:
◊ 36 Gold Coins
◊ 27 Silver Coins
◊ Meridium boots of Haste
Take / Take All
There is no need to select what I wanted individually, I immediately press 'Take All'. Opening my inventory I go to inspect what these boots were, but a low growl coming from the wolf behind me prevents me from going any further.
Turning my head I see what has Fen on edge. There are countless goblins climbing out of holes in the walls. They quickly number about fifty, half of which are goblin warriors, and half of the remainder being goblin mages.
‘Hah, so that is why the loot menu of the chests are inside of it. You have to bend down to read it which allows monsters to sneak up on you.’
I do admire the creativity that was put into the ‘chest ambush’.
I am brought back to reality by the completely unknown goblin at the very front of the horde, It stood a monstrous two meters tall, and with a black solid metal plate armour covering its entire torso and shoulders. However the most domineering factor of it was the enormous quantity of fat all over its ugly green body.
'Guess blunt weapons would be useless here, it would just absorb the blows with its fat'
On its belt was some kind of shortshort which I felt an overpowering urge to own. It was beautiful, a pure white hilt of wrapped leather. But the most eye catching was small carved ruby embedded at the base of the blade, which seemed to emanate a faint warmth.
'It may be small, but that gem will surely be worth a fortune! I may not be able to sell it for cash, but I could get enough gold to last months!'
It has a strange blade though. Not because it was perfectly straight unlike my slightly curved swords, but in respect to how the cutting edge of my blades is on the side that curved at the end to meet the tip, it was on the other side of the blade. Almost as if the sharpened edge was on the back.
In its hands though is some kind of oversized cudgel with fragments of some form of crude metal seemingly growing out of the wooden weapon. It wielded it in a single hand and I suspect it is a slow weapon, easy to avoid with my speed.
"Fen, take care of the mages first! Then eliminate all the warriors around the big one. Get rid of all the small fry so they don't get in the way!"
Giving my orders, we both rush into combat. Fen unleashed a rain of smaller ice bolts, dealing damage in a larger area at the cost of concentrating damage on individual goblins.
"Analyse!"
Name: 'Grigor' (Boss Class)
Level: 110
Health: 3440
Magic: 0
Stamina: 2120
??
'A boss monster!'
With a nearly full stamina bar I activate 'Multi Mirage'. To silently do this I extend my mind and visualize multiple images around the enemy, choosing one to be the 'real' me. The rest is controlled by the system.
I can never get completely used to my viewpoint completely changing locations, but at least the system transitions the shift to be easier on my eyes.
Eight images of me spread out assault the horde from various directions. Well, technically only one of me does the attack. I can't control seven fakes very well, so all I can have them do is either rush in and make a couple of blind swings to distract some of the enemies, or be exact reflections of my actions.
I am incredibly lucky that this room was larger than the rest of the dungeon paths and areas, allowing me to use all my skills. Although this skill is extremely ineffective against large numbers of enemies, it is sufficient to create a safe distance between me and the boss goblin Grigor.
The flurry of ice bolts onto the enemy kills a few goblins, but most of the
goblin mages survive the onslaught and release their own magic. Fireballs arc the air at Fen and the reflections of me. Our speed far outclassed the attack so we manage to dodge them easily enough, only a few of my mirages becoming casualties.
I launch my throwing knives at the goblins before they get too close to me, the copies of me do the exact same, confusing the goblins. Except, only my knives deal damage, the fake knives do stick into the goblins where they hit, but they are just fakes in the end.
The goblin Gigor approached one of my mirages, and with it weapon leaving a red trail of light along its path, swung it single handed down onto a mirage of me. The felt the entire earth shake from the blow. If that was the real me underneath, it would surely be a one hit kill.
The goblins get too close to continue throwing knives at them, so dashing forward I carve my way through the small fry, killing most of the previously damaged goblins in one hit.
The goblin mages did not just shoot fireballs at us, they also spawned pillars of flame from the earth. Due to being unaware of one until it broke through the ground, all the remaining images of me were dispersed. They also spawned under my feet, only grazing due to me constantly moving, but each still removes ten percent of my health.
Fen has the flame pillars under control, creating a disc of ice underneath her that negated each pillar of fire, turning into steam in the process.
My first goal is the goblin mages, but Grigor was heading in my direction so I had to be quick. Two more pillars graze by my feet, bringing my health just under half way. But I manage to quickly make short work the final few mages.
The remaining goblins encircle me. There were only about ten left, including the boss, but I have had some bad experiences being surrounded by these little green creatures.
They all swarm in to attack at once, the minor goblins the fastest. Jumping at maximum speed, I leave an afterimage of myself still standing for them to attack while I break their encirclement.
The minor goblins immediately slash the image, watching it disappear as if it was never there before spotting me soaring over them. I am passing over Grigor by the time he notices, which is too late for him to respond with an attack before I pass by.
Except, Grigor proved to be surprisingly dexterous and agile. Leaning backwards, he swung the oversized cudgel at me as I am directly above him. Swatted like an insect, I flew across the cavern and into the wall, my health flashing red and five seconds of being dazed left me in a critical condition.
When the daze effect is lifted, I only have seconds before the goblins reach where I landed.
Fen was doing a good job at flanking the enemy and picking off the minor goblins with her ice bolts, but they were all already caught under my 'aggro', and would only attack me.
Opening my inventory I quickly grab a handful of green medicinal herbs, stuffing them in my mouth before escaping from the approaching goblins. My entire body feels like it’s about to collapse but I manage to keep my distance while my health slowly recovers. In the end I barely manage to recover a third of my health.
'If I had known I would be fighting a boss, I would have prepared potions beforehand! Even if they taste disgusting.'
The rest of the minor goblins are already finished by Fen, and she starts launching various ice attacks at Grigor. The boss however seems to shrug off her attacks, most of them not even penetrating its skin.
The boss's health drops by about twenty percent from Fen's entire onslaught. But it is already close enough to strike me, launching another earth shattering sacred art at me.
"Back Stab!" I don't have any time to think, nor can I concentrate enough to do a silent activation. I transport behind Grigor, narrowly escaping the attack by using the entirety of the stamina I had recovered.
Not wasting the opportunity, I stab both of my swords overhead and into the centre of the boss's back. It may have been wearing armour, but striking any defensive equipment other than a shield is the same as striking the body.
My attack cuts sharply into its back, critical damage removing a further fifteen percent of its health. The cudgel comes swinging around along with the rest of the boss, but I had already witnessed how quick it could move and would not be falling prey to it again.
I narrowly escape the blow, the wind pressure does a little damage and blows me back a couple of meters further than I had intended. But I would call the attack successfully dodged.
The 'aggro' effect on Grigor all of a sudden wore off and he turned his attention towards the little white wolf, completely out of magic, dashing back and forth slashing at his ankles.
Pointing the cudgel at the ground, A red glow signalled a sacred art.
"Fen! Get away from there!" Panicking, I shout out to the wolf, trying to warn her.
But my warning came too late. Driving the cudgel into the ground like a tombstone, a shockwave buffeted the room. I was far enough away and even I took damage. Fen, who was much closer to the origin of the force, gets blown away, lying limply on the ground ten meters away.
"FEN!" I run over as fast as I can, any blow that could launch something weighing over two thousand pounds was sure to cause serious damage.
Through the party window on the side of my vision, I could see Fen was not dead, but that attack immediately had put her in a near critical state. There was also a strange icon I had not seen before flashing next to her name. Judging from her not moving and the icon, I will assume that it means she is unconscious right now.
Consuming a few more herbs, I rush at the boss. Any afterimage I had gets dismissed when I land an attack but it only takes me a moment to leave another one and escape its attacks. I may be acting reckless, but there was no timer on Fen's negative status effect and I could not possibly pick up her enormous weight and move her to safety.
The only method to keep her safe right now was to get the boss's attention, hoping I will be able to 'aggro' it again.
However, Grigor is still intent on attacking Fen, barely even swinging his weapon at me. With forty percent health left the boss was getting closer to the wolf step by step.
Glancing at my health, the herbs have recovered enough that I should be able to take an ordinary swing or two from its club. But if it uses a sacred art it is all over.
I don't want to lose Fen! Despite everything, she has been the best partner to have.
My health is low, the same as my hunger and thirst bars. My entire body right now feels heavy and exhausted, as if there was a great weight on my shoulders.
Pushing myself to move as fast as I can manage, I appear in front of the boss. My first strike is a critical hit along his throat, but the subsequent moves were random hacks to anything I could reach. I was getting to the point where I could no longer leave afterimages from my speed alone.
Grigor's eyes shift to me. Good! I have his attention and probably 'aggro' now. He suddenly grips his weapon in both hands, the club emitting the red hue of a sacred art!
'NO! I won't survive that!'
My entire mind goes in to panic mode. I instinctively resort to my primal instinct to protect as much of myself as possible, crouching down as low as I can and covering my head.
My weapons leave my hands as drop down, bringing my chest to my knees with my hands protecting my head.
I feel a strong wind pressure pass through me, rocking me back and forth. Slowly opening my eyes, I saw that the attack had just narrowly passed over my head.
If Grigor was any shorter I would have been doomed.
Jumping back, I started laughing like some evil genius who had just defeated the hero. Not because I felt like I had won, but because some crazy laugh was the only way to restrain my anxiety and stop my legs from shaking.
This was a game, there was no gore, not much pain, yet right in front of me I almost lost Fen forever.
I kept some distance now that the boss monster had the 'aggro' status, leading it away from my downed companion.
With Fen out of danger, I start launching my high speed a
ttacks again, treating its defence like paper. I couldn’t create the afterimage but I landed multiple critical hits, and barely received any damage thanks to only striking as I pass by the boss, out of reach by the time it could react.
Once Grigor's health reached five percent, he underwent a change in his attacks. Swinging his club in a frenzy, I was taken by surprise at the ferocity of it.
But the attack is not enough to finish me, as soon as the cudgel came swinging in my direction the contest was over. The weapon passed right through me, or at least, it passed right through a mirage of me.
While being surprised, I did not lose my composure. Silently activating 'Back Stab' and using two swords, eradicate the remainder of Grigor's health.
The massive goblin drops to his knees. Falling face first on the ground and signifying the end of the battle. The corner of my view showing notifications that I had gained a level. It said that five times.
Now that combat has finished, all of the dead bodies generated loot boxes above their corpses, flooding the area.
The most important look however was the boss’s. It dropped twenty gold coins, its armour and fortunately the sword from its belt. Bringing up the boots I garnered from the chest before the battle, I inspect all the loot I gained.
Old Bronyx Plate Armour
Plate armour that has never been repaired nor maintained. It is only in one piece today thanks to being made of pure bronyx, an extremely tough metal that will slowly self-regenerate over time. Any serious will not be repaired but scratches and cracks will.
Requirements:
- Level 98
- Str 84
- Agi 51
Armour Type: Bronyx(Heavy)
Defence: 82
Durability: 52/60
Weight: 90lbs