by D Wolfin
This human probably doesn't know, but I have an incredibly acute sense of smell. I can follow his scent over the ocean if I must, as long as the scent is no more than a few days old.
He appears to have spent a small amount of time in this nearby town I burnt mostly to the ground, before leaving north west. I can tell from the smell I am not far behind him, maybe by only a day.
I do not rush. A majestic creature such as me should never be in a hurry to go anywhere. As long as I don't start falling behind the target, I will continue to casually stroll after it.
I reach a point in a nearby forest where the scent simply disappears. Confused at first, I search the area suspecting he may have discovered he was being followed.
All around me are ten meter tell trees growing like thin pillars. I wouldn’t call it hard to a dense forest, but the trees do prevent the eyes from seeing too far. The bark on the trees is a light grey colour, with leaves of fresh green and yellow littering the canopy.
Covering the ground is grass just tickling the ankles. Also, plenty of small bushes and fallen leaves litter the area, leaving plenty of places for a human to hide.
Reaching the conclusion that he must of teleported or some such method, I inwardly laugh to myself.
'Fu hah hah ha... If you think teleporting will prevent me from chasing you down, you had better think again!'
I find a small distortion in the space where his scent vanishes. Using my hands, I stick them into the vortex and start to pry it open. Forcing the portal open, I go to follow him through it.
Except, I couldn't seem to pass through . It is odd, I can hold it open easy enough. I simply just can't travel through it to the other side.
Roaring in rage, I withdraw my hands and storm around kicking down trees to vent my frustration.
I hear two voices break out of the trees where I just was. Creeping back I see the woman with a hood over her head and a tall blond man in shining armour.
"We need to wait," The voice belonged to the woman, "He should be back before we know it."
"My lady. We cannot simply wait out here until he gets back. If he missed the appointed time, there is no helping it. Just forget him."
"No! I came out here with him, leaving him behind would just be pointless!"
"Well, why don't you leave him a message and we will meet him in Grenton? I see no point in sitting here for that lowlife. Don't you see how superior he acts, expecting us to wait for him. He doesn't even show his face to us."
"Don't you dare say tha- Who's there!?"
The woman breaks off from the argument and looks in my direction, almost as if she could see me through the trees. It is my fault for not hiding better, how embarrassing.
Masking my killing intent as much as possible, I stroll out of the bushes with my hands up. I ensure to gently keep my eyes closed, the violet slitted irises are more than enough to give away that I am not human.
"Ah, I'm sorry I wasn't sure how to approach. You seemed to be rather busy."
The woman maintained her silence at my words. She is right to be cautious, except she is not my target. If I recall, I do believe she was with the hooded man though.
"Is it just the two of you travelling together? Surely that must be dangerous."
With my eyes closed, I try to give a gently smile. I can't see anything, but the rest of my senses are strong enough to be able to judge things accurately. She still has the scent of suspicion.
"There are two others, but they are not here right now. Why are you keeping your eyes closed?"
"Oh, this?" I let out a short, cold chuckle, "It is merely a form of training I have been trying. I take it these other two will be back?"
"I think they may have already left without us actually. So who knows."
"Oh no. I doubt that."
"You doubt that? Why is that?"
"Oh, just a feeling I have. Nothing more."
"Well, we are going to be leaving now, it’s been a pleasure to meet you...?"
She trailed off with a questioning voice, I can only assume she means to ask who I am.
"Oh, just call me Learg. That will do."
'More like you should prostrate before my and call me your highness! Filthy human!'
Oops, I let out my killing intent again. I don't sense anything different from them, so maybe they didn't notice.
"Although, I happen to not be much of a fighter. Would you happen to mind if I followed behind you for my safety?"
"Umm... Let me discuss it with this guy for a bit."
She drags him off and whispers to him about whether they should let me follow. I don't particularly want to waste my time with them. But they have some connection with my target. Following them around is possibly the best way to find him now that I have lost his scent.
They don't actually make any noise as they talk. But I sense a link between the two, and I can hear them when I focus on it. They speak about me being a suspicious individual, but the foolish man in the armour seems to believe he can protect her if need be.
With the mid-day sun shining down, the shadow of the canopy is projected down onto the ground.
The two humans come back and agree to let me follow them. Apparently their names are Verde and Sir Laurence, neither of which I will remember for long.
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-Lost-
When I log back on finally, the area around me has slightly changed. Almost as if last night’s storm had occurred in the game as well, there are between ten and twenty of the nearby trees knocked to the ground.
The leaves had scattered all over the ground from the destruction, giving me a sense of unease at what could have caused it. Fen is also here with me, although with a bored look on her face she ignores the damage.
A small notification shows I have a voice message in my inbox. Opening it, Verde's enchanting voice plays through.
"Lost, Sir Laurence and I are going to Grenton ahead of you. We don't know how long it will be till you're back and we can't wait until you do. There is also a person following behind us who is incredibly suspicious, I hope to get into town where it is safe before he does anything."
"P.s I'm going to miss your cooking. I will look forward to seeing you again. We will meet you at the Gold Run Inn, the one specified in the letter of introduction."
Mmm, some suspicious guy is following them? I wonder what they could want. Also, is it just my cooking what you look forward to? You can really get directly to the point can't you.
I hear a rustling in the bushes and raise my guard immediately. A beast sneaking up on you usually leads to suffering a critical hit.
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-Mason-
My name is Maver Marx, but my character in End Online is just called Mason. I am nineteen years old and a full time gamer.
I make my money by recording my gameplay footage, editing the camera angles, then placing it on the forums for people to watch. My brother, with the character Matrix, helps me with this and we split the profit made.
Living in the slums with my brother and father, it is the only place our meagre income can allow us to live.
With the entire area is stricken by poverty, we are lucky to have our VL's. Our father had worked at Virtue years ago and lost his job when the public opinion for the technology turned negative.
At least he got to keep some of the devices for his kids at the end, even if the loss of job had forced us to move out into the slums.
There really isn't much profit in the videos I make. I am not like any of the famous players. On a lucky day a thousand views on any of my videos is about the best I get. Even my most recent one in the large scale battle against the army of stone kobolds and boulder ogres only managed to get eight hundred.
I really need to do something to get the views up. I get pa
id on the advertisements on my video. All I have to do is put up a video of at least an hour long and any advertisers who wish to put their advertisement on my video, place their bids with the highest one getting the spot. It is also a video lifetime spot. All they have to do is buy it.
They can pre purchase spots if they contact me before I post the video, but I am also not popular enough to garner that kind of interest from any media investors.
I usually set an hour video to have three advertisement spots at every twenty minutes. They usually sell, but only for meagre amounts. One video will tend to only get me about a hundred or so dollars if I am lucky. But lately that has been going down.
Matrix and I are currently on our way to a dungeon in between Leaz and Grenton. I discovered clues about it by reading some books in Grenton last month. Only, I got distracted thanks to the large scale battle that was going on.
Checking my status, I notice I gained about twelve levels from that battle in a single day.
Name: Mason
Health: 1060/1156
Stamina: 281/281
Lvl: 89
Lvl UP: 12%
Str: 44 + 7
Agi: 62 + 13
Dex: 75 + 23
Int: 18
Mnd: 23
Lck: 18
fame: 20
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
Longbow Proficiency (SLvl 27, 72%)
Shortsword Proficiency (SLvl 20, 16%)
Physical Prowess (SLvl 35, 11%
Precision Targeting (SLvl 34, 86%)
Hunter's eyes (SLvl 36, 38%)
Cooking (SLvl 11, 2%)
Wood Crafting (SLvl 12, 42%)
Stone Crafting (Slvl 12, 42%)
High Speed (SLvl 19, 91%)
Reserve Skills:
Fletching(SLvl 11), Literature(SLvl 15)
I really want a class skill. I have been trying to get one related to archery, but I have had no luck so far. Matrix is in the same situation, trying to get a class skill related to being a 'Magic Swordsman' but still yet to discover one.
I wear hard leather armour and shin guards specially crafted from the pelt of a Mountain King Lion. Its status showed it was something called a 'Knight Class', and it was incredibly more powerful than a normal creature. If I was to put it in terms that I grew to understand it, I would probably call it a 'Mini Boss Class'.
Matrix would have gotten first say on the good due to his death and effort put in, but he wears medium armour so it was better if I have it.
I travel up through the trees while my brother follows along the ground. We do this to prevent ambushes, or if one of us still gets ambushed, to allow the other one to come to the rescue. It may not seem it, but it is quite effective if the enemy only thinks there is just one of us.
We come to a small clearing with two people in it. A man wearing a snow white fur cloak. And a girl in a red halter dress, her hair the same colour as the man’s cloak. Using 'Hunter's Eyes' my vision zooms onto the man's right hand, spotting that he is from Glace.
Something seems off about the two, so the thought of attacking simply doesn't seem like a good choice. Despite how popular player verses player combat is in the videos.
"Hoh, friends! What brings you out here?" I announce myself from the trees, letting the man know where I am. The girl doesn't even look up, almost as if she already knew I was there.
He looks up at me but maintains his silence.
"We happen to be going to a new dungeon. I suspect it may be quite tough though. Would you two care to join us?"
"I suppose I can do that."
The man in the hood let out a friendly laugh, but somewhere behind it I could feel an icy tone. I would like to know more about this mysterious individual.
"Great! But, we won't be forming a party. Surely you can live with that?"
"Yes, yes. That is perfectly fine." He raises his hands as if he is harmless. But raising his hands reveals the two short swords under his cloak state, warning me that he is most definitely armed.
"It's a pleasure, I am Mason. And my brother down there is Matrix."
"Brothers? That's definitely interesting. I am Lost, and this is Fen. Well, shall we be off?”
“Yes, I will let you lead the way."
I jump out in front and start walking towards this hidden dungeon I read about. The book could be wrong, but my 'Literature' skill revealed that the information has more than an eighty percent chance of being true.
Passing through the trees with our two companions for this trip, I get excited about the video. Having guests and such for video's usually boosted views, having such a pretty girl in the video too is bound to make the popularity reach higher than it ever has before!.
We break out of the trees into low rolling hills covered in flowers of ever colour. The sky had a few clouds around, but nothing that should affect the weather. As we continue north, I ask about these two people.
"You agreed to come rather readily Lost. Surely you must know how easily it would be for us to betray you. What are your reasons?" I question the hooded figure, the moment I invited him he suddenly turned friendly.
"You offered for me to join rather readily, it could have easily gone the opposite. I could ask the exact same thing."
"Indeed!" I let out a bellow of a laugh at his response, "Indeed it could."
"Well truth be told. I need to get stronger as fast as I can. If I join you in a hidden dungeon, I can do that. There are other reasons too, but I would rather not talk about them."
"I guess this will benefit us both then! I make videos for the End Forums. Having extra people, especially a stunning beauty as one of them, would be great at increasing our viewers."
I was about to let out another laugh when I felt an icy cold aura come from the Lost, only vanishing when Fen spoke.
"... Am I... A stunning... Beauty?" She looked up at Lost bewildered.
"Yes," Lost spoke back to her, dropping the murderous aura, "yes you are."
Not saying another word, I lead us to the location described as half a day’s walk from where we currently are.
I find a dense thicket of trees and vines. Even the overgrown ground is full of logs and other objects difficult to navigate around. Using my level sixty 'Keen Sandrock Shortsword', I cut down all the vines and obstacles in my way until I reach what appears to be a small mausoleum.
Keen Sandrock Shortsword
A straight shortsword made out of sandrock. The material cannot be repaired due to its nature of being a carved blade, but sandrock is an incredibly tough mineral.
The edge if this sword was grinded by a master, creating the perfect blade for inflicting deep, lethal wounds.
The blade is 45cm long.
Requirements:
- Level 60
- Dex 38
Weapon Type: Double Edged/Short Sword
Attack: 76 - 88
Durability: 58/76
Weight: 1.9 lbs
Abilities:
- An attack with this sword can cause bleeding damage of up to 3hp per second for up to 30 seconds.
- Multiple strikes will accumulate the bleeding damage.
- Cannot be repaired.
This blade has been incredibly helpful at the best of times. The material sandrock is a lightweight and incredibly tough mineral, light grey in colour and feels like sandpaper to the touch. The shortsword also causes excessive bleeding damage from attacks thanks to sandrock's coarseness.
The mausoleum in front of me is all cracked, with vines and moss covering it. The entrance inside is a simple metal gate, the lock so rusted it had broken long ago. Pushing it open I enter the dungeon first.
Entering 'Vexl Forgotten Prison'
Drawing my bow I loosely knock an arrow, ready for any monsters that appear. I also make sure to turn on my recording software as I enter the mausoleum for my next video. A small red dot in the corner of my vision informs me that I am currentl
y recording.
The video will be a fully interactive 3D render of everything I can see in a three-sixty degree view of my position. From there I can freely move the camera around in the edit and create the angles for my video. There is a lot of effort involved, but it pays off in the end.
A large number tells me I have enough free space in the VL’s memory circuit for about a hundred hours of recording. The sheer size of the memory devices in these old second generation VL's is no laughing matter.
As soon as I enter the tiny mausoleum, the entire space is taken up by a staircase leading underground.
"Today I am heading deep into the Vexl Forgotten Prison, a dungeon potentially undiscovered until now." I appear to be speaking to an apparition in front of me, but it is where I will position the camera afterwards.
"The rumours spread throughout the history books speak of this place as being used to lock away class A criminals, only to leave them to die from starvation. Some began to turn into cannibals while others simply lost all sanity. It got so severe the entire prison was locked away and hidden, leaving the insanity to be trapped within, unable to touch the rest of the world."
"For today's journey, I am joined by Matrix, the magic swordsman, once again. Also, we have two guests who are joining us in a competitive hunt of monsters. Meet the mysterious Lost, and the peerless beauty Fen."
Lost showed some interest in Matrix when I mentioned he is a magic swordsman, but throughout the entire thing, he did not speak a word. Could he be shy of speaking in front of a camera? Well, he shouldn't be afraid of something he cannot even see.
"Like I just said Lost, we are in separate teams so it is whoever gets the kill first. Although, we are working together so try not to get in each other’s way, play fair."
He gives a slight nod of the head and we reach the bottom of the stairs.
Slowly, torches along the dark grey stone brick walls begin to light up. Moss climbs the walls and even hanging down from the unnecessarily high ceiling. The path is only about 4 meters wise, but the ceiling reaches about eight meters high. This area would be quite inconvenient for people wielding large weapons.