by D Wolfin
We ignore the party hiding and walk into the hills. The mountain we are looking for should be deeper inside this region, but there is more than one mountain that reaches the clouds so we can only guess which one is the correct one before climbing it.
It is strange exploring without Mason, Matrix, and even CaptainGordon. Their absence makes the party quieter and lonelier than normal. Just as I am thinking about those three, I receive a private message from Mason.
“Lost, how is everything? Reporting in to let you know we already have ten new players for the guild! It has only been a day of recruiting and we already have ten!”
“Hah, well, you must be doing a good job at recruiting then. Are they strong players?”
“No, not really. They are all the same type of player as you though. Low armor and focusing on speed. I can’t even claim to have done a good job, they were all attracted because it was your guild,” Mason laughs.
I pause speaking to Mason as a small group of grey werewolves charges toward us, no, toward me in particular. Sir Laurence steps forward to defend while Fen uses her ice magic to quickly dispose of them, leaving me with little to do. I have no use for their experience points at my level, but the werewolf fangs are worth a decent amount of gold which I do need.
I only speak with Mason for a short while longer before finding myself in a position where I have nothing more to say and end our conversation.
Our party of four enters deeper into the region and finally reaches the first mountain. There are eleven more as far as I can see, and each peak is beyond the clouds, making it impossible to calculate which mountain is the correct one for our quest.
“Let’s try this one first,” I mention to the rest of the party as we stand at the base of the first mountain.
There are no objections to the plan of eliminating the possibilities, so we start ascending the first mountain at what appears to be the least steep point. I immediately notice that the air seems to have a shift in scent once we enter the mountain. While before it was a pure smell of pollen on the spring breeze, it now seems to have a chilling scent similar to the chest rub I used to use when I was sick.
The monsters also change. There are still the werewolves that I already knew about and some strange wildlife, but now there are a few new varieties that I have not seen or heard of before.
“Creature Analysis,” I quietly say while looking at the first unknown enemy on the mountain, a strange armored goat with two curved horns that are more likely to impale someone rather than be used to ram them off the mountain.
Name: Devil Goat
Level: 160
Health: 1480
Magic: 300
Stamina: 450
??
Seeing it as an easy kill, I lead the attack as I move like a ghost across the precipice of a rock before digging my weapons, the ‘Twin Nightingale’, into its flank.
The ‘Devil Goat’ reacts violently, letting out an ear piercing screech that makes me feel dizzy and discharging lightning magic from its horns. I am a step too slow and the sudden counterattack strikes me. Two lightning bolts hit me square in the chest, taking away a surprising twenty percent of my health. Meanwhile, my attack also did the same percentage of damage to the goat.
The ‘Devil Goat’ doesn’t give me a chance to take the initiative for a second attack. It charges toward me at a frightening speed. I react only as it is about to impale me with its horns, using the Sacred Art ‘Backstab’ to avoid the frontal charge.
The goat seemed to have expected to use me to stop its charge, but my sudden vanishing act seems to have ruined those plans. Not far behind where I was, the mountain has a sharp drop. The ‘Devil Goat’ has too much momentum in its charge and can’t stop in time, incidentally falling off the precipice.
I move to the end of the ledge, seeing the goat fall down the mountain, hitting countless rocks and other objects along the way. It dies before it can even reach the base of the mountain, or another flat area along the way. I sigh depressingly at the drop items and money appearing out of my reach. The amount of time it would take to get down there and then back to where we are is not worth what I would gain.
At this moment, Sir Laurence, Verde, and Fen, who were not far behind when I charged forward to engage the ‘Devil Goat’, catch up to me and also stare at the tiny floating drop item window above the goat corpse that is rapidly approaching the base of the mountain. Verde giggles lightly while Sir Laurence expresses sympathy. Fen, of course, has absolutely no interest in the goat and completely ignores it.
“Come on, let’s keep going,” Prince Charming says, clapping me on the shoulder before glancing toward the mountain peak that doesn’t appear to have gotten any closer despite how much we’ve climbed.
“Yeah.” I give one last resigned look toward the ‘Devil Goat’ corpse before resuming my lead in climbing up the mountain.
Half an hour later, I exhaustedly climb over a final ledge and into a cave on the mountain. The sun is already setting in the game so it is time to set up camp. Fen arrives second, not a single bead of sweat on her. Verde takes a little longer to arrive, her breathing heavy as she enters the cave. Meanwhile Sir Laurence is the last by far, wheezing and panting while lying on the floor of the cave as if death could welcome him at any moment.
I look at the prince who is completely out of strength and say with a frown, “That’s why I told you that you should take off that obscenely heavy armor while climbing the mountain.”
“Nonsense! A knight… never… reveals his… weakness!”
“Yeah, yeah. Well you look pretty weak to me at the moment.”
“Anything that dares… approach my lady… will have to step… over my dead body!”
“I’m afraid they will just step over your body, actually.”
I turn away from the pitiful knight who currently only has his good looks going for him and enter a little deeper in the cave. I had collected and prepared some firewood in the forest before climbing the mountain, so I should have enough for several days of cooking.
Removing all my cooking equipment and materials, I start the fire to boil a pot of water while all the ingredients are prepared. I’m still depressed over losing the ‘Devil Goat’, and settle with using the meat from some rabbits that Fen caught while climbing the mountain instead. I rarely purchase much meat and always prefer to cook fresh meat as it tastes better.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much rabbit meat, so I end up adding a larger than normal amount of vegetables with extra spices to compensate. Sir Laurence soon recovers from his weakness as the smell of my cooking wafts out of the cave and down the mountain, enticing any number of wild beasts.
Fen sits behind me and wraps her arms around my chest while resting her chin on my shoulder. Her chest presses tightly against my back as she stares intently at the seasoned rabbit meat grilling over a naked flame.
Noticing her gaze, I pull off a small piece of meat that has finished cooking and feed it to Fen. The wolf girl eats it directly out of my hand, her teeth grabbing onto one of my fingers. She seemed to be about to release my finger when her tongue brushes against my finger and catches the taste of the grease still on my fingers.
Fen’s eyes roll back in delight as she sucks on my finger, her tongue moving vigorously to savor all of the juices left on my finger.
‘Perhaps next I should put a small piece in my mouth and- No! Forget those thoughts!’ My imagination runs wild with various scenarios, each making me more embarrassed than the last.
“Please, for all us single guys, have a little mercy will you?” Sir Laurence stares painfully at what appears to be Fen committing a profane act on my finger.
I would have been embarrassed at having something like that pointed out, but after the most recent ideas running through my head, it lacks impact.
The prince continues looking before sighing and mumbling, “I need to get a hot Companion too.”
His voice was low, but not low enough since Verde and I both
heard him. She shifts the unhappy expression she has been giving me and gazes at Sir Laurence with disgust. She opens her mouth and is about to say something to the Prince, most likely some new insult, before changing her mind and closing it again.
Instead, a mischievous glint appears in Verde’s eyes as she playfully asks Sir Laurence, “What, so I’m not enough for you anymore?”
“No! Of course- NO!” Sir Laurence frantically replies, stumbling as he rushes to kneel in front of Verde, who starts taking advantage of him.
I return my attention to cooking the meat, reclaiming my finger while taking full pleasure in Fen’s constant embrace. It is at this moment that heavy footsteps sound from the cave entrance.
“Enemy coming!” I immediately warn the others before charging forward to engage whatever beast it is and protect my cooking.
“Woahh! Hold on there!” A deep voice shouts in surprise when the enemy sees me coming.
I make out the features of the enemy in the shadows of the cave as I approach. It isn’t some beast or monster, but actually a player. It is a man in his early thirties and as tall as Sir Laurence. He has a lot of heavy obsidian armor equipped over most of his body, and a large two-handed bastard sword strapped to his back. He also appears to be of some strange wolf race which has four ears, two on either side.
The man strikes me with a sense of familiarity, but my suspicion and danger sense are currently through the roof so I continue my attack. With a dejected sigh, the man moves his hand and one-handedly draws the large bastard sword on his back in a single fluent motion.
In a blur, the sword follows a strange path in the air before somehow parrying both of my short swords one after the other. I contemplate using ‘Backstab’ or another Sacred Art, but my plan is to push him out of the cave and down the mountain if possible.
“Like I said-” The man’s tries to voice himself again but my relentless attacks leave him no opportunity to continue.
Fen also joins me in attacking the intruder, launching several ice spears at the same time as she summons a pair of ice daggers and charges toward the man with a frightening speed. Verde and Sir Laurence look on warily, but don’t have the chance to attack as well as there is not much room in the cave and any more players will create a tangled mess.
With both Fen and me attacking, the four-eared wolf man is forced to slowly retreat. Fen’s and my attacks are simply too fast, and despite how expertly the man wields the bastard sword, we continually manage to make small cuts on his body.
The man has a terrifying amount of health and defense, each of our attacks only doing one or two percent of damage to his aggregate health.
“That’s enough!” The wolf man shouts, his sword suddenly emitting a blinding emerald light.
The players stabs his sword into the ground in front of him, and the emerald glow explodes out from the weapon and blasts me and Fen away, along with any current attacks. The Sacred Art he just used is one I have never seen or heard of before, so I become more wary of any other strange attacks he could be hiding.
The enemy player doesn’t continue attacking however, instead he lets out a resounding sigh before saying, “As I have been trying to say until now, my satiety is quite low and your cooking smells great. Can I join you for a meal? I’ll pay you for the food of course.”
Stunned by his words, I take a while to respond. After turning to look at Verde, who simply shrugs, and Sir Laurence, who seems to be pondering something, I cautiously say to the stranger, “Sure, how does a gold coin for dinner sound?”
“That’s awfully expensive for one meal! But very well,” the wolf player says after contemplating the price of the food compared to the aroma filling the cave.
The meal only cost me about ten copper coins, the smallest of currency, but there is still a lot of effort involved between procuring my own ingredients and cooking supplies and preparing the meal.
Sir Laurence, who finally concludes his private thoughts, gazes at the strange player as he says, “Now I remember. You look a little different now that you have a non-human race, but you’re Gladox, the current number one player!”
Verde only reacts a little and Fen not at all, but I am filled with surprise and disbelief toward the player with four wolf ears and a humorous gaze as he nods his head and affirms the Prince’s words.
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– Jude –
Today is the second day that useless nephew will be coming to my class. At least he seems to have some of the Silvester trait of being drawn to and fascinated by ancient heritages.
The same girl who helped him get here last lesson is pushing Hollis into the classroom. I know who she is. She is Verity Lee, the only daughter of one of the most prestigious men in the city of Taile, Lucas Lee. His word can move the courts, politicians, and the business sector alike. Lucas is the embodiment of our modern dystopian society where money speaks louder than the law.
What I am most curious about is why Verity Lee is attending this university. I’ve noticed quite a few of the other teachers keeping a close eye on her. If there is an opportunity to become acquainted with her family through her, I need to do so before the other teachers have the chance to. Of course, such a chance is as likely as a goose laying a golden egg.
Verity is a kindred spirit, who would even go out of her way to give assistance to a useless cripple such as my nephew. I secretly wonder if there is a way to use him to have the chance to attract her attention.
“I’ll see you later, darling,” Verity says to my nephew loud enough that everyone in the room can hear. Next, to everyone’s astonishment, and my complete and utter shock, she leans over and kisses him on the cheek before hastily leaving.
“No, no, no. That can’t possibly be. Why? That useless nephew of mine that’s better off… No, this is ridiculous,” I mutter an incomprehensible mess of words under my breath as I try to understand the situation.
For the first time in years, my composure has completely failed me. I don’t understand when, or how, Hollis even met Verity Lee, let alone got so close to her.
‘It looks like I need to change my plans instead of using those two nieces, Joelle and Shari. I thought they were my key to repairing the Silvester name and position in society, but perhaps I have been looking in the wrong direction.’
The more I think about what I will do, the better I feel. That nephew, Hollis, is sitting next to a golden ticket in life, but doesn’t even realize it. It would be a shame for it to be left alone.
Later that evening, I collect Joelle and Shari from their school in high spirits. After we get home, I sit the two down and tell them of our schedule for the weekend.
“Girls, this weekend you will not be able to call Hollis,” I bluntly state.
“No! You said if we behaved we could! We haven’t been bad!” Joelle instantly raises her voice and shouts at me disobediently.
My mood is too good to be spoiled however, and I calmly wait for the two little girls to quiet down.
“Be quiet. This weekend we will be going to visit Hollis instead. You will finally get to see that idiot brother of yours, so I hope you will be especially well-behaved.”
Shari, the younger sister, shouts at me instead of being happy. “Don’t call Holly an idiot!”
“Behave,” I command the two, not willing to put up with any more nonsense from them.
“Yes.” Joelle clamps her sister’s mouth shut as she quickly agrees. She is much better at reading the situation than Shari. Should my plans for Hollis fail, finding an upward-bound marriage partner for her to increase connections and raise our status is still a possibility.
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– Mikhail –
I sit in my small office with my computer running a diagnostic on the End Online server. I’m searching for traces
of not just the AI child that escaped, but also the other ones in the server. I wish we could just wipe them away, but they are integrated so deep inside the system it is impossible to do without destroying everything. The core for Xilbril, the AI governing End Online that the children sprouted from, is the central point where all the servers are connected together after all.
“Sir! Sir, we’ve found it!” One of my co-workers bangs open the door and rushes into my office with a clipboard in hand.
I look up at him exhaustedly and ask, “Found what? Please, give me some good news right now.
“Sir, we’ve found the location of that missing AI child and the player Lost who has somehow been evading us till now. Look here, Hollis Silvester, 20 years old, and his address is-”
Before the employee can expound further on the information, I snatch the clipboard from him and read over the information myself. The helpless feeling I have been tormented by lately is instantly dispelled.
‘Good! This is good, very good!’
Chapter 40 – Temple Trap
– Lost –
“Gladox? You’re the Gladox?!” I can’t help but cry out in surprise.
When I look at the four-eared wolf man, I can indeed see similarities between him and the famous player Gladox. However, there are a few differences, making me wonder if it is actually him.
The biggest difference is the armor, which is a deep obsidian color instead of the silver armor I saw on his videos. His sword is also different, but I can understand changing equipment as you get stronger, even if I haven’t done it that much myself. No, the main problem I have with him being Gladox is his height.
Gladox, in his videos, is a tall gladiator who storms through dungeons alone, laying waste to everything in front of him. This wolf man is, while still tall, only about the height of Sir Laurence. I could swear he is ten to twenty percent shorter than when I saw him in his videos.