End Online: Volume 6

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End Online: Volume 6 Page 16

by D Wolfin


  It doesn’t work out as Sir Laurence might have planned however, as the force behind the palm was much more violent than even I would have imagined. The palm hits the shield and the two meter tall Sir Laurence is blown back a full five meters as he continues to brace his shield in a guard stance. The one most shocked is Sir Laurence himself.

  “Get back here, you fool!” I call out to him and stop him from attacking again. I am thankful there are no other players in the room to cause a commotion.

  Nevertheless, the three guards in the room reacted, immediately moving in on the AI player who attacked. They block him off with spears and shields and threaten to take him in should he attack another player again.

  The golden swordsman casually raises his empty hands and apologizes to the guards before they go back to their original positions. He gives our group one more glance before turning back to the stone tablet and seems to ponder something, choosing to ignore us for now.

  I manage to get a glance at the stone tablet in the moment the AI player turn back to the display. It is a little different from the one I won in the tournament at the Swordbreak Colosseum, but it is definitely one of the other tablets.

  “We’re leaving,” I state to the others before placing my arm around Fen for comfort and leading everyone away. I will explain the situation to them once we find a tavern to stay in.

  Fen has always been arrogant toward other players and never shows fear. That is an obvious effect resulting from being immortal against them. Against the other AIs however, she has seemingly had little interaction with them. Now that she is back in the game network, she obviously feels incredibly vulnerable to them.

  There is one reassuring thing though that gives me confidence. Based off of the power the golden swordsman displayed, his human body is under the same restriction similar to Fen. This means that he is only ‘King Class’.

  He is obviously planning on taking the stone tablet, so we just have to take it first or take it from him. Different plans start to form in my mind as we take our leave from the Koga Heritage Museum.

  Chapter 42 – Escalating Challenge

  - Lost -

  “Why are we leaving!? I could have taken him!” Sir Laurence states bravely, puffing out his chest for Verde’s benefit.

  “No, you couldn’t. Not alone at least. He is an AI, just like Fen.”

  “What!?” Sir Laurence and Verde both cry out in surprise. Gladox seemed to already have figured it out and lightly sighs.

  “He is strong, extremely strong. I don’t want to fight him if we don’t have to.”

  “How strong is he compared to Grael?” Sir Laurence asks, trying to gauge his strength.

  “Compared to Grael?” I repeat his question amusedly. “Grael would flatten him instantly.”

  Gladox’s curiosity is piqued, and he asks in a whisper, “Lost, who’s Grael?”

  “He’s another AI, but you should stay away from him. If it were him who hit Sir Laurence in the museum, our knight would be dead and at least half the building would have collapsed.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “...”

  I wish I could tell Gladox I was kidding, but I don’t think I have seen Grael’s true strength yet so I could still be underestimating him.

  We walk back to the tavern and buy a few tankards of ale. The taste of the drink is bitter, but it’s refreshing in this humid environment.

  “What will we do next?” Verde asks curiously, unsure how we’re going to try for the tablet.

  “I don’t expect there to be a quest for it, considering that the tablet is in a museum and considered a precious artifact of the city. The only option left is to steal it.”

  “You think we can do that?” Gladox asks hesitantly.

  “Yes. It is risky, but possible. The museum is an NPC-run building, thus it will be closed after dusk. Only the taverns and a few select buildings run by NPCs are open during the night. So, all we have to do is break in and steal it.”

  “Surely it won’t be that easy.”

  “True, I doubt it will be. There could be patrolling guards and the most important areas might be protected by the system, but we need to get the tablet before the AI swordsman does...” I can’t help but frown as I think of all the possible hurdles between us and our objective.

  “This is beyond difficult. If it is protected by the system, it is an impossible mission.” Gladox despairingly shakes his head.

  Coming up with a possible idea to avoid the system protection, I turn my head and whisper my thoughts into Fen’s ear. After receiving a nod in return, I feel some relief from the pressure on my shoulders. As this trial of obtaining the stone tablet is originally meant for the AIs, any system protection that is designed to block a player will be unable to stop Fen.

  “There won’t be any problems with system protection,” I state confidently. “Our biggest problem is still time. How long do you think we have to prepare and steal the item before that AI does?”

  “Even with its strength it has no guarantee of securing the tablet successfully, so it will also need to make preparations,” Gladox mused. “If it were a player who has to log off due to human requirements, they would probably take at least a week to prepare for something like this before making an attempt. As it isn’t operating under the same constraints, I would assume that it may take action much sooner. Perhaps even tonight, if today wasn’t the first time the AI found it.”

  “Then we need to act fast. I want to get it and disappear before he realizes it’s gone. Verde, how are your stealth and pickpocketing skills?”

  Verde perks up, “Ah! They are a part of my Class Skill, which is currently level 35. Unless someone has some sort of protective item or skill to prevent me, I can steal just about any loose accessory or weapon.”

  “What about lockpicking?”

  At this, she grimaces slightly. “I haven’t really done it much before, but a few simple locks won’t be a problem.”

  “Isn’t that skill needed to disable dungeon traps?”

  “I’m not very good at trap detection. Besides, you always trigger them and come out fine in the end.”

  I pause, not sure if I should overlook Verde’s comment for now. So she is capable of detecting and disabling traps, but doesn’t bother because she thinks I will be fine regardless. Having suffered through many unfortunate dungeon traps over the past few months, I haven’t died yet and the scant few I did manage to avoid helped increase my luck, so I suppose she is slightly justified. I make a mental note to bring it up again at a better time.

  “We will most likely need locks picked on any doors or windows we have to go through, and of course the glass case with the tablet was locked.”

  “Can’t we just break the case?”

  “If there are no guards, yes. If there are, no.”

  “So what should I do?”

  “Practice!”

  And with that I hand over a hundred gold coins to Verde, a full half of what I have in inventory. This is so she can purchase small safes and other devices with locks to practice her skill on.

  Verde gives me a sly grin before quickly escaping the tavern with the bag of gold. I don’t understand why I get a bad feeling about her running off... It’s still evening, so the stores are still open. Perhaps she is just trying to buy what she needs before they close for the night?

  Leaning back on my seat with a sigh, I start fleshing out the plan for stealing the tablet. I’m determined to make every improvement to it I can.

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

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

  - Verde -

  After taking the money from Lost, I quickly leave the tavern and enter the streets outside. This isn’t because I am eager to practice my mechanical skills, which have not improved in a long time, but because I don’t want any of the others to follow and watch me.

  Why? Well, I plan on approaching the training a little differently than h
ow they might expect.

  The hundred gold coins are deposited into my inventory where they will remain. I turn around to look at the inn, mouth a silent apology, then vanish into the crowd.

  I reach an area closer to the inner city where it isn’t busy commercially, but is more of a residential district. There are lots of houses that players can buy to form a guild base or open up a specialist store if they so desire. Most players only used them for item storage or as a personal base, though.

  In my inexperienced opinion, the best method to practice breaking into a building is by first burglarizing smaller buildings; a personal house, for example. The only caveat, I soon find out, is that I can’t unlock any houses that haven’t been rented or bought, as they are protected by the system. I also can’t enter if the owner is currently inside, though I honestly wouldn’t want to do that anyway.

  Searching around the houses to find those that are off the market is quite time consuming. Only about ten percent of the houses seem to have been rented or bought, so sniffing them out takes time. I carefully look through windows for any goods or furniture inside to ensure that they are not empty, and therefore protected by the system. If they do have that protection, an attempt to break in (or in my case, leaning too hard on the glass) results in curious guards arriving at my side with a speed that may as well be instantaneous teleportation.

  There are eleven player-owned houses in my current area, and only two of them currently have a player inside. Inspecting the nine remaining houses, I wait until night falls and the number of players on the street decreases. Everything soon turns quiet; the subtle movement of flickering torches illuminating the empty street is the only motion I can now perceive.

  Withdrawing my lockpick kit from my inventory, I stealthily move toward the front of my first target and inspect the lock. Of course, I make sure to use the special trait of my Class Skill that will keep any unexpected players passing by from noticing me, a subtle camouflage that blends my form against the house’s front door. The skill isn’t all-encompassing, but skills that will allow a player to pierce my camouflage are not that common.

  I smoothly pick out several standard grade lockpicks and place them in the lock. I haven’t done this before, but I understand the mechanics. Depending on the type of lock, I will need to insert a number of these metal lockpicks and position them correctly for the lock to pop open.

  The door on this house only has the simplest of locks, so two of the lockpicks are all that are needed. I rotate the first one slowly, listening for the distinctive click that tells me it is in the right spot. I know if I take too long there is a chance the tool will break.

  The lock quietly clicks once the lockpick is in the correct position, and I let out my held breath in a sigh of relief. Following the same method, I wiggle the second lockpick in the door until another click resounds.

  The lock glows faintly, a signal that it has been successfully unlocked. I quickly remove the lockpicks and open the door, slipping inside the house like a shadow.

  The lights inside of the player’s house are quite dim. If I was the owner of the house I could adjust the light settings to make it brighter and easier to see, but for my purposes the dim light meant that I wouldn’t need to worry about someone seeing me moving around from outside.

  A piece of cheap artwork adorns the wall and a bed is positioned below it. Players usually like to add various embellishments to make their personal space more impressive, but this player just seems pitiful. Most the player’s items are messily sprawled across the floor of the house and they all appear to have little value.

  I move to the foot of the bed and examine the goods stored in the only chest in the room. I find a decent pile of twenty gold coins, a few health potions, and some equipment that should be worth another ten or so gold. Feeling a small amount of compassion for this destitute player, I only take the gold coins and half of the health potions.

  Next I check the wardrobe, but am disappointed to find that the only item of value inside is a full set of heavy iron armor. I can’t burden myself with such a ridiculously heavy set of armor; I need to pace myself. The night is still young and there are eight more houses to visit, so I leave a note on the bed reading Thank You before exiting the house and closing the door behind me.

  The next five houses are roughly in the same situation, but have different amounts of valuables in them. I only take the light items that are worth more than their weight before leaving and moving on to the next mark.

  I had a bit of trouble with their locks, as two doors required three lockpicks to open, and one required four. The more lockpicks that are needed, the more difficult the task is. I lose three lockpicks in the process with the last one, but as a result I make some considerable progress toward levelling my skill.

  The seventh house seems to be another easy target, only requiring two lockpicks.Growing rather confident, I deftly move the lockpicks around and unlock the door, smirking as I push it open. As soon as it opens a boisterous ringing, like the bell of a cathedral, reverberates throughout the house and into the street.

  “Damn it! Who the hell puts an alarm trap on such a simple lock!” I curse loudly over the clatter at both the idiocy of the owner and my mistake of not checking for traps.

  Traps are usually placed on houses where the valuables inside are worth a great deal; why would someone purchase the most basic of houses to store such items? If I had to use five lockpicks on a higher level residence, I would no doubt be wary for any traps, but on such a basic house, it is a complete waste of money.

  The player who owns this house must not know anything about how houses are supposed to work.

  I don’t have much time before the city guards arrive to investigate the alarm, so I am left with a decision between charging inside to grab as much as I can before attempting to escape and hoping I get away, or leaving now while it is still safe.

  Hesitating for a moment, I sourly turn away from the house and flee into a dark alley. I need to help Lost get into the museum tomorrow night, so I can’t risk being thrown in prison for a week for theft.

  Not long after, I hear the sound of running boots in the direction I came from. No doubt the city guards. There must have been a nearby patrol, as they arrived much faster than I thought they would. Leaving the house immediately turned out to be the correct decision.

  I get a safe distance away from the alarm and do a quick count of all the items I stol- earned tonight. I can probably get at least eighty gold coins for the lot, and there is another hundred gold coins in hard currency. I decide to sell the loot first thing in the morning.

  Tonight’s earnings have been much greater than I could have imagined; why didn’t I try this before? I do feel a little bad for not telling Lost or the others, but a paltry sum of gold like this isn’t that big of a deal, right?

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

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

  - Lost -

  After Verde ran away yesterday with the gold I gave her, we didn’t see her return to the tavern until now: the following afternoon.

  “How did it go?” I ask her curiously while suspiciously wondering if she actually did the training or not.

  “It went well!”

  Verde smiles and appears quite pleased with herself. I’m sure there is more that she isn’t telling me, but I’m happy as long as she practiced lockpicking and can more safely help us steal the stone tablet.

  The afternoon soon shifts to night as we finalize our plan and check our gear. My tension rises with the pressure to succeed hanging over my head.

  “It’s time,” I say nervously as the stroke of eleven echoes from the clock tower.

  Gladox approaches and hardily claps me on the back before saying, “Don’t be so tense! This is only a game, there’s no need to worry so much about it.”

  I am tempted to tease him about how it can be only a game when he is the one who seems to spend ninety percent or mo
re of his time in it, but decide to let it go. This may truly be only a game to a player like me, but it is much more than that to Fen.

  I glance at the beauty in question next to me before steeling my resolve and forcing myself to be confident.

  “Okay, we need to succeed in getting that tablet tonight. We all know our roles, so let’s go!”

  The five of us leave the tavern and head toward the Koga Heritage Museum. We walk through the streets silently, listening to the few conversations of players as we pass by.

  Half an hour later, as the moon begins to dip in the starry sky, we finally arrive at the museum. Just as I had suspected: this is an important site in the city, so there are city guards patrolling the building even this late at night.

  Standing in a dark corner of the street with the rest of the party, I pay attention to how many guards there are, as well as what paths they take.

  “Verde, how long do you need to open a door? There is a rear entrance that we can enter through, but the guards pass by every five minutes or so.”

  “If it is a three-pin lock, I can do it. Any more than that and it will take too long.”

  “We won’t know until we get there. Verde, Fen, let’s go. As per the plan, Sir Laurence and Gladox, you will be our eyes outside. Let us know as soon as there are any changes.”

  “Roger that.”

  Gladox seems to be taking this break-in rather lightly. I want to tell him to be a bit more serious, but I don’t think he is that kind of person.

  I leave with the two girls and sidle up to the side of the Museum just as the guard’s foot disappears around the far corner. My pure white equipment is considerably detrimental to hiding in the shadows, so I’ve done my best to plan this mission with staying completely out of sight as my priority.

  We sneak around the building, following the guard’s path to the rear where the back door is. Quicker footsteps echo from around the side of the building where we just came from and I immediately tense up. Sending a quick signal to the others, we rush to a small group of trees in a garden and hide behind them.

 

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