End Online: Volume 6
Page 22
Our six parties form a solid line of defence in the street, leaving enough room to retreat at a moment’s notice. The ghouls are very slow and will be easy to outrun, but the ground cracks beneath their feet as they move, showing their unbelievable mass and inhuman strength.
Retreat is our final option. There are easily a hundred ghouls and if we can’t even deal with this many, we will have no means of finishing the raid. If we are forced to run from this many, we will eventually attract even more groups, creating a city wide horde of ghouls reminiscent to the zombies in an apocalypse movie. At that point, we will end up trapped with no escape.
FierceTiger and the other ‘Elders’ lead the wall of resistance, first firing arrows upon arrows and blast after blast of magic at the enemies. The ghouls have a disgustingly high defence rating and most of the arrows simply bounce off them without doing any damage. They have very little magic resistance in comparison, the attack spells doing massive amounts of damage to the group.
About half of the ghouls are dead by the time they reach the front-line warriors, and the remaining ghouls are left with about only 50% of their health.
The players take the initiative to swing swords, maces, and battle axes at the ghouls. Their defence negates most of the damage, but these direct attacks have a much greater penetration than arrows, allowing them to still be effective.
Other players step forward with defensive spells and Sacred Arts, protecting everyone from the ghouls’ swinging arms and clamp-like jaws. The ghouls display a frightening talent for attacking as defences crumble before them and players are sent flying back by large amounts of damage.
I sweat nervously at the strength of these common mobs. I don’t forget that the players fighting them are currently some of the strongest players with the most effective combat skills in the entire game.
I stand back out of the way, not entering the fight, but use some healing magic whenever someone gets close to dying.
A back and forth fight between ghouls and players lasts about ten minutes before the last enemy is killed. At the same time, a large amount of health and mana potions are consumed to ensure nobody dies from the encounter.
“Looks like magic will be indispensible in this raid,” FierceTiger states calmly to the other ‘Elders’, analyzing the enemies as if they were nothing. “By the way, Mikhail, that skill of yours truly saved us back there.”
Of course, he is talking about my unique skill ‘False Aura of Confidence’. The skill has greatly grown in level as I’ve been forced to use it for their benefit. At the same time, I have never had a chance to properly increase my strength and only have minimal skills and pitiful stats. The only plus is that my level is high thanks to experience sharing.
Name: Mikhail the Stalwart
Health: 3951/3951
Stamina: 670/670
Mana: 355/945
Lvl: 311
Lvl UP: 98%
Str: 42
Agi: 39
Dex: 34
Int: 40
Mnd: 29
Lck: 19
Fame: 113
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
False Aura of Confidence (Slvl 36, 76%)
Magic Aptitude (Slvl 21, 12%)
Curative Magic Talent (Slvl 20, 92%)
Physical Prowess (Slvl 26, 75%)
Gladiator Sword Arts (Slvl 24, 30%)
HP Boost (Slvl 18, 44%)
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
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Non-skill resistances and bonuses
~ 50% resistance to debuff effects
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Sacred Arts Cost
Quarter Slash 17 Stamina
Armor Piercer 35 Stamina
Critcal Blade 70 Stamina
Magic Cost
Minor Heal 10 Mana
Minor Cure 15 Mana
Moderate Heal 30 Mana
Moderate Cure 40 Mana
Minor Party Heal 100 Mana
Moderate Party Heal 210 Mana
False Aura of Confidence (SLvl 36, 76%) -Passive
You naturally exude an Aura of Confidence that passively raises the attack and defence of all party members. Unfortunately, this is a false aura, which passively lowers your own attack and defence.
SLvl 36:
~ 26% increase to all party members attack and defence.
~ 39% reduction in personal attack and defence.
~ 50% resistance to all status debuffs
~ This ability is Soulbound, and cannot be unequipped.
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Our six parties reach the first tower after defeating nine more groups of ghouls, each of them having between one or two hundred enemies. The tower is fifteen meters high and, once upon a time, probably stood three times as tall. The grey stone bricks covered in a spiderweb of cracks seem like they could collapse and turn into dust at any moment, instilling within me the feeling that we shouldn’t enter.
Of course, this is a game and there is no way the tower will collapse unless it is supposed to. We enter a decrepit door at the front, one party at a time, three people taking the role of providing light for everyone else.
Inside we find more ghouls in addition to the second type of enemy, a kind of shadow creeper that looks like a mangled dog and runs along the walls and ceiling as well as it could on the floor.
Our party of six gathers into a tight formation with me at the center in order to defend me while fighting back at the enemies which quickly surround us. We maintain this formation and proceed up through the tower, floor by floor.
I notice that the shadow creepers prove to be the exact opposite of the ghouls, prioritizing speed over strength, and having an extremely low defence while being highly resistant to magic. The coordination of the ghouls and shadow creepers is a troublesome combination, even creating the first player casualty on our side, but that was because he was too careless.
At the top of the tower (well, the final floor before the tower ended in a great big opening where the sky is visible) we find the first raid boss. The boss is a four meter tall ghoul with muscles that could crush a car just by flexing, and sunken eyes that seem to be filled with despair.
The boss has a strength that make the ordinary ghouls seem like children. Every time he smashes his hand down, the entire tower vibrates dangerously and throws everyone off balance. My mind is dominated by the laws of physics and constantly shouts to me that the building is going to collapse, but of course it doesn’t happen.
We keep our distance because the boss is rather slow, and just when we think we are safe, the massive ghoul uses both hands to pick up a piece of rubble left from when the tower collapsed and throws it at us like a missile.
The only player hit is fortunately one with a lot of health and a member of my party, enjoying the benefit of my ‘False Aura of Confidence’, so he is lucky enough to not instantly die. However, he still lost over half of his health and is blown across the room by the shockwave of the massive piece of stone colliding with the ground.
With one member dead, the remaining 35 of us fight back and forth against the boss Ghoul, whittling away its health one percent at a time. After what seemed like an hour but was probably only half as long, we finally manage to kill it. The giant boss collapses on the ground and leaves behind a massive loot box of at least thirty items.
Now knowing that these notable locations have bosses which drop a generous amount of loot, everyone gets excited to head to the next location. We end up spending an entire day in game searching through different locations, defeating seven bosses and filling our inventories with various loot. At the same time, we only lost three more players from our group, bringing the total amount down to 32 people.
“Next is the mos
t important of them all,” FierceTiger says solemnly, bringing about a determined atmosphere amongst everyone. “We still need to kill the final raid boss. It should be in the center of the city, and will be stronger than everything else we have fought so far. Normally, I would warn you all to be prepared for defeat, but this time...”
FierceTiger deliberately pauses speaking and changes his expression to a cheeky grin before continuing.
“This time, we have guild leader Mikhail the Stalwart with us! With him here, victory is already determined! Get pumped up everyone, we are going to take this raid boss DOWN!”
Everyone in the raid, minus myself, cheers loudly at FierceTiger’s pep talk. Several of the ‘Elders’ get together and whisper something to each other while constantly sending me secretive glances.
Right now, I really want one of Henry’s cigarettes. These players are frustrating, and to make it worse, they are too cunning for their own good. I feel like I am being treated by them like a winning lottery ticket, and my work is forcing me to keep playing this stupid game. If I could cry, I would.
We camp in an empty house for the night before setting off for the center of the city first thing in the morning. Everyone’s spirits are high, except for me, and we make fast progress toward our destination.
It only takes us two hours to reach the center of Valor City, where there is a massive bottomless hole in the ground that sucks in all the surrounding light and creates a dim atmosphere.
As we step into the area, the ground begins to shake beneath our feet and the sound of stone grinding on stone echoes out from the endless chasm in the center of the city. Just as we are regaining our balance, a massive mechanical man of stone comes flying out of the pit to land on the solid ground at the border.
The enemy is easily six meters tall and made entirely out of stone. The sound from earlier comes from the boss as stone gears and gizmos crunch together when it moves. It looks down at us with its obsidian eyes, but for some reason refuses to attack and just motionlessly stares at our raid.
“That’s strange,” one of the ‘Elders’, PeekingGhost, mentions with a frown. “I just looked at the boss’ stats. It is called Terminus(Ruin Sentinel), but there is something about being Emperor Class. It also only has twenty thousand health. Why does a boss have so little health; does anyone know anything about this Emperor Class?”
The other raid members glance at one another and shake their heads in confusion, but I subconsciously blurt out, “Emperor Class!?”
Every single head swivels to look at me as if seeking answers. There’s a lot of information I am privy to that I can’t talk to ordinary people about, and even more I am unaware of, but I have to tell them something so we can get out of here.
“We have to run!” I call out while thinking impromptu. “I know someone who works for Idea Imagine, and apparently there are a handful of Emperor Class enemies, and a few dozen King Class that were created to be players’ bane. They can’t be killed by ordinary means and the only outcome is defeat.”
“What the heck,” FierceTiger scowls at me in disbelief, “As if a game company would create such a thing. This boss is a little weird, yes, but not undefeatable.”
“No! We have to run NOW!!” I grab the nearest two players and try to drag them away, but my pitiful strength leaves me to create a pitiful display of not being able to budge them an inch.
Fortunately for us, Terminus, the Ruin Sentinel, appears to lack any interest in squashing us like bugs. He turns around and jumps back into the chasm, rending all the players ready to attack speechless.
“#%&$! Did the boss just run!?” FierceTiger shouts and curses at the hole in the ground where the boss left.
Everyone in the raid group is shocked and disappointed, but I am so relieved I could laugh. Nobody knows what these AIs are capable of more than me. I can’t believe we came across one, an Emperor Class at that, here in this raid. At least I can pass this information onto my boss and redeem myself somewhat.
After waiting around for a full day and even exploring the area surrounding the chasm, the raid group dejectedly decides to give up and return. Thankfully, the boss didn’t reappear and continued to hide in that endless pit.
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Outside the city, we meet up with the four players who died during the raid and recount our experience. They were also surprised how the final boss ran away after only showing itself for a few moments.
While we are still socializing, I walk up to FierceTiger and the other ‘Elders’ of ‘Hero’s Vanguard’ and ask, “I have helped with the raid, now tell me what you know about that party.”
“Oh, of course. Lost, Fen, Verde and Sir Laurence were seen not too long ago in the beast realm. They were locked up for a while, suspected of being due to attacking another player in the city. There was a fifth person with them, a four-eared black wolf, but we don’t know who that is.”
“And the others?”
“Mason and Matrix are in Iceridge, recruiting for Lost’s new guild ‘The Wanderers’. It is a very small guild, not even worth noting if it wasn’t for the people founding it. As for CaptainGordon... His location is currently unknown.”
“And that’s all?”
“That’s it,” FierceTiger says while giving me a grin that causes a cold shiver to shoot up my spine.
“I need to go after them, especially that girl Fen.”
“One problem at a time guild leader. Maybe after the next...”
Before FierceTiger finishes speaking, his voice drifts off and he absentmindedly gazes at the sky slack-jawed.
I also turn to see what has enthralled his attention so much that he can’t even finish a sentence. Even I stare speechless when I see an enormous black dragon flying toward us.
The dragon doesn’t even pay us any attention as it flies directly into the area of the raid. The dragon flies a few laps around the area before roaring in rage and spitting out a breath of fire.
The fire the dragon spits out is a deep crimson, and it quickly dyes half of the raid zone the colour of blood as it burns everything. After it finishes breathing fire, it circles the area a few more times before flying off in the direction it came from.
‘Could it be? Another Emperor Class AI? That strength is just too ridiculous,’
I gaze at the raid zone, which is still being burnt by the flames that don’t show any signs of extinguishing, despite everything in the area being made of stone.
“FierceTiger, this is the strength of an Emperor Class,” I worriedly express my thoughts to the ‘Elder’ who is in equal shock. “Let’s go back.”
“...Yeah,” FierceTiger reluctantly says before giving the signal for us all to retreat to the shore of the island.
Today, I witnessed the true strength of what the AIs can do in the game, and I will never forget it. Whilst also being aware of what they can do outside of the game, I have decided to treat them as disasters waiting to happen. A solution to contain these things must be presented as soon as possible.