Endless Fantasy Online

by Devin Auspland

  Luke peeked his head in and hesitantly called out. “Helloooo.” His voice echoed slightly in the open chamber, but there was no light and no response. “I’m gonna come in now.” After waiting a moment and getting no response from the darkness, he entered.

  He took a few steps in before hearing a low rumbling growl. He turned to leave but a blur of motion shut the door after it passed him, throwing a blanket of complete darkness over Luke. “Hello? I’m looking for Ursa. Edmu…” Luke was forced to the ground by a giant paw. When he struggled to get out from under the paw, the pressure intensified. It was so much pressure that he was losing hit points. In a matter of a few moments, he was down to 80% health.

  “You're looking for Ursa?” a faint voice came from around Luke asked.

  A glowing orb of dim light formed above him and he could see a massive wolf’s mouth bearing teeth only inches from his face. Instinctively he looked away, pushing his head as far away from the creature as he could. Drool dripped from the creature's mouth onto Luke’s face and the ground near it. The light didn’t illuminate the wolf, and Luke couldn’t see far enough to determine who was speaking to him.

  Remembering he wasn’t alone, he called out for his companion. “Ringo! If you can hear me, run!”

  “Hmm…” The mysterious voice began again. “Your companion is with me now.”

  Luke looked up and noticed the voice was coming from the wolf. “Did you just talk?” His voice filled with surprise and lost any traces of fear or panic.

  Taken aback by the sudden change of mood, the wolf hesitated before smiling. “I don’t get to use this on too many people, so I apologize.”

  In an instant, the room lit up, orbs of bright light forming around the ceiling. The large paw holding him down retracted and the large wolf started panting and acting like a dog. Luke slowly inched away and stood when he was out from under the beast.

  The first thing he noticed was the sheer size of the animal. The creature made the alpha wolf look like a puppy. The head of the wolf alone was almost the size of an old Volkswagen bug and the body was the size of a city bus. The creature had to be forty or fifty feet long, not including its large tail that was swinging slowly behind it.

  Looking around, he spotted a woman, completely wrapped in bandages with clothes draped over her. She was holding Ringo and petting her. “Hello Luke,” she stated in a flat monotone, muffled slightly by the bandages over her mouth.

  Luke inspected her. It appeared to him that only her eyes and hair were unwrapped, both of which were a dark brown, almost black. Her hair ended at her shoulders in a bob. “You must be Ursa?” he asked hesitantly.

  She put Ringo down and then ran over to stand by Luke’s side. She began to walk in a circle around Luke and Ringo, eyeing them up and down before stopping in front of Luke, facing him. She rested a hand on the wolf’s body, stroking it slowly before speaking. “Why should I train you, Luke?” still speaking in a dull flat monotone but at a normal speed.

  Luke was taken aback by the question, remembering his first day in the Phoenix Kingdom. He grabbed Edmund’s letter and handed it to her. “I met a friend of yours, Edmund. He recommended you to me. I think you also know Rose?”

  Ursa raised a single eyebrow at the mention of Rose. “So you're him?”

  “Him who?” Luke responded confused.

  “The brainless kid that Rose started teaching. She said you have something special. What was the name again? Puke?” Ursa answered dryly.

  “The name is Luke and yes, I’m the one helping Rose out for a bit,” he responded through gritted teeth.

  She took another look up and down at him and started walking down a hallway that led deeper into the barn. “Aren’t you coming?”

  Luke picked up Ringo and followed Ursa down the hall. She stopped at a door before glancing back to make sure he was following her. When she saw that he was, she removed a large wooden beam that was acting as a lock on the door. When Ursa opened the door, a wave of sound filled the space. Clucking, wing flapping and the occasional sound of fire could be heard as Ursa entered the space. When Luke caught up with her and looked into the room, he was stunned.

  The doorway opened into a room so massive, he thought the hall must have led them to another building outside. What amazed him most were the creatures running and flying around. They appeared to be baby dragons with long, thin tails and chicken heads. Not knowing what he was looking at, he inspected them.

  Inspect Successful!

  Name: Cockatrice

  Level: 1

  HP/MP/Stamina: 25/25/50

  Status: Neutral

  “What’s a cockatrice?” Luke asked.

  Ursa was halfway into the large space and surrounded by cockatrices, some at her feet and others circling above her. She was tossing out handfuls of seeds for them. “You don’t know what a cockatrice is? I help raise them for the kingdom. They breed like rabbits, eat very little and are tasty when fried. Their scales are also used in the low level scale armor that a lot of the guards wear. You're looking at the king’s primary source of protection and food for his army.”

  Luke’s jaw dropped. “Aren’t you a beast tamer? Isn’t this against your nature or something? Raising all those creatures to die sounds… cruel.”

  Ursa approached him and locked eyes with him. “First thing, I’m more than a beast tamer so show respect. Second, if you want to learn more about being a beast tamer, here is where it starts.” She gestured at the cockatrice. Some were playing, while others loafed around. Still more of them were eating seeds or hunting for worms in the open grass. “Everything is connected. You have to consider the natural cycle of life. When we die, we become nutrients that feed the soil. The soil grows plants that produce seeds to feed the cockatrice and eventually we eat the cockatrice. It’s all about balance and surviving as long as you can before you become part of the circle again.” She scoffed, the first sign of emotion or change from her monotone she had expressed. “You will learn.” She scooped up Ringo and walked out the door, turning around from the other side.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” Luke quickly added.

  “Lesson one: Survive.” She picked up a small pebble on the ground and threw it at one of the cockatrices. “And don’t kill my birds.” She shut the door and Luke could hear the board being put back in place, locking him in.

  Luke turned around and saw a furious-looking cockatrice with a rock by its feet. Smoke began to trail from the corners of its mouth as other cockatrices cocked their heads, smoke trailing from their mouths as well.

  “Good birdie, goooood birdie. No one wants any trouble now.” Luke had his hands up trying to calm the animals.

  The cockatrice who had been struck started to run toward him, flapping its wings and eventually gaining flight.

  “Shit, shit, shit.” Luke started to run as quickly as he could in the opposite direction.

  Fireballs started landing near him. They came slowly at first, but their numbers quickly increased as more of the cockatrices joined in. Luke leaped, rolled and dodged as much as he could, but multiple fireballs were hitting him in various places. It was lucky that the cockatrice were low level as their fireballs seem to only be taking a few percentage points of health per hit, and his nature’s regrowth spell could keep his health full.

  Luke continued to run as more and more cockatrices joined in. With the increased numbers, his healing spell was having trouble keeping up, so he scrambled to dodge as many fireballs as he could..

  New skill acquired: Dodge, Beginner 0. Why take damage or wear heavy armor to prevent it when you can simply dodge it. This is a passive skill and requires no activation. Effect: 1 + x% added to your reaction time when attempting to dodge an attack. Note: The reaction time and chance to dodge is linked to your agility stat and requires the use of stamina.

  Luke waved away the message as soon as he was done reading it. He began to duck and roll out of the way of the attacks as best he could. He didn
’t notice the effects of the dodge skill at first. After an hour of sweating and running away from rabid cockatrices, he swore he missed some attacks that looked for sure as if they would hit him.

  The only issue with this tactic was his limited stamina bar. After running around and dodging for twenty minutes, he began taking more hits as he slowed because of his stamina bar depleting. When this happened, it forced him to use nature’s regrowth to heal himself. He stood still while his stamina bar recovered, enduring multiple fireballs and pecks from cockatrices beaks.

  He repeated this process for what felt like hours. The cockatrices never let up until the door to the room opened. Ursa walked in and raised a hand. Green energy pulsated like a wave from her palm and the cockatrices began to calm. After a moment, their rage abated, and they all returned to their normal selves.

  Luke, panting and taking big gulps of air, walked over to Ursa, his face turning red. “What is” pant “wrong with” pant “you?”

  “Hmm. It appears you have passed my first stage of training,” she said as she put Ringo down. Ringo was soaking wet and looked lifeless.

  Luke, recovering some stamina and no longer panting, responded by shouting at her. “You could have killed me! I’m about to level up and I would have lost all my experience! I’ll repeat myself, what’s wrong…” He was cut off by her throwing a punch at him.

  Luke leaped to the side and attempted to roll. He had depleted his stamina with the leap, so he just fell on his side.

  “It appears you learned the basics of survival. Come back at first light tomorrow for stage two. We need to beef up your body if you are going to survive the later stages of training.” She bent down, leaned close to him and made deliberate eye contact. “Don’t make me wait for you tomorrow or, trust me, you will pay for it.” With that she left the room and was gone.

  Luke wiped sweat from his brow and looked himself over. His new fur armor was in tatters, desperately needing repair, and he was sore in places he didn’t know he could be sore in. Ringo was panting heavily and staggered toward him before she collapsed, resting her head on Luke’s leg.

  A blinking icon distracted Luke. The icon meant he had delayed notifications that needed review. Since he was stuck on the ground recovering stamina, he pulled them up.

  Skill up: Dodge, Beginner 4.

  Attribute point increase: +2 agility.

  Attribute point increase: +1 constitution.

  Attribute point increase: +1 luck.

  Luke still thought Ursa’s methods were crazy but he couldn’t complain about gains like that. “Did she torture you too?” Ringo let out a low howl before resuming her panting. “Should we go home?” A loud growl came from Luke’s stomach. “Maybe we should stop and get a bite to eat?” Ringo’s ears perked up at the mention of food, causing Luke to chuckle.

  After letting his stamina regen to half he sat up. He looked at Ringo, who still refused to move, and decided to carry his furry companion home. Scooping her up, Luke left Ursa’s facility in search of food, surprised that it was already dark outside and that he had been training all day.

  It didn’t take long for Luke to find a grilled-meat booth on the street and he rushed over to it. “Hello. Can I have five skewers please?” Luke started fiddling through his coin purse in preparation for paying.

  “That will be ten gold,” the vendor spat out as he smelled Luke, held his nose and offered the meat with an outstretched hand.

  “Ten gold? The other places only charge three gold for five pieces,” confusion crossing Luke’s face.

  “Then go to the other places. Seriously, please go. You smell terrible and you’re driving away my other customers,” the vendor spat out.

  Luke sniffed himself and Ringo, instantly pulling his head away from his body. They both reeked and Luke noticed that flies were gathering around him instead of the trash that was scattered around. His gaze went over to his status bars and he noticed a new debuff showing a cartoon style poop with flies swirling around it.

  Odor II. You have accumulated so much stink that you have an almost visible bad odor. People will treat you differently when you stink and you should take care of this as soon as you can. Seriously, you should bathe. -10 social while effect is active.

  “If you give me the meat for five gold, I’ll walk away right now,” he countered the shopkeep.

  “Fine, fine, just go.” The man handed over the meat in exchange for five gold and Luke hastily walked away.

  Luke removed the meat from two of the skewers and fed them to Ringo, polishing off the remaining three himself. Smelling himself again, and having just finished eating, he gagged and had to hold down bile that was threatening to come up. “Ok buddy, we need to find a bathhouse.”

  Luke asked for directions and got rude looks and curt responses from several people, but he finally made it to a bathhouse. The freshly clean people leaving the bathhouse gave him a wide berth as he entered.

  There was a long counter with several people manning it. Behind it, hanging on the wall, was a list of services and prices. Luke decided to go for a private hot bath, and elected to add on clothes washing and armor repairing service. All said and done he was in for twenty-five gold. They also charged an additional fee for his current status, but Luke didn’t mind. He understood that with his extreme odor, they would have use extreme effort to clean his clothes and armor.

  He was directed to a small room and told to undress and then proceed to the bath. He followed the instructions except that he took his coin purse and bag in with him as he entered the next room. The room was a ten by ten foot square that had water streaming from a hole in the ceiling, filling a large smooth stone basin that covered most of the room. There was a variety of bottles, brushes and cloths stacked neatly on a shelf.

  Luke jumped into the hot water and Ringo quickly followed. The two bathed, swam and generally enjoyed each other's company for some time before cleaning themselves. He felt incredible with the warm water doing wonders for his sore muscles. This was exactly what they needed, and they took it slow, wanting to enjoy it, not wanting it to end.

  When they were eventually done, Luke opened the door to find his clothes and armor cleaned and repaired on hangers. I could get used to this. He thought as he donned his armor and Ringo shook the excess liquid from her fur.

  When he left the room, there were several attendants waiting with large brushes and cleaning supplies. They went into the room after he left, hanging an “out of service” sign on the door. Luke didn’t think he smelled that bad, but he felt a ton better now. He checked his status to make sure the odor debuff was gone and was pleasantly surprised by what he saw.

  Pampered. You have taken good care of yourself and clearly enjoy the finer things in life. You will receive +1% exp for the next 30 minutes.

  He laughed at the buff and headed for Rose’s shop. By the time he arrived, the moon was almost half way up. After locking the door he headed straight for his bed, ready to collapse, Ringo trailing behind him.

  After her entered his small room, he opened his interface and scrolled through it in search of an alarm clock. He found an alarm app and set several alarms for the next morning, knowing that he would snooze through the first few. The moment he confirmed his alarms, he fell onto his bed and slipped into a deep sleep.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Resolve

  A loud buzzing caused Luke to sit up in bed. Grunting, he rubbed his eyes and mentally clicked the alarm’s off button. He turned off the other alarms settings and swiped away his interface. He slumped over, sheer will being the only thing preventing him from laying back down.

  “Time to get up Ringo.” Hanging his feet off his bed, he stretched and rubbed the crumbs out of his eyes and looked for his furry pal. Instead, he saw a large wolf’s head resting on his leg, eyes gazing up at him. Looking down, Luke jumped to his feet and grabbed the closest thing he could find to fend off the wolf.

  “Step back! I know how to use this!” Luke was holding one
of his fur boots in his shaking hand.

  “Papa?” Luke heard a faint, young-sounding girl’s voice.

  “Huh?” His eyes started roaming the room, looking for the source of the sound.

  “Papa, it's me.” Luke didn’t respond but attempted to find the girl speaking to him. “Papa, do you have any food?”

  “Ri… ri… ringo?” Luke responded through jittering teeth.

  “Yes, papa.” Luke inspected the dog-sized wolf sitting in front of him. The wolf had thick gray fur and Ringo’s sporadic sky blue spots around its body. It had to be Ringo. Luke noticed, for the first time, that Ringo’s underbelly was more white than gray and that her fur became darker the closer it got to her back.

  “How is this possible?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I have always been talking to you, but this is the first time you have responded,” Ringo answered.

  “This is the first time I’ve heard you.” He reached his hand out and began petting her. “You grew so much so suddenly.” Ringo wasn’t as big as the larger wolves in the Howling Forest but she was three or four times the size she was when they had fallen asleep. She was now the size of a large dog. She sort of looked like a slightly large Siberian husky. “What could have caused this?”

  “Are you unhappy Papa?” Ringo asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

  “No, no, of course not.” Luke put his boot down and sat facing Ringo, petting her with both of his hands. “You just surprised me. I really wasn’t expecting to wake up to this.” Luke pulled up his character sheet to see if he could find any answers. A new system message came into view.