Endless Fantasy Online

by Devin Auspland

  The group smiled and then broke into another round of laughter. “Hey! I resent that remark.” Backstab shouted.

  “Not as much as we resent hanging out with you,” Nanoc added, feeding the laughing fire.

  “At least I’m wearing a shirt. I see your body thinks it's cold tonight Nanoc?” Backstab put his hands under his shirt and used his fingers to make exaggerated nipples. Nanoc was mid gulp and laughed so hard that beer came shooting from his nose. “Still wielding that two-handed axe or have you decided to dual wield those two blades of yours.” Everyone within earshot was now laughing and slapping Nanoc on the back in good jest.

  System Alert! System Alert! Attention all travelers currently in or around the Phoenix Kingdom.

  Luke looked around and everyone's eyes in the guild hall were distant. They all appeared to be looking at the same system message.

  Area Event Triggered! The Great Goblin War! The latest kingdom scouts have reported that a large mass of troops are headed for the capital. Current estimates place their arrival within the next 24 hours. Participation is not mandatory, but failure to complete this event will result in the Phoenix Kingdom’s elimination, the loss of all Phoenix Kingdom resurrection points, the death of multiple key NPCs and a permanent debuff to any traveler who has chosen to play a human.

  Note: Traveler resurrection will be restricted during this event. Travelers will remain dead if defeated in combat. Travelers who are defeated may become spectators for the remainder of the event. Once the event is over, traveler resurrection rules will return to normal.

  Rewards will vary depending on your level of participation. The top three players and top three guilds will gain bonus rewards. Prepare for war and good luck.

  As people finished reading the system notice, panic erupted. Some people looked shocked and were trying to find somewhere to hide, while others were grabbing their weapons and shouting battle cries. The majority of people just looked concerned. After a few moments, people started to run for rooms or exits and then chaos set in.

  “Enough!” Shrapnel slammed a large warhammer down on a nearby table, splitting it in half and sending wood shrapnel everywhere. “Calm the hell down! We are Travelers 4 Hire, not a guild of noobs! Everyone grab your weapons, armor, tools, potions, whatever the heck you need and meet back here in thirty minutes. Put messages on the boards and recall all your party members. If you aren’t here in thirty minutes, find yourself a new guild!” Everyone was staring at Shrapnel, frozen in shock. “Did I stutter people? Move it!” People started scrambling but in a much more organized manner. Instead of panic and chaos, they were grouping up and arming themselves.

  “Ok people, you heard the man, lets gear up!” Penny was taking charge of their party. “Luke, can you get some potions from Rose’s shop for the guild?” Luke didn’t answer, his eyes focused on the door. Penny snapped her fingers to gain his attention. “Luke, Luke. What’s up with you? You need to focus here.”

  “What?” Moving his gaze to Penny, Luke noticed the anger and confusion on her face. “I’m sorry. I’m worried about Ringo outside.”

  “Listen Luke, I don’t want to sound harsh here but you really need to focus on the battle coming up and your little puppy should probably stay home.” Penny tried speaking in a firm but understanding tone. She ended up coming across more curt than she intended and Luke pulled back a little in response.

  Luke scratched the back of his head nervously. “I’m not really sure how to say this. It's probably best if I just show you.” Luke got up from the table and beckoned his party to follow him outside. “Now I was trying to tell you this before during my story but the system messages and chaos kinda got in the way.” Luke opened the door as he finished speaking and the much larger alpha wolf was sitting and wagging her tail as she patiently waited for Luke to come out.

  The entire party flinched when Luke approached the wolf without caution and wrapped his arm around it, stroking its neck.

  Nanoc was the first to say something. “What the…” He spoke slowly, adding several syllables to each word and ending by leaving his mouth agape.

  “Guys, this is Ringo.” Luke explained.

  Penny took a hesitant step forward and reached her hand out for Ringo to sniff. Ringo looked up at Luke for confirmation and he nudged her forward. She took a step forward, sniffed Penny’s hand for a moment before pressing her head against her open palm. Penny started petting her slowly, and the others eventually joined in.

  “This is great Luke, but we really need to…” Luke cut Penny off.

  “Stay focused. I know, I know.” He gave Penny a half smile.

  “Well, Mr. Focus, can you get us some potions from the shop?” Penny asked again.

  “I think so, I will have to ask. I know Rose has been brewing boxes full of them, but I think they are for the kingdom.”

  “I’ll talk to Shrapnel but I’m sure the guild would authorize a large purchase of potions if she had them readily available. Please go check and I’ll speak to Shrapnel to get it authorized,” Penny added.

  Luke nodded, grabbed his belongings and headed for Rose’s shop, promising to return before Shrapnels deadline.

  Pushing the door open to Rose’s shop, he saw the short gnome equipping herself. Rose was slinging a bandolier across each shoulder and placing multiple potions in each. It reminded Luke of machine gun operators who slung ammo across their bodies.

  “I take it you were notified that the goblins are approaching,” Luke said as more of an observation than a question. Rose looked up and gave him a curt nod before returning to the task of arming herself. “I have to get a few things from my room, but my guild was wondering if you could spare some potions. I know it's short notice but…” Rose cut him off with a gesture, pointing at a small crate on the floor. Peeking inside, Luke saw health potions tightly packed in straw.

  “You can have the whole crate. There should be at least a hundred minion potions in there. The rest of the crates,” she gestured around the packed room full of boxes, “are for the kingdom.”

  “Thank you Rose.” Rose returned Luke’s smile as he scurried to his room. He grabbed a few potions he had been brewing and stuffed them in his bag. Looking around, he saw the uncommon class weapon box he obtained for completing The Den.

  Uncommon Class Weapon Box (Uncommon). When opened, this box will award you one uncommon weapon associated with your current class. Current class: Beast Tamer. Open? Yes No

  No time better than the present, he thought as he clicked Yes. A bright white light filled the room and quickly faded, leaving behind a pair of leather and metal gauntlets that appeared to be covered in wolf fur. They were fairly large and looked like they would cover Luke’s entire forearm up to his elbows.

  Not exactly the bow I was expecting. He disappointedly reached out and grabbed one of the gauntlets. A system message popped up, obscuring his vision, and he began to read. After reaching the end of the message, his expression changed to delight.

  Wolf Claws (Uncommon). A pair of wolf fur and leather gauntlets, reinforced with iron where appropriate, including the knuckles. A sharp pair of retractable iron claws are hidden under the heavy fur padding on the forearm. When mana is passed through the gauntlets, the user can force the claws to appear or retract back under the fur. Adds +4 physical resistance. Adds 10-12 blunt damage with the claws retracted on strike. Adds 15-20 slashing or piercing damage when claws are out. Note: These can not be equipped over armor and take up your glove slot.

  Luke quickly pulled his fur gloves off and tossed them aside, sliding both of his hands into the weapon. There were several leather straps and buckles on the underside of each gauntlet that he tightened as best he could. When he was done, the new weapons were firm against his arms, reminding him of a cast from when he broke his arm as a child. They seemed incredibly rigid.

  He began shadow boxing in the room and testing the flexibility of his arms and hands. A large metal plate ran the length of his forearm, stretching from his w
rist to his elbow, but his hands were only covered by thick leather. His knuckles and the top side of his hand also had small metal plates on them and reminded him of the brass knuckles thugs would use back in the day.

  He pulled his bow from his back to make sure he still had the flexibility required to operate it effectively and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Returning his bow to his back he tried the feature that most excited him in the system message. He focused on his mana and pushed it into his arms and hands, only spending a point or two of his total mana pool. Without warning, three large, curved claws shot out from the topside of his wrists. He could hear them scraping slightly against the metal plate thathe now realized was there for his protection.

  The claws only extended three or four inches past his fingers when he stretched his fingers out, but when he balled his hands into fists, they were impressively long. He took a few mock swipes at the air, getting a feel for the slashing motion he had to make to use the weapon effectively. After a few test swings with both arms he pushed his mana back into his hands and all six blades receded.

  “I’m the wolverine!” he let out with excitement.

  “What’s that?” Rose said as she pushed the door to his room open. Luke looked down at her and took in the impressive sight. She was now fully equipped and her staff emitted a faint green light as she walked toward him. “Are you going to be ok?” She asked.

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be with my guild.” Rose looked at him, waiting for him to continue but Luke knew how powerful she was and asking about her safety seemed more like an insult than a sign of compassion.

  Rose smiled in realization. “Good. The city guards will be here soon to pick up the shipment. I will make sure they drop off your guild’s crate at your guild hall. If you need me, I’ll be at the city gate, helping in the preparations.” With that she turned to leave but hesitated. Turning to face Luke she pulled something from her bag. “Here, take this.” She handed him a medium-sized potion bottle. The liquid inside was purple and bubbling.

  Luke accepted the potion but when he tried to identify it, the system message was full of question marks. “What is it?” He asked.

  “If you get in trouble, drink it, but be careful... it has quite the kick.” She gestured for Luke to meet her eyes and get down to her level. Placing her hands on his cheeks, she continued. “Please boy, be safe. It would break an old gnomes heart if something happened to you.”

  He smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m a traveler, remember? We pretty much can’t die forever.”

  “Doesn’t mean I want to see you die,” Rose added and Luke’s expression became more serious.

  “I’ll be careful Rose and…” he hesitated. “You be careful too, ok?”

  “I’m too old to die.” Rose chuckled before becoming serious. “Don’t worry Luke, I will be fine.” She patted his cheeks a few times before pulling away.

  “Well, I should hurry back and see what my orders are,” Luke added. Rose nodded, and the pair were off.

  When Luke arrived back at the guild hall, it surprised him to find it stuffed with people. He didn’t realize just how many guild members there were until all of them were gathered in one place. Pulling up his guild interface, he noticed the guild count of over a hundred, and they were all definitely present.

  Leaving Ringo outside, he began looking around, quickly spotting his team. He began weaving and pushing through the crowd until he reached them.

  “Luke! Are we getting some potions?” Penny asked.

  Luke nodded. “The guards should be dropping off a crate of a hundred or so shortly.”

  “Good job.” Penny was about to continue when Shrapnel started demanding everyone's attention.

  “Everyone listen up!” he shouted and banged his warhammer against his armor. “I have spoken with the guards and have updates on the whole situation. The goblins have amassed a small army of themselves and their allies. They are all moving by foot, so it's taking some time for them to get here. They estimate that the full army should arrive in the morning, but an advanced scouting party will be here soon.” People started whispering among themselves and someone in the crowd shouted a question.

  “What do you mean goblins and their allies?”

  Another person joined in. “Yeah, and what about this advanced scouting party?”

  Shrapnel slammed his warhammer into the stone floor, leaving a visible indentation in its wake and causing cracks to splinter outward. “Silence! If you would let me finish, I would explain. Time is limited and I need to get people dispatched, so please keep your questions to yourself.” The guild went silent and after scanning the room for anyone disobeying his command, he continued. “We have about one hundred combat players and a handful of non-combat players. We will form raid groups for various tasks. Raid groups can have five parties, or twenty players each, so we will have five raid groups of combat players and one raid group of non-combat members. I will post the group pairings after this, so party leaders please come see me. Raid groups one, two, and three will be with me behind the main gate on defense. Raid groups four and five will join a division of the city’s guard to attack the advanced scouting party before they reach the city. Your goal is to wipe them out and if you can’t, then delay them long enough for the city to build up defenses.”

  Heads were nodding around the room but no one spoke. Shrapnel pointed at the non-combat people in the guild. “Non-combat players, like our crafters, will have two main goals. First, you will help with building up the defenses of the city. Second, you will move around and give aid to the other groups. Bring potions to those who need them, pull people back to the healing tents, those types of things. Am I understood?” The group of smiths, potion makers, and gatherers all nodded in response.

  “Good. Now to answer the other question that was rudely shouted at me.” People around the room all looked in the man's direction who shouted out, causing his face to turn red. “The main army is primarily low level goblins. The king’s scouts estimated their levels to all be below five. They should be easy targets for most of us but be careful, they are coming in high numbers. Besides the low level goblins, reports say they have orcs and ogres with them.”

  At the mention of ogres the room erupted in shouting and panic. Shrapnel had to raise his warhammer in the air for the room to become silent. “In addition to the orcs and ogres!” he shouted loudly, “reports said there are a few humans with them. The reports didn’t specify if they were captured or working with them, we will have to wait and see.” Much more quiet mumblings of confusion and suspicion filled the room. “Party leaders! Come see me so we can form raid groups. If any of you have questions, ask your guild leaders and they can come see me. Once you know what raid group you're in, get to work!” He turned his back to go through some paperwork and the crowd started splitting up into their groups.

  “Not much of an inspirational speech, huh?” Backstab commented dryly.

  “He has a lot to worry about.” Penny was quick to defend. “I’ll go find out what our assignment is. Why don’t you all meet me outside. This place is getting kinda cramped.” The group nodded and headed outside.

  “I guess war is a great way to break in my new class,” muttered Nanoc, causing Backstab and Luke to stare at him. “I was going to keep it a secret but…” He pulled his large battle axe off his back and started pulling it in opposite directions with his hands, as if trying to pull it apart. His hands started glowing red and as his right hand pulled his axe away to the right, a ghostly visage of his axe formed in his left hand. The ghost axe was completely outlined in red but quickly filled in and became less and less translucent. After a moment, he had an exact copy of his large axe in his left hand while his original axe stayed in his right.

  “Wow! That’s amazing!” Luke was genuinely amazed.

  “Thanks. I hit level ten during training and became a Berserker. It lets me go into a crazy battle rage, gaining a ton of buffs to my strength and constitution. On top of al
l that, not only can I wield two-handed weapons with one hand, I can even create a copy of my main weapon purely out of my rage energy bar.” Nanoc looked truly frightening. He still wore nothing over his chiseled chest but now wielded two massive axes, one in each hand. Each axe blade was the size of his torso, but he didn’t seem to struggle at holding either of them.

  Backstab huffed. “Am I the only one who doesn’t have their class specialization?”

  Luke looked puzzled. “Wait. Penny has hers also?”

  Backstab nodded. “After your information dump the other day, she went and leveled up to ten and got her specialization from her trainer.”

  “Why don’t you ask your trainer to make you an apprentice like me?” Luke questioned.

  He huffed again before speaking. “Thieves and rogues are a greedy bunch. They don’t give away their hard earned experience for the sake of someone else. No honor among thieves.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Hit level ten and you won’t need handouts like Luke,” Penny commented as she exited the guild hall.

  “Hey! I resent that,” Luke replied, causing the group to laugh. “So what specialization did you go with, Penny?”

  “I specialized as a Crusader. It gave me some offensive spells but still lets me use a shield for defense,” She commented with excitement.

  “Hopefully it's enough.” The group turned to see Shrapnel exiting the guild hall. “We will need all the help we can get to win this. The reports say there are hundreds of goblins headed this way.”

  “What about the King? He seemed pretty effective against the Crimson Shadow,” Nanoc said.

  “Too far away. Even if they could somehow get word to him, he would never make it back in time.” Everyone’s expression changed to one of concern. “The advance raid groups are heading out, why don’t you all head for the city gate and help with the defenses.”