by D Wolfin
Apart from Sir Laurence, everyone is staring at the wolf with their mouths open. The only sounds that can be heard are the whistling of the wind and crack of thunder in the sky.
“L-lost!?” Mason shouts out in disbelief, “Since when w-was she!?”
“S-She isn’t a player?” CaptainGordon stares stupidly and even forgets to speak in a pirate accent.
Seeing Verde’s dumbfounded look, I am now one hundred percent certain about her having amnesia. Sir Laurence spares a glance toward her as well, coming to the same conclusion. Suddenly, I have a small hope that seeing Fen in this form may actually help bring some memories back to Verde.
“W-w-what is s-she?!” Moonkite points her finger at the motionless wolf, stammering half from shock and half from the bone-chilling cold she must be feeling as much as I am.
A lot of eyes fall on me for answers, and I find myself unable to think of a response.
Taking a deep breath, I repeat the same explanation I once gave Mason, “She is a ‘companion’. I have a quest to find her missing father, or at least find out what happened to him. There are no specific clues as of yet, so we travel a lot in search of answers.”
Everyone stares incredulously, but still manages to accept my explanation.
“Lost, this may be able to help spark some memories in Verde. Can you make her small again?” Sir Laurence’s voice sounds in my mind as he sends a private message.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any more ‘Scrolls of Shrinking’. She took human form after I had run out of them so I never thought to buy more.”
Not being able to hear our exchange of words, the others can only see the prince frown while I sigh.
“This not be good!” CaptainGordon calls out in shock while examining the ship. “We be takin’ on water! All of ye need to go beneath deck and bucket it out else we all be sinkin’ shortly!”
I ignore the captain, leaning over toward Fen and placing one hand on her jaw below her canine ear. I can feel her breath, weak and restrained. My heart aches as if I can feel her pain transmitting through my hand.
“Fen, just hold on. We will get through this shortly and you will get better. I have the same status so I know it will only last three days.”
I offer a few more consoling words while sitting down next to her to remain by her side. I don’t even realize the others leaving to bail out the water still entering the ship.
CaptainGordon remains at the helm to steer the ship and doesn’t bother me further. He glances toward me a few times with curiosity, but doesn’t say anything. Or if he does, I don’t notice it.
Lightning strikes the mast two more times, but Fen’s body does not budge and the shock wave only pushes me tighter against her. After that the winds dull and the rain becomes a light shower. The ocean swells begin to calm and water stops entering the ship. We are safe from capsizing, but everyone is still busy removing the residual water.
Even the rain eventually stops and the skies begin to clear. Hundreds of thousands of stars become visible in the night sky, incomparably beautiful to behold. I am sitting down next to Fen, resting my back against her as I gaze up at the lights dancing in the sky. Occasionally, I offer a few words to Fen, just to let her know I am still here.
The eastern horizon begins to glow red and the stars dim as morning approaches. By this time, all the water below has been removed and everyone ascends to the main deck. Despite closing my eyes, I can still feel their attentive gazes as they emerge.
The sun peeks above the water and CaptainGordon retracts the spotlight from the front quarter deck as it is no longer required.
“Land ho!!” The pirate shouts out not even an hour later, rousing me from my lethargy and torpor.
Fen is still semi-conscious as I open my eyes and look at her with concern. I try asking her how she is feeling, and her ears twitch in response to my words, but her eyelids slide shut and she doesn’t respond any further.
Taking to my feet, I gaze across the ocean toward where everyone else is looking. A rocky land of red and brown stone with no vegetation can be seen several hundred meters away. It gradually gets closer and it is a very small piece of land. The towering rocks inland of the island prevent me seeing deeper inside, but I suspect that the island is no more than a mile from one side to the other.
I can vaguely make out the shapes of some creatures on top of a few straggling rocks along the shore.
The shapes turn out to be mermaids. Electric blue, green and pink tails of crystalline scales extend from their bottom half. Pale skin as clear as silk is viewable on their upper half without a stitch of clothing. Their long hair covers their breasts, but the occasional gust reveals glimpses of their supple nature. Every single male on the ship, including myself, are currently staring at them wide-eyed in silence.
Their faces are incomparably beautiful. One of them giggles lightly to the others and a musical voice echoes across the waves, entrancing each and every one of us.
One of the mermaids notices us approaching when we get closer to them, points a finger and lets out a shrill cry like nails on a blackboard. This alerts the other mermaids and they all turn to stare in surprise and shock.
I can’t help but clap my hands over my ears to shield them from the noise. The mermaids quickly wrap one hand around their bosoms and spring into the ocean. The surface calms and the coastline is desolate, almost as if they were never there.
“What just happened?” Mason questions with wide eyes.
“They be mermaids!” CaptainGordon replies in equal shock. “Some say seein’ them be good fortune, others say it be poor.”
Seeing those stunning mermaids was definitely good fortune for every male around. The shrill cry at the end, however, was nothing if not foreboding. The females of our group staring at us in disgust is just as nerve chilling.
“Typical,” Moonkite glares at Mikhail more than anyone else while saying this.
“Despicable,” Verde spits out vehemently, but rather than at Sir Laurence, speaking directly to me.
The two girls turn around and form their own small group. Sir Laurence tries to join them, but is violently sent away.
We drop anchor along the shore of the island, and we all disembark. I make sure to speak with Fen a little more, asking that if she gets the chance, to log off. She should be safe here on the ship as long as it is docked according to CaptainGordon, but I am still deeply worried.
The two girls form one group on the island, still refusing to stand near the rest of us. We also form teams of two. Mason and Matrix in the first group, Sir Laurence and myself in the second, SomaHealer and Lockon in the third, CaptainGordon and Mikhail the Stalwart in the final.
“Lost, Verde seemed particularly irritated at you for staring at those bare mermaids,” Sir Laurence mutters with his usual coldness.
I can only get more depressed at being reminded, “…She did.”
“She has normally been very indifferent to us since she returned. Could this be a sign of her memory returning? Perhaps seeing Fen in her wolf form caused some sort of recollection.”
“I am not sure.”
“We need something considerable to spark her memories. Only, I don’t know what. I’ve tried bringing up conversation of when we first met you, but still nothing.”
“You have? Ah, well, I wonder what we can do…” My thoughts stray to when I momentarily forgot myself and kissed her in the goblin cave. My cheeks flush from the memory, but I quickly turn my head and pretend to look around the island to conceal my face from the man next to me.
Our conversation slowly dies off, each of us gradually bringing up fewer and fewer ideas to help jog Verde’s memory. The girls eventually stop rebuffing us by midday, and rejoin the rest of us. When they rejoin us, we form back into our original two groups. Spending so much time on the empty ocean on a cramped ship leaves us with an urge to explore.
Due to the lack of Fen and one of the players of Mikhail’s party dying, we only have five people in each
group. CaptainGordon spends some time in the middle not knowing what to do, before finally deciding to join our party. After he accepts my party invite, his status appears in the party window.
Lost
lvl: 214
Health: 2681/2711
Stamina: 913/913
Mana: 2004/2004
Mason
lvl: 199
Health: 2521/2521
Stamina: 589/589
Matrix
lvl: 204
Health: 2877/2877
Stamina: 600/600
Mana: 720/720
Sir Laurence
lvl: 221
Health: 3308/3308
Stamina: 658/658
Mana: 797/797
Verde
lvl: 185
Health: 2290/2290
Stamina: 536/536
CaptainGordon
lvl: 168
Health: 1487/1487
Stamina: 235/235
-Companions-
Fen
lvl: 199
Health: 3803/3903
Stamina: 1097/1097
Magic: 580/1152
CaptainGordon’s status shocks me with how low it is. Recalling his class skill of ‘Combustion Engineer’, I realize the large difference between direct combat classes and the crafting classes. In a scrap between a player specializing in combat and another in crafting, the crafter will naturally die faster in an exchange of blows. At least I assume so, but there are always exceptions.
***************************************************
The island becomes more difficult to traverse the further inland we get. The center of the island is virtually one massive mountain of carefully stacked stones; some as big as a person, others the size of mammoths. Fortunately, there are plenty of ledges to walk along and areas where we can climb further upward.
At least we don’t have to concern ourselves with strange and new monsters attacking; this island is completely and utterly barren except for the mermaids we saw earlier.
We lose track of time and don’t realize how far we have come before evening falls and the light from the sun dims. We have torches to fend off the dark, but descending the mountain with them will be increasingly difficult.
“Up there, isn’t that a cave?” I ask, pointing my finger at a bleak looking hole in the mountain of rocks further above us.
“How about we camp for tonight? I have plenty of wood in my inventory to build a fire,” Mason further develops my question.
Everyone decides that is for the best and we zigzag up the rocky mountain to finally reach the cave.
The interior of the cave is pitch black. A wind can be felt from deep within, but no sound follows. My initial thought is that this cave must run all the way through the mountain and emerge on the other side.
Mikhail and Sir Laurence, our two strongest players in terms of defense, take the forefront in venturing into the cave. They each hold a flaming torch, an oily rag on the end of a stick that is commonly used in the game, to light up the area around us.
I can see that the cave is formed completely naturally. There isn’t a sign of any mining or other unnatural factor along the walls of the cave. A few almost polished sections of stone leave me puzzled, but I think nothing more of it after a moment.
“I think this spot is as good as any,” Mason says about twenty steps into the cave.
We still have a decent view of the crimson and yellow sky outside the cave, while the breeze coming from further inside the cave is pleasantly cool. Under the light provided by the two torches, Mason starts to remove small logs from his inventory and pile them up to form a pyramid.
There is no need to pile the wood up in a particular way or have any dry grass to start the fire in the game. Just a few logs of wood and a single spark will have a thirty percent chance of starting a fire. This may increase if the spark lands on dry leaves, but nobody I have talked to seems to be concerned with such things.
Once the flame catches the logs, the fire takes a few minutes until it is fully ablaze. We all find rocks resting against the walls that we can roll over and use as chairs. Sitting a comfortable distance from the fire, the increasing chill of the night is warded off by the flame.
“So, who has ghost stories we can tell?” Mason’s eyes light up in anticipation.
“Bein’ a captain on the seas, I run into a few thin’s,” CaptainGordon speaks up first, taking the limelight. “‘Owever, I never be so scared as the time I ran ‘cross a ghost ship. Wit’ sails torn white, and more ‘oles in the ship than should be. It should not even ‘ave been floatin’.”
The pirates voice becomes lower, more sinister, “First the ghosts invaded me ship, ethereal beings tha’ a single touch ‘ould suck a piece of ye soul out. They appear from nowhere, disappear when ye look at ’em. But jus’ as I be tryin’ to save my neck it came. Pale as death itself, rags for clothes billowin’ in the wind as it just floats there. Then it open its mouth… Out of its mouth came-“
Just at this moment of thinking about my experience in the ‘Joy Inn’, a sinister thought comes to mind. Locking my consciousness on SomaHealer, I activate ‘Haunting’. Taking a deep breath and covering my mouth with my hand as if yawning, I let out a screech as high pitched as possible. Of course, under my skill, the sound appears to be coming from just behind SomaHealer.
Everyone hears the scream and pales slightly, but SomaHealer is the most affected. He shouts and curses as he falls off his rock in fright and onto the ground. The least influenced are my party members, who stare at me shocked.
‘Who would have thought that skill would have such a practical use,’ I think to myself in self satisfaction.
Mason explains my skill to the terrified individual who is still looking around for the source of that noise to no avail. Upon learning that it was me, he glares at me in humiliation and anger. CaptainGordon, on the other hand, has since recovered from the initial shock and finds it to be highly amusing.
I cough lightly, trying to maintain an innocent expression.
“Did you two… Did you, plan that out?!” SomaHealer exclaims incredulously at CaptainGordon and me.
“We did not,” The initial humor begins to fade and I easily keep a straight face. “I merely… saw an opportunity.”
“It be as Lost said,” CaptainGordon says amidst laughter before his eyes flash in the firelight. “Anyway, I be tired of ghost stories, and I don’t be thinkin’ we can top Lost’s screech. Who be up for explorin’ this ‘ere cave?”
Everyone else gives it some thought before agreeing to the idea. I walk to the entrance of the cave in thought. From my high vantage point, I can see the ship dimly lit by a full moon in the sky above. Fen’s figure seems to reflect twice as much moonlight as anything else, making her white figure clearly visible. By focusing on her figure, my class skill activates and creates a telescopic effect to see Fen much better.
She is calmly sleeping on the deck of the ship, her breathing also much more vigorous than earlier. Seeing her slowly recovering makes me feel much calmer. Returning to the campfire, I am the final person to agree to the exploration.
Splitting back into our respective parties, Sir Laurence and Mikhail once again lead the formation with torches. The cave we are in is a strange formation; some parts are wide enough for all eleven of us to walk side by side, while others are so narrow we practically have to walk in single file. After walking for barely five minutes, we reach the end to the cave.
Instead of the night sky, however, all I see is endless darkness. Something does not feel right. We all hesitate for a moment, before once again walking forward into the darkness.
Once within the darkness, the path beneath my feet slopes downwards along a winding path. Our torchlight lights up the area around us, and I can see sections of other paths extremely similar to the one we are on. On the wall nearby is another cave, almost exactly the same as the one we came out of. The cavern is enormous, so much that our torches can only light up a sm
all section of it.
This mountain must have multiple caves snaking through it, all leading to this central area.
There are only two other things visible in this grotto: a formation of hundreds of thousands of crystals on the distant ceiling, and an enormous set of doors against the far wall. The ceiling gives off a faint light, but nowhere near enough to shed light on the cavern. However the doors at the far end are different, emitting a bright luminescence that reveals a wide area around them. They stand a full fifteen meters tall, and twenty meters wide. Intricate green and blue polished gems are inlaid into the doors in some kind of formation.
I stare wide-eyed at the doors as we make our way through the darkness toward them. Upon reaching the doors, I can see that there is not a single flaw in them. They are the products of exquisite, masterful crafting.
“What is it?” I ask while closely examining the door.
“Most likely, the entrance to a raid.” Mason says completely stunned. “Though I have never heard of this one.”
“What do you mean by raid?” Verde asks curiously.
“My lady, have you never played other games before?” Sir Laurence asks politely but she only shakes her head, before he continues to explain. “A raid is similar to a dungeon, except several parties of players participate together to fight through the dungeon and defeat the final boss. A raid is also vastly more difficult than an ordinary dungeon, too.”
“How many parties can participate?” I am unfamiliar with the raids in End Online, so I can only ask the others.
Mason takes the time to respond, “Up to six parties, regardless of size. Although if a single party is over six players in size, the rewards and experience from the raid practically vanish. This means that 36 players is the maximum you should take on a raid.”
“You’re forgetting. For new raids, the more players the better. It is best to first get to understand the raid so you can formulate strategies. Even if it does forfeit the reward,” Moonkite corrects Mason diligently, even as she stares up at the doors with equally wide eyes.