End Online: Volume 5

by D Wolfin

  “O’ burning heart of mother earth, I draw on your energy to ignite the flame within me and turn my foes to ash. Incinerating Flame Wall!” Matrix furrows his brow as he raises his hand toward the enemy with an exaggerated posture.

  Following his preposterous chant, which I am certain is different from the last time he used the very same spell, a wall of blazing blue fire rises from floor to ceiling in the middle of the mermen. Ten of the enemy are instantly consumed by the high class spell while the rest hurriedly escape the inferno. Unfortunately, the attack attracts the attention of another fifty mermen from the room.

  We whittle the original group of mermen down to half their numbers while somehow managing to hold them back before the second group arrives. The flame wall is effective, but they eventually just go around it.

  “Matrix,” I snarl at the culprit who caused the second wave to arrive early, pressing to make him feel guilty, “You need to take responsibility for attracting the second group early. Can you make another flame wall?”

  “Umm, I’m a little short on mana. But I, umm, I think I can.”

  “Good, please use it on our other side so they can only attack from two directions.”

  “Okay... umm, do you mean now?”

  “Yes, now!” I nearly throw one of my knives at him, while he just looks around awkwardly.

  “Raging inferno that dwells beneath the crust, rise up and form an impenetrable wall of flames and despair. Incinerating Flame Wall!”

  ‘That is definitely a different chant! You could at least stick to the same one!’ I inwardly scream, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

  At least the flame wall rises where I directed him to. Four mermen are instantly killed within the flames while three more emerge in a critical condition. The remaining enemies are forced to take a longer route around the flame wall.

  One of the mermen gets dangerously close to the party and releases a new sacred art. With its trident emanating the familiar golden hue, the enemy changes its grip to hold it underhand. The trident’s three spear-tipped points thrust at Sir Laurence, parallel to the ground at an inescapable speed.

  Anyone else would have suffered a massive amount of damage from the attack, but Sir Laurence is fortunate and manages to shift his shield in the way of the attack and displace the majority of the force. The thrust still sends him sliding back four meters, but he only loses ten percent of his health.

  The two firewalls, while not being overly wide, still help us only have to fight the mermen from two sides. Our party takes care of one side while Mikhail’s handles the other. I am too busy attacking and pushing back the mermen on our side to check, but Mikhail, SomaHealer, Lockon and Moonkite seem to be fighting them off just fine despite having two less party members.

  After nearly an hour of back and forth fighting, including having to flee toward the door and form a new defensive line when the mermen were about to overwhelm us, we finally kill them all. The end of the fight was easy, but killing the first half of the enemy is the hardest part due to them having overwhelming numbers.

  I look at the remaining hundred mermen at the other side of the enormous cavern and feel somewhat dejected. I have a bad premonition and am about to halt the party to recover health and mana when Lockon shoots one of the un-aggroed mermen at the other end of the cavern. Before I get a chance to curse at the foolish archer, every remaining enemy targets our group.

  Mason and Lockon continuously shoot the approaching crowd of mermen while I control my temper and refrain from wasting any more throwing knives. Some of the knives have been recovered, but I have already lost more than I can count.

  With the mermen having such a large amount of health, the arrows only kill seven out of a hundred before they reach us. Matrix is out of mana and can’t use ‘Incinerating Flame Wall’ again for a while. As a result, this last swarm of mermen takes us two hours to kill by kiting them around the room, trying to prevent them from overwhelming us with numbers.

  My intimidation affecting the majority of them helps take some pressure off the others, but I end up having to run away twice as often as anyone else and end up with fewer kills and less experience at the end.

  We take a long break to rest and restore our health, mana and satiety before randomly choosing one of the four exits leading out of the room. Leaving through a large tunnel in the center of the far wall of the cavern, we find ourselves in an incredibly damp corridor.

  The ceiling, walls and floor are still made from jutting rock, but multitudes of deadly stalactites along the ceiling drip water constantly. A single drop of freezing water lands on my head and causes me to jump back in surprise. Much to the amusement of the party, I collide into Mason who is directly behind me and we both tumble into a large puddle of water with a grunt.

  “Damn it, Lost!” Mason cries out in indignation.

  I hastily apologize before we continue down the stone corridor. The pathway splits off into three directions, and by choosing the right hand one and ascending some stairs, we come across a room that could be some man’s fantasy.

  The room is formed from a dazzling combination of azurite and stone slabs overlapping one another. On the far side is a large pool that probably leads elsewhere if the swimmer could hold their breath underwater long enough, but the most eye-attracting feature is the monsters: the mermaids perched on jutting rocks.

  The mermaids are the size of a standard adult female, with slender fish tales and exposed upper bodies. A few of the males in the party awkwardly look elsewhere as the females glare at them. I am a little late to notice Verde glaring at me and realize she is irritated with me, again. Sir Laurence is the worst, openly gaping at them with a posture as if he is about to dash toward them at a moment’s notice.

  “Creature Analysis,” I breathe out quietly, while inspecting one of the mermaids.

  Name: Beautiful Mermaid

  Level: 186

  Health: 1210

  Magic: 3100

  Stamina: 0

  ??

  ‘That’s strange. So little health and high mana. Are they pure spell casters or what?’ I wonder to myself curiously.

  There are also dozens of towering mermen among the fragile looking mermaids. The exposed chests of the mermen cause me to feel highly intimidated, while the mermaids attract my eyes and fan the flames of forbidden desire.

  The mermaids’ faces are the very definition of beauty. Before I can look at them for more than two breaths worth of time, their eyes flash with a pink light. I take one final glance at the mermaids and mermen, noticing they are not approaching us, before my body starts to feel strange and I lose control of it. As this is a game, I don’t have my consciousness altered in this state, but am forced to follow as my body is controlled by someone else.

  I unwillingly turn toward the nearest person, who just happens to be Verde. She looks at me in confusion for a moment before opening her eyes wide in surprise. My body vanishes from where I am standing and dashes toward her at maximum speed. The acceleration is no joke, leaving a ghostly afterimage behind and appearing in front of Verde before she can react. My arms wrap around her and pull her close so that my lips can lock onto hers.

  My body seems to return under my control mid kiss and I quickly withdraw my face. Both of our expressions are cherry red in embarrassment. As if by some form of delayed reaction, Verde brings her hand to her mouth in utter shock and even her pupils dilate. I glance around, looking for an escape, when I see a truly terrifying scene.

  I am not the only one affected by the mermaids’ charm effect. Mason and Lockon are just entering each other’s embrace and are about to exchange a kiss which will never be forgotten. Matrix is off to the side, swinging his sword at Mason and trying to force himself on his own brother after being rejected.

  Sir Laurence lunges at Verde full of lust, only to receive a dagger and a kick. He then draws his sword and attacks Verde before attempting to force himself on her again. I give her aid in capturing and restraining him until t
he charm wears off. I recall my charm effect had a sixty second countdown on it.

  SomaHealer and Moonkite were an equal distance from Mikhail and end up fighting each other in an attempt to get to him first. Worst of all is that Mikhail doesn’t do anything to stop it, merely looking away. CaptainGordon is closest to Moonkite and approaches her aggressively, only to receive a beating that makes me cringe.

  Verde and Mikhail are luckily the only people unaffected by the charm. The damage we dealt to each other whilst under the charm effects is no small amount.

  Just as everyone’s charm status wears off the mermaids start spitting water bubbles at us. The bubbles are slow moving, much like the mermen who are also now approaching us. Unwilling to take the risk, we deftly avoid the bubbles as we move closer to the enemy.

  Looking at the mermaids again, Mason, Lockon, and Sir Laurence are caught under the charm effect once again. Verde and I pause to restrain Prince Charming again while no one prevents the two archers from resealing their bond.

  We are at a disadvantage while fighting as we have to avoid looking into the mermaid’s eyes to avoid falling under the dreadful charm effect. Halfway through the battle, Sir Laurence and my eyes happen to meet those of a mermaid’s, which instantly flash pink. By a horrible coincidence, we are currently closer to each other than Verde.

  The girl, who was usually the target of our forced infatuation, suddenly looks at us with great amusement as we embrace each other under the control of a master puppeteer. Once the moment passes and the effect wears off, we both hurriedly move away from each other as fast as possible and ignore each other’s presence.

  The bubbles in the air are quite deadly, not because they have a strong attack power, but because having one pop on you will cause you to fall under the same charmed status effect as looking the mermaids in the eye. More than one person commits an unforgettable act by coming into contact with one of these bubbles.

  We eventually win the fight against the mermaids and mermen at the expense of losing Matrix. Including the monster drops from this room, we have all acquired a few mermaid’s tears, mermen scales, some pleasant jewellery, a few tridents, and an assortment of other minor materials that could be used in crafting, cooking, or may turn out to be simply rubbish.

  Having experienced the techniques of both the mermen and mermaids, we successfully pass through several more minor rooms with minimal scandals. Several of us consider simply killing each other to escape this dungeon, but we eventually find a boss room which causes us all to press on.

  The boss is the ‘Merman King’, at level 330 and standing a massive five meters tall. The entire room is flooded with ankle deep water that slows our movement by thirty percent. His trident is also a menacing blood red and twice the size of the usual tridents.

  He uses the shallow water to propel himself at high speeds over short distances and to attack us with a powerful spray from a swish of his tail. His massive trident is sometimes used as a spear, other times like a club.

  It takes half an hour to kill him, and this time SomaHealer dies. The boss drops loot for each of us, which is incredibly useful and highly valuable. I receive the ‘Radiant Sun Chausses’, leg armor with high defense, a five percent boost to movement speed, and a ten percent boost to a player’s ability to block.

  Afraid of losing too many people before finding another boss to fight, we press on, trying to move along the outer caverns. Sometimes this means we have to swim through deep pools. One of the pools was full of mermen and cost Mason his life as he couldn’t defend himself.

  Blood sucking bats that drain our health to replenish their own appear after the first boss. Unlike the Mer species, they are quick and evasive. By the time we reach what appears to be a second boss area, we are all exhausted and low on mana, stamina, and satiety. We are forced to clear the room so we can rest and recover before challenging the second boss.

  The second boss is called ‘Flame Elemental Guardian of the Deep’, a level 360 boss that is strongly resilient to physical damage. It is a four meter tall golem-like creature with small volcanos covering its hulking body. The entire boss room is scorching hot like a sauna and filled with steam, impeding our sight.

  This battle costs us Verde, Mikhail and Moonkite. I trade the golden leg armor I got from the first boss with Sir Laurence for his reward of the ‘Inflamation Axe of Carnage’. There is no doubt the weapon is valued much higher than the armor, but he needs the chausses more desperately than a weapon. He also doesn’t sell his items for cash either. By the looks of all of his equipment, I wonder if he didn’t buy it all himself.

  There are only four of us left alive: Lockon, Sir Laurence, CaptainGordon, and myself. The pirate, CaptainGordon, is only still alive because he barely participated in any of the battles before. He claims that he is a supporting character and shouldn’t be thrown on the frontline. I call him a cowardly pirate from time to time, but eventually get tired of it after his nonchalance.

  With no possibility of even making it to the next boss with four people, we decide to go out with guns blazing. We all fight on the front lines against mermen, mermaids, blood sucking bats, and the new water striders that shoot water bullets the size of cannonballs.

  Lockon is the first to fall, followed by Sir Laurence. I would have preferred for my death to be valiant like the last two, but I foolishly run into one of the mermaid’s bubbles. Under the effects of the charm, I can’t even cry as I assault CaptainGordon’s face with my lips while under attack from several mermen. CaptainGordon’s defense is nearly as pitiable as mine and we both quickly die by impalement while I am forcing myself on him. As he had more health remaining before the attack, his death comes a little after mine.

  In the time between when I died and revived outside the raid, I shed an uncountable amount of tears. I vow to myself never to speak of my final moments to anyone and take them to my grave. If CaptainGordon even speaks a syllable of the incident, I will use all my speed and strength to silence him before the second vowel comes out of his mouth.

  Chapter 32 – Poison and Sand

  -Lost-

  As soon as I step off the boat and onto the sand, a notification appears.

  Congratulations.

  As an explorer of a new land, you have been granted a new title.

  Desert Pilgrim

  ~ +20% Movement on soft and uneven terrain

  ~ +5 Agility

  ~ +5% Fire resistance

  Do you wish to equip? Please note, current title will be lost.

  Yes / No

  Considering that my previous title became invalid when my identity was revealed, I immediately accept the new title.

  I notice everyone else stopping momentarily as they step off the boat as well. Some people consider the message, while others are overjoyed at their fortune.

  Fen remains on the ship as everyone else departs. I turn around to face her from the shore and see her crouching down. Every muscle on her body quivers momentarily before she launches herself off the ship with all her might. The ‘Bastion’ sinks several meters into the water from the counterforce as she leaps toward the shore, landing safely several tens of meters from the water.

  The great white wolf trots over to kneel down next to me in a resting position. She looks at me with affection, resting her head on her two front paws. I place one hand against her shoulder, entrusting my weight to her.

  While I am lost in a world containing only Fen and I, everyone else groups together in their parties. Sir Laurence, Verde, Mason, Matrix and CaptainGordon look at me with indecision. They are unable to decide whether they should approach, or leave us two together. They eventually decide to approach.

  “Lost,” Mason gently interrupts the mood between Fen and I, “We had best head off soon. We need to find a water source where we can set up a base to explore from.”

  “Can’t we just use the ship? Here we have both food and water, right?” I ask curiously.

  Sir Laurence speaks up with disapproval, “Th
e food and water on the ship have dwindled from the long journey. Besides, I have been on that ship long enough. I want to explore the land.”

  “Got it. We had best be off then,” I look at my companion and see her not moving. “Fen?”

  The wolf grumbles softly before standing up, and I can tell she doesn’t want to move too much.

  ‘Is she still recovering from the sickness? No, that can’t be it. Perhaps the heat?’ I wonder to myself silently.

  Walking away from the coast, we use the position of the sun to help us travel south. The sand is soft beneath our feet and our boots sink into it with each step, greatly slowing our travelling speed.

  Near the coast the sand dunes are small, forming short ridges that are easy to pass over. This changes as we get further inland. The sand dunes are easily five or six meters high and so steep at points that we are forced to find a different approach to ascend them.

  The heat and humidity begin to affect everyone, causing us to breathe deeply through our mouths and sweat to bead on our foreheads. My cloak prevents most of the heat from affecting me, but it does nothing to mitigate the humidity. While the air feels slightly warmer, it has a sticky texture and an unpleasantness similar to drinking warm water on a hot day.

  “Enemy!” Matrix calls out in a panic as we are half way up on of the dunes.

  I hastily turn my head to look down near the base of the dune and see five scorpions the size of cars rushing at us. Their legs click with each movement and sand is kicked behind them as they move forward.

  “SomaHealer, Lockon, behind me! MoonKite, you take the lead!” Mikhail calls out and organizes his party members, who immediately spring into action.

  Faster than Mikhail prepares for combat, our party gathers without the need for words. Being familiar with each others’ roles, Matrix and I take the forefront positions. Sir Laurence protects Verde as the vanguard while Mason fights from the rear. Fen uses her high speed to move around and magic to attack the enemy.