by D Wolfin
“It is called ‘Self-Sacrifice’. I can actively take a portion of the damage instead of other party members.”
“So you could take some of the damage I normally would. That will be a great help!”
“You can take your own damage!” Sir Laurence declares and looks toward Verde. Anyone can tell that he plans to get the skill and protect her with it in hopes of gaining a more favorable position with her.
I don’t press the matter, I know this man far too well to bother trying, “Okay, okay, let’s go then.”
We change direction and head for the church where players revive. The trip takes about half an hour of walking and the evening sun begins to set by the time we arrive. At least there are no players following me as far as I can tell.
I have a nostalgic feeling while climbing the steps to the church and wonder whatever happened to that aggravating old man. Beyond the steps, we follow Sir Laurence’s lead toward the confession booth that is used to attain new skills. He steps inside and emerges a few minutes later.
What gets my attention is that from the other side of the booth, the priest who gives the skills exits the booth.
‘Hang on, a priest that grants skills…’ Mental cogs begin turning in my mind as I start to understand a greater picture.
As my mood darkens, the priest that steps out is indeed the old man who knocked me unconscious and bestowed the hated ‘Aggravation’ skill on me. The light grey robe, long white hair and even the staff with the amply-sized blue crystal decorating the top. It’s all the exact same as I remember.
Acting reflexively on my feelings toward the old man, I immediately grab five of the throwing knives strapped to my thigh and throw them at him. Three knives fly directly at his torso, while the other two are aimed at his head. The old priest noticed the attack as soon as I sent it, whirling around on one foot and deflecting all the throwing knives with an impressive staff technique.
He glares at me furiously before noticing my equally angry expression and recalling who I am. His fury completely vanishes and he quickly escapes back into the confessional booth, leaving Sir Laurence standing around stupidly.
“You’re not getting away that easily!” I shout as I surge forward as fast as I possibly can.
Thanks to all the boosts and bonuses my speed has reached a frightening level. It takes me a single second to cross the twenty meter distance and arrive in front of the confession booth as the priest’s door clicks shut.
I bang on the door ruthlessly with my fist, “Get the hell out here, you have nowhere else to go!”
From inside the booth is utter silence. After a few minutes of banging on the door, I draw my blades and start hacking at it, leaving deep gouges on the door wherever the knives pass. Sir Laurence attempts to stop me, but one fierce glare is enough to have him halt in his steps.
I eventually manage to break through the door. What is behind it however, rather than a scared old priest, is nothing. An exact mirror image of the other side of the booth where the player usually sits.
‘Damn it, where did he go!?’ I stomp on the ground and make sure there are no trap doors or anything like it, but apparently he simply vanished into thin air.
Sir Laurence and Verde come up to me cautiously, even Fen gives me a curious look, asking what’s wrong.
I begin from the start, relaying how I first logged into End Online and walked out of the church. I explain that I was already in an agitated mood from several real life concerns and ended up in an argument with the guide for new players over choosing a name. It then escalated into assault and I had my player name forcibly chosen and was even imprinted with that ‘Aggravation’ skill.
Verde expresses that she thinks I am still going a bit far, but Sir Laurence secretly sympathizes with me over a private message.
Shortly after, we leave the church and start walk toward the eastern gate. Day turns to night and glimmering street lights begin to light up one after another. The meeting between players about the attack and defense of the kingdom must already be over, as the number of players traversing the city’s streets had exploded exponentially.
Every street has at least one player trying to hawk their goods under a lamp, making the most of the large battle to come. From some of the conversations I overhear while walking, the five assault groups will be leaving tomorrow morning to try and catch Grenton unprepared. I sincerely hope they do catch them by surprise, especially Mason.
At the east gate of Iceridge, we find a small inn out of the way and rent a few rooms for the night.
The system wakes us up at sunrise. Fen is sprawled across me in the clothing we got from ‘Emperor Rahad’s Tomb’. Her slumbering head is bent backwards on my shoulder, exposing two bulging ridges on her chest. I do not wear armor when sleeping either, so the sensation of her breasts pressing against my ribs is extremely potent.
I roll around to try and get up off the bed and end up tangling the two of us together. She awakens from the movement and opens her eyes when our faces are only an inch apart. I stare into her crystal blue eyes, still drowsy. Reflected in her eyes is my completely flushed face. The both of us lie there, not moving when a banging sounds on the door.
“Stop flirting and get up!”
It is Verde that shouts, her voice somewhat hesitant.
Fen’s face in front of me suddenly pouts and becomes something difficult to describe. If I had to put it into a single word: disappointed.
We surprisingly become untangled relatively easy and I get out of the bed, equipping my armor again as I do so. Outside the door are both Verde and Sir Laurence. The former is hesitant while the latter has a look of indifference on his face, but both pairs of eyes shine with curiosity and a myriad of questions.
I hastily leave the hallway with Fen in tow, not giving them the opportunity to ask any questions. Outside the inn, the morning sun slowly melts the thin coating of ice that is covering all the windows. Small fires are burning in the back alleys of the area, players with the ‘Cooking’ skill taking charge of breakfast before the big expedition.
Verde, Sir Laurence, Fen and I hastily leave the city through the east gate before it becomes too congested. I have the nagging feeling that someone is following me, but whenever I turn my head, there is no one there.
Half a day and three hundred wolf corpses later, we arrive at the goblin village amongst a group of hills southeast of Iceridge. I look at the wolf girl, my memory replaying the scene of her ditching me here and leaving me for dead.
From the hills surrounding the village we casually stroll toward the center. Some goblin scouts spot us blatantly walking down the center of the hill and charge to attack us. I see them coming from a distance, but wait for them to get closer before attacking them.
There are two groups of six goblins coming from two different directions.
“Leave this to me,” I pridefully say to the others, charging toward the group that is nearest and throwing all my knives at them.
My throwing knives are actually quite weak by themselves, only made strong by countless damage bonuses from my skills and stats. Against a strong monster they are practically useless, but against these weaklings they do major damage. Two throwing knives are enough to kill a single one of these goblins that we used to have to fight with our lives on the line.
Four of the six goblins in the group are instantly killed from my ranged attack. Like a ghost against the snow, my figure almost flies down the hill at a speed that would leave most people frightened, just before vanishing toward the end and reappearing in the center of the final two goblins, one blade cutting through each of their necks.
I have long since mastered the speed which even my senses can’t keep up with. Rather than trying to control every action, I predetermine my route, where I want to start and where to stop moving. This allows me to move at a speed others can’t react to, but also limits me to linear movements.
I use this speed to appear in the center of the second group of goblins like a spectre
. I first use the sacred art ‘Triple Stab’, my blade glowing brightly as it leaves three puncture wounds in one of the goblins. The attack had so much power that not only did it kill the weak monster in an instant, but pierced through and killed the goblin behind it as well.
I follow up with the sacred art ‘CrossX’ on the next nearest goblin, sending it flying with a giant red ‘X’ on the torso that nearly quartered its body. The final three are killed with normal attacks, my body seemingly disappearing in the face of their attacks yet appearing to deal fatal thrusts and slashes. The goblins are constantly chasing after images until they are all dead.
The entire battle against the twelve goblins took me about twenty seconds. It was over before it even began.
“Congratulations,” Verde claps unenthusiastically at me bullying the weak monsters.
I ignore Verde’s sarcasm and reflect on how much stronger I have become since leaving Iceridge. The difference is leaps and bounds beyond what I thought it would be.
Sir Laurence, Verde and Fen join in as we quickly enter the hidden goblin village and eradicate all the goblins within. Despite the massive difference in strength, all the goblins still recklessly charge at us. Of course, with my class skill causing an intimidation effect and over half the goblins within its range, the majority of them attempt to overwhelm me with numbers.
With the village clear, we descend the crevice in the middle of the settlement and enter the dungeon below.
Entering ‘Unknown Goblin Lair’
Having not been in this dungeon for so long along with the fact that none of us have the ‘Cartography’ skill, we end up becoming lost on the first floor of the dungeon. Nothing in this dungeon can prove a threat to us so it becomes a task of navigating the maze.
Three hours pass and we finally uncover the enormous shaft that leads toward the second level. On the second level, we have more luck than on the first and find the passage to the third floor with relative ease.
From the entrance of the third floor, it is only a matter of time before we find the final boss room. We find several areas we didn’t the first time through here, but we eventually reach it. Once we arrive at the boss room, I am a little disappointed.
I can see the chest in the center of the room is open, unlike last time when it was closed. I still walk into the room regardless, hoping that the boss is still alive. The four of us stand in the middle of the circular room and inspect the walls for the goblin boss or any goblin minions waiting to emerge.
A few standard goblins emerge from the walls, which are easily taken care of by Fen, but the goblin boss does not appear.
Just as I suspected, someone had already killed the boss and it has yet to respawn. I try to think of who would have killed it and my first thought is Chronix and his guild, Swords of Light. It can’t possibly be him; he has appeared all over the continent and attacked me every time he does. Therefore he has moved on from Iceridge and toward bigger and better things.
‘No, he got teleported back to Iceridge the same as the rest of us. But would he come back to this dungeon? By now there are bound to be others who have discovered this dungeon,’ I wonder to myself helplessly and don’t realize Verde and Sir Laurence are talking to me.
“Lost!” Verde waves her hand in front of my face, her voice considerably irritated. “Let’s go, this wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be.”
“Ah, sorry. Yeah, let’s go.”
I continue to think to myself as we track back through the dungeon and emerge in the goblin village. We walk toward the top of one of the hills to get a better bearing when another player appears on the top. I look at the person twice, not believing what I am seeing.
“Verde,” I whisper to the girl next to me equally as shocked as I am, “things just got interesting.”
“Yeah, I think we should run away again. Just like last time,” she whispers back to me, staring straight at the man in golden armour casually looking down on us from the top of the hill.
“Definitely; on three?”
“How many times have I told you that my skill lets me hear what you are whispering about to yourself? You give away your plans just by speaking them. Why haven’t you figured out to just use party chat?” Chronix stares at us in disbelief, drawing his sword and waving it in a few circles above his head.
With his signal sent, about a hundred players emerge from the other hills and surround us.
“You think I didn’t learn from the last time you escaped?” Chronix looks down on us with scorn, already believing he has won. “These people are all elites. I have also gotten considerably stronger since you left Swordbreak and went to the City of Sphinx. I have waited very patiently for this moment.”
Seeing all the people surrounding us, I decide to become serious, “You already killed me once, isn’t that enough?”
“Apparently not. I plan to kill you today, and keep killing you until I am satisfied. That wolf girl too. She escaped once before, but it won’t happen today.”
The group surrounding us are all equipped with top tier armor. There is no way we can fight them head on. They also plan on specifically targeting Fen and myself, which is the worst possible situation.
“Fen, listen to me. You grab Sir Laurence, break through the formation and escape. I will grab Verde and be right behind you. Run as fast as possible.”
Fen looks at me with disapproval and refuses to do it initially, but after pressing the matter she eventually nods her head in resignation. Chronix frowns as I make the plans. I know he can hear my plan as I speak of it, but what can he do about it?
After saying the word “go”, Fen almost becomes a shadow, sending tens of blunt ice bolts at several people in the line to break them apart as she grabs Sir Laurence before charging at them. I am right behind her, scooping up a surprised and struggling Verde and running behind Fen. Carrying someone drastically reduces our speed, but it is still explosive enough to escape the other players if we can emerge from this encirclement.
Three players are taken by surprise and get knocked away by the blunt ice bolts, which opens a hole in their formation. Just before we can get through, another player suddenly steps into the empty spot of the encirclement with an enormous plated shield as tall as he is. This must be one of the defensive specialist players who protect the parties from boss attacks.
His shield glows red like blood and gives off a faint mist. The position of my real body is revealed in this mist and when Fen sends several more ice bolts, they are weakened by the mist and easily blocked. Fen and I enter the outskirts of the mist which causes the air to become thick and difficult to move in, further halving our speed.
We both crash into the enormous shield, which absorbs the shock of the collision before pushing back. The four of us fly through the air and crash back to the center of the encirclement. While I was in the air, I noticed that there were several more people with enormous shields just outside the encirclement, ready to replace any fallen members.
I rapidly cast and throw dire flame fireballs at the encirclement when I think I see those defensive players waiting to replace anyone necessary. Thirteen players end up affected by the dire flame after effects, but the damage is too little to prove a threat to these high levelled players. Each will take at least several hours to die.
“Fen, ice shields. Sir Laurence, use whatever shield that was you used against the Kraken on the ocean,” I shout the orders immediately as my mana runs out.
Fen is the first to respond, raising her hands and summoning an opaque three-layered ice barrier fifty meters wide and twenty meters high to block out Chronix and the other players. Sir Laurence slams his shield into the ground shortly after and that familiar box formed by the shield sigils covers and further protects us.
“With this, we should be safe for a while,” I sigh in relief looking at Verde and Sir Laurence who are still frowning at me.
“You could have given us some warning.” I don’t know whether Verde is angry or upset as sh
e pouts.
Before I get the chance to reply, a loud laughter reverberates within the ice dome from some sort of skill or spell to transmit voice, “Lost, did you honestly think something a weak as this would stop me? Do it.”
At the end of his speech, he appears to speak with someone else. The other person’s voice enters the dome with the same method as Chronix’s, possibly because it is a transmission spell that is still active.
The voice is quiet, I can tell it is a male voice, but not what the words are. Sir Laurence’s face visibly pales when he tries to make out what the voice is saying.
His voice is wavering in complete shock as he says, “They’re chanting a top tier scroll, Heavenly Dispelling. This is bad!”
“How bad?”
“Very! Not only will it dispel all these shields, but it will put them on a cooldown for the next hour. This is a ridiculously expensive scroll, and they are using it on us. How did you piss them off this much, Lost?”
“I didn’t do anything! Well, not much… I think.”
I seem to recall all the times I have escaped Chronix or killed him and feel like this is my fault. Just as my worries are at their peak, the voice finishes chanting.
As a transparent shockwave of white light washes past everything, Chronix’s voice echoes in the dome again with a lunatic laughter, “I know all about you and your team, Lost! I have thought of every possibility and have more than enough strength to overwhelm you! You’re trapped Lost, just give… What the hell? Why didn’t it work?”
The white light passes over Sir Laurence’s shield and instantly dispels it like it was a wisp of smoke. What doesn’t make sense, and also apparently has everyone befuddled, Chronix included, is that Fen’s triple layered ice shield remains unscathed.
“Sir Laurence, you said this was a high quality dispelling skill?” I ask the prince as we both stare at Fen, not sure how to comprehend her shield still remaining after ‘Heavenly Dispelling’ was cast.
“Not just high quality, it is at the very top. There isn’t a stronger dispel than ‘Heavenly Dispelling’.”