End Online: Volume 3

by D Wolfin

  Shai'en

  lvl: 30

  Health: 440/440

  Magic: 281/281

  ‘Great, isn’t that just what I need. Not only is this going to be some impossibly hard quest to reclaim the elvish capital, but now we also must escort and protect one person while doing so. Nothing less from a legendary quest.’

  “I won’t let you down!” Shai’en says to me with dedication.

  ‘What can someone as weak as you possibly do!’

  Bidding our farewells, we all leave the inn and split up to prepare for the quest. I am sure Mason is going to stock up on arrows, potions and any other necessities. Matrix follows behind him obediently to stock up on his own supplies with Mason.

  The NPCs have no preparation needed. One of them uses magic and leeches off me for health recovery, while the other is to stay back and be protected. As they have nothing to do, they follow me as I head out to stock up on my supplies.

  With Fen wrapping her arms around one of mine, and Shai’en sticking unnecessarily close to me on the other side, I receive double the jealous stares as I normally would. Ignoring the surrounding hatred being directed at me, I open my player menu while walking.

  I bring up the ‘Nightingale Helmet’ I have in the auction. I am pleasantly surprised to see the current bid for the item is a little over a $1,000. With four days left on the auction and approximately five thousand watchers, a giddy feeling sits in my stomach when I think about how much this helmet will go for.

  Two thousand? Three thousand?

  When I sold the ‘Old Bronyx Plate Armour’, and the ‘Meridium Boots of Haste’, they both also had a price jump at the end of their auctions. They eventually ended up selling without a hitch, earning me a massive $2170 together. Although in my opinion, the ‘Old Bronyx Plate Armour’ went for much less than it was truly worth.

  This is completely different from the two items I sold not too long ago. There were countless comments on the auction as well. Most of the comments are from people wondering about the player ‘Lost’. Which server is he on, what is his level, and a few other general questions.

  Not only does the helmet had some desirable effects on it. It is also slightly above the average user level and a heavy armour class, which follows most player’s preference of being a defence specialist. This all means that a large amount of players should naturally desire it.

  This money will be a massive help, as the apple sales I had completely stopped a while after the introduction of the satiety system and the mass influx of food products into the market. Ever since everybody stopped buying the apples, I told PeachStar that she could do whatever she wants with them.

  ‘She probably stopped selling them altogether and just ate them all herself.’ I think to myself in humour.

  I am in desperate need of income right now. Between rent, bills, food, and my game subscription I spend between two and two and a half thousand dollars a month. If I could sell two items worth this much, then I would suddenly start making money. From the $14,000 I had when I sold my car and the money I have made through my game item sales, I have $5,504 left in my account.

  Coming back to reality, I realize I have arrived at a players market. Walking past most of the stalls lining the road, I finally arrive at one that sells light and medium armour. I have not yet had a problem with my low armour rating as I have been able to dodge practically every attack, but how long will that last? Even one strong attack landing on me right now may potentially prove to be fatal.

  The lady running the stall is dressed in a casual clothing made of some sort of coarse material of a medium quality. The clothing clings to her figure, exhibiting her bodily curves while at the same time exposing a large amount of skin. With a red piece of fabric tying her black hair behind her head into a ponytail, she gives me a strange look as she notices the two women standing behind me.

  “Is there anything I can help you with today, sir?”

  “Oh, don’t mind me,” I say in a dry voice, ignoring her petty sales technique of using her looks to attract customers. “I will let you know if I decide on anything.”

  I browse the goods for some time, bringing up the item information on more than a few pieces of light armour.

  “I will take these three. How much will it be?” I hold up a grey piece of torso armour that even covers my shoulders, a fire red pair of leather plated greaves, and a thick pair of azure boots.

  Her smile falters momentarily as she looks between the equipment and me.

  “Are you sure, you will look rather strange with all these different colours on you.”

  I can tell by what she is wearing, that this player is someone who likes to choose things from a fashion point of view.

  “It doesn’t matter. How much?”

  “It will be 590 gold.” She speaks while bringing out an innocent business smile.

  I nearly cough up blood after hearing the price. My current money is only 612 gold, so this will take away practically all of it.

  “I will give you 500 gold,” I try to barter with her and bring that enormous price down.

  “590 gold.” She says in the same voice.

  “How about 550 gold?”

  “590 gold. Take it or leave it.”

  “570 gold.” With a good deal of irritation in my voice, I offer her just slightly under her price.

  “600 gold. The extra is for wasting my time.” Her smile is exactly the same. Only, I can now feel a ruthless chill in her voice.

  “Fine, 590 gold.”

  “600 gold.”

  “I will go elsewhere!” I say in outrage. There is no way I am going to let myself get ripped off like this.

  I walk away from the stall and down start looking at the stalls further down the road. I look over a lot of stalls, yet none of them sell light armour. There is lots of heavy armour, and even a few with medium armour. There is not a single stall in this street that has the least popular type of armour, light armour.

  I contact Mouse through my friends list, as I know he definitely sells light armour. Only, apparently he isn’t running his stall today as he is out collecting crafting materials, and will probably be doing so for the next few days.

  I head back to the first stall, where the girl selling the light armour gave me another cold look.

  “600 gold.” I say while feeling bitter inside.

  “610 gold, now you’ve wasted even more of my time.” She give me a merciless smile.

  I don’t try to barter anymore, immediately handing over the money to her in defeat. She then passes over the armour peacefully, which I immediately equip.

  Silverhusk Plate Armour

  An armour expertly crafted from the petrified bark of the silverhusk tree. It is extremely hard and can deflect most bladed edges.

  The material received a lesser blessing of the earth and imbues the strength of the earth on the wearer.

  Requirements:

  - Level 82

  - Str 29

  - Dex 35

  - Agi 47

  Armour Type: Light(Silverhusk)

  Defence: 63

  Durability: 47/47

  Weight: 19 lbs

  Abilities:

  - Cutting Resistance: +5%

  - Impact Resistance: -5%

  Fiery Leather Plated Greaves

  Greaves made from overlapping leather plates. The leather came from a fire breathing lizard so it naturally contains the creatures fire resistance attributes.

  Requirements:

  - Level 56

  - Dex 34

  Armour Type: Light(Leather)

  Defence: 16

  Durability: 32/32

  Weight: 2.9lbs

  Abilities:

  - Flame Resistance: 9%

  Azure Hide Boots

  Boots made from the fur of an Ice Boar. The fur has a strong resistance against ice and fire, but has been known to cause people to get cold toes.

  Requirements:

  - Level 59

  - Dex 3
1

  Armour Type: Hide(Light)

  Defence: 15

  Durability: 38/38

  Weight: 2.4lbs

  Abilities:

  - Fire resistance: 5%

  - Ice resistance: 5%

  Of course I am not even remotely concerned with the different colours of each piece of armour. Once it is equipped by me, it unsurprisingly all turns to different shades of white. From a fashion sense, yes, it looked good, but it was still a little annoying.

  Each piece of armour I bought only has an orange border, meaning they are of the ‘rare’ rarity. While not being anything overly special, it is still quite good for player crafted items.

  I miserably jingle my now good for nothing money pouch, hearing the only two gold coins left clink together.

  Without enough money to restock my medicinal herbs, I will have to take the time to collect them as we travel.

  I spend some time with the wolf girl and the elf now that I have everything done and are just waiting on the two brothers to finish their preparations. In the spare time, I try my luck at visiting one of the nearby parks in hopes of managing to collect some medicinal herbs. There is no disappointment when I get there and it is as packed as ever. It is to be expected after all.

  ‘Lost we are done now and waiting for you at the east gate.’ Mason’s voice enters my head.

  ‘Okay, we will meet you there,” I respond to him rather quick. Informing the other two with me that we are now heading out.

  It only makes sense we meet and leave by the east gate, rather than the north. It would take about half a day to walk to the north gate, and the northern forest we have to go to is technically slightly to the east as well.

  I finally get to the east gate and see the others waiting just off to the side.

  “I trust you are all ready by now. As you should already know, this is going to be extremely difficult. But, they do always say the greater the risk, the greater the reward.” I state to everyone again in a calm way, only effectively giving them half the morale I had hoped to provide.

  “Indeed, I feel the same. Plus, this next video should be amazing.”

  “Oh? how much are you recording?” I ask curiously, somewhat concerned over revealing the innkeeper’s wife’s secret of being an elf to the player community.

  “Just the trip to the elvish capital and the liberation.”

  I nod my head in approval. Considering the legendary rarity of the quest and the fact that it will be revealing the existence of the elves, surely his video will garner a lot of attention.

  With me leading the way, we blend into the groups of players all leaving the city. Once everyone leaves the gates, they all head off in their own directions. At the same time, all the male and female players happily gossip to one another and some even form new parties.

  Ahead of us, travelling to the north are three parties and about ten solo players. Each and every one of them are still below level fifty.

  I stop dead in my tracks and my eyes widen as soon as we reach the grasslands. Throughout the short cut grass and sparse low rolling hills, as far as the eye can see there are hundreds, no, thousands of players in this one area.

  “W-what the hell is this?! It wasn’t like this just yesterday!” I cry out in surprise while Mason only chuckles at my shock.

  “You should know that today in real life is Saturday, the first day of the weekend, right? Well, there are a lot of End Online players who have full time jobs so the weekend is really the only time they get to properly play. Not everyone is fortunate to have wealthy parents who can support them while they play whenever they want.”

  “I see, I see.”

  That must mean that every single weekend, the games suffers a massive influx of players coming online.

  Putting aside the shocking number of players in front of me, I start heading through the area towards the forest where the elvish community used to reside. I make sure to try and weave through the players in such a way to prevent as many of the enemies they are fighting from being aggravated towards me.

  With minimal encounters against enemies and slow progress through the grasslands, we finally arrive at the forest.

  “Shai’en, does this forest have a name?” I ask curiously as we enter.

  “It does, but it can’t be spoken in the human tongue. It can only be spoken with the voice of nature.”

  ‘What the heck is the voice of nature? Well, I take it that is just your way of saying that it doesn’t have any specific name.’ I think deeply about what I should call it.

  “Why don’t I just call it the ‘Eldenweiss Forest’?”

  “If that suits you.”

  I stop in my tracks as I suddenly feel a strong foreboding. Sweat trickles down my back while I glance through the trees all around me. Apart from the wind rustling the branches above me, I can also hear a faint whistling sound.

  Before I have a chance to react, my balance is lost as an arrow suddenly appears in my shoulder with a tingling sensation. Being a sneak attack, it is an automatic critical strike which takes off nearly a third of my entire health.

  ‘How frightening! If I hadn’t just bought all new armour, that would have done a lot more damage!’

  “We’re under attack! Mason, Matrix, you protect Shai’en. Fen, you help me fend them off.” I call out to the others behind me who immediately move into position. The brother ready their weapons while moving closer to the elf. At the same time, Fen get’s real close to me while searching the surroundings.

  Another few arrows come flying through the trees from the front and Fen stamps her foot on the ground, causing a narrow shield of ice to rise in front of us. The shield shortly cracks and crumbles as a heavy barrage of arrows hits it.

  Coming out of the trees, is a familiar blonde haired man in a strange suit of silver armour. In one hand he holds a large kite shield while the other has a crimson red longsword in it.

  “Lost, wasn’t it?” The man asks with a cruel smile. “You caused me quite the problem a while back.”

  Almost like a veil of mist dispersing in my mind, I finally recall who he is.

  “Chronix, as I recall, you have no reason to chase me. Not for just running away from your extortion.”

  “If it was just you refusing to pay your dues. No, I would not bother travelling this far for revenge. But you, that girl, the knight and the wolf made a fool of me which is absolutely unforgivable.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  I am getting a little nervous. I know just how high this player’s level is, and it is somewhere around 250.”

  “Speaking of which, where are the others. None of them seem to be around. Did you lose that massive wolf pet of yours too?”

  “It’s none of your business!” I growl at him.

  “Anyway, enough of the small talk. I will now be sending you all the way back to Iceridge where I will see you again, and repeatedly kill you until you quit the game.” The fake smile on his face completely disappears as he makes a circular waving signal with his sword in the air.

  A few bushes around us rustle and the sound of twigs snapping echoes from all directions as nearly thirty players surround us.

  “These people aren’t particularly strong. As a matter of fact, their levels should be even lower than yours. But they have me and a lot more numbers. Say your farewells quick, as that is all the time you will get!” Chronix roars at us.

  “Mason! Matrix! Take Shai’en and break out through the rear. Fen, get ready to flee!” I bark out orders as fast as I can think. The two NPC’s are the only two people we cannot let die.

  “No!” Fen shouts next to me while giving me a stubborn look.

  Letting out a sigh I charge forward at the same time as the brothers lead the elf to break through the rear of the encirclement.

  I leave an afterimage behind as rather than attacking Chronix, I aim for the two archers standing a little behind him. The leader himself still doesn’t attack, clearly waiti
ng for me to attack him first so he can kill me without getting a player killer’s status.

  All the attackers eyes widen in surprise as their arrows, emanating a fleeting yellow colour, pass right through my body and disperse it like it was made of mist. They may have used sacred arts that aid in the guidance of their arrows, but they can only aim at my after image in the end.

  I cover the ground between us in seconds, flashing my twin blades mercilessly at their throats and causing large critical hits that take away nearly half their health each. Damage dealt to players is a lot less than what is done to monsters, but using my speed to negate an opponent’s defensive rating with my attacks still works at 100 percent efficiency.

  Fen sends down a barrage of ice bolts on a few swordsmen who try flanking me while I finish off the two archers before moving onto them. In mere moments, five of the enemy are dead.

  ‘That’s strange, isn’t his guild supposed to only have high level players. These people are rather weak.’

  “NO!” I cry out at seeing the situation with the other members. Matrix and Shai’en managed to escape the encirclement and are now currently running as fast as they can, Matrix carrying the elf princess styles as she was a bit slow by herself. But Mason, had been trapped by the enemy and is now currently on his knees, his health plummeting at a drastic rate.

  Only fifty meters away from me, I see Mason die to the onslaught of about ten players.

  This isn’t good, not for the fact that Mason died, he can revive back in town. But Matrix carrying the elf can’t possibly outrun ten players. Chronix knows this as well, changing his current frown over his sides losses to a look of glee.

  “Hurry, you ten go slaughter them before they get too far away. We will only have these two here left over after that.”

  I am currently facing another fifteen of these weaklings and one Chronix. Seeing how difficult I am to fight, the silver armoured man also readies his sword, clearly not caring about getting a player killer status anymore.

  “Fen, retreat. Go to the others and help them escape.” I speak quietly in a commanding tone at the wolf girl next to me.

  “No… I do-“

  “Retreat, Fen. I am ordering you to.”