End Online: Volume 1
Page 4
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I woke up at the bottom of a large set of stairs with a splitting headache. In front of me was a little street lined with what appeared to be residential houses, quickly leading into an incredible courtyard.
A large round pond sprouting a fountain seven meters high sat in the middle, the temperature having frozen it solid, crystallized in motion. Surrounding the courtyard are various shops, everything an adventurer could need from potions to weapons and armour.
Patches of snow covered most of the cobblestone roads, people walking around in various thick coats and armours, clearly the central area for players both buying and selling supplies.
Behind me the staircase led up a snowy hill to a church on a platform at the very top, the same church I was just at not too long ago.
‘Did he throw me down the stairs??’
Storming back up the stairs it only takes a minute to get up to the top, but when I get there the old man is nowhere to be seen. I search around for a bit but he had just disappeared from all existence.
Dropping my anger at someone who wasn’t even around anymore, I notice a small red bar at the top of my vision that was a little over ten percent full. Opening my status, surely enough it had been updated to now have my health and also my new... Name.
Name: Lost
Health: 13/100
Lvl: 1
Lvl UP: 0%
Str: 10
Agi: 10
Dex: 10
Int: 10
Mnd: 10
Lck: 10
Fame/Infamy: 0
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
Aggravation (SLvl 1, 0%)
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
‘What the heck? Lost? He knocked me out and auto assigned me a name because I… Lost?’
That joke isn’t even funny, wasn’t the old man supposed to be an NPC? How can he simply decide on a name for me? Inspecting my new status that wasn’t all that was new, I also had a new skill equipped that I have no memory of.
Clicking on it brought up the description.
Aggravation (SLvl 1, 0%) –Passive
People you interact with will naturally be more hostile to
you and monsters will also be more inclined to attack you.
SLvl 3:
- 10% less intimacy with NPC's.
- 5% chance every 30sec nearby monsters will get the 'Agro'
status towards you for 2min.
- This ability is Soul Bound, cannot be unequipped.
This had to be the biggest nonsense so far! And to make it worse I could not even unequip it! There really wasn’t any point dwelling on this but it was just so incredibly frustrating.
I start to trudge my legs into the courtyard where all the business appears to be. I still have no money but I came to what appeared to be a blacksmith shop specializing in weapons.
Inside is a large myriad of weapons spread out all around the shop, crates of cheap inefficient weapons were spread out with prices ranging from and astonishing two silver coins per weapon, all the way up to seventy silver.
Hanging along the walls were the better weapons, with nothing under two gold, which while I normally wouldn’t consider that expensive, I don’t know how hard it is to obtain gold in this game.
First, I need to find a few quests to earn money, I’ve played these types of games before and the best way to earn some money at the beginning is to do some quests. The blacksmith who owned the store was patiently waiting behind the counter to do business. He stood a full head taller than me with long overflowing hair dropping down around his shoulders, the sweaty appearance of which helping him give off quite an intimidating presence.
“Good morning, I was wondering if you have any quests I can help you with?” I ask the blacksmith.
“Pard’n, what do ya’ mean by quest?” He genuinely seems puzzled.
“You know, you ask me to do something and offer me money as a reward for doing such a task.”
“I don’t have any requests at the moment, especially not to the likes of you.” Scowling down at me I wonder if this is possibly the effect of my aggravation skill, he seemed to considerably dislike me.
Not letting it get to me I try some of the other stores around and it all ends up the same, they all end up snubbing me off like I was vermin. I try every possible approach ranging from subtleness to straight up flattery. In the end a few even demanded I leave their shops.
By the end of trying every store in the main courtyard I began to catch some whispers of other players talking about me.
“Have a look at that guy over there, how pathetic.”
“Hey, what’s with that delinquent stalking all the shops? Is he looking to shake up a few low level players or something?”
“Just used a basic insight spell on him, his name is Lost and he’s still lvl 1, acting all mighty when he’s still a noob himself.”
All these people are judging me already, I’m doing my best to be friendly but somehow they all have the wrong impression of me. NPC’s are getting even more unfriendly as well thanks to my aggravation skill getting experience and becoming stronger from just talking to NPC’s, it has levelled up twice already.
Aggravation (SLvl 3, 21%) –Passive
People you interact with will naturally be more hostile to
you and monsters will also be more inclined to attack you.
SLvl 3:
- 12% less intimacy with NPC's.
- 8% chance every 30sec nearby monsters will get the 'Agro'
status towards you for 2min.
- This ability is Soul Bound, cannot be unequipped.
In one hour the sun seems to have travelled a quarter across the sky to noon, revealing the scale of what should be three days in the game to be the equivalent to one day outside the game.
There was not much for me to do around the town anymore. Using the sun as a guide, I started to head north towards one of the city’s gates. I have no weapon, clothing that has next to no defence value, and no skills apart from one that may potentially cause monsters to chase me to the end of the world.
Outside of Iceridge the landscape had a lot more snow covering it, a few small hills sprawled around with trees breaking through the snow at irregular intervals. Somewhere under this snow there should be roads helping players travel to other towns, but they were well covered at the moment.
Walking over a nearby hill I found a large hunting ground of dark grey wolves where players were diligently fighting them amongst the trees. Most players were in groups of two or three, although there were some solo players amongst them. One thing they all had in common however were that they had weapons and armour. Swords, axes, spears, I even saw a few clubs, very basic equipment mainly, but they all had things I was lacking.
Was there something I’m not aware about? Did I go wrong somewhere? I bet this is the result of that stubborn guide.
Figuring there is nothing to lose as I can’t possibly lose experience when I don’t have any I close in on the area where the players are. A wolf comes out from behind a tree and spots me, immediately running at me and pouncing with its open jaws targeting my throat.
‘It’s aiming for the neck, too predictable.’ A quick sidestep and it passes straight by me. Turning around to counter attack I was astounded at how quick it recovered, twisting its body upon landing and jumping straight back at me to launch a second attack.
Without enough time to dodge I blocked its jaws with my arm. It was lucky my health had recovered by the time I left Iceridge, yet even while avoiding any critical damage it still took my health down by nearly a quarter. The wolf landed nearby and took its time with its next attack, as if to gloat an
d show its dominance.
As it began another attack, this time swiping my ankles with its paws, I threw a punch and managed to connect with its head, although the unexpected attack by the wolf did take off a further ten percent of my health. The wolf’s health bar became visible to me upon dealing damage to it, even if it appeared to be minimal.
I slowly get better at predicting and avoiding its attacks, following by counter-attacking with my fists.
By the end of the battle my health had about fifteen percent remaining, flashing red at the top of my vision, but one fortunate evasive manoeuvre followed by a powerful kick to the wolf’s side was enough to finish off.
It turns out the lower your health is the more fatigued you feel, this made the latter half of the fight quite difficult as I began to move slower and had a harder time avoiding its attacks. What a truly realistic effect the game has, considering who would be able to fight in perfect condition when you are nearly dead.
A loot menu appeared above where the wolf died, conveniently situated at the same height as my eye level. Inspecting the menu I looted wolf meat and a wolf paw, which strangely had an attack value, albeit being completely useless. Closing the loot menu, the corpse to turned into mist and dissipated.
Grey Wolf Paw
The paw of a wolf which the claws are still attached,
can be used as a weapon. It can not be repaired and
is considered to be of extremely low value.
Weapon Type: Special/Slashing
Attack: 2 - 5 physical
Durability: 11/15
Weight: 1.8 lbs
“Did you just see that? The way he kicked that wolf, someone needs to call animal protection. That was just too cruel.”
“I know, and he looks like he’s enjoying it far too much.”
I cried inside at hearing the whispers of some of the players around me. I’m sorry I don’t have any money or a weapon! It wasn’t my choice and none of the NPC’s in the city are willing to give me a quest to earn some money!
That moment, three wolves that some of the player parties were currently fighting suddenly broke off and started running in my direction. There were also a few players chasing them who were cursing at me and yelling about respect and not using taunting skills to disrupt other people’s hunting. Oh no, this must be my aggravation skill.
With my health still flashing red, there was really no other option than to run. It may have felt a lot longer than it was but the wolves manoeuvred much better than myself on the snow, shortly catching up to me and the resulting battle was even shorter.
I died.
For the next two minutes I sat in limbo where I had died, assuming this was the method that allowed other players to revive you shortly after death. Once the fog came and respawned me in the church where I originally started the game I checked my status to see if I lost all the experience I got from the one wolf or if I lost a percentage.
Name: Lost
Health: 100/100
Lvl: 1
Lvl UP: 13%
Str: 9
Agi: 9
Dex: 9
Int: 9
Mnd: 9
Lck: 9
Fame/Infamy: 0
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
Aggravation (SLvl 3, 56%)
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
I didn’t lose any experience… But I did lose stat points! That’s quite serious. Death is not to be taken lightly!
All this is that horrid skills fault, luring three wolves to attack me. However for an eight percent chance of luring one wolf, the percent of taunting three at once was only a fraction of a percent, surely it couldn’t happen again.
Putting progress aside for a moment I decide to log out for the time being.
Back in my locker I utilize the control panel to adjust my avatar so I am no longer naked. There were a lot of options for clothing in the menu, and there was also the choice to have the appearance of Lost, my game character. The choice there after was quite simple as I went with my appearance from End Online.
I decided not to go into the options I found for customizing my locker and pressed the “Leave Virtual Reality” option.
Opening my eyes and removing my V-Link from my head, the transition between the white locker and my dark bedroom lit only by a street lamp through the window made me a little queasy but it passed over quickly.
The inability to once again move my legs left me feeling cold inside, gripping my bed sheet in my hands as I prop myself up into a sitting position. I couldn’t hold on for long however, I have been feeling far too emotionally exhausted lately, leaving me completely empty.
Getting in to my wheelchair and moving over to my computer, the time was 1:17am when it had started up.
A quick search on the internet revealed a player created wiki for End Online, exactly what I was looking for. Browsing over the site, there were a lot of speculations on how certain aspects of the game worked, like dungeon bosses and the skill system.
What I wanted though was the guide for new players starting out. It described leaving the church and the guide who blockades your path until he is done with you, although this is where things differ from what happened to me.
The more I read the more the anger filled the void inside of me. Apparently once you tell him the name you have chosen for yourself, as long as nobody has already chosen that name, he will give you a starting allowance of two gold and allow you to choose any six of the basic skills available.
I’ve been completely ripped off! I’m going to snap that old man’s staff in two like a twig!
There was a lot more information on skills along with all the description and stat boosts, current recommended builds and some skills that complement one another. I was also interested in finding out that once you are level 20 and higher you can purchase any number of new basic skills from the church at any of the starter cities for the appropriate cost in your experience levels.
Although, you could only purchase up to a maximum of ten skills.
1st Skill - 1 Lvl
2nd Skill - 1 Lvls
3rd Skill - 2 Lvls
4th Skill - 3 Lvls
5th Skill - 3 Lvls
6th Skill - 4 Lvls
7th Skill - 4 Lvls
8th Skill - 4 Lvls
9th Skill - 5 Lvls
10th Slill - 5 Lvls
I was lucky that purchasing skills was not the only way to acquire them, they can also be earned through specific quests or player achievements, saving me from having to spend twenty five levels just to equip the maximum nine skills.
Your level in the game only affects you maximum health points, mana, and stamina too which was rather interesting. Although in order to have stamina for sacred arts and mana for magic you needed the fighting prowess and magic force effects from equipped skills.
I also learned about sacred arts, weapon attack skills that the system assisted you in executing and did much higher damage than casual attacks. To learn them you need to perform the attack a high enough skill and it will be discovered as a sacred art. Most people learnt them off of trainers or other players usually
You also need the appropriate proficiency skill for you weapon equipped and to use sacred arts. While you can technically equip any weapon given you meet the required stats, if you don’t have any form of proficiency in that weapon type you will only deal half the damage and be incapable of using sacred arts.
Your stat points naturally increase the more you play and do actions related to them, this means someone who is always fighting with sword and shield will naturally have a higher strength and dexterity stats. Death is also horrifying in the game as the penalty is a permanent loss of stats.
I
noticed two other interesting things about skills, there are some that will “Skill Up”, as it is called. When a certain skill reaches a high enough level and sometimes relying on other criteria too, there will be the option for a skill to “Skill Up” into a new skill, overwriting the original skill and resetting it back to skill level one. You don’t have to “Skill Up” and the option to do so will forever remain available on the skill, sword proficiency has been recorded to turn into specializations of one-handed swords, two-handed swords, piercing weapons, and exotic weapons.
Secondly my skill ‘Aggravation’, was not listed on this site, and not a single skill I saw was soul bound and could not be unequipped. I did consider myself a special and unique player for a bit but to be honest it was far more trouble than it was worth.
I decided that tomorrow I would try out some of the information I found on the site, particularly about a barracks in Iceridge where you could obtain a skill called “Military Arts”, a skill which gave you a damage bonus and access to a few unique sacred arts! All you had to do was endure a fitness and combat course that is supposed to take a week to complete.
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The next morning I had an incredibly sore back, mainly a side effect from no longer rolling around in my sleep and my muscles stiffening in place. I slept until mid-morning, Joelle and Shari had already left for school, but this is what happens when I go to bed so late. They seem to have gotten a little more independent since I was in the hospital, but I still worry that they have never brought any of their friends around. Were they embarrassed that we live in a lower district than everyone else, or perhaps they were embarrassed of me? I don’t know the reason but they have also never gone to their friend’s home either, they are always home by 4:00pm without fail.
Breakfast was easy, I just took some of last night’s pizza out of the fridge and had that, not even reheating it. A little unhealthy, but nothing beats the occasional cold pizza in the morning.