End Online: Volume 1
Page 11
Herbalism (SLvl 3, 37%)
Potion Creation (SLvl 1, 0%)
Hunter's Eyes (SLvl 13, 11%)
Throw (SLvl 1, 0%)
Smithing (SLvl 1, 0%)
Mining (SLvl 1, 0%)
Speed Up (SLvl 11, 97%)
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
Speed Up (SLvl 11, 97%) -Passive
Your years as a child were spent running away from bullies, as a result your body is trained in speed and can move faster.
SLvl 11:
- Movement speed +11.4%
- Agility + 8
Hunter's Eyes (SLvl 13, 11%) -Passive
In the wilderness only two kinds of beast survive, the strong, and the wary. You are of the wary kind, your eyes are capable of picking up the slightest movements and see better in the dark.
SLvl 13:
- Can see further the more proficient the skill
- Can use the sacred art 'Perceptual Sight'
Once ‘Advanced Military Arts’ had reached level twenty it gave more bonus points to stats. ‘Speed Up’ also did the same at level ten. It appears to me that every ten levels a stat will get stronger.
‘Perceptual Sight’ also got stronger. Instead of enhancing my sense so the world moved at ninety percent speed now it was around seventy percent. I could not say exactly due to there was no indication as to how powerful it was, but that is how it feels.
The effects on my body however are even more severe, being slowed down even more from the sacred art leaves me feeling like I’m in limbo.
All my training paid off however, I was ready for the great white wolf.
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I take a step into the den, it was early afternoon with a light snow falling.
Taking a look around my surroundings, I begin to feel a little uneasy. The wolf hasn’t appeared yet. It usually would attacking me the moment I stepped inside of here.
Scanning in between the trees a quick glance causes alarm bells rang in my head. The trees don’t have a single fruit on them. Even if I was here a little early a few of the apples should have regrown at least. It can’t be someone that else beat me here. Firstly, to my knowledge nobody has knowledge of this place, and secondly all the wolves were on the path. But where was the great white wolf.
Creeping up to and inside the outcrop of trees I wander around for a while, no wolf, and no apples. I simply cannot understand what is going on in this place, it is eerily quiet.
Circling the cavern to avoid ambushes from behind, I reach the waterfall and small lake that is located at the other end of the cavern. Might as well sit down and have a break.
Removing the tools for making potions I currently have about sixty medicinal herbs and just as many antidote roots. Firstly I line up the empty vials and fill them with water from the lake, most people have to melt snow or cut into an ice river to make potions down in the south due to the lack of a normal river, how lucky am I.
My ‘Potion Creation’ skill provides a menu of recipes that I have learnt. A minor health potion consisted of two green medicinal herbs, ground up in the mortar and pestle, and mixed into a vial of water.
After making twenty minor health potions, unlike the red health potions in the store, these are not only considerably weaker but also a sickly green colour. It is grotesque enough to turn anyone off potion making.
Weak Minor Healing Potion
A beginner potion anyone could make with or without the correct skills. The colour is a revolting green and you may potentially throw it up.
Requirements:
- Level 1
Item Type: Potion
Health Recovery: 20HP
Recovery Time: 10sec
Weight: 0.1 lbs
It is a horrible potion, but considering the appearance I am at least glad it did not come with negative side effects.
I no longer need the potions as I will never consume these but I need the empty vials, so I tip the contents of the potions out back into the lake. Refilling the vials with water, this time I plan to use the antidote roots, two per potion, exactly the same as the medicinal herbs.
Weak Minor Antidote
A beginner potion anyone could make with or without
the correct skills. The colour looks like instead of
curing poison it could cause it.
Requirements:
- Level 1
Item Type: Potion
Poison Recovery: Minor
Recovery Time: 5sec
Weight: 0.1 lbs
The antidote potions are just as bad, turning out the vile colour of a light brown mushroom. It also was giving of faint toxic fumes, the description says that in five seconds it can cure minor poisons but I have no doubts this potion must be poison all on its own!
Without a second thought these potions also returned to the lake, I feel a little bad for tainting the lake with such vileness but it had to go somewhere. With a final trial of twenty vials of water I closed my recipe window and decided to improvise. Each potion so far has taken two herbs, so following that principle this time I will use one of each to follow the two herbs rule and create something new.
I mixed one green medicinal herb and one antidote root together and then placing it in a vial, put the stopper on the top and gave it a good shake. Slowly it started changing colours, settling on a mix between brown and green, kind of like a swamp.
Yes, this is probably the most revolting one of them all!
A message appears in front of me with the completion of the potion.
You have discovered a new potion!
The recipe will be saved in your recipes menu
Cure Minor Disease
A beginner potion created through experimentation by a novice potion maker, can cure minor diseases and illnesses, can relieve some symptoms of intermediate ones.
Requirements:
- Level 3
Item Type: Potion
Disease Recovery: Minor
Recovery Time: 1hour
Weight: 0.1 lbs
Incredibly enough as I created these potions my skill rises faster than before, I must remember to continue being creative in the future with my skills.
However, once again I have no need for these potions so I pour them back into the lake. My potion creation reached level 5 from all those potions. For some reason though the vials started to shine less and one was cracked.
I head to the centre of the cavern where I recalled the clearing that had a view of the sky. Soon it should be night, providing an excellent view of the stars.
Walking up to the clearing I took two steps in before stopping, dumbfounded.
On the apex of the small hill was an enormous pile of apples, the apples I had considered to be gone. But even more astonishingly was a great white wolf trotting circles around the pile guarding it.
Was it fond of the apples and protecting them from me, the thief who kept taking them? No, wolves are carnivorous so I don’t see why it would. Slowly events in my mind began to click into place.
Starting from my constant collecting of the apples. Ending with the wolf seemingly studying the apples it knocked out of a tree.
With the knowledge of my goal and new found method of collecting the apples, the wolf collected them all into a pile and guarded them, waiting for my return. Especially considering there was no point in escaping to the trees as right now my goal is on the grounds.
The wolf didn’t make any noise, just stood there looking at me, tail wagging slightly...
‘How proud can you be?!’ I shouted in my head.
“Excuse me, Mr Wolf. Would you please let me have those apples?” I had never tried speaking to the wolf before, but I believe right now I need to somehow get those apples. They are my source of income at the moment after all.
The wolf glances at the apples then emanates a low growl facing back towards me, clearly a no.
“Surely there must be some way for you to let me have the
apples. Is there anything I can do for you?”
The wolf stopped as if giving it some consideration before giving a short bark. That must be a yes.
“Hmm what could you possibly want? A scratch behind the ear?”
The beast is stunned at first, but gives a more ferocious growl shortly after, clearly a little angry. If only it could see how much my face was sweating from the pressure.
“Can I give you anything?” I feel the wolf becoming more and more menacing with my incorrect questions. This is incredibly frustrating!
“Well what do you want?! Do you want me to waste my time and play with you or something??” Uh oh, I think I was a bit rash for the situation, I prepare myself for the attack.
The wolf however didn’t bother to make a response, nor did it attack either. It simply lay down on its belly, its massive head between its two front paws, tail gently swaying to and fro.
Unbelievable, that’s what this wolf wants, someone to play with? Well, this could definitely work to my favour, I need to train speed and so far it appears fighting an extremely fast enemy is currently the only way to gain that experience.
“Very well, but I have one condition,” Hold up a finger at the wolf only meters away I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of it biting the finger off, “No claws, and no teeth!”
The wolf brought its nose towards my hips and started growling. Clearly indicating my weapons, I had no problems putting them away in my inventory, but just so the wolf knew I didn’t have them I place them on the ground next to a tree.
Turning around all I saw was a wall of white, and being hit by it I flew backwards, tumbling about five meters from where I started. As I sit up I see the wolf casually licking its paw, at least there were no claws involved and I only lost two percent of my health.
“Hey that was a dirty sneak attack! Tch, striking me when I wasn’t expecting it!” The wolf gave a glare accusing me of being just as sneaky.
“Fine, fine. I did it once in the past too, no need to incriminate me any further,” it was the truth to say that I probably deserved a little bit, I did after all launch that surprise attack from the trees the first time we fought.
To return the favour I dashed at the wolf and threw a fist square with its nose. I nearly hit it too, until a paw came down and flattened me into the ground, squashing my lungs and leaving me gasping for air.
‘Calm, I need a calm mind’ I speak in my head to clear myself of stray thoughts and stop being careless.
A few paws came at me horizontally, even a couple vertically. Calculating each strike in a split second it took all of my agility to dodge them. Under, to the left, backwards, over, these we the only thoughts I have at the moment, nothing else mattered except for this.
Then it came, a slight crouch and it activated its high end speed technique. By focusing my eyes on the wolf and calling “Perceptual Sight” its movements slowed down to seventy percent speed.
There are two ways to activate sacred arts in End. One is to do the action related to the move, like the beginning of a sword’s sacred art. This became a lot harder trying to figure out the action that triggered a sacred art based on sight. The second was just to call out the name, the system although will not activate the skill unless you are intending to activate it, how the VL interpreted the mind to be able to do this only the creators would know.
The wolf, no longer a blur, has a paw swiping down diagonally at me from my right. My movements are incredibly dull due to the side effects of the art, but I spot a small gap underneath the strike, throwing my legs out from under me drop flat on my stomach and narrowly escape the attack.
Getting up however, I was far too slow on, I receive a full twenty two hundred pound pounds of wolf using the momentum of its attack to throw itself shoulder first into the me as I try to get up.
This didn’t do a small amount of damage, it near killed me.
Rolling over the wolf was once again lying down on its stomach, tail wagging even more quickly than ever. Clearly a one sided beat down has put it in a fantastic mood.
Even if our battle was short I had actually managed to improve my agility by one point, proving the theory at the very least of training against harder opponents.
“Okay wolf, that is enough for today. Do you feel like giving me the apples yet.”
No complaints, but the wolf did shuffle sideways to block me from getting to them. Tail still wagging, clearly it wanted to play more before it gave up the payment for my time.
“Come on, I can’t do any more today! Look, I will come tomorrow to play, okay?”
Giving it a little thought, the wolf moved aside and let me by to collect the pile of apples, putting on a sad expression.
“Don’t get like that,” Honestly I was afraid if it got depressed it would just decide to kill me anyway, which would not be good at all, “I will see you tomorrow and we will play more.”
Its tail wagged a few times, showing a slight improvement in mood.
Collecting the apples I wasn’t quite daring enough to get any closer the wolf, but when not in a battle of life and death with it I can admire its magnificent fur. The wolf is whiter than fresh snow and has electric blue eyes that sent shivers up my spine every time I look at them.
For a week in real life I repeated the process of returning to play with the wolf every day, twenty one contests of strength and speed. I could never match the wolf’s strength but each battle I increased my agility, getting a little faster and a little better at dodging attacks. Recently I can last about half an hour before I take too much damage and have to stop, not just due to my total agility being a little over 150 but I have gotten much better at reading the wolves movements and dodging them, even half of its high speed manoeuvres.
When I wasn’t training myself under the pretence of playing with the wolf I often hunted around the city and trained up most of my skills. I got my throwing skill up to level 6 by throwing rocks at wolves, but they were completely useless in terms of dealing any major damage, I could deal a maximum damage equalling twenty percent of their health with a critical strike, but most of the time however I missed altogether.
I spent a nearly all my gold I had saved up on a small portable smelter standing at the height of my knees, it weighs a grand total of 180lbs so once I took it out of my inventory there was no moving it. Smithing in this game was incredibly simple, all the equipment required is smelters of different sizes and grades, an anvil where you selected or design the weapon shape and a hammer to hit the hot ingots until they form the desired product.
All I had to do still was buy the anvil and hammer.
I also purchased a cheap pick but unsurprisingly I had nowhere to mine any ores. They boast you can mine anywhere you like but if you choose the wrong spot you can dig for days and receive nothing.
‘Potion Creation’ and ‘Herbalism’ both reached level 9, whilst I didn’t have any fresh running water I could use some low quality sticks lying around to start a little fire in the furnace and melt snow into water.
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“You’re pretty good, I am possibly right now the fastest player in the game, nobody has trained their speed as well as I have.”
The wolf snorted as if making fun of me and my speed. Its true, if I was to remove this hood my speed would double. Even right now my speed is quite monstrous, I can cover a hundred meter distance in about four seconds, even running along walls for short distances of up to seven meters was possible.
The issue though, is that the wolf also appeared to be getting stronger as well. The speed gap between us was rapidly closing, but there is no changing the fact the wolf is becoming more powerful. I almost feel sorry for the next player to discover this cave.
To begin today’s battle I decide to make the first strike, closing the distance in a second I send a kick into the side of one of its legs, hindering its movements momentarily.
Half a second later it return an attack with its
other leg, but I am easily fast enough to jump back and avoid the blow. What came next was new though, two large icicles, each the size of one of my arms, crackle through the air directly at me.
I dodge one of them, but the second icicle pierces through my shoulder, throwing me off balance and taking a good third of my health away. This damage was with the forty percent ice resistance my cloak gives me, showing me just how powerful of an attack it was.
Throwing my eyesight along the tree line I look for the interloper, someone else finding this cave isn’t so farfetched so it is the natural conclusion.
What I wasn’t expecting however is for three more icicles to materialize and take form in the air, aiming at me. Even more surprisingly was they are forming around the wolf, its eyes glowing slightly brighter than they naturally do.
The three icicles triangulated my position and attacked in one fluid motion. The only way to escape was the activation of perceptual sight. With ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ now at level 17 the speed decrease was considerable.
Taking the only escape I retreat backwards, avoiding the two that are coming at me from an angle. There is one more missile incoming directly in front of me that I attempt to get out of the way by moving to the side but it was too late, it strikes me directly in the chest. Shaving off a large portion of my health and leaving me flat on my back.
‘What the hell was that? The wolf is definitely getting stronger, but now using magic?’ I think about whether it could always use magic or if it was recently discovered. Either way, the power gap between the two of us has all of a sudden widened again, incredibly frustrating.
The wolf strolls over and looks down at me, eyes gloating. Once again I am back to lasting less than an instant. At least it is nice enough to collect the apples for me every time they regrow.
“I give up, you’re clearly stronger than me. That is enough for today, but have you always been able to use magic?!” It doesn’t even pay my question any attention, “Well, I guess even you have things you won’t talk about.”