by D Wolfin
“You know, I don’t even know what to call you.” The wolf gets comfortable with its head laying on the grass next to me who is still stranded like a turtle. The wolf is incredibly close to me, all I have to do is reach out my hand and I will be able to touch it.
“How about Fen? That seems like a good name.” I didn’t hear any complaints so I guess Fen accepts the new name. It was my natural choice considering I had heard originally that the great white wolf was supposed to be related to the great wolf Fenrir.
“It’s a strong name, such a powerful male like you should be proud of it,” Also no growls or displeased noises, I must have successfully guessed the correct gender of Fen.
All of a sudden a stalactite of ice larger than any before impales itself in the ground inches away from my head, close enough that I can feel the cold aura emanating from it.
“What I-I mean,” Oops, I stuttered, “Is that any powerful male would be proud to just know someone with such a strong name.” Rewording what I said as if I made a mistake, Fen appears to be somewhat content.
Moving slightly away from the pillar of ice impaled next to me, I bumped into Fen. A cold sweat broke out on my face while considering the implications of being so close to such a dangerous beast. Fortunately she has her eyes, opening one to glance at my presence that got closer, but shortly closing it again and returning to resting.
The feel of her fur is amazing, I sneakily run a hand through it over her shoulder. It feels like waves of silk yet at the same time is has an incredible tensile strength and is easy to hold onto.
I pretend to be asleep, or dead depending on how you look at it, until I hear what sounds like some form of snoring. Deeming it to be safe to escape, I creep away towards my weapons to collect them on the way out.
With a slight cracking in the air a solid line of what I have decided to call ‘Ice bolts’ cuts off my route. Slowly turning around Fen has raised her large head off the ground slightly and turned it to give me a prosecuting glare.
I slowly walk back and sit down next to her, resting my back against her body and staring through the hole in the cavern roof at the stars the littered this winter night sky. I stayed in this position all night, wide awake.
Two weeks, everyday returning to train with Fen, often even more than once time a day. Fortunately for me there were no more overnight detainments, perhaps due to how often I came to see Fen. My agility continues to rise at a fast pace as well, and with the new found ice attacks my mind stat rose a bit.
A few of my skills rose over level 30 which provided even better stat bonuses, and once ‘Speed Boost’ reached level 30 as well I got a message when I finished combat with some stray wolves.
Speed Boost has reached level 30
Prerequisites met:
Agility: 50
Dexterity 30
Would you like to upgrade 'Speed Boost' into 'High Speed'?
Yes / No
I decide to press yes, it was currently giving me a 17% boost in movement speed but I open my status to check the new skill and current status.
Name: Lost
Health: 214/366
Stamina: 135/161
Lvl: 28
Lvl UP: 12%
Str: 50 +10
Agi: 172 +21
Dex: 45 +20
Int: 9
Mnd: 39
Lck: 16
Fame/Infamy: 0
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
Aggravation (SLvl 31, 12%)
Advanced Military Arts (SLvl 30, 26%)
Herbalism (SLvl 12, 5%)
Potion Creation (SLvl 11, 68%)
Hunter's Eyes (SLvl 21, 61%)
Throw (SLvl 8, 15%)
Smithing (SLvl 1, 0%)
Mining (SLvl 1, 0%)
High Speed (SLvl 1, 0%)
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
High Speed (SLvl 1, 0%) -Passive
Your years as a child were spent running away from the bigger kids, as a result your body is trained in speed and can move faster.
SLvl 1:
- Movement speed +5%
- Attack speed +3%
- Agility + 9
It was a shame I lost some of my movement speed, but at the same time I gained an attack speed bonus and the starting agility bonus is a lot higher than it was with ‘Speed Up’.
The sacred art ‘Perceptual Sight’ also upgraded slightly from ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ reaching level 20. If I choose so, I can now end the sacred art early instead of having to wait the full sixty seconds, a completely lifesaver considering I only ever require it for short moments and the rest of the time it is a hindrance.
I have also been able to move better under its effects with my agility increasing, I can currently move at a speed thrice as fast as a normal person. That is with a fifty percent restriction from my cloak and then everything slowed down by around sixty five percent.
Enchantments and status effects also operate in layers I slowly gained this knowledge through some odd trial and error. Under the assumption that my normal speed would be one hundred points. First skills are applied, ‘High Speed’ currently giving a five percent bonus giving me one hundred and five points in speed. Second is the equipment, my cloak halving that total to fifty two and a half points in speed, and lastly status effects are applied, such as the time slow. This takes what I have estimated to be around sixty five percent, leaving my speed at around thirty four points of speed.
There has been another new development during this time too. About a week ago I started to feel the presence of somebody watching me, following me wherever I went. I’ve turned around countless times, yet there was never anybody there, even in one of the great expanses of snow to the east of the city where there was nowhere to hide.
There was one evening in the cave I felt the presence. No doubt Fen would have noticed as well if not for her single minded pursuit of me through the trees.
I discovered fighting amongst the trees was fantastic for combating the ice bolts Fen shot off from time to time. All I had to do was time my speed right and the ice bolts would find their target to suddenly be a tree, I learnt this technique of throwing projectile targets with Centurion Markus and his ridiculous rock throwing.
Today’s battle was relatively short compared to most. My speed was the same as Fen’s so there wasn’t much of an improvement any more when fought. Even Fen no longer seeming to get any stronger, but I felt bad about just leaving her. I was no longer terrified by the wolf, I had somewhat come to like her, albeit still a little cautious when within swatting distance of her paws.
“Let’s leave it at that for today, we are both a little tired from that,” Not physically, you only felt physical exhaustion as your health dropped, but moving and fighting at such a high speed was extremely draining on the mind and your reflexes.
Just running in itself will never exhaust a player, I read online that they were planning on altering this with an update coming next month, but the details of the patch were never announced.
“I will race you back to the Green Parade!” Yes, I named that small hill in the centre of the cavern, I spent enough time there I may as well.
Racing through the trees I had the advantage of manoeuvrability through the trees being smaller, but Fen was no slacker, twisting her enormous body around the trees, she somehow manages to keep up with me.
Getting back to the clearing with the hill I head over to a nearby tree around the rim that I left my weapons and money pouch. Yes, I took off my money pouch, while they technically weigh nothing I find that when it is not hanging off my belt I can move slightly faster and move around easier.
‘Huh, that’s odd, where are they?’ A little puzzled about where my stuff was I searched another few areas around the trees. ‘Well, at least that annoying presence following me seems to be gone.’
Of course.. I face upwards and let out a hearty laugh, ‘I’m going to murder whoever
took my stuff!’
***************************************************
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-Verde-
My name is Verity Lee, 20 years of age. However in End Online my character is only known as Verde. Due to being stuck with the looks we have in real life in the game I am incredibly beautiful, I would be ignorant to say I wasn’t.
With mahogany hair flowing half way down my chest, a face of the most perfect lines and not a single flaw. I broke the hearts of every man around me and I know it.
Unfortunately I had to use a hood to hide as much of my face as I could. My father is completely oblivious to me playing this game and if he ever found out my VL would be confiscated, no questions asked. Therefore if anybody who knew me in real life spotted me in the game and my father found out then it would be all over, I even picked the frozen south east where only ten percent of players start.
However due to my incredible looks there are a lot of people that approached me and were offering me free goods. I even had a few requests to join some guilds, there were very few guilds in the game so far and receiving an invite was said to be an honour but honestly it was more of a pain than anything. In this game I didn’t want to be given anything, ironically I had made my character with stealth skills useful for stealing things.
I was an impressive level 72 and even managed to unlock a blue bordered, unique class skill.
Name: Verde
Health: 894/894
Stamina: 230/230
Lvl: 72
Lvl UP: 35%
Str: 44
Agi: 57 +15
Dex: 62 +30
Int: 16
Mnd: 45
Lck: 31
Fame/Infamy: -320
Alignment: -200
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
Class skill: Thief (SLvl 11, 12%)
[Unavailable]
Archery (SLvl 24, 12%)
Eagle Eye (SLvl 33, 25%)
Dexterity Boost (SLvl 7, 67%)
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
Class Skill: Thief (SLvl 11, 12%) - Passive
A dweller of the shadows, through your life of hands in other people’s pockets and selling stolen goods you have gained an understanding of the night, and are able to slip of peoples sight without notice.
SLvl 11:
- Fighting Prowess
- Dagger proficiency
- Dagger damage bonus 2.3 X base damage
- Short sword proficiency
- Short sword damage bonus 1.7 X base damage
- Cannot equip heavy armour
- 50% penalty on medium armour
- +15 Agility.
- +25 Dexterity.
- Movement Speed +10%
- Can steal any gold or jewellery, even from pockets and fingers, be cautious not to get caught however.
- Can use the sacred art 'Perceptual Sight'
- Can use the sacred art 'Critical Strike'
- Cam use the sacred art 'Flurry'
Bonus:
- During night skills are increased by 10%
- Ability to fade into crowds and surroundings, causing all eyes to naturally not look at you. A discerning eye may still spot you, entering combat or being caught stealing will also break the effect.
The class skill of the thief was incredibly useful, being able to slip out of sight without anybody noticing was the best skill a thief can have. It also cost nothing and could be used as much as I like. The knight class skill was only of ordinary rarity and didn’t even have any bonuses.
A while into the game I met an incredibly strange man. He called himself Sir Laurence, quite a tall man. He had this wavy golden hair and equipped a full set of highly polished steel heavy armour, long sword, and a large steel kite shield.
I can’t remember when he started following me around, but he seemed to treat me like some kind of princess, fending off any people that got too close. He was a massive pain, but at the same time being a thief I was on the low end for defence and not only was he was well equipped but also prepared to take every blow that came my way, so I didn’t say anything.
I kept stealing his pouches of gold at first, but after his embarrassing, “Heroes don’t need gold,” I couldn’t bring myself to keep doing it.
Another interesting person I met was a stranger in the player’s market, or the bazaar as some people call it. Just standing there looking around like he was completely lost, but what caught my eye was his curious cloak covered in pure white fur, naturally it should be made out of some luxurious animal pelt. But most noticeable was the shadow that seemed to drop from the hood and completely hid his face.
Naturally I wanted to steal such an amazing item, as soon as I walked behind him I imagined in my mind nobody being capable of seeing me and silently caused the gazes of everyone to gaze anywhere but where I was. Standing behind the player I attempted to remove the cloak, unfortunately for me it was not something permitted to be stolen.
After that failure I wanted to kill him until he dropped it. Players will always drop their pouch, or pouches depending if the person had more, of gold upon death, but there was only a ten percent chance to drop one random equipped item.
I used a considerably powerful analyse scroll on him costing fifty gold but for some reason everything from his name to his reserve skills only showed question marks, like the magic could not detect who he was or his skills. A little afraid of how powerful he or this cloak was I decided not to risk it.
After that I lost him, I had no clue where he went.
Sir Laurence accompanied me south of the city every time I left and we fought various monsters such as goblins, kobolds, even frost trolls. It was about a month after that I started seeing the man in the cloak again.
I remember Sir Laurence was scratching his head at one point after hearing him speak in the people’s market one time. He reckoned he’d heard the voice before but he couldn’t remember exactly where it was, a pity considering the more I know about him the better.
It got to the point where I started following him when he went outside of town. I had told Laurence to stay behind considering my skill could only hide me.
However this guy seemed to be able to sense me watching him, either that or he was extremely paranoid as he kept checking behind his back as if he was looking for someone.
Every time he left it was always to the east of the Iceridge, a place not many people travelled as it was considered to be colder out in that direction, where spending a long period of time in that kind of weather could cause you to contract a cold and have your abilities reduced.
Still I started following him out the east gate. But then I had another problem, this person only walked in the city but once he was outside he broke into a run. Normally this would not be a worry, I have a rather high agility stat and even a bonus of fifteen extra points from my class skill, not many people could out run me. At least, not to any great extent.
But this guy! Ducking his head a little, leaning forward, he took off like a cannonball. Apart from kicking up small piles of snow with each bound, he almost seemed to fly over the snow. I was forced to spend a full week camping out at certain spots to watch him each time and locate where he was going.
From my hiding spots I witnessed a few of his battles. He would run around and taunt a large number of wolves with some unknown skill, then double back to attack. Running through the pack he wielded two single edged short swords to rapidly slash left and right, much like my sacred art ‘Flurry’.
His attacks however are amazing, one slash killing one wolf. Strength is used to wield larger weapons and deal more damage, if you have double the strength required to wield a weapon, you will be capable of dealing maximum damage with it, or in the case of a two handed weapon you can also wield it in one hand.
But the faster you are and the faster you attack you can ignore portions of an opponent’s armour, naturally you need a high dexterity to be able to control this but against heavy armoured opponents it was the best possible choice. With his incredible speed must be completely ignoring the wolves defences. ‘Are you above level 100 or something?! If so why are you in an area as weak as this?’
I can imagine they will be quite good weapons in that case, they look plain but looks can be deceiving. I finally tracked him to a hidden cave at the base of the far east mountains, I was quite possibly the second person to ever be here. This brings me up to the present.
***************************************************
I creep in through the entrance to the cave and I instantly start to feel warmer, this place must be completely isolated from the outside weather. I can hear some wolves dying in the distant corners of the cave where the player with the white cloak must be, although despite the nice temperature in here I can’t imagine why he would come here just to hunt wolves.
I hurry down the tunnels towards where I can hear him. Occasionally I take a wrong turn, but this cave is quite linear and the wrong turns end up abruptly in dead ends. Five minutes of quickly dashing down another tunnel I approach the player I have been trying to follow all this time.
He enters a well lit cavern at the end of the tunnel, a little concerned about losing sight of him again, I hastily follow behind.
Entering the cavern my breath is taken away from me. I even lose focus and stop my skill to ‘Hide’ seeing the sight. A luscious green grass covers the entire floor, dirt showing through in some spots. Considering the trees that begin only ten meters away and the fresh air, the inside of this cavern is in spring. A place like this should not exist in this area, it is uncanny.
Restarting my ‘Hide’ skill I travel under the trees towards the centre of the cavern. I start sweating and feel a chilling terror at the sight in front of me. The cloaked player is standing off against a wolf with fur extremely similar to his cloak. Only this wolf stands nearly three full meters tall, and is at least five meters long, as majestic and beautiful as it was, what a monster!