End Online: Volume 1

by D Wolfin

  Anyway, for now, let me sleep, I feel my heart beating faster than a frightened rabbit and I need rest.

  ***************************************************

  The next morning I went straight back to virtual reality. Some people would be going to school, others off to work, but I don’t fall in either of those categories.

  I never even went to school as a matter of fact, I received private tutoring on various subjects but my father didn’t want to risk me hanging out with anyone from a ‘lower society’ so he home schooled me. Unfortunately that means I never received a high school pass as he only taught me what he deemed necessary for my future and nothing else.

  I have always been given everything I want, I can have just about anything. Yet I have never had any real friends and I have never been permitting to go outside by myself. I had to beg my father to buy me a VL and he only agreed in the end when I promised to take over his business in the future.

  He also forbade me from playing any online games, only the offline ones and I could not fall behind on my studies in business that he hired a tutor on the spot for. Father also used his connections and got me a second generation VL, a model that came onto the market back when virtual reality was still new to combat the decline of public opinion.

  There was not much difference, mainly the personal locker was 30 meters wide and long instead of the standard 10 meters. There were also a few other differences but I never understood what they were, some performance stuff if I remember. But the main value of this model is that it isn’t produced any more and there are only a few of them circulating.

  My locker is decorated like a forest tree house, the type where there are no walls or ceilings, just various platforms among the canopy of the trees with bridges connecting between them. I chose this because I love the fresh air and the freedom I feel up here, almost like I could fly away.

  The biggest platform at one end has my console embedded in the tree which I use to log on to End Online, luckily my father believes me to be the perfect girl and could never possibly lie to him or break a promise.

  ***************************************************

  I log in to the church, I was lucky that I didn’t drop any items upon death. I don’t know how I would have ever gotten them back. But I am currently broke, and my infamy is at 320 so the bank would not let me have an account with them, meaning no savings. If only I didn’t get caught stealing so much when I was still new.

  “My Lady! For some reason there is some strange force field of wind up north that I can’t get past!” Sir Laurence talks to me over a private channel reserved for registered friends.

  I can never get used to someone talking in my head, the same as when I speak over private chat. Always paranoid people will think I’m crazy speaking to myself, even if I know that to everyone else my mouth won’t even be moving.

  “Sir Laurence, what may I ask is your current level?”

  “It’s level forty seven right now, why is that related?”

  I could not help but sigh at this person, he acts all righteous in front of others, especially woman, yet he has absolutely no clue.

  “Sir Laurence… That is the edge of the Kingdom of Glace, which you may not pass until you become level fifty…”

  “Oh, of course I knew that, I was just testing if you did too!”

  That is his other personal trait people who spend too much time around him discover, he is never wrong. No matter how obvious it is that he doesn’t know something he will pretend that he does.

  “Okay Mr Know-it-all.. Tell me, are you still there?”

  “No, that was a few days ago. I am currently walking into Iceridge.”

  “Is that so? Well come to the church, I will be waiting!”

  “Roger, on my way right now to sweep you off your feet!”

  “Please don’t…”

  Not too long after Sir Laurence is briskly walking towards me through the crowded street, he makes way for women yet will barge right through any male, I don’t think he understands how repulsive that is to a female.

  “My lady, your knight has arrived.” The way he speaks that way with such a straight face never ceases to amaze me. However, right now it is time to make some money.

  “Took you long enough!” Standing up, I brush past him as I snatch all the money he had in his coin bag, I may have stopped stealing his money before but I am completely broke right now and somebody has to be the victim.

  Wow, twenty seven solid gold coins, someone has been doing rather well for themselves!

  Meanwhile Sir Laurence pretends not to notice my crime, but his hand gently caresses his coin bag, assessing the damage.

  All of a sudden I hear screams coming from beyond the central courtyard. At the east gate to be precise.

  Racing over with Sir Laurence behind me to see what the commotion was I witnessed a hooded figure walking into town with a humongous white wolf that could only just fit through the gate!

  ***************************************************

  ***************************************************

  -Lost-

  Goblins are the worst! They have absolutely terrible loot!

  I filled my inventory up with terrible weapons and armour, even my money bag filled up, yet none of it had any value. The goods would probably sell for 5 gold at most, and that was about 450lbs of rusted weapons and armour with holes in them. The money pouch had to be the best though, goblins only drop copper coins and now I had a full bag of 999 of them. Literally ten silver coins worth!

  The only saving grace I received is that a few goblins dropped some jewellery that should be worth a decent amount of money, but they were not exactly high quality.

  I entered the eastern gate of Iceridge grumbling, Fen at my side strutting right through the main gates as if nothing could hurt her. There should not be any problems with Fen being here, she is technically recognized by the system as my companion after all.

  All of a sudden there is a scream from a souvenir shop as some female worker witnesses Fen, then not just her door and windows but most of the doors and windows instantly shut, the sounds of locks and bolts slamming into place.

  Some users saw Fen and panicked, crying out it was a raid on the city. Those words were a bit extreme don’t you think?

  I also see Prince Charming approaching with a hooded figure. The other person may be wearing a hood but I enhance my vision with ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ and get a closer look. My hunch was correct, it is the indescribable beauty I crossed paths with in the bazaar.

  A few players started to bear their weapons, and Fen extended her claws ready to start attacking, but the city guards intervened first by getting in my way.

  “Adventurer! What do you think you are doing leading such a dangerous creature inside the town walls? It is disturbing the peace!”

  “What are you talking about? Fen is my companion!”

  “Sorry, but that creature is far too dangerous to be within the city walls. Please remove it or we will forcibly remove it.”

  The guards place hands on their sword hilts, ready to draw the weapons at a moment’s notice and subdue. I honestly am a little concerned for them however. Do they think they could stop a rampaging Fen?

  Either way this is more hassle than I need, they may be strong but Fen was nearly untouchable with her speed and reflexes, and annihilating the city guards in front of her would possibly have some serious repercussions. Then a memory of some research about Iceridge I did a few nights ago comes back and I get an idea.

  “Fen, I need you to wait outside town for a while. I will be back for you shortly after I get something.” Turning to the guards I then address them next, “That should be acceptable should it not? If Fen was to wait outside the walls, otherwise I feel there may be a battle right here that will not be favourable to either of us.”

  The guards give a pained expression, then the obvious leader of the troupe who has done all the speaking up till now answers, “Ve
ry well, we will allow it to reside outside the walls. We also do not wish for a battle if it is avoidable.”

  Fen sends a glare my way as if to say, ‘You led me here to show me your city and now you tell me to wait outside?’

  All I can say to her without alerting the guards to my plan is, “Sorry, please have a little trust and wait for me.” She seems to be somewhat content with that and walks back outside the walls.

  With the commotion gone the guards slowly wander off and shops start to reopen. Prince Charming and the woman were already gone before the crowd of players dispersed.

  Next was to initiate my plan, I was not entirely sure it would work but I did not see any reason why it should not. First I walk through the main central courtyard and into a small branch of the Bank of Iceridge. There were a few small branches of the bank spread around this city and any money stored could be accessed from all of them, however you could only access your money from Iceridge.

  While it was possible to have your money transferred to another started city to access it there from their bank, you had to pay a large fee of ten percent. The further the money had to be transported the higher the fee, so most people opted to withdraw all their money in the form of platinum coins, each valued at a hundred gold coins and people on ever held onto them when they were travelling to another city with a bank.

  Inside the bank I used a coin converter in the corner of the room. The clerk could do it for me but I did not feel like talking to them, so I tip my coin bag upside down and ten copper coins fall into the hole on the top. Interestingly coins cannot stack higher than 100

  A small tray slides out in the middle of the contraption containing nine silver coils and ninety nine copper coins.

  Next on the agenda is the blacksmith. Approaching the NPC behind the counter who’s long hair was considerably messier than usual. I take not that his skin is a few shades darker, perhaps he travelled outside for a while, or got too close to his furnace and cooked himself a little bit.

  “Sell,” Keeping my words to him short as usual he didn’t seem as bothered this time, merely asking me what I wished to sell.

  Rather than placing the items in front of him, I operated a trade menu to select every piece of weapon and armour I scavenged off the dead goblins.

  The blacksmith scrolled through his panel at the items I selected, giving a grunt, “These items are ‘pletely rusted and useless. Where did ya get them? The arse of a lake or somethin’?”

  What a crude way of speaking! Well it isn’t the first time I’ve heard him run his mouth like that. I indicate to the items like I want to sell them regardless.

  “Well, I’ll give ya seventy silver for ‘em. That’ll be the best deal ya’ll get anywhere.”

  I didn’t expect much for this pile of rust, despite how much there was. I hurriedly nod my head before he can reconsider the price.

  I also have the jewellery to sell that should get me enough money for what I need. At a jewellery shop with a young lady at the counter I managed to haggle twenty one gold for the seven pieces, although half of that price was a necklace that was a much higher quality than the rest.

  Now that I should have enough money I go to the only magic shop in the central courtyard, walking around the giant frozen fountain I walk into a small shop covered in dust.

  I didn’t even bother to explore the shop, I have no use for most of the goods here as I do not have any skills related to magic. Behind the counter is a young man in his mid twenties, a bulky brown robe covers most of his body, and large spectacles framed his face. Apart from that he has a mousey brown hair the length of one of my fingers and a few freckles across his face.

  “Excuse me. I would like to purchase a scroll.”

  “Of course, good sir. May I ask which one in particular?” Oh so polite! I would almost think maybe I had a good intimacy with him if his smile reached his eyes.

  “I would like a Scroll of Shrinking.”

  “Not a problem. That will be fifteen gold.”

  Surely that is a rip off! But scrolls aren’t exactly cheap in the first place as they let anyone use a once off magic without the need of any mana.

  “Very well, thank you for that.”

  I am extremely reluctant to hand over all the money, yet I need the scroll right now so I make the payment and the item is transferred into my possession

  Scroll of Shrinking

  A scroll with the ability to cast the spell 'Shrink'. It is generally viewed as a useless spell as it cannot be used during combat.

  Will shrink the target to a 1/10 the original size, the target however will still maintain its original weight.

  Requirements:

  - Level 20

  Grade: Orange

  Duration: 24 hours

  Restrictions:

  - Cannot be cast on oneself

  Incantation:

  "The mountain is large, the rock is small. Hear my words and transform this mountain into the rock. Shrink."

  Now that I have the item I needed to walk back out the eastern exit and find Fen sulking in the snow a little off to the side of the gate.

  Walking up to her I open the scroll.

  “Okay, Fen. Are you ready to go into town?” The wolf’s ears perk up at my words, “Now I need to cast a very special spell so stay still for a moment.

  Holding the scroll in one hand and using the other one to hold an open palm at Fen for directing the magic I recite the incantation, “Shrink!”

  The spell has a duration of twenty four hours, but this is in game terms. Technically it means it will last 8 hours in real life, one day in game. I remember this confused me at first how in the game times passed by three times faster than real life because also in game a full day was classified as 24 hours.

  The scroll burned up and disappeared and Fen started visible shrinking! I knew it would work! Normally you would not be able to do this as you would be in combat but I have just successfully shrunk a boss class monster into a… puppy.

  I am completely shocked, I didn’t necessarily turn Fen into a pup, but she now stand a little under 30cm tall, the same size of a wolf pup. She is also bounding around the snow excited and jumps up on me. Catching her in my arms I forgot that shrinking does not reduce the weight.

  I was literally body slammed with a total weight of two thousand two hundred pounds behind it, considering the small size of the wolf the concentrated damage was quite severe, reducing a little more than half of my health.

  “Okay, Fen, don’t do that-,” I broke into a few coughs while trying to catch my breath, “again. Now let’s go back into town shall we.”

  I walk with Fen back through the main gates and this time there are no windows slamming closed or screams. I even overhear a few exclamations about how ‘cute’ Fen is, if only they knew..

  ***************************************************

  ***************************************************

  -Verde-

  The moment I saw that giant white wolf in town my chest froze. Not just from knowing how powerful it was but there was something about it, something about how white its fur was that sends terror crawling up from my stomach.

  It was the same colour as that girl’s hair!

  I grab Sir Laurence and duck behind a nearby building, could it be possible that the wolf was the girl? It seems impossible, clearly this wolf could not do something completely fantasy like and transform into a human. Otherwise it would not walk into the town looking like this. But why do I feel so afraid, is it the memory of the pain?

  The guards come and settle the scenario rather quickly. There was a conversation between them and the hooded player which resolved peacefully, the guards walking off as the wolf leaves the city.

  I decide I will follow him again to see what he will do, is he just going to leave the wolf outside? If he planned to do that then he would not have tried to bring it inside the walls in the first place.

  Dragging Sir Laurence around, we crept through the sh
adows and tailed him as he sold a lot of stuff at the blacksmith and jewellery shop. Lastly he snuck into the magic shop but I would not be able to follow him in with Sir Laurence without getting spotted, the shop was simply too small and had nowhere to hide.

  He came out shortly after and headed straight for the eastern gate where the wolf left, naturally we snuck out as well and witnessed the wolf waiting for him a little down the wall from the gate.

  What happened next astonished the both of us, he pulled out a scroll and shrunk the massive wolf into the size of a pup. I would not have thought such a thing to be possible!

  He shortly after walked right back to the gate and inside with the wolf again!

  “My lady, what should we do?”

  “We will follow them of course. I want to know about this man and mainly the people he knows.” It is the truth, I want to find out who that girl was that attacked me last night.

  “If you wish it, it shall be. But we must converse with him for that, not stalk in the shadows, we will simply end up losing him or getting found out.”

  “Yes, that may be just what we need!”

  Silently dashing through the gate I still have one hand grabbing Sir Laurence and dragging him along. My strength may not be overly high but when he isn’t resisting it is easy to drag him around.

  I follow the hooded man and the wolf into the central square, he starts showing the wolf around the city as if the animal could understand human speech. This is a game after all, there is not any particular reason why it should not be able to.

  We wander around in the shadows for a good part of an hour, following the hooded man with the wolf around the major areas of the city. If he was to show the wolf any more of the city he would have to break into the giant castle in the middle of the city, where the royal family reside.

  The wolf caught our scent at some time during our stalking and shot a few glances in our direction, but it didn’t make any noises as to not alarm the hooded man.

  He ends up returning to the blacksmith in the end, coming out with a new short sword in his hands.