End Online: Volume 1 (14 page)

Despite spending
fourteen of my levels I now had a full list of skills, I was currently level
seventeen and my entire fortune consists of five gold and thirty silver
coins.

Now with a full set of
skills, next I need to regain my spent levels and make some money. Tomorrow I
will have to do another raid for apples in the great white wolf’s den.

Leaving the confession
box, I walk away from the church before logging off.

I didn’t notice it at
the time but the other side of the confessional box opened while I was walking
off. What appeared from the door was the anxious face of a short old man, the
Guide.

Logging
out of End Online and returning to my locker, I decide it is about time to
redecorate the place. Right now it is the dreary all white, not a speck of
colour in sight.

Opening the ‘Locker
Design’ menu the entire console surprisingly came off the wall and moved around
with me.

First selecting the
‘Walls’ button I create some lines along the ground for walls to grow out of,
extending all the way to the ceiling. My Locker now has three rooms, each with
a single door in between them. First there is a reasonable sized kitchen,
enough to fit everything in but not much bigger. A fridge, most of the
cupboards and cooking appliances are on the bench top at the far end and
in the middle is another bench that can either be used for preparing food, or
as a dinner table.

Next is a large living
room, same setup as before but the living room now was about thirty percent of
my locker space. Due to it being so empty I place some bookshelves along one
wall and even while being empty I could surely generate some books, just hopefully
I won’t have to buy them. I also add in another two couches on the sides of the
table and a television on a cabinet at the far end of the room.

Finally, well, I
couldn’t think of anything for the final room, so at the moment it is basically
sealed off space, leaving me sixty percent of my locker to model at a later
date.

Next was to change the
hospital like atmosphere, it is possible to personally shape each and every
aspect of your locker but I’m not the creative type so I decide to go straight
to the ‘Theme’ option.

Trialling a few
different themes, each time I select one the typical virtual reality fog takes
over my vision and slowly dissipates to reveal the new look. I am astonished every
time by the amount of change that takes place just from selecting a theme. Some
dropped out the walls and ceiling, replacing walls with short stone
walls as all of a sudden I was in the middle of a lush garden. Obviously I
couldn’t leave the confines of the locker and explore, but it was simply
amazing. There was another one theme that changed my entire locker into a sky
island.

Finally I try a theme
called ‘China3′. The fog clears and any thoughts of choosing a
different theme completely disappear.

A light brown polished
wood floor, the doors replaced with intricate arches created
with wooden patterns. The room emanates a warm yellow hue coming from
rectangular box like paper lights lining the roof, even the furniture had
changed to suit the theme, short legged two seater couches with seats stitched
in the most luxurious leather.

The coffee machine on
the now mahogany table is the only thing stayed the same.

The kitchen as well changed
beyond description, the style of this place seemed to belong in some far
eastern country, but the theme has such a strange name that I don’t recognize
where.

I feel that a few quick
final adjustments in the living room are needed, considering the floors have
all turned into polished wood which is quite cold I manipulate the console
still following me around and place a large rug underneath, the rug has simple
yet soft yellow honeycomb design with a deep maroon lining throughout it.

I also install a window
and some black out curtains onto the blank wall, selecting to look through at
an image of the city of
Taile
. With the curtains open
the sunset shines in through the window of what must be a high rise hotel in
the central business district.

Placing the console on
a wall in the living room, I sit down on the couch and operate the coffee
machine to fill my cup. With no milk or sugar what came out was coffee
that is quite bitter, but sitting in this silent room sipping this black
coffee was incredibly peaceful on my mind.

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

Logging off it is late
afternoon, the sun striking the city skyline on the horizon.

I decide I will run by
the forums on the wiki for End, the majority of users went there to discuss and
read up on the latest news across the continent. I myself am no different of
course.

There are a large bunch
of threads about class skills and those telling others how to get certain ones,
however all the replies to those threads revolved around them being
fake
, destroying any credibility.

The most surprising
however was the section in the forum for advertising weapons, armour and
certain high level crafting materials that you have set up for sale for real
money and the location of them. Most of them are placed by the merchants
themselves, considering a
well known
merchant is more
like to have players directly asking them to fence their goods.

I was shocked to see a
thread about the apples that go on sale from time to time in Iceridge. A lot of
discussion was directing hatred at the fact that they are not available at all
times, but more people spoke about how delicious they were, incomparable to
anything else.

The
biggest surprise came when I see
Gladox
 has
already reached level 160, it is incredible how this guy can level so
fast. I also read past a few threads started by the other players racing to
have the highest level and how they plan to bring
Gladox
down, most of them involving unimaginative and repeated actions of
violence.

Filled with new
determination to get stronger, I have a quick dinner and return online.

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

Passing through my new
locker feels somewhat uncomfortable at first, almost as if I am trespassing in
somebody else’s home, but I should adjust to it with a little time.

The snowy city of
Iceridge takes over my vision, I may not feel the temperature through my cloak
but the sudden change in atmosphere sends a few shivers through my body.

My goals right now are
to collect more apples and regain the levels I spent on my skills. Naturally I
will have to get my skills stronger too, more so than just simply gaining
levels.

A trip to the great
white wolf’s den for apples proved to be as difficult as always, one drift of
my scent and the wolf entered its ‘invincible’ mode that didn’t leave me a
single opportunity to attack.

This time the wolf was
prepared to prevent me reaching the trees, the result becoming
a dance with the wolf’s razor sharp claws.

As caught in the moment
as I am, I can’t help but notice the little notification in the corner of
my vision stating that agility has increased by one point.

Either I was already
incredibly close to increasing the stat or dodging the attacks of an
enemy that can move faster than you is extremely good training, if it
was the latter this could be some incredibly useful information. My higher
my agility stat, the faster I will be.

With training through
conventional means you can usually only train strength and agility to around
fifty before you get to a point where they stop improving, dexterity is about
thirty. After that they will slowly improve through fighting monsters but there
isn’t any
well known
method of improving them faster,
fortunately I discovered the weight training with the slow effect. Right now
with the boosts from my skills, my agility is a massive one hundred and twenty
three.

My speed is easily on
par with the high level players, if not beyond them. My other stats thought are
roughly average for a
mid level
player.

Occasionally, like right
now the great white wolf will activate its extreme speed technique, launching
an unavoidable attack. Well, that used to be the case, but I have figured a way
to avoid the high speed attacks. I activate ‘Perceptual Sight’ causing the
world around me to slow down, even the wolf and its attack.

There are
two problems however, with my ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ skill at level 3 the
effect was so minimal the attack was still a blur. Secondly with my enhanced
vision I am slowed down proportionally. All I manage to do in using the skill
is to get a slightly slower view of the incoming claws, like the moments before
death if it wasn’t so exaggerated.

The wolf’s attack hits
dead centre in my chest, I have only gained back a single level so being level
18 and suffering a critical strike from a boss class monster removes seventy
percent of my health.

Fortunately for me the
strike knocks sends my body about ten meters away, right underneath some trees.
The wolf, being incredibly intelligent itself, understands the situation and
attempts to move in order to prevent me from escaping but it is already too
late. This time the attack didn’t daze me so I was up and inside the foliage
before the wolf was even half way here.

In a vent of
frustration, the wolf struck one of the nearby trees, sending powerful
vibrations through it and causing most of the apples to fall down. It stood
still and is looking at the fallen fruit, almost as if it is bewildered.

It then approached the
tree I was in attempted to do the same trick on the tree to cause me to
fall out. It could have worked, it did make my footing unstable after all, but
I was already safely in another tree by the time there was any danger.

Repeating this is was a
bit of cat and mouse of the wolf striking trees and me moving to safer trees. I
collected what apples I could whilst I was moving around but thanks to the wolf
about a third of what I would normally collect was scattered all over the
ground.

I will cut my losses
this time, making a break for the exit with just under a hundred apples.
Once I become stronger that wolf won’t know what happened, I almost give a mad
laugh as I make my escape.

I don’t know about all
over the continent but these apple trees regrow their fruit every three days in
real life after it is picked. Judging by that time constriction I need to level
up ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ in three days enough to at least avoid major damage from the
wolf. Fortunately I am able to use ‘Perceptual Sight’ twice a day in game,
meaning I get to use it six times per day in real
lift
,
a total of eighteen times before my next encounter with the great white
wolf, plenty of practice.

And so for the
next three days of real life I hardly slept, grinding with wolves and not only
reaching level twenty three but also ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ and ‘Speed Up’ grew
exceptionally quick.