End Online: Volume 1 (5 page)

Incredible, the log out button
is also. I want to stay here forever! Maybe not in such a cold location but I
don’t ever want to leave this game!

There was an inventory
menu as
well,
I notice I’m starting with no money
and no skills though so hopefully there will be some beginner quests that will
help me gain those.

The detail of this room is
incredible too! If I inspect the walls real close I can tell its fake, but
otherwise I would never be able to tell. That’s it, time to leave this place. I
ran, not walked, but ran towards the doors of the church, forcing them open.
They didn’t open all the way, but enough for me to comfortably walk through.

Light invaded my eyes and
it took a moment to adjust to the brightness. What unravelled before me was
absolutely breathtaking. A city spanning about 2km in every direction was
around me. An incredible stone keep in the centre overlooking everything, it is
all covered by snow and voices were ringing out from unknown places.

A slight breeze rolls past
me and I don’t think I will ever leave this place.

But damn it’s so cold!

I had only taken a few
steps out of the church when an old man appeared. He was a little shorter
than me, long white hair, and a staff decorated by a blue crystal the size
of my hand at the top.

I tried to alter my
direction to walk around him, but he seemed to move at the same
time and just kept getting in my way, preventing me from moving
forward.

This guy apparently wasn’t
going anywhere before talking to me.

“What do you want?” there
wasn’t much else to do except find out his intentions.

“Hello young adventurer, I
see you have just entered this world. May I ask what your name is?” Of
course, he’s an NPC. I haven’t even decided on a name for my character before
now, I wonder what I should call myself.

“My name is Silver,” Going
on some wordplay on my surname,
Silvester
, it seemed
like an appropriate, “It’s a pleasure to meet-“

“No, sorry, but that isn’t
your name. Please tell me your name,” I get it now. This old man is the guide,
an NPC for starting characters to choose their name, and perhaps other things
as well. I assume he speaks this line when the name you decide on has already
been picked by someone else.

“Sorry, my mistake, my
name is Hosen
actua
-“

“Sorry, but that also is
not your name. Please tell me your name.” This guy, did he just cut me off two
times in a row, he’s seriously starting to piss me off.

I tried a few more time to
give him a name I was happy with, but once more he cut me off with the same
emotionless voice.

Leaning slightly forward
and down to place myself in his face, I speak in a completely dead
voice.

”****
off, you nasty old geezer.”

A stunned look overcame
the guides face, followed by what I thought was one of extreme irritation.
It was hard to say considering his staff came down on my head at the sane
and knocked me out.

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

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.

‘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.

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.

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 and 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.