End Online: Volume 2 (18 page)

I try to pat the flame out, but it only ends up hurting me as it
refuses to go out.

‘Not good, her health is dropping even further!’

I can’t let her die! Jumping out of the crevice, I quickly
remove all the herbs I have from my inventory and start rapidly creating
terrible healing potions. Pouring the contents into her mouth, her health
climbs slightly but the fire does not seem to want to go out.

All around me the tunnel is scorched and various flames litter
the ground. There is no fuel to keep them going but they seem to continue
burning regardless. This must be the same fire that the uncle mentioned burned
for six days.

She must have gotten hit by a few wisps of flames entering the
slit in the wall! She is currently lying down in some kind of fever.

“Lost! Are you okay?? I saw your and Fen’s health drop a lot!
What’s going on?”

Verde’s frantic voice enters my head.

“Verde! It’s not good, Fen was touched by the dragon’s fire and
now she’s dying!!”

“W-What?? I can see the burning icon in the party window! Do you
have anything to heal burns?”

“No, I don’t! I don’t know what to- hang on! I think I know what
to do!

“What are you going to do??”

I don’t reply to her, I have a strange idea that may work.
Throwing a ‘Fire Flower’ and a ‘Green Medicinal Herb’ into the mortar and
pestle I grind them together, thinking about how I once created the paralysis
cure by doing so.

Scraping the paste into a vial of water, a window appears
in front of me.

Success!

The liquid is a mild orange, possibly the best looking potion I
have ever made!

Pouring it into Fen’s mouth, the sweating on her face lessens
and her pain also seems to subside.

I keep feeding Fen health potions, keeping her alive as the
flame burns on her back. Over the ten minutes, the fire gradually shrinks until
it is completely extinguished.

Colour returns to her face as she finally recovers her strength.
Looking at me with teary eyes, she speaks.

“If you… Leave… I will be… Lonely… Again.”

It is true that in my despair, I had considered throwing virtual
reality away, forcing myself to wake from the dream that it had been. However,
she could not have possibly known that. Could she?

“I got it,” Even if she can’t see it. I give her a smile that I
had forgotten I had. I need to work harder, I need to be able to make more
money. If a top class item only sells for a hundred dollars, then I need to get
even more of them. There is no more halfway, I must go all the way.

“Verde, we need to find an exit to this dungeon. Is there any
stairs or anything where you are? I suspect we entered through the back door to
the dungeon and encountered the final boss.”

“What’s up? you sound different than normal. Oh, there is only
dead ends here, no kind of stairs leading down. There is also no monsters, it
is strange.”

“It is quite strange, there are also no monsters over here.
I will follow this path and see what I can find.”

“Yes, but how are we going to meet up, we will have to pass the
dragon again.”

“Don’t worry. We will definitely do it! No matter what!”

“Oh, umm, if you say so I will trust you…”

There is no question about it, we must do this. Failure is not
an option anymore.

I offer a hand and help Fen to her feet, but before we head off.
I position a karate chop on top of her head, making a nice sound as it
connected. Am I being mean to her or is this actually me being nice, I’m not
entirely sure anymore.

“Don’t do that again!”

I command her to not act rashly anymore, and she slowly nods her
head.

Walking deeper into the tunnel we search for another exit.

The pathways are well lit now thanks to the flames that
refuse to go out. Not even Fen’s ice could extinguish them.

I see numerous veins of ore in the wall, but after taking
down half the durability of my pick in an attempt of harvesting one, I simply
gave up on them. Clearly neither my ‘Mining’ nor my pick were high enough
levelled for this ore. Well, I do have a beginners iron pick, and my ‘Mining’
skill is still at level one after all.

Occasionally, a wall of flames blocks our path completely.
When it comes to the unavoidable ones, I pour a ‘Burn Remedy’ onto the location
and wait ten minutes for the flames to disappear.

This tunnel is incredibly eerie, the only noise is created by
the small fires as they crackle and throw shadows across the walls. Even if it
is a red glow, it is pleasant to have some kind of light eradicate the bleak
grey scale environment I had been walking through previously.

The tunnel is incredibly linear. There has not been even a
single fork in the path.

Before long Fen and I reach the end of the tunnel. In front of
us a burning room is lit up, fire raging wherever the eye looks.

However, the most interesting thing is the items littered
throughout the room. Metals, gold, scorched black ceramics. It is a treasure
horde, albeit the fact everything is melted.

It appears that the dragons fire reached the deepest depths of
the tunnel and with nowhere else to go incinerated the entire room. I can see
large piles of melted gold and steel. Some dust from gems is also
scattered about.

The dragon is going to be furious when it sees what it has done
to this room. All the weapons are destroyed, and all the valuables are either
cracked or completely incinerated, leaving scorch marks where they used to be.

I cry a little at seeing all the melted gold, the coins that
they surely used to be must have amounted to an enormous sum. The piles of
solid gold that are left over still had value, but they are too large to be
carried out. Everything of any value has been completely destroyed.

I walk into the room and weave around the flames to inspect all
the goods, for a dragons treasure I had definitely expected a lot more,
but the walls seem to be dug out relatively recently so perhaps it is only one
of many stashes.

A red light shines in the corner of my eye from inside of the
flames. Panicking that I may have been spotted by an enemy, I jump back and
nearly land in one of the infernos.

Fen also becomes alert at my sudden movement, searching for any
enemies.

Noticing that whatever caught my eye hasn’t moved, I cautiously
approach where it was. I spot a small red stone, about the size of my fist,
inside the fire. Throwing a ‘Burn Remedy’ over the fire I patiently wait for it
to stop while looking at the object inside of it.

The stone is in the shape of a perfectly smooth orb. It also
reflects the lights thrown around by the flames, which is what I must have seen
at first. The object appears to be completely solid, but somehow deep inside
it, there appears to be a small red light glowing.

Soon enough the fire goes out and the orb is directly in front
of me. Slowly reaching out, I touch it with one of my fingers. It is strange,
for something that was sitting in the fire for quite some time, it is
completely stone cold.

Placing my hand around it I go to pick it up and inspect it.

‘Heavy!’

The object weighs a massive amount, so much that I nearly
dropped it as soon as picking it up.

For some reason I cannot identify a single thing about this
object. The border around the object may be white, but I sincerely doubt it is
some ordinary item.

“Lost, we have finished exploring our area. There are no
monsters, no stairs, and no exits. We did find a bunch of empty rooms however.”

“Strange, I found a room full of treasure. Unfortunately it is
all destroyed already though.”

Now that I think about it. The dragon is massive so why would
all its treasure be in a room it can’t possibly get to.

Wait, if it can’t get to it, then how did it put all the
treasure here?

“… We should… Leave…”

“You have a fair point. If another fire breath comes down, we
are both dead.”

Placing the orb in my inventory, I briskly walk out of the
treasure room with Fen right behind me.

“Verde, we are leaving now. But I don’t know how we are going to
get past the dragon.”

“Ah, do you think we could possibly run past it again?”

“Not without it chasing me to the end of the earth.”

“Huh, what?”

“It’s a joke. I can joke you know.”

Maybe it would have been better if I had laughed while saying
it. Oh well, too late now.

The trip back to the main grotto where the dragon is seems to
take hours, but that is due to my fear of how powerful it is. Soon the dim red
lights from the flames are overpowered by natural light.

Creeping closer to it, careful not to notify the dragon, I try
to get a good look at the big black mass.

Except, it was not there!

Moving faster, I arrive at the exit to the tunnel I am in. I
poke my head up at the sky shining through the open ceiling. The sky is red
from the setting sun, yet there is no sign of the dragon.

“Verde! Quick! The dragon seems to be gone for now, this is our
chance to escape!”

“What!? We will be there shortly, don’t leave without us!”

“I will wait for you at the exit!”

“Okay!”

I don’t know why we are shouting at each other, but it is
crucial we get out while we can.

I sprint over to the exit tunnel, not willing to stay out in the
open any longer than necessary. Verde and Prince Charming catch up while I wait
at the exit.

“Sorry for being late, we were quite far in the tunnel.” Verde
looks exhausted, but that may be partially due to hunger. I know my current
satiety levels are rather low.

“It’s fine, but we need to get out of this mountain range as soon
as possible. The downhill should be much easier that going uphill.”

“Well,” the prince finally speaks, “Let us be gone from this
place. Now that the dragon has fled, we no longer have a reason to be here.”

I sigh inwardly. This guy appears to be back to normal.

Taking the front, I lead everyone out, sharing some small talk.

“Now that I think of it, I don’t think that was a dungeon.”

“What?” Verde seems puzzled, “What do you mean?”

“No monsters, a great big dragon at the start. Isn’t it just
like a dragon’s lair like the ones told in all the fantasy books?”

She lets out a giggle at hearing my thoughts.

“I think that may just be it.”

Thanks to it being a game, we all just assumed it was another
dungeon, but it appears that that may not be the case. It is simply the dragon
Grael’s lair, a place other monsters didn’t dare enter.

With me at the lead we quickly leave the mountain range,
constantly checking behind us in case any more monsters find us.

All of a sudden, a notification appears in front of me.

We failed. But I had
promised myself in the dragon’s lair that I would do better, one set back is
not enough to bring me down!

“Come on guys, let’s go
back to Leaz!”