End Online: Volume 2 (8 page)

The rest of the contest was so unfair I got angry at myself for
not doing better. If I was in human form I would have been faster! The same
human form I wanted to reveal to him, then use my demands to have him buy me
clothes and spend a day with just me! No hunting, no parties, just him
listening to my demands for a day!

Fuming I retract myself from the world, back to the 'Locker'.

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-Lost-

We spent the entire next week in the 'Unknown Goblin Lair'. I
was a little concerned that Verde hadn't logged on since the incident. I really
wanted to apologize to her.

I had also been back and forth to town multiple times already,
just to sell loot and ensure I have enough shrink scrolls for Fen. Thanks to
that my infamy has climbed to a grand total of 145. The guards were already
warning me to watch myself.

"Fen, let's head down to the next level, we are already
strong enough."

I was already too strong for the goblin warriors, to the point
it would have been one hit kills if I had weapons more appropriate to my level.
Not only that, but I had also figured out the secret methods to silently
activating my new sacred arts.

We walk down another small ridge along a wall to get to the
third floor.

It was strange down here. The air was just as dry as the rest of
the dungeon, yet there was a humidity in the air that even I could feel
through my cloak, causing me to start sweating. We run into the first group of
goblins down here. It is another group of ten, but only five of them are
ordinary goblins. Three are goblin warriors, and the other two are something
new, wearing torn robes and twisted oak staves.

"Analyse!" Calling my skill I see their name,
confirming my suspicion.

Yes, they exist, goblins with brains.

Without giving them time to react, Fen and I sprint forward to
take the initiative. My speed becomes extremely confined when fighting the
goblins in close quarters, preventing me from creating false images of me
half of the time. Thankfully I learned to fight before I had them, so I
am more than competent.

While running down the corridor however, I can take full
advantage of my speed, leaving afterimages for the goblin mages to shoot their
fireballs at. Which they do.

The goblins are stunned for a moment, but they seem to lack
enough brainpower to actually think about the situation and continue attacking,

As we get closer, Fen launches her signature ice bolts.
Meanwhile, tuning my mind to operate my afterimage, I use about forty percent
of my stamina and activate 'Back Stab'.

All I need to do is manipulate the shadow image behind to
attack the target. It would not do any damage though, it's all just for show.
But once I do that I can allow the system to teleport me behind the
opponent.

The movement is quite simple, while the enemy is concentrating
on the enemy in front of it I appear from behind and deal a critical hit.

Just like I do on this goblin mage, Its magic may be powerful
but like all mages, their physical defence is weak and a critical hit from me
leaves it with less an a quarter health remaining.

I quickly finish it off and move to the goblin mage next to it,
removing the bulk of the goblins firepower. I am currently a little sour
however as Fen is getting at the very least two of every three kills. My level
had grown to level 46, but Fen's had grown to 49.

My Agility had shown significant growth too, gaining about
seven points. Not to mention my intelligence stat is back up to ten thanks to
casting the magic from the scrolls of shrinking.

Using scrolls doesn't improve intelligence much, but it does
raise the stat slowly. My class skill began to increase in level as well, but
the growth was incredibly slow and apart from weapon damage increases, the rest
of the bonuses increased slowly as well.

I had personally thought the third floor of the dungeon would be
harder than this.

Fen and I continue exploring the third level relentlessly, If we
didn't I would not make enough money to afford Fen's shrink scrolls.

It turned out the wolf had satiety requirements as well, and
consumes about five times what I do. It had only been a week and the massive quantity
of food I stocked up was already nearly exhausted.

I wander around with Fen for the good part of a few hours,
eliminating various groups of goblins.

We enter an area slightly larger than the rest, the path opening
up into a large area. My eyes go straight to the centre of the room, resting on
a typical wooden chest. 

'Loot!'

Well, I do consider that it is probably of a trap or that the
chest is trapped itself, but the possibility of gaining items I can sell far
outweighs that.

There appears to be no signs of any goblins in the area, and
inspecting the trap revealed no obvious trap triggers, but then again I do not
have any kind of trap detection skill. Without any other method of determining
if there is a trap or not I open the chest.

Inside I can see the loot on the floor of the chest, but
a loot menu also appeared in the chest, facing upwards.

There is no need to select what I wanted individually, I
immediately press 'Take All'. Opening my inventory I go to inspect what these
boots were, but a low growl coming from the wolf behind me prevents me from
going any further.

Turning my head I see what has Fen on edge. There are countless
goblins climbing out of holes in the walls. They quickly number about fifty,
half of which are goblin warriors, and half of the remainder being goblin
mages.

‘Hah, so that is why the loot menu of the chests are inside of
it. You have to bend down to read it which allows monsters to sneak up on you.’

I do admire the creativity that was put into the ‘chest ambush’.

I am brought back to reality by the completely unknown goblin at
the very front of the horde, It stood a monstrous two meters tall, and with a
black solid metal plate armour covering its entire torso and shoulders. However
the most domineering factor of it was the enormous quantity of fat all over
its ugly green body.

'Guess blunt weapons would be useless here, it would just absorb
the blows with its fat'

On its belt was some kind of shortshort which I felt an
overpowering urge to own. It was beautiful, a pure white hilt of wrapped
leather. But the most eye catching was small carved ruby embedded at the base
of the blade, which seemed to emanate a faint warmth.

'It may be small, but that gem will surely be worth a fortune! I
may not be able to sell it for cash, but I could get enough gold to last
months!'

It has a strange blade though. Not because it was perfectly
straight unlike my slightly curved swords, but in respect to how the
cutting edge of my blades is on the side that curved at the end to meet the
tip, it was on the other side of the blade. Almost as if the sharpened edge was
on the back.

In its hands though is some kind of oversized cudgel with fragments
of some form of crude metal seemingly growing out of the wooden
weapon. It wielded it in a single hand and I suspect it is a slow weapon, easy
to avoid with my speed.

"Fen, take care of the mages first! Then eliminate all the
warriors around the big one. Get rid of all the small fry so they don't get in
the way!"

Giving my orders, we both rush into combat. Fen unleashed a rain
of smaller ice bolts, dealing damage in a larger area at the cost of
concentrating damage on individual goblins.

"Analyse!"

'A boss monster!'

With a nearly full stamina bar I activate 'Multi Mirage'. To
silently do this I extend my mind and visualize multiple images around the
enemy, choosing one to be the 'real' me. The rest is controlled by the
system. 

I can never get completely used to my viewpoint completely
changing locations, but at least the system transitions the shift to be
easier on my eyes.

Eight images of me spread out assault the horde from
various directions. Well, technically only one of me does the attack. I can't
control seven fakes very well, so all I can have them do is either rush in and
make a couple of blind swings to distract some of the enemies, or be exact reflections
of my actions.

I am incredibly lucky that this room was larger than the rest of
the dungeon paths and areas, allowing me to use all my skills. Although this
skill is extremely ineffective against large numbers of enemies, it is sufficient
to create a safe distance between me and the boss goblin Grigor.

The flurry of ice bolts onto the enemy kills a few goblins, but
most of the goblin mages survive the onslaught and release their own magic.
Fireballs arc the air at Fen and the reflections of me. Our speed far
outclassed the attack so we manage to dodge them easily enough, only a few of
my mirages becoming casualties.

I launch my throwing knives at the goblins before they get too
close to me, the copies of me do the exact same, confusing the goblins. Except,
only my knives deal damage, the fake knives do stick into the goblins where
they hit, but they are just fakes in the end.

The goblin Gigor approached one of my mirages, and with it
weapon leaving a red trail of light along its path, swung it single handed
down onto a mirage of me. The felt the entire earth shake from the blow. If
that was the real me underneath, it would surely be a one hit kill.

The goblins get too close to continue throwing knives at them,
so dashing forward I carve my way through the small fry, killing most of the
previously damaged goblins in one hit. 

The goblin mages did not just shoot fireballs at us, they also
spawned pillars of flame from the earth. Due to being unaware of one until it
broke through the ground, all the remaining images of me were dispersed. They
also spawned under my feet, only grazing due to me constantly moving, but each
still removes ten percent of my health.

Fen has the flame pillars under control, creating a disc of ice
underneath her that negated each pillar of fire, turning into steam in the
process.

My first goal is the goblin mages, but Grigor was heading in my
direction so I had to be quick. Two more pillars graze by my feet, bringing my
health just under half way. But I manage to quickly make short work the final
few mages.

The remaining goblins encircle me. There were only
about ten left, including the boss, but I have had some bad experiences
being surrounded by these little green creatures. 

They all swarm in to attack at once, the minor goblins the
fastest. Jumping at maximum speed, I leave an afterimage of myself still
standing for them to attack while I break their encirclement.