End Online: Volume 3 (19 page)

I bring up the
‘Nightingale Helmet’ I have in the auction. I am pleasantly surprised to see
the current bid for the item is a little over a $1,000. With four days left on
the auction and approximately five thousand watchers, a giddy feeling sits in
my stomach when I think about how much this helmet will go for.

Two thousand? Three
thousand?

When I sold the ‘Old
Bronyx Plate Armour’, and the ‘Meridium Boots of Haste’, they both also had a
price jump at the end of their auctions. They eventually ended up selling
without a hitch, earning me a massive $2170 together. Although in my opinion,
the ‘Old Bronyx Plate Armour’ went for much less than it was truly worth.

This is completely
different from the two items I sold not too long ago. There were countless
comments on the auction as well. Most of the comments are from people wondering
about the player ‘Lost’. Which server is he on, what is his level, and a few
other general questions.

Not only does the helmet
had some desirable effects on it. It is also slightly above the average user
level and a heavy armour class, which follows most player’s preference of being
a defence specialist. This all means that a large amount of players should
naturally desire it.

This money will be a
massive help, as the apple sales I had completely stopped a while after the
introduction of the satiety system and the mass influx of food products into
the market. Ever since everybody stopped buying the apples, I told PeachStar
that she could do whatever she wants with them.

‘She probably stopped
selling them altogether and just ate them all herself.’ 
I think to myself in humour.

I am in desperate need of
income right now. Between rent, bills, food, and my game subscription I spend
between two and two and a half thousand dollars a month. If I could sell two
items worth this much, then I would suddenly start making money. From the
$14,000 I had when I sold my car and the money I have made through my game item
sales, I have $5,504 left in my account.

Coming back to reality, I
realize I have arrived at a players market. Walking past most of the stalls
lining the road, I finally arrive at one that sells light and medium armour. I
have not yet had a problem with my low armour rating as I have been able to
dodge practically every attack, but how long will that last? Even one strong
attack landing on me right now may potentially prove to be fatal.

The lady running the stall
is dressed in a casual clothing made of some sort of coarse material of a
medium quality. The clothing clings to her figure, exhibiting her bodily curves
while at the same time exposing a large amount of skin. With a red piece of
fabric tying her black hair behind her head into a ponytail, she gives me a
strange look as she notices the two women standing behind me.

“Is there anything I can
help you with today, sir?”

“Oh, don’t mind me,” I say
in a dry voice, ignoring her petty sales technique of using her looks to
attract customers. “I will let you know if I decide on anything.”

I browse the goods for
some time, bringing up the item information on more than a few pieces of light
armour.

“I will take these three.
How much will it be?” I hold up a grey piece of torso armour that even covers
my shoulders, a fire red pair of leather plated greaves, and a thick pair of
azure boots.

Her smile falters
momentarily as she looks between the equipment and me.

“Are you sure, you will
look rather strange with all these different colours on you.”

I can tell by what she is
wearing, that this player is someone who likes to choose things from a fashion
point of view.

“It doesn’t matter. How
much?”

“It will be 590 gold.” She
speaks while bringing out an innocent business smile.

I nearly cough up blood
after hearing the price. My current money is only 612 gold, so this will take
away practically all of it.

“I will give you 500
gold,” I try to barter with her and bring that enormous price down.

“590 gold.” She says in
the same voice.

“How about 550 gold?”

“590 gold. Take it or
leave it.”

“570 gold.” With a good
deal of irritation in my voice, I offer her just slightly under her price.

“600 gold. The extra is
for wasting my time.” Her smile is exactly the same. Only, I can now feel a
ruthless chill in her voice.

“Fine, 590 gold.”

“600 gold.”

“I will go elsewhere!” I
say in outrage. There is no way I am going to let myself get ripped off like
this.

I walk away from the stall
and down start looking at the stalls further down the road. I look over a lot
of stalls, yet none of them sell light armour. There is lots of heavy armour,
and even a few with medium armour. There is not a single stall in this street
that has the least popular type of armour, light armour.

I contact Mouse through my
friends list, as I know he definitely sells light armour. Only, apparently he
isn’t running his stall today as he is out collecting crafting materials, and
will probably be doing so for the next few days.

I head back to the first
stall, where the girl selling the light armour gave me another cold look.

“600 gold.” I say while
feeling bitter inside.

“610 gold, now you’ve wasted
even more of my time.” She give me a merciless smile.

I don’t try to barter
anymore, immediately handing over the money to her in defeat. She then passes
over the armour peacefully, which I immediately equip.

Of course I am not even
remotely concerned with the different colours of each piece of armour. Once it
is equipped by me, it unsurprisingly all turns to different shades of white.
From a fashion sense, yes, it looked good, but it was still a little annoying.

Each piece of armour I
bought only has an orange border, meaning they are of the ‘rare’ rarity. While
not being anything overly special,  it is still quite good for player
crafted items.

I miserably jingle my now
good for nothing money pouch, hearing the only two gold coins left clink
together.

Without enough money to
restock my medicinal herbs, I will have to take the time to collect them as we
travel.

I spend some time with the
wolf girl and the elf now that I have everything done and are just waiting on
the two brothers to finish their preparations. In the spare time, I try my luck
at visiting one of the nearby parks in hopes of managing to collect some
medicinal herbs. There is no disappointment when I get there and it is as
packed as ever. It is to be expected after all.

‘Lost we are done now
and waiting for you at the east gate.’ 
Mason’s
voice enters my head.

‘Okay, we will meet
you there,” 
I respond to him rather
quick. Informing the other two with me that we are now heading out.

It only makes sense we
meet and leave by the east gate, rather than the north. It would take about
half a day to walk to the north gate, and the northern forest we have to go to
is technically slightly to the east as well.

I finally get to the east
gate and see the others waiting just off to the side.

“I trust you are all ready
by now. As you should already know, this is going to be extremely difficult.
But, they do always say the greater the risk, the greater the reward.” I state
to everyone again in a calm way, only effectively giving them half the morale I
had hoped to provide.

“Indeed, I feel the same.
Plus, this next video should be amazing.”

“Oh? how much are you
recording?” I ask curiously, somewhat concerned over revealing the innkeeper’s
wife’s secret of being an elf to the player community.

“Just the trip to the
elvish capital and the liberation.”

I nod my head in approval.
Considering the legendary rarity of the quest and the fact that it will be
revealing the existence of the elves, surely his video will garner a lot of
attention.

With me leading the way,
we blend into the groups of players all leaving the city. Once everyone leaves
the gates, they all head off in their own directions. At the same time, all the
male and female players happily gossip to one another and some even form new
parties.

Ahead of us, travelling to
the north are three parties and about ten solo players. Each and every one of
them are still below level fifty.

I stop dead in my tracks
and my eyes widen as soon as we reach the grasslands. Throughout the short cut
grass and sparse low rolling hills, as far as the eye can see there are
hundreds, no, thousands of players in this one area.

“W-what the hell is this?!
It wasn’t like this just yesterday!” I cry out in surprise while Mason only
chuckles at my shock.

“You should know that
today in real life is Saturday, the first day of the weekend, right? Well,
there are a lot of End Online players who have full time jobs so the weekend is
really the only time they get to properly play. Not everyone is fortunate to
have wealthy parents who can support them while they play whenever they want.”

“I see, I see.”

That must mean that every
single weekend, the games suffers a massive influx of players coming online.

Putting aside the shocking
number of players in front of me, I start heading through the area towards the
forest where the elvish community used to reside. I make sure to try and weave
through the players in such a way to prevent as many of the enemies they are
fighting from being aggravated towards me.

With minimal encounters
against enemies and slow progress through the grasslands, we finally arrive at
the forest.

“Shai’en, does this forest
have a name?” I ask curiously as we enter.

“It does, but it can’t be
spoken in the human tongue. It can only be spoken with the voice of nature.”

‘What the heck is the
voice of nature? Well, I take it that is just your way of saying that it
doesn’t have any specific name.’ 
I think
deeply about what I should call it.

“Why don’t I just call it
the ‘Eldenweiss Forest’?”

“If that suits you.”

I stop in my tracks as I
suddenly feel a strong foreboding. Sweat trickles down my back while I glance
through the trees all around me. Apart from the wind rustling the branches
above me, I can also hear a faint whistling sound.

Before I have a chance to
react, my balance is lost as an arrow suddenly appears in my shoulder with a
tingling sensation. Being a sneak attack, it is an automatic critical strike
which takes off nearly a third of my entire health.

‘How frightening! If
I hadn’t just bought all new armour, that would have done a lot more damage!’

“We’re under attack!
Mason, Matrix, you protect Shai’en. Fen, you help me fend them off.” I call out
to the others behind me who immediately move into position. The brother ready
their weapons while moving closer to the elf. At the same time, Fen get’s real
close to me while searching the surroundings.

Another few arrows come
flying through the trees from the front and Fen stamps her foot on the ground,
causing a narrow shield of ice to rise in front of us. The shield shortly
cracks and crumbles as a heavy barrage of arrows hits it.

Coming out of the trees,
is a familiar blonde haired man in a strange suit of silver armour. In one hand
he holds a large kite shield while the other has a crimson red longsword in it.