End Online: Volume 4 (3 page)

Next to one of the trees,
I perch on top a large rock. While losing myself in the sounds of the creatures
of the night and the wind causing trees in the distance to groan, I feel a
sense of foreboding overcome me.

I am immediately alerted
to my surroundings, searching for any movement in the area. Gazing through the
gaps in the trees around me, however, I fail to notice anything. I can still
feel my body burning, like I was being watched from somewhere nearby with bad
intentions.

“Tch,” I click my tongue
as I look down at the sleeping party. Except, there is one that isn’t sleeping.
Fen is lying there, almost trying to burn holes through me with her stare.

“You should be asleep.” I
whisper to her once I get a little closer, crouching down next to her.

“I can’t… protect you… if
I’m asleep.”

“I don’t need protecting.”
I silently chuckle to myself, before standing up and walking back to where I
came from.

Upon reaching the rock, I
still have the feeling that there is someone watching me. Turning around to
look at Fen, I see she is facing the other way.

‘Hmm. Perhaps I am
just being paranoid.’

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

“Ahh!” Mason yawns while
stretching his arms up in the air.

“Please. There is no need
to exaggerate.” I say wearily, scoring a smirk from Mason.

“Come to think about it,
you never did the overnight watch before, did you? How are you feeling?”

“Tired…”

I close my eyes for a
moment, wanting to go to sleep, but the system keeps me awake. Only once my
physical body is in a more dire need of sleep or it is night in the game will I
be able to sleep again.

“Enough of the fun,” Mason
says with excitement. “It is time for us to enter the greatest dungeon of all
time. Everyone ready?”

We all confirm, ready to
follow him wherever he leads us.

It takes us barely five
minutes of walking before the morning sun breaks through the tree line and
illuminates the open world. It is too bright from where we are standing, but as
we get closer and our eyes adjust, everything comes into focus.

Hills, ranging from ten to
twenty meters in height with long, slow slopes are visible as far as the eye
can see. On top of each and every hill is a singular tree. They stand about one
and a half times as tall as a standard tree, but more surprising are the vivid
pink leaves that cover them. They almost seem like giant sticks of cotton
candy.

“There is a road over
there!” I call out to the others as I was first to the top of the hill.

A small dirt road, enough
to fit perhaps four people abreast, winds in and around a lot of hills. I
puzzle over why it doesn’t pass over any of the hills, but perhaps it is simply
a quirk of the designer.

We walk over those hills
in a straight line to the West. It turns out that the reason the path avoids
the tops of the hills is that each tree here houses scores of dark grey
vultures. Each vulture is around level 100 and will only attack once we pass
underneath their tree.

Battling them isn’t very
difficult. We rely on Mason’s archery and Fen’s ice bolts to take them down in
swarms. It is only too bad that doesn’t leave much experience for the rest of
us.

After a day of travelling,
a large mountain range comes into view on the horizon. The mountain peaks
pierce the clouds and a hint of snow can be seen on the caps.

“Hmm, that’s odd. Why is
that one mountain peak flat? Almost like it has been cut off,” I say aloud.

“Battle Peak,” Mason
replies. “At least, that’s what people call it. There are rumors that it used
to be the tallest mountain in the range before the devil-king Asmodeus cleaved
a third of it off. It was later turned into a battle arena where only the
bravest can challenge the darkest incarnations of the underworld.
Unfortunately, nobody knows how to get there.”

He sighs dramatically,
clearly wanting to go up there.

“How do you know all this
stuff?” I ask him sincerely.

“I read a lot of books in
the library back in Grenton,” he shrugs his shoulders indifferently.

Three more days pass
before the distant mountain range starts to loom over us. The sheer size of the
range is stupefying. Even in the real world, there isn’t a range as enormous as
this.

“I understand what you
mean by nobody knowing how to get up there,” I murmur to Mason, who is
unsurprised at the sight before him.

There is no possible way
for someone to climb this mountain. The only way up would be with special gear
and infinite stamina, or the ability to fly.

“Well, enough of that.
Maybe someone will discover a way up there in the future. We are at our dungeon
now, though.” He points toward two large doors built into the mountain wall.
The doors are easily fifteen meters tall, and covered in carvings of ancient
battles and gods.

The doors are slightly
ajar, wide enough to allow two people to enter at a time.

“It’s kind of hard to
miss. Isn’t it?” I laugh while looking at the massive entrance in front of me.

“It is also the passage from
one side of the mountain range to the next. As you can imagine, it is naturally
always packed full of players.” Mason explains with modesty.

“If it is so busy, how are
we going to secure a hunting spot? There will be lines of people waiting
inside.”

“That is only on the first
few floors. It is supposed to be this game’s biggest dungeon, so there should
still be lots of room on the lower levels. Besides, with that skill that causes
all enemies within range to come under your aggro we have no need to secure a
spot; we will just steal everyone else’s prey.”

“That’s not funny Mason,
players get incredibly irritated over that. I have enough trouble as it is.” I
reply sincerely only to have him laugh in return.

We all enter through the
large double doors, arriving in a large corridor, about twenty meters in width.
The grey stone walls are lined with wide, three-pronged candelabras which
flicker every time a gust of wind comes in from outside.

The pathway is well lit,
but the numerous candles cause numerous shadows to form, creating a moderately
spooky atmosphere. We walk in silence, waiting for a group of monsters to
appear at any time.

“Haha, no need to worry,”
Mason laughs, creating multiple echoes in the distance. “The first floor is
mostly a passage between the two sides of the mountain. There aren’t many
monsters, and those that do appear are only around level 100.”

We all breathe sighs of
relief. Our caution level is currently at its highest, considering we are
venturing into a dungeon that we have never been in before. Carelessness will
easily lead to death.

After ten minutes of
walking, I widen my eyes in shock as we finally leave the passageway.

‘How can such a place
possibly exist underground!’ 
I think
to myself.

The passageway opens up
into an enormous cavern. The diameter of the space is at least ten kilometres
wide, and stretched upwards farther than the eye can see in a jagged cone like
formation. In the centre of the cavern is an enormous 18th century gothic
cathedral. Immeasurably tall spires of blackrock pierce the darkness above and
wide arrays of buttresses branch between different sections of the building.

The entire structure is
supported by multiple pillars below. Each pillar is easily fifty meters thick
and extends all the way down into the endless chasm below.

We walk out onto a stone
brick bridge as a torrent of winds buffets us from the side, threatening to
blow us into the chasm below. I glance off the edge of the bridge and suffer a
violent surge of vertigo. The bridge has precious few supporting pillars,
spaced considerably far apart. I feel like the ground beneath my feet starts
swaying and the whole world tilts over. In a panic, I stumble backwards and
fall on my rear.

“Umm… I’m not too good
with heights either,” Matrix says quietly to me as he extends a helping hand
up.

I don’t say anything but I
do accept his hand, using it to pull myself back to my feet. While we are busy
standing at the start of the bridge, another group of players comes out from
the passage we just left. They mustn’t have been far behind us in the walkway,
but I never even heard them coming.

“Let’s go to the third
floor today! I recently bought a new sword that is twice as strong as my last
one!” The swordsman in front vigorously spoke to the three behind him.

“Yes! We could all gain at
least ten levels if we go there!” A player behind him who appears to favor the
bow replied.

They pass by us without
sparing a glance our way. Clearly they must consider us a bunch of weak players
and not worthy of their attention. I notice the other two players have large
shields equipped. They must be defense specialists who protect the party.

“If they are going up to
the third floor, they must be around level 200. Their equipment is quite good
too.” Mason says while nodding his head.

“Are the enemies that
strong?” I ask him.

“For the average player,
yes. Most players have difficulty and will try avoid fighting monsters above
their level. You guys are just freaks!” He exclaims.

“So the monsters on the
third level should be level 200?” I ignore his accusation.

“Indeed, the first floor
monsters are roughly level 100, and every consecutive floor up that level
increases by 50. But then again, I have never heard of what is on the fifth
floor and above.”

Hearing this, I start to
get excited and want to explore the fifth floor, but I realize that my power is
probably lacking to do so.

Judging from outside, a
hundred thousand players could possibly use this training ground with comfort.
but with only the bottom three floors being used, less than half of that can
actually be here.

Without wasting any more
time, we all walk across the bridge towards the looming cathedral. A few bats
fly off from a balcony high above us, screeching throughout the cavern as we
enter through the front doors of the building.

Inside the main entrance
is a large, gilded hall. There are a few doors leading off to other areas, but
the polished marble floor and stained glass windows decorating the walls
attract the eye. A few groups of players are off to one side, fighting little
black-winged gremlins.

I immediately look at a
player training by himself amidst all the teams. He is using a pillar to skirt
around the goblin and stay out of its attack range while using his far superior
reach to occasionally strike back at the monster. I chuckle to myself before
abruptly stopping when I see the back of his right hand. There is no sigil
indicating which kingdom he is from!

‘He is below level
50! He must be above the average player to be able to hunt here.’

I reminisce about when I
started hunting wolves, and the treacherous tactics I had to employ in order to
win. Fighting may be about a head-on collision of power where strength comes
out on top, but victory is determined by tactics.

“Gahh!” A player off to
the other side cries out as a winged gremlin suddenly appears from the wall,
fluttering over and attacking him from behind. He must have been nearly dead
already because his cry was in frustration at dying. Instantly, nearly a
hundred players look over at the corpse with eyes full of greed. Killing a
winged gremlin may give several silver coins, but a dead player can easily have
over a hundred gold.

One of the player’s party
members immediately picks up the two sacks of gold on the floor when the corpse
turns into mist and disappears. He sends a threatening glare at all the people
around, warning them that if they attack they will be met with steel and
arrows.

“Let’s head on up.” I say,
not wanting to be around here in case all these players decide to start some
kind of battle royale.

With all the current
monsters in the hall occupied by the players, we easily pass through the room.
Pushing open one of the doors at the end, we enter into a corridor leading to
other areas. The layout is quite simple; the hallway extends straight ahead,
with doors on the side every thirty to forty meters.

“Which way now? There
isn’t much point in staying on the lower levels.” I look towards Mason, the
knowledgeable one of the party.

“We travel straight
through. Then we pass through another hallway on the right. The staircase up is
on the right hand side of the building.”

“You certainly know your
way around. Have you been here before?” Prince Charming asks curiously.

“No. I simply did my
research. I know the general layout of the first three floors.” Mason replies
in a mysterious tone.

Following his directions,
we travel straight to the entrance of the second floor. We encounter a few
players along the way, half of which are complaining about overcrowding and not
finding a good place to hunt. The other half are celebrating all the loot they
received and levels gained.