End Online: Volume 6 (12 page)

I also travel to some of
the known locations to collect herbs and add more to my stock. I find myself
attracted to a certain female player also collecting herbs who has neither cat
or dog ears, but instead those of a striped raccoon. I ask her for the details,
but she refuses to tell me her secrets.

After preparing all the
items I will need, I find that Verde and Sir Laurence had long since finished
their preparations and have been waiting for me.

“Let’s go,” I say
cheerfully as I lead the way toward the north city exit.

Outside the city is the
same grassy plain I remember. Off to the east is the ocean, which carries a
salty scent over the flat plain. There are other players walking in the
distance, some heading toward the city while others are leaving, but not many
are fighting the monsters around. They are only weak monsters in the end, so
most players choose to go around them rather than fruitlessly crushing them.

Our party is of the
latter, avoiding any fights in order to proceed through the plain as fast as
possible. It is more difficult than when others do it though, because my skill
automatically aggravates any monsters in the nearby vicinity to attack. We have
to give a wider berth around the monsters than anyone else, or charge right
through them.

An hour after walking and
crushing the odd monster that attacks, we finally leave the grassy plain. To
the north of the city is a new area I have not been to, an area where countless
hills and mountains take shape across the landscape.

I spot a party of players
hiding in a small bush getting ready to ambush a group of four half-man
half-wolf enemies that are probably related to the werewolves seen on tv. This
entire area is swarming with these level 150 werewolves. They give a lot of
experience, which makes this entire area popular for many players, but they are
also equally dangerous so the weaker players tend to do their best to ambush
them.

We ignore the party hiding
and walk into the hills. The mountain we are looking for should be deeper
inside this region, but there is more than one mountain that reaches the clouds
so we can only guess which one is the correct one before climbing it.

It is strange exploring
without Mason, Matrix, and even CaptainGordon. Their absence makes the party
quieter and lonelier than normal. Just as I am thinking about those three, I
receive a private message from Mason.

“Lost, how is
everything? Reporting in to let you know we already have ten new players for
the guild! It has only been a day of recruiting and we already have ten!”

“Hah, well, you must
be doing a good job at recruiting then. Are they strong players?”

“No, not really. They
are all the same type of player as you though. Low armor and focusing on speed.
I can’t even claim to have done a good job, they were all attracted because it
was your guild,”
 Mason laughs.

I pause speaking to Mason
as a small group of grey werewolves charges toward us, no, toward me in
particular. Sir Laurence steps forward to defend while Fen uses her ice magic
to quickly dispose of them, leaving me with little to do. I have no use for
their experience points at my level, but the werewolf fangs are worth a decent
amount of gold which I do need.

I only speak with Mason
for a short while longer before finding myself in a position where I have
nothing more to say and end our conversation.

Our party of four enters
deeper into the region and finally reaches the first mountain. There are eleven
more as far as I can see, and each peak is beyond the clouds, making it
impossible to calculate which mountain is the correct one for our quest.

“Let’s try this one
first,” I mention to the rest of the party as we stand at the base of the first
mountain.

There are no objections to
the plan of eliminating the possibilities, so we start ascending the first
mountain at what appears to be the least steep point. I immediately notice that
the air seems to have a shift in scent once we enter the mountain. While before
it was a pure smell of pollen on the spring breeze, it now seems to have a chilling
scent similar to the chest rub I used to use when I was sick.

The monsters also change.
There are still the werewolves that I already knew about and some strange
wildlife, but now there are a few new varieties that I have not seen or heard
of before.

“Creature Analysis,” I
quietly say while looking at the first unknown enemy on the mountain, a strange
armored goat with two curved horns that are more likely to impale someone
rather than be used to ram them off the mountain.

Seeing it as an easy kill,
I lead the attack as I move like a ghost across the precipice of a rock before
digging my weapons, the ‘Twin Nightingale’, into its flank.

The ‘Devil Goat’ reacts
violently, letting out an ear piercing screech that makes me feel dizzy and
discharging lightning magic from its horns. I am a step too slow and the sudden
counterattack strikes me. Two lightning bolts hit me square in the chest,
taking away a surprising twenty percent of my health. Meanwhile, my attack also
did the same percentage of damage to the goat.

The ‘Devil Goat’ doesn’t
give me a chance to take the initiative for a second attack. It charges toward
me at a frightening speed. I react only as it is about to impale me with its
horns, using the Sacred Art ‘Backstab’ to avoid the frontal charge.

The goat seemed to have
expected to use me to stop its charge, but my sudden vanishing act seems to
have ruined those plans. Not far behind where I was, the mountain has a sharp
drop. The ‘Devil Goat’ has too much momentum in its charge and can’t stop in
time, incidentally falling off the precipice.

I move to the end of the
ledge, seeing the goat fall down the mountain, hitting countless rocks and
other objects along the way. It dies before it can even reach the base of the
mountain, or another flat area along the way. I sigh depressingly at the drop
items and money appearing out of my reach. The amount of time it would take to
get down there and then back to where we are is not worth what I would gain.

At this moment, Sir
Laurence, Verde, and Fen, who were not far behind when I charged forward to
engage the ‘Devil Goat’, catch up to me and also stare at the tiny floating
drop item window above the goat corpse that is rapidly approaching the base of
the mountain. Verde giggles lightly while Sir Laurence expresses sympathy. Fen,
of course, has absolutely no interest in the goat and completely ignores it.

“Come on, let’s keep
going,” Prince Charming says, clapping me on the shoulder before glancing
toward the mountain peak that doesn’t appear to have gotten any closer despite
how much we’ve climbed.

“Yeah.” I give one last
resigned look toward the ‘Devil Goat’ corpse before resuming my lead in
climbing up the mountain.

Half an hour later, I
exhaustedly climb over a final ledge and into a cave on the mountain. The sun
is already setting in the game so it is time to set up camp. Fen arrives
second, not a single bead of sweat on her. Verde takes a little longer to
arrive, her breathing heavy as she enters the cave. Meanwhile Sir Laurence is
the last by far, wheezing and panting while lying on the floor of the cave as
if death could welcome him at any moment.

I look at the prince who
is completely out of strength and say with a frown, “That’s why I told you that
you should take off that obscenely heavy armor while climbing the mountain.”

“Nonsense! A knight…
never… reveals his… weakness!”

“Yeah, yeah. Well you look
pretty weak to me at the moment.”

“Anything that dares…
approach my lady… will have to step… over my dead body!”

“I’m afraid they will just
step over your body, actually.”

I turn away from the
pitiful knight who currently only has his good looks going for him and enter a
little deeper in the cave. I had collected and prepared some firewood in the
forest before climbing the mountain, so I should have enough for several days
of cooking.

Removing all my cooking
equipment and materials, I start the fire to boil a pot of water while all the
ingredients are prepared. I’m still depressed over losing the ‘Devil Goat’, and
settle with using the meat from some rabbits that Fen caught while climbing the
mountain instead. I rarely purchase much meat and always prefer to cook fresh
meat as it tastes better.

Unfortunately, there isn’t
much rabbit meat, so I end up adding a larger than normal amount of vegetables
with extra spices to compensate. Sir Laurence soon recovers from his weakness
as the smell of my cooking wafts out of the cave and down the mountain,
enticing any number of wild beasts.

Fen sits behind me and
wraps her arms around my chest while resting her chin on my shoulder. Her chest
presses tightly against my back as she stares intently at the seasoned rabbit
meat grilling over a naked flame.

Noticing her gaze, I pull
off a small piece of meat that has finished cooking and feed it to Fen. The
wolf girl eats it directly out of my hand, her teeth grabbing onto one of my
fingers. She seemed to be about to release my finger when her tongue brushes
against my finger and catches the taste of the grease still on my fingers.

Fen’s eyes roll back in
delight as she sucks on my finger, her tongue moving vigorously to savor all of
the juices left on my finger.

‘Perhaps next I
should put a small piece in my mouth and- No! Forget those thoughts!’
 My imagination runs wild with various scenarios, each
making me more embarrassed than the last.

“Please, for all us single
guys, have a little mercy will you?” Sir Laurence stares painfully at what
appears to be Fen committing a profane act on my finger.

I would have been
embarrassed at having something like that pointed out, but after the most
recent ideas running through my head, it lacks impact.

The prince continues
looking before sighing and mumbling, “I need to get a hot Companion too.”

His voice was low, but not
low enough since Verde and I both heard him. She shifts the unhappy expression
she has been giving me and gazes at Sir Laurence with disgust. She opens her
mouth and is about to say something to the Prince, most likely some new insult,
before changing her mind and closing it again.

Instead, a mischievous
glint appears in Verde’s eyes as she playfully asks Sir Laurence, “What, so I’m
not enough for you anymore?”

“No! Of course- NO!” Sir
Laurence frantically replies, stumbling as he rushes to kneel in front of
Verde, who starts taking advantage of him.

I return my attention to
cooking the meat, reclaiming my finger while taking full pleasure in Fen’s
constant embrace. It is at this moment that heavy footsteps sound from the cave
entrance.

“Enemy coming!” I
immediately warn the others before charging forward to engage whatever beast it
is and protect my cooking.

“Woahh! Hold on there!” A
deep voice shouts in surprise when the enemy sees me coming.

I make out the features of
the enemy in the shadows of the cave as I approach. It isn’t some beast or
monster, but actually a player. It is a man in his early thirties and as tall
as Sir Laurence. He has a lot of heavy obsidian armor equipped over most of his
body, and a large two-handed bastard sword strapped to his back. He also
appears to be of some strange wolf race which has four ears, two on either
side.

The man strikes me with a
sense of familiarity, but my suspicion and danger sense are currently through
the roof so I continue my attack. With a dejected sigh, the man moves his hand
and one-handedly draws the large bastard sword on his back in a single fluent
motion.

In a blur, the sword
follows a strange path in the air before somehow parrying both of my short
swords one after the other. I contemplate using ‘Backstab’ or another Sacred
Art, but my plan is to push him out of the cave and down the mountain if
possible.

“Like I said-” The man’s
tries to voice himself again but my relentless attacks leave him no opportunity
to continue.

Fen also joins me in
attacking the intruder, launching several ice spears at the same time as she
summons a pair of ice daggers and charges toward the man with a frightening
speed. Verde and Sir Laurence look on warily, but don’t have the chance to
attack as well as there is not much room in the cave and any more players will
create a tangled mess.

With both Fen and me
attacking, the four-eared wolf man is forced to slowly retreat. Fen’s and my
attacks are simply too fast, and despite how expertly the man wields the
bastard sword, we continually manage to make small cuts on his body.