End Online: Volume 6 (4 page)

The season in this realm
is spring, so I plan to cook something refreshing. In the pot of boiling water,
I drop some birds that are freshly hunted, plucked, and skinned by Mason. As
they cook, the fat melts off them and seeps into the water. I wait until all
the fat has melted off before picking them out, stripping the meat from the
bones, and placing it back in the pot while disposing of the carcasses.

Pulling several vegetables
leftover from the first continent from my inventory, I dice them into
bite-sized pieces and add them to the broth. Last, I grind six ‘Fire Flowers’
which add a chili flavor, three ‘Morning Dew Herbs’ that are sweet in nature,
and finally two ‘Azurite Stone Herbs’ together. The final herb is the most
important, as the ‘Azurite Stone Herbs’ are incredibly durable and serve to
thicken the broth while adding a mysterious flavor and fragrance to the dish.

The aroma emanating from
the pot is extremely strong, so I have Matrix and Sir Laurence patrol the area
in case any monsters are attracted to the smell.

Shortly after, seven bowls
of thick poultry stew are served. Six people wipe saliva from the corners of
their mouths before stuffing their faces as if they had starved for days. Even
I am impressed by the taste. The mysterious flavor of the ‘Azurite Stone Herb’
is like nothing I have tasted in the real world. The closest would be a
combination of ground spices, fresh garden herbs, and a nearly intangible hint
of egg.

Only satisfied after
cleaning out the pot, we all move to our tents. There are only six prepared, as
Fen will be sleeping with me. It allows me to speak with her in private,
arduously teaching her the difference between right and wrong.

Unequipping my armor and
cloak, I climb into a large sleeping bag with enough room for two people. Fen
silently slides in beside me, placing one arm across my chest and pulling
herself against me. I can feel most of her body against my arm and my heartbeat
quickens in response.

“Fen, you are awfully
close,” I nervously whisper to the wolf girl who is currently sniffing my neck.

“…Okay.”

She fails to pick up the
hint that she is uncomfortably close. She is an artificially intelligent
computer program, yet I am afraid that I can no longer see her as just that.

“Shall we continue with
discussing things you should not do?”

“If you… want.”

For the next half hour, I
teach her human morals. Actions you should not do to others, topics you should
not discuss with strangers. As long as I feel it could help her understand her
actions better, I teach her anything and everything.

Eventually, my mind begins
to fade into sleep with the game’s assistance, but with the last sliver of
awareness I have left, I hear Fen’s voice, clear and without any pauses. “You
are the only one for me. For you, I will do anything.”

Before I can react,
oblivion overtakes my consciousness and whatever thoughts I had are swept away
with it.

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

-Chronix-

“And that is the
information on Lost’s new ‘Eternal Draconian’ race that our intelligence has
brought us,” I finish reading out from a private message sent by our spy.

“That’s completely
broken!!” Shock and disbelief covers the faces of all the upper members, or the
Elders as they have started calling themselves, of the ‘Swords of Light’ guild.

I watch all the
slack-jawed members with amusement, laughing coldly before stating, “This is
Lost we are talking about. We should not have expected any less from him.”

“That’s true. It couldn’t
be any other way.”

“Nothing less than the
best.”

“Mhmm, I agree with you.”

An Elder with the petite
body of a child that makes me wonder if he is even old enough to legally play
End Online raises his hand like some grade schooler before asking, “Guild
leader Chronix, I’ve only recently been promoted to Guild Elder so I don’t
fully understand. I am a big fan of Lost and his party, just as we all are, but
why exactly are we constantly chasing after and trying to kill him?”

The room falls unnaturally
silent after the question and no one dares speak, so I answer the question
myself. “Elder SingleShoe, there are two types of people who are fans of others
who are strong. The first is the most common; rabble who blindly throw gifts
and praise at them to get their attention. The second are those who want to
have the honor of fighting them. We are the latter.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier
to just be friends?”

“I met Lost before he
became famous. At that time, unfortunately, we had a difference of opinion between
us. There is no way he would accept me as a friend now, and if he did, I would
probably think less of him. All I want is to follow him, and keep challenging
him along the way.”

After Elder SingleShoe
nods his head in understanding, another person asks a question that makes me
frown. “Guild leader, before joining the ‘Swords of Light’ three months ago, I
recall you used to be one of the leading high level players on the server. What
happened to-”

“Moving on to the next
topic of this meeting. Lost and his party are currently in the Beast Realm and
we have an idea of his location. We will be sending thirty ordinary members and
two Elders for this assault. I will also be going, as usual.” I cut off the
previous question and don’t answer, as it is a subject I do not wish to speak
about with these people.

The Elder who asked the
question takes the hint and doesn’t ask it again. For the next half hour, we
discuss the members who will be leading this operation, along with a new
strategy to combat Lost’s draconic race. Defense against the companion Fen and
his other party members is included in the plan.

“Tomorrow, we will head
out as planned! Everyone, dismissed!” I turn and leave the room before logging
out, not bothering with seeing the other members off.

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

-Lost-

When my consciousness
returns, the first things I hear are the birds cawing in the distance and the
sound of movement in the camp. As I stayed up half an hour speaking with Fen
before going to sleep, it is only natural I am the last to awaken.

A cold draft invades the
tent and makes me shiver; half my face is already numb. Fen’s arm wrapped
around my back has a soothing effect that calms my mind when I focus on it.
There is also the feeling of pressure on my forehead that leaves me confused.

Slowly opening my eyes, my
originally calm heart instantly starts working frantically as I realize my
previous thoughts were completely wrong. I have rolled, or been rolled onto my
side. Fen’s face is pressed against my face, the tender skin of her nose is
brushing against the side of mine, and our lips are a single breath away from
one another.

Her breath is frigid,
brushing against my face every time she exhales and adding to the numbness.
Despite that, I can feel a heat rising in my face that is quickly dispelling
the chill.

Staring at her eyes
quivering beneath her eyelids in her sleep, I am unable to hold myself back
anymore and inch my mouth closer to hers. The movement causes our skin to rub
together and my emotions to fall into turmoil. Pressing forward a little more,
our lips begin to touch lightly.

“Lost! What exactly
are you two doing in there? Don’t tell me… are you?” Mason’s teasing voice
comes in from outside and I know he is unlikely the only one there.

I pull my face away from
Fen’s sourly. The mood is completely ruined, and for some reason, I’m feeling
considerably angry at Mason.

Fen is holding herself
against me tightly, and my hand is trapped in an awkward position against my
chest. Wriggling my arm around to free it and then myself, I grasp onto
something that fills my hand. Gently applying pressure, a small protrusion
presses against the center of my palm.

‘Soft!’
 Is the first thought that comes to mind.

I rise up onto my elbow
and lift the sleeping bag cover. Sure enough, there are Fen’s twin mounds,
devoid of any clothing – one of which just happens to be in my hand. I want to
let go before misfortune falls upon me, but wait a few breaths before doing so,
breaking free from Fen’s arm and climbing out of the sleeping bag.

Equipping my armor and
cloak once again, I briskly leave the tent and grumpily say to the party lining
up out front, “I just woke up!”

Several smirks follow.

Fen emerges shortly
afterwards and we all get to work to quickly pack away the campsite.

I witness a strange sight
while helping tidy up. Two small ice spikes erupt from the ground and pierce
Mason’s feet while he is cleaning the remains of the fire. There is no injury
as he doesn’t cry out, but having his feet pinned to the ground still causes
him to fall into the cold ashes and stir up a cloud of soot. He stands up
abruptly afterwards, covered from head to toe in grey and black residue.

– Lost –

After Matrix interrupts
Fen and me, the camp is incredibly awkward. The entire site is silent, and
not-so-subtle glances are constantly sent my way. Fen stands next to me as I
practice my ‘Potion Production’, eyeing the concoctions nervously.

‘Don’t worry Fen, I
won’t feed these to you. Those other people though, I might,’ 
I sinisterly plot to myself.

Once the morning cleanup
is finished, I challenge everyone’s glances before saying, “Nothing happened!
Now, let’s keep going into this forest.”

They all agree, of course,
but it doesn’t remove the suspicions they are harboring. I do my best to ignore
them for the time being as I lead us out of the jagged plains and into the
forest. At first it seems like an ordinary forest, but the brush quickly thickens
as it turns into a jungle.

The change of atmosphere
inside the jungle is surprisingly abrupt. The air becomes increasingly more
humid and the sounds of small insects surround us. I hear some branches snap
not too far from us, but can’t seem to locate any beasts or players.

CaptainGordon, Matrix, and
Sir Laurence take the lead, using their swords to cut through the brush as we
head deeper into the jungle.

A piercing cry from above
alerts me and the rest of the party as four monkeys as large as a person swing
down at us on vines, large clubs in hand. I am about to use ‘Creature Analysis’
when I witness Sir Laurence cutting one down with a single heavy overhead slash
of his sword.

Seeing how weak they are,
I don’t bother. Instead, I join the others in attacking the monkeys as they
swing past. Three of the monkeys are instantly killed, while the fourth one
only loses seventy percent of its health before passing by and swinging back up
into another tree. I feel irritated that the only one that isn’t dead is the
one I attacked.

It comes swinging back
down a moment later, but is shot and killed by one of Mason’s arrows before it
can get close to us. I collect several tufts of fur that the monkeys drop, as
they are potion ingredients according to the item information, while several
other minor loot items and a handful of silver coins are distributed to the
rest of the party.

“That was unexpected,”
Mason laughs heartily while warily looking up at the trees.

I look at him and amusedly
say, “Weren’t you up a tree the first time we met you?”

“I was…”

“Could you climb up the
trees to keep an eye out for any more of your kin?”

“Can’t you fly? And I am
not a monkey, thank you!”

“You sure like to cause
mischief though!” I look at Mason from the side, unwilling to let the
disturbance this morning go.

Our bantering stops and we
proceed deeper into the jungle. Before travelling too far we find a packed-dirt
trail that leads off through the trees. The forest is much thinner around the
path, making travelling much quicker. With the choice of turning to the right
or left when coming onto the path, I choose to travel left, since the path to
the right seems to lead back to the ocean.

The path forks multiple
times through the jungle, and we even see several parties of players while
aimlessly following it. The monkeys in the trees attack in approximately ten
minute intervals, so after the first hour we can mostly predict when they will
attack.

During the third hour of
travel, most of the party starts to get restless from walking without
direction. Suggestions to leave the trail to fight as many different monsters
in the jungle as possible are raised, but I decide against it as we would
probably end up lost before too long.

Not long after, our
motivation is rejuvenated once again when we come to the end of one of the
paths. Still within the jungle, the trees thin out before completely
disappearing and leaving a large open area where the clear blue sky can be seen
in its enormity.

Within the clearing are
the ruins of a massive establishment. A square, ten meter tall wall of
crumbling and cracked stone bricks surrounds an enormous temple and several
other, smaller temples. At least, that is as much as I can see over the walls.

A crumbling stone arch
which has had the doors collapse inwards serves as the entrance to the dungeon.
From inside, I can hear the sound of swords and spears hitting something
incredibly solid within the walls, letting me know that we are not the only
people here.

“Let’s go!” I barely
finish saying before everyone, minus Fen, rushes past me and toward the fallen
entrance.

If it is a race to see who
will be first, I can’t help but shake my head at their foolishness.

Kicking off from the
ground, I leave an afterimage behind me as I move like a phantom toward the temple’s
entrance, Fen following me effortlessly. The rest of the party, who are all
still moving quite quickly, barely have any time to react as I pass them and
arrive at the entrance.

Giving them a smug grin,
Fen and I are the first to step through the fallen gates and witness the scene
inside.

The ground is covered by
old square slabs of stone, tufts of grass emerging from the cracks between
their joints. An enormous stone temple is in the center of the area, looming above
me with a menacing appearance. Several smaller temples and even smaller houses
are around it, giving the appearance of a fallen civilization.

The wide streets between
the buildings have stone pillars, as tall as three men, standing in positions
with no apparent pattern. However, due to their age, several of them have
broken, leaving pillar sections and rubble spread across the textile pavement.

The sounds of fighting
ring out again as well. A party of six players, Nekomata from Kano City and
Inudoga from the second capital of the Beast Realm, Koga City, are currently
fighting two of the moss covered stone golems wandering the area.

“Creature Analysis,” I
quietly say as the rest of the party reaches the gate.

I feel like there is a bit
too much of a disparity between the level of the monsters outside the dungeon
and those inside. The health of these ‘Stone Guardians’ is also incredibly
high.

The party fighting the two
golems appears to be having a lot of difficulty. Staring at them struggle due
to their attacks bouncing off stone, Mason says, “The golems appear to be
highly resistant against physical attacks. We need to use magic or physical
attacks that are infused with magic.”

Walking down the street as
a large group, we steer clear of the party so as to avoid the ‘Stone Guardians’
falling under my aggravation effect. We don’t avoid other enemies, however,
challenging a small group of three golems right from the beginning. We could
probably fight many more at once, as our stats are mostly equal to the top
players and our levels are much higher than our enemies’, but we decide to be
cautious.

To test our theory, we try
pure physical attacks first. Mason’s arrows bounce off the golem, just as do
Sir Laurence’s and Matrix’s swords. CaptainGordon’s pistol cannon has a very
different effect, as the bullet embeds itself deep within the golem and causes
web-like cracks to form around the bullet hole. The shot drains a full thirty
percent of the golem’s health.

I use my speed to try and
cut through its defense, slashing the enormous stone torso along the side. Even
my speed isn’t enough to negate its physical defense, only leaving an inch-deep
gash in the stone. Although much less effective than the pirate’s pistol
cannon, my attack did take off five percent of the golem’s health.

“Next, magic attacks!” I
call out, narrowly dodging the swinging arms of the golem that seems to have
the strength to lift mountains.

Distancing myself from our
enemies, I call out “Dire Starburst” and cast my magic before any of the
others.

Thankfully my weapons
halve the amount of mana required for my religious skills, limiting this spell
to use about a quarter of my mana.

In the air around me,
eighty to ninety small wisps of dire flame flicker to life like a small
starscape. I concentrate and target the three golems each with a third of my
starbursts. Each and every one of the small dire stars shoots forward like a
bullet, piercing into the golems.

Cracks spread across one
of the golems like a cobweb and it immediately crumbles into a pile of rubble.
The other two survive the attack, but are also near collapse. The dire flames
flicker in the wounds of the golems. They don’t cause continuous damage like
they usually would, but instead prevent recovery.

The entire party and I are
surprised at the strength of the magic.

Completely unfazed by the
condition of the enemy, Fen materializes several ice spears and quickly kills
the remaining golems. In comparison to their strength against physical attacks,
they are extremely weak against magic attacks. It is only CaptainGordon’s
strange cannon pistol that defies this logic.

With our enemies defeated,
we collect the dropped loot and distribute it equally amongst ourselves. There
are several silver coins, a low quality spear made from obsidian, and more than
a handful of iron ores. I forego the spear and coins, taking more ores to train
my smithing. CaptainGordon takes the same approach as me, collecting crafting
materials with the intention of making a new boat eventually.

Being able to easily kill
the enemies, we wander the streets of the ‘Ruminu Forgotten Temple’ with ease.
I see the party of Nekomata and Inudoga occasionally along with several other
groups of players, but there is still ample room to hunt enemies. Our main
problem is that the enemies’ levels are too low and we have little chance of
gaining much experience from them.

“What is in the
buildings?” I ask with interest as we walk past the open doorway to one of the
buildings.

Verde also looks into the
opening, casually saying, “I’m not sure, but the other parties in the area have
shown no desire in going in so I wouldn’t imagine much.”

Out of curiosity, we walk
into one of the buildings, which is unnaturally dark until Sir Laurence casts a
spell that creates a luminous ball of light above him.

When the inside of the
building fills with light, twenty or more ‘Stone Guardians’ come to life,
standing up and attacking. To make matters worse, they block off the doorway and
are only a few meters away in this enclosed space.

Without the need for
direction, everyone starts using their strongest attacks. I falter in surprise
when Fen fills the area with an icy mist and causes ice spears to form at
random locations in the air and attack omnidirectionally.

Mason shoots arrows of
wind that are an improvement to the previous version of his sacred art. Now
they shoot like a blade of wind, cutting everything in their path. Matrix’s
sword burns with an inferno, the flames now with a hint of blue fire within
them. Sir Laurence raises his sword up high, slashing it down with an
overwhelming golden light.

Verde, well, she has no
magic-based attacks and is standing protected in the middle of the group with a
sour expression. I wonder if she will learn some elemental magic skills at the
cities’ churches next time she has the chance.

As I am about to use ‘Dire
Starburst’, something strikes me from the side and sends me flying. I get a
glimpse of one of six stone golems that were closing in on me before hitting
the wall. My health takes a significant penalty as well, losing a third
instantly.

‘Tch, aggravation
caused them to focus on me again. I also need better armor, the monsters keep
doing more and more damage,’
 I
inwardly chastise myself for not being cautious enough.

Eating a few restorative
herbs, I silently watch the monsters and marvel at how powerful my
auto-aggravation is as they completely ignore Fen’s relentless assault of ice
spears up until the point they collapse.

I also don’t entirely
understand Fen’s magic. I can see how much mana she has at all times, and it
appears she has needed less mana to use her basic skills than ever before. I
wonder if there is a limit to this reduction, or if she will eventually be able
to freely control basic ice attacks without the need to spend mana at all.

Several other golems break
through our assault and attack our party. Most are blocked by Sir Laurence, but
two manage to land a strike on Mason and CaptainGordon. CaptainGordon suffers
the most, losing seventy percent of his health from a single strike. His
defense must be even lower than mine.