End Online: Volume 5 Page 3
~ Defence value has been reduced by 40%
~ Additional effects have been reduced by 30%
'Golden Imp Leather Cuirass' Durability has fallen below 10%
~ Defence value has been reduced by 40%
~ Additional effects have been reduced by 30%
'Hayater Leather Cap' Durability has fallen below 5%
~ Defence value has been reduced by 60%
~ Additional effects have been reduced by 50%
'Soft Haste Boots' Durability has fallen to 0
~ Item has broken and can no longer be used
'Guiding light(Necklace)' Durability has fallen to 0
~ Item has broken and can no longer be used
Disregarding all the nearly broken equipment, the two items that actually broke are the most devastating. Broken items are automatically unequipped and placed back in the player inventory. The problem is that once an item’s durability reaches zero, they are considered to be beyond repair.
The smoke suddenly shifts, rapidly gathering together to reform ‘Gas Child’. I don’t immediately realize it, but the boss is gathering its body in a completely different location from where it dispersed. When the smoke clears enough, I see where the boss is reforming.
I nock an arrow, and my bow glows a pale blue as I prepare to release my ‘Piercer’ sacred art as soon as Gas Child becomes solid. In the space of a few breaths, the boss reforms its body again and brandishes its whip, but I don’t fire. The boss is directly behind Matrix!
My little brother is standing there dumbfounded, not because he doesn’t know where the boss is, but because all his armor and even his weapon have broken. He is standing there in nothing but the casual clothes which are normally under his armor.
‘Damn it, Matrix! How many times have I told you that you need to maintain your weapon and armor in good repair!’ I inwardly curse, understanding that all his equipment has broken due to their durability being at half.
Matrix stands there stupidly, looking down at his bare hands as the boss flicks its wrist and delivers a whip lash to Matrix’s back. The strike creates a deafening shockwave that sends me sliding back several meters. Poor Matrix flies several tens of meters before hitting a wall and becoming a corpse on the ground. The attack dealt critical damage, and without a single shred of armor for protection, he died instantly.
I barely have time to curse before ‘Gas Child’ automatically targets me and attacks with his whip. I begin to raise my bow to defend against the attack, using the ‘Grand Elven Bow’s’ ability to be used as a shield, before remembering that it is nearly broken.
I jump to the side in an attempt to dodge, but my speed is not as fast as Matrix’s. The whip follows its characteristic trait of fluctuating in speed, lashing at me nearly instantly. I feel a wind brush past me as I narrowly dodge, before a shockwave buffets my body and sends me flying several meters away. The game doesn’t permit players to feel any significant pain, but the rotating of my vision as I tumble is enough to nauseate me.
The attack takes just over a third off of my health, leaving my limbs feeling a little heavier than before. Standing up slowly, I see that the boss is steadily approaching me. I realize that when facing straight on, it is incredibly difficult to capture the timing of the boss’s movements.
I nock two arrows and hastily release them at the enemy. My accuracy improves dramatically thanks to the target not moving sideways. I quickly use the sacred art ‘Wind Piercer’, firing an arrow of wind at the boss before retreating.
My concentration wavers as I see the boss falter and become unsteady from the wind based attack. His health visibly drops a fraction from the attack as well.
The attack also seems to cause ‘Gas Child’ to rage, his speed explosively increasing as he leaps toward me. The whip in his hand strikes toward me while circling around itself. I attempt to dodge the whip again, but it seems to track my movements and make dodging impossible. The whip gathers around my body before tightly binding me.
Trapped by the purple-black whip wrapped around me, all my struggles to free myself are fruitless. With another flick of his wrist, the boss lifts me up with his whip and swings me around himself. My vision blurs slightly and I feel the semi-solid whip release me. The next thing I notice is a dull itch on the back of my head and shoulders.
I can vaguely feel the wall behind me, but my limbs refuse to move no matter how hard I struggle and my mind is still reeling from the flight and slow to respond. As my head clears and my focus sharpens, I see the boss standing a few meters away from me. His whip comes swinging down once more and then everything turns black with a single message.
You have died.
Due to having no one in the vicinity of your body, your soul disperses and revival magic can no longer be used on you.
Your soul has reformed in the Great Church of Grenton.
Do you wish to revive immediately?
Yes/No
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Matrix and I challenge the hidden tomb three more times and defeat the sub boss on the third attempt, but fall miserably to the mundane enemies deeper in the dungeon. Our party is far too small and not levelled high enough to be able to go further, so I make a video out of all the footage I have.
The video of us in the dungeon takes quite well with the viewers and even the advertisement slot sales. It isn’t my most popular video to date, but it is still better than my last few.
In the blink of an eye, three months pass and it becomes time for the party to get back together. Thanks the the multiple trips back to Swordbreak Matrix and I have had to make after death and the loss of stats each time, I suspect everyone else’s character strength to have increased. Except for Lost himself, as he hasn’t been playing.
***************************************************
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-Lost-
The three months of study and the final exams make it feel like only several weeks have passed, but the changing of the seasons says otherwise.
Now that I have my high school equivalency, and with high marks at that, I am qualified to apply for a large number of further study options. I want to go to university, but am unsure what I want to study. I spend an entire day doing research on the internet about university courses and all the future job opportunities.
Considering my inability to walk, it will have to be some form of corporate or other desk job. The prospect isn’t enticing, but it is something I must do.
“Accounting, teaching, neuroscience, art, music, law, science…” I mumble to myself as my eyelids begin to slide shut, the boredom from reading the content of the courses available causes me to feel extremely fatigued.
The sound of a message on my phone snaps me awake. Picking up my phone, I see it is from Sir Laurence, or Markus Forz, as he is known in real life.
Lost, are you coming back soon? The group is waiting.
Similar to how he is in game, Sir Laurence is very direct and straight to the point. He has messaged me several times over the course of my studies, and I even relied on calling him occasionally for advice with a problem I was stuck on. He was highly knowledgeable and surprisingly helpful.
I give him a short reply, letting him know I will be on in 24 hours and for him to make sure everyone knows. At that time we can all get together and talk about everything. He replies almost instantly with a second equally curt message.
I spend the rest of the night refreshing my memory on the game and the latest news in the End Forums. The forums hint that something big is coming to the game, but contain no concrete evidence, only speculation.
I log into my locker, and Fen jumps on me before I can gather my bearings. The collision causes me to topple over with Fen still sitting on top of me.
“Fen, it’s only been three days since I saw you last… Is this really necessary?”
“…Unn,” The wolf girl makes a pleased grunt, leaning forward on m
e and rubbing herself against me.
My cheeks turn crimson and I feel my pulse begin to pound. My embarrassment leaves me at a loss for words so I forcefully roll over, causing her to end up beneath me. Taking the opportunity as her grip loosens, I stand up and dust myself off.
Still laying on her back, the girl scowls and looks displeased. However, her dissatisfaction soon leaves her as we both end up side by side on the couch, me describing to her my studies, almost teaching her all the material I learned in the process of our discussion.
Fen has a stutter with her speech that I thought was some fault in her programming, yet she learns the things I tell her about with astonishing ease. I can’t imagine her coding to be faulty and still have such an amazingly rapid learning curve.
This is how all of my conversations with the girl go. I visit two or three times a week to sit down and talk with Fen. I enjoy having someone to talk to, and open up with. Thanks to her being an artificial program, she is absolutely perfect. Of course, our time can only last so long before I run out of things to talk about.
Being in a very positive mood from my recent test results, I decide to sleep in the bed in my locker tonight. Fen is overjoyed, and she practically drags me to the bed before following me in, wrapping her arms around me and tightly pulling herself onto me. Two warm, soft lumps pressing against my shoulder is my last conscious thought before I drift off into a deep sleep.
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“Welcome back!” Mason, Matrix, and Verde say in unison.
Sir Laurence is here as well, but he only gives me a curt nod of his head.
I look all around the ‘Honey Tree Inn’ with wide eyes, “It feels like everything around here has changed!”
“You simply haven’t been here for a while. Although they did replace the tables about a month ago,” Sir Laurence also looks around, noting several things are different.
“I’m glad you passed, Lost!” Mason says with a massive grin. “And with such high grades too! That must have been one of the top scores in this entire city.”
We all stayed in contact in real life, and thanks to the people in front of me being the only friends whose phone number I have, they were the first to hear about my test results.
“I still need to choose a course for further study, so it is not over yet.”
“If you need any advice, I would be more than happy to try and help!” Verde adds into the conversation with a smile that can’t be anything other than genuine.
“I appreciate it, really! You will be the first I call if I get stuck!”
Our conversation fills with menial and insignificant things and lasts several hours and many ales.
“Hey,” Mason raises his hand to get everyone’s attention, “how about we form a guild. We have five people here, which is the minimum number needed!”
Verde frowns, “It is, but you also need 20,000 gold, which I am sure none of us have.”
“Ah, well, perhaps we could save up for it.” Mason’s expression becomes downcast.
“I quite like the idea. I recommend we put a little money away each time we earn some gold so we can eventually form one. Also, I did receive 10,000 gold from winning the tournament which means we are basically half way there,” I say, half to myself, but everyone seems to give it some thought.
Eventually, they all agree to the idea.
I just have one last question to ask, “Does anyone have any ideas for the guild name?”
Everyone shakes their head in silence.
Chapter 29 – Escape from Swordbreak!
-Lost-
The evening grows dark and night falls on the world. Footsteps and shouts echo in from the open doorway of the ‘Honey Tree Inn’ as players try to find their way through the crowd or hawk goods. I see the light from glowing torches in the room flicker as another handful of players enter the inn.
“Lost, Lost!” I am brought back to attention by Mason’s shout. “I was just asking, where should we set off to next?”
Mason, Matrix, Verde, Sir Laurence and Fen all look across the round, wooden table at me expectantly. I also am feeling slightly unsure of where to go next. We have spent so long travelling, challenging multiple dungeons and areas along the way, and have already managed to visit all three kingdoms and their capitals.
Suddenly, an idea flashes through my mind. “Actually, there is a quest I received that may interest you all. As you are aware, I interacted with the dragon, Grael, when I was cornered and PKed before the tournament. After the tournament, I gave him the strange stone tablet I got as the reward.”
Everyone apart from Sir Laurence leans forward slightly to hear me better over the surrounding crowd. The prince, however, continues to sit ramrod straight, maintaining his elegant poise.
“He seemed quite pleased with the tablet, and even gave me a quest to find the other six. Well, he forced it on me at the time and I wasn’t permitted to turn it down, but it may be good for all of us to do! It’s a ‘Legendary’ rated quest!”
“So, you want us to circle through the whole continent again on some kind of treasure hunt?” Verde asks, looking much less enthusiastic compared to before.
The fact that it is a quest of the ‘Legendary’ rarity piques the interest of the two brothers, but even they appear to have some doubts in their minds.
“Hardly, it is much more interesting than that,” I wickedly grin at them as I prepare to reveal the most surprising aspect of the quest. “The quest can’t be undertaken until the server expansion ‘The Seven Realms’ is released. Even Grael said he suspects them to be on these other continents!”
They all listen to me non nonchalantly as I speak about the server expansion coming and other continents. It takes them a few moments for the words to sink in before they collectively shout.
“WHAT?!!”
The sudden yell of the party drowns out the voices of every player in the near vicinity of our table, causing a few glances to turn our way wondering what the commotion is about.
“Hey! It’s Lost! The winner of the Royal Summer Tournament!” One person in the crowds shouts while pointing at me.
The entire inn goes silent as every set of eyes turns toward me. Many are full of disbelief at first, but are soon filled with surprise and something akin to worship.
“Lost! Lost! I can’t believe I would meet such a famous person here!”
“W-w-would you please sign this notebook!? I-if you do, make it out to T-TigerRaid. No, please m-make it out to Ryan Dunmore!”
“Such an attractive young man. Tell me, are you single?”
A wide variety of people crowd in around our table, trying to get as close as possible, grab me, get my autograph, send a friend request, or become intimate with me. It is the last of these things, when a female player with average looks tries to force herself on me that the temperature in the room suddenly drops.
Following the drop in temperature, spears of ice erupt from the ground around me like a flower at the nearby players. Several people are instantly impaled, including the flirtatious girl, and more are pushed away. Fen also immediately moves to my side and hugs onto me while glaring at the crowd aggressively.
“Ah, it’s Fen!! Please marry me!”
“Allow this gentle one to melt that ice cold heart of your with his warmth!”
“Please step on me!!”
Even despite the heart chilling aura she is giving off at the moment, many of the male players shout out jubilantly toward the wolf girl. Several move forward and impale themselves on the ice spears with looks of pleasure on their face.
“Oh my god, they are even more aggressive than before…” Mason speaks from next to me, his voice a low whisper.
Swiftly turning my head around, I see the entire party has lifeless eyes covered in shadow. Seeing other players voluntarily jumping onto Fen’s ice spears is clearly too much for them. Even Sir Laurence is at a loss, his devotion toward Verde completely incomparable to these fanati
cs.
Suddenly, a terrible foreboding overcomes me. “Fen, get rid of the ice!”
“…No.”
The players impaled by Fen’s ice spears are constantly taking small amounts of damage, which is a considerable amount for even high level players, let alone this mob of fans. My past experiences have also taught me that any player Fen kills counts as me killing them. I can’t possibly afford to get a player killer’s status here in the middle of the busiest capital in the game!
“Fen, do it now!” I bark at the girl, startling her.
The ice around me immediately dissolves into the air, and the players stop taking damage. The wolf girl continues to sheepishly cling to my arm, a hint of a smile playing on the corner of her lips.
“Everyone, we are leaving! Please make way!” I call out while gesturing for the rest of the party to follow me.
We all stand up and start shuffling toward the door through the crowd. They may be massive fans of my character, but at least they don’t try to forcefully entrap us within the inn.
Outside the inn, the sky is dark with only a quarter moon shining down. All the torches and lamps in the city light up the buildings, pathways, and floods of people. Just like a strip of casinos, this place never seems to quiet down.
The commotion of seeing the champion of the recent tournament is completely isolated to the ‘Honey Tree Inn’, so none of the players in the street approach us as the others did before. Of course, I pull my hood up and over my head just in case.
“Y-you were saying about that quest, and that there are other continents?” Verde stammers out while we walk through the streets.
“Ah, yes! It appears there will be a server expansion that will include new continents. I suspect that there will probably be six new continents added, but I am not sure how big they will be.”
Sir Laurence casually drifts sideways until he is walking directly between Verde and I, “Considering they are called continents, at least that is what Grael called them, I would assume that each one wouldn’t be any smaller than any one of the current kingdoms.”