End Online: Volume 5 (24 page)

The real life meeting at Silcone Café was quite exciting. I
arrived there incredibly nervous and if my legs had worked, I would have run
away as fast as they would have taken me. I could tell Markus and Verity were
equally as nervous, but slowly the conversation eased and we all became more
relaxed. My biggest surprise was that they are both from extremely wealthy
backgrounds.

I had a thought that if I find any good equipment that they
need, I could sell it to them instead of taking the chance that it wouldn’t
sell well when listing it at the auction. It hasn’t happened yet, but that
doesn’t mean it won’t. They gave me a scrutinizing look while I was thinking
that and I worried that perhaps I had let something slip in my expression.

When I revealed that I applied to university, Markus immediately
declared he would be going as well. Being so used to the cold outward demeanor
of the knight in shining armor,  this kind of warm and friendly
camaraderie caused me to question if it was the same person sitting in front of
me.

The morning passed and our conversation came to an end a little
after lunch. I excused myself as today is the day my sisters will be calling
me, and if the past weekends are any indication, they will call sometime
between 2:00pm and 3:00pm.

True to my prediction, they call me at exactly 2:00pm. I boast
that I will be attending university next year, which causes them to be
incredibly happy. We spend an entire hour speaking about school and university.
Unfortunately, I also had to put up with them talking about boys they do or
don’t like.

The Wanderers aren’t meeting up in End Online again until
tomorrow, so I spend the afternoon shopping for necessities and cleaning the
house. Well, cleaning as much as I can.

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

My boots crunch in the hard snow as soon as I log back into End
Online. The area I left is currently experiencing a light snowstorm and the
entire sky is a sheet of white and grey. My cloak wards off most of the storm,
but visibility is still very poor.

Verde and Sir Laurence log in just after I do. They take two
steps back in surprise and cover their eyes to block the falling snow. It
doesn’t take long to adjust to the storm and they slowly uncover their faces.

“Welcome back,” I say to them as they acclimate to the storm.

Sir Laurence nods his head curtly, his cold attitude having
returned upon entering the game. Verde sports a sour expression that is
completely new to me and doesn’t respond. Her scrunched up face is surprisingly
cute to look at and I sneak a few glances at her. Perhaps Fen notices this, as
she suddenly grabs onto my arm with an iron grip.

“Mason and Matrix are still in Grenton, aren’t they?” Verde asks
suddenly with a voice that causes me to shiver.

Wondering what it is they did wrong to Verde, I decide to
abandon them to their fate. “I assume they are. The last time I heard from
Mason, he and his brother were defending the city quite valiantly.”

“Good, we’re going to Grenton.”

“What? Why are we going to Grenton?”

“To kill them.”

“What did they do wrong?”

“Nothing. I have some frustration to take out. Now let’s go.”

Sir Laurence watches from the side as Verde states her mind and
walks off. Knowing the area we are in, I try telling her that she is actually
walking south, not north. I am rewarded by her physically throwing a dagger at
me which flies toward my head with incredible accuracy and I am only saved by a
small ice shield deflecting it at the last moment. I thank Fen dearly for it,
but Verde is clearly in an extremely poor mood.

At least Verde hears me and we begin walking north. Due to the
war currently going on between the three kingdoms, there were very few players
to the east of the city, but there are plenty to the north. The further north
we travel, the more players there are. Most players are in groups of at least
four, trying to make their way to Grenton discreetly. Of course, it isn’t very
discreet when no matter where you look there is at least one group of players.

Two arrows and a fireball are the greeting we get from the first
opposing group of players we encounter. We haven’t even left the frigid climate
of the Kingdom of Glace when they ambush us. At least we aren’t alone, several
other groups are suffering attacks as well.

A second volley comes shortly after the first, but we are
prepared for it and dodge the attacks while using their trajectory to locate
the position of the attackers. We only lose a small amount of health before
successfully tracing the attacks back to a group of four hiding in some nearby
bushes. It isn’t a bad hiding spot; if they hadn’t attacked, we would have
walked right past them unaware.

The players are between level 100 and 150 judging by their
attacks. Either that or they have extremely low stats for their level, which
isn’t uncommon among certain groups of players.

The enemy party only remove ten percent of our health thanks to
Sir Laurence’s shield tactics before we wipe them out. The party leader also
drops his ‘Unique’ magic staff, which is a happy surprise.

I have found many better weapons than the one dropped by the
defeated party leader, but this is still good and will sell for a small amount
of money. I inwardly laugh to myself as we split the gold dropped by the group
and continue heading north.

The second group we meet is along the border of the two
kingdoms, in a thicket of bamboo-like trees where the snow begins to thaw. This
group sticks to the bamboo area, using the surroundings to enhance their battle
tactics by jumping between the stalks above our heads and slashing long katanas
at us from our blind spots.

I try to use ‘Backstab’ and Fen launches several spears of ice
at them, but they are simply moving too fast to hit. As soon as I appear behind
one, they are already several meters away and I have wasted my stamina.

My health, along with everyone else’s, is slowly whittled away
over the next ten minutes. I finally end up having enough and throw multiple
dire flame fireballs around the area, burning down the bamboo and trapping the
enemy on the ground. Hellfire-red flame slowly spreads around the base of the
forest, burning down the bamboo shoots one after another. The enemy are utterly
shocked and aghast at my actions while I keep telling myself how the victors
write the history books.

The players from Grenton shout out all sorts of profanities and
curses at my actions as we overwhelm them with speed on the ground and start
cutting them down. The dire flames in the area do barely any damage to the
players as they have an extremely large amount of health. My dire flame attacks
are great in that the fire can’t be extinguished with conventional means, but
at the same time the damage it deals per second is extremely small. I’ve also
noted that it is much slower to spread than normal fire.

This group of enemies doesn’t drop any equipment upon death, but
they do leave nearly a thousand gold coins for us to split. The money is
obviously from them killing players from Iceridge here. They were a very
formidable group with a good tactic between them.

Four more groups and a super-levelled solo player attack us
while we ambush three more over the next several days. Verde’s mood also hasn’t
improved at all during this time, resulting in her being frighteningly
aggressive against every group we attack or get attacked by.

While travelling, the items I auctioned sell as well. I
excitedly check the final price of the items after a personal alarm signals the
end of the final auction. The four main pieces of equipment sell for prices
that cause my jaw to unhinge.

The myriad of lesser items sells poorly in comparison. Only half
of the items sold for a cumulative amount of 200 dollars. I relist the others
automatically, but don’t really expect  them to sell.

After travelling for nine days and fighting ten more parties of
players from Grenton, the capital city finally becomes visible in the distance.
I can see the main army from Icebreak, or at least the remaining forty percent
of the initial siege force,  swarming one of Grenton’s main gates. I
overhear a nearby passing group of players say that an enormous force from
Swordbreak is assaulting the gate on the other side of the city at the same
time.

A single small group like ours can’t affect the war much from
the outside, but a sinister plot begins to unfold in my mind as we approach
from a different side: Eldenweiss Forest.

“You all have your ‘Necklace of the Elves’, right?” I ask Verde
and Sir Laurence, causing them to sigh helplessly as I equip mine.

“You’re forgetting we didn’t participate in that quest. That was
when Verde went missing and I went to join the church and become stronger.” Sir
Laurence shoots a quick glance at Fen, but thankfully doesn’t comment on the
root cause of Verde’s absence.

“Ah, sorry. Well I have one and Fen is with us, so it should be
alright.”

We head around the battle and into Eldenweiss forest, which most
people still consider to be impassable thanks to the disorientation spell that
is active within. Due to my having a ‘Necklace of the Elves’, our entire party
becomes exempt from the illusion and passes through it effortlessly. The elven
village is the same as when we left it, only abandoned, but is not our
destination. I am also feeling incredibly guilty that the large burnt down
section of the forest still exists.

Twilight arrives before we manage to reach Grenton’s walls. We
follow the wall to the south for a while then double back and travel north
until we find the small tunnel in the wall that Verde followed the innkeeper’s
daughter out of. Thanks to this, we successfully infiltrate the capital city
Grenton.

Inside the city, the lights along the streets flicker into life
as the stars begin to shine in the night sky. The city appears to come alive as
the upper levels also have the street light lit.

“Lost, I know that we are at war but that does not mean you can
use your fire magic in this town. Understand?” Sir Laurence furrows his brows,
almost as if he thinks that I’m some kind of pyromaniac.

I laugh it off, and explain to him, “I learned my lesson last
time. Also, I still have a bounty here so let us not alert them to the fact I
am here.”

“Hee, that may be a good way to relieve some of my stress,”
Verde laughs heartily for the first time in several days and I feel slightly
insecure as a result.

‘What are you, a sadist?’
I think,
without saying it out loud, of course.

There is very little room to hide in the city apart from the
back alleys, but anyone skulking around them would arouse immediate suspicion.
We decide to approach the problem with the concept of hiding in plain sight.
Walking down the center of the street with our kingdom’s symbols on the backs
of our hands casually hidden by placing our hands behind our backs or in a
pocket, not a single player gives us a second look. Some people stare at the
girls for a second or two, especially Fen, but not out of suspicion.

“Fen, you must promise me that the moment it gets dangerous, you
will immediately flee and log off,” I say as seriously as possible to the girl
hanging off my arm. “That includes if there are too many enemies together.”

The wolf girl seems reluctant, but agrees after I press her a
few more times.

Speaking to Verde and the prince now, I say, “Also, once the
fighting starts, we will split up in groups of two to have a better chance of
at least some of us escaping. I’m sure you realize this is practically a
suicide mission?”

Verde responds with a smile devoid of happiness. “We are only
here to kill Mason, and Matrix if possible, then we can escape. It isn’t like
we are fighting against Grenton’s defending army.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just remember everyone in this city is an enemy.”

We walk toward the east gate, which is the nearest, when someone
finally recognizes us.

“Lost! Oh my god, is that you!? What are the chances of seeing
you here!?” A man in his mid-thirties with a broadsword strapped to his back
bigger than he is shouts out excitably to me.