End Online: Volume 1 (16 page)

What I wasn’t expecting
however is for three more icicles to materialize and take form in the
air, aiming at me. Even more surprisingly was they are forming around
the wolf, its eyes glowing slightly brighter than they naturally do.

The three icicles
triangulated my position and attacked in one fluid motion. The only way to
escape was the activation of perceptual sight. With ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ now at
level 17 the speed decrease was considerable.

Taking the only escape
I retreat backwards, avoiding the two that are coming at me from an angle.
There is one more missile incoming directly in front of me that I attempt to
get out of the way by moving to the side but it was too late, it strikes me
directly in the chest. Shaving off a large portion of my health and leaving me
flat on my back.

‘
What the hell was that? The
wolf is definitely getting stronger, but now using magic?’ 
I
think about whether it could always use magic or if it was recently discovered.
Either way, the power gap between the two of us has all of a sudden widened
again, incredibly frustrating.

The wolf strolls over
and looks down at me, eyes gloating. Once again I am back to lasting less
than an instant. At least it is nice enough to collect the apples for
me every time they regrow.

“I give
up,
you’re clearly stronger than me. That is enough for
today, but have you always been able to use magic?!” It doesn’t even pay my
question any attention, “Well, I guess even you have things you won’t talk
about.”

“You know, I don’t even
know what to call you.” The wolf gets comfortable with its head
laying
on the grass next to me who is still stranded like a
turtle. The wolf is incredibly close to me, all I have to do is reach out my
hand and I will be able to touch it.

“How
about Fen?
That seems like a good name.” I didn’t hear any complaints so I
guess Fen accepts the new name. It was my natural choice considering I had
heard originally that the great white wolf was supposed to be related to the
great wolf Fenrir.

“It’s a strong name,
such a powerful male like you should be proud of it,” Also no growls or
displeased noises, I must have successfully guessed the correct gender of Fen.

All of a sudden a
stalactite of ice larger than any before impales itself in the ground
inches away from my head, close enough that I can feel the cold aura
emanating from it.

“What I-I mean,” Oops,
I stuttered, “Is that any powerful male would be proud to just know someone
with such a strong name.” Rewording what I said as if I made a mistake, Fen
appears to be somewhat content.

Moving slightly away
from the pillar of ice impaled next to me, I bumped into Fen. A cold sweat
broke out on my face while considering the implications of being so close to
such a dangerous beast. Fortunately she has her eyes, opening one to glance at
my presence that got closer, but shortly closing it again and returning to
resting.

The feel of her fur is
amazing,
I sneakily run a hand through it over her shoulder.
It feels like waves of silk yet at the same time is has an incredible tensile
strength and is easy to hold onto.

I pretend to be asleep,
or dead depending on how you look at it, until I hear what sounds like some
form of snoring. Deeming it to be safe to escape, I creep away towards my
weapons to collect them on the way out.

With a slight cracking
in the air a solid line of what I have decided to call ‘Ice bolts’ cuts off my
route. Slowly turning around Fen has raised her large head off the ground
slightly and turned it to give me a prosecuting glare.

I slowly walk back and
sit down next to her, resting my back against her body and staring through the
hole in the cavern roof at the stars the littered this winter night
sky. I stayed in this position all night, wide awake.

Two weeks, everyday
returning to train with Fen, often even more than once time a day. Fortunately
for me there were no more overnight detainments, perhaps due to how often I
came to see Fen. My agility continues to rise at a fast pace as well, and with
the new found ice attacks my mind stat rose a bit.

A few of my skills rose
over level 30 which provided even better stat bonuses, and once ‘Speed Boost’
reached level 30 as well I got a message when I finished combat with some stray
wolves.

I decide to press yes, it was currently giving me a 17% boost
in movement speed but I open my status to check the new skill and current
status.

It was a shame I lost
some of my movement speed, but at the same time I gained an attack speed bonus
and the starting agility bonus is a lot higher than it was with ‘Speed Up’.

The sacred art
‘Perceptual Sight’ also upgraded slightly from ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ reaching
level 20. If I choose so, I can now end the sacred art early instead of having
to wait the full sixty seconds, a completely lifesaver considering I only ever
require it for short moments and the rest of the time it is a hindrance.

I have also been able
to move better under its effects with my agility increasing, I can currently
move at a speed thrice as fast as a normal person. That is with a
fifty percent restriction from my cloak and then everything slowed down by
around sixty five percent.

Enchantments and status
effects also operate in layers I slowly gained this knowledge through some
odd trial and error.
Under the assumption that my normal
speed would be one hundred points.
First skills are applied, ‘High
Speed’ currently giving a five percent bonus giving me one hundred and
five points in speed. Second is the equipment, my cloak halving that total
to fifty two and a half points in speed, and lastly status
effects are applied, such as the time slow. This takes what I have
estimated to be around sixty five percent, leaving my speed at around thirty
four points of speed.

There has been another
new development during this time too. About a week ago I started to feel the
presence of somebody watching me, following me wherever I went. I’ve turned
around countless times, yet there was never anybody there, even in one of the
great expanses of snow to the east of the city where there was nowhere to hide.

There was one evening
in the cave I felt the presence. No doubt Fen would have noticed as well if not
for her single minded pursuit of me through the trees.

I discovered fighting amongst
the trees was fantastic for combating the ice bolts Fen shot off from time to
time. All I had to do was time my speed right and the ice bolts would find
their target to suddenly be a tree, I learnt this technique of throwing
projectile targets with Centurion Markus and his ridiculous rock throwing.

Today’s battle was
relatively short compared to most. My speed was the same as Fen’s so there
wasn’t much of an improvement any more when fought. Even Fen no longer
seeming to get any stronger, but I felt bad about just leaving her. I was no
longer terrified by the wolf, I had somewhat come to like her, albeit still a
little cautious when within swatting distance of her paws.

“Let’s leave it at
that for today, we are both a little tired from that,” Not physically, you only
felt physical exhaustion as your health dropped, but moving and
fighting at such a high speed was extremely draining on the mind and your
reflexes.

Just running in
itself will never exhaust a player, I read online that they were
planning on altering this with an update coming next month, but the details of
the patch were never announced.

“I will race you back
to the Green Parade!” Yes, I named that small hill in the centre of the cavern,
I spent enough time there I may as well.

Racing through the
trees I had the advantage of manoeuvrability through the trees being smaller,
but Fen was no slacker, twisting her enormous body around the trees,
she somehow manages to keep up with me.

Getting back to the
clearing with the hill I head over to a nearby tree around the rim that I left
my weapons and money pouch. Yes, I took off my money pouch, while they
technically weigh nothing I find that when it is not hanging off my belt I can
move slightly faster and move around easier.

‘
Huh, that’s odd, where are
they?’ 
A little puzzled about where my stuff was I searched
another few areas around the trees. 
‘Well, at least that annoying
presence following me seems to be gone.’

Of course
..
I face
upwards and let out a hearty laugh, 
‘I’m going to murder whoever
took my stuff!’

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

-Verde-

My name is Verity Lee,
20 years of age. However in End Online my character is only known as Verde. Due
to being stuck with the looks we have in real life in the game I am incredibly
beautiful, I would be ignorant to say I wasn’t.

With mahogany hair
flowing half way down my chest,
a face of the most perfect
lines and not a single flaw. I broke the hearts of every man around me and I
know it.

Unfortunately I had to
use a hood to hide as much of my face as I could. My father is completely
oblivious to me playing this game and if he ever found out my VL would be
confiscated, no questions asked. Therefore if anybody who knew me in real life
spotted me in the game and my father found out then it would be all over, I
even picked the frozen south east where only ten percent of players start.

However due to my
incredible looks there are a lot of people that approached me and
were offering me free goods. I even had a few requests to join some
guilds, there were very few guilds in the game so far and receiving an invite
was said to be an honour but honestly it was more of a pain than anything. In
this game I didn’t want to be given anything, ironically I had made my
character with stealth skills useful for stealing things.