End Online: Volume 1 (21 page)

“Fen, I need you to
wait outside town for a while. I will be back for you shortly after I get
something.” Turning to the guards I then address them next, “That should be
acceptable should it not? If Fen was to wait outside the walls, otherwise I
feel there may be a battle right here that will not be favourable to either of
us.”

The guards give a pained expression, then the
obvious leader of the troupe who has done all the speaking up till now answers,
“Very well, we will allow 
it
to reside
outside the walls. We also do not wish for a battle if it is avoidable.”

Fen sends a glare my way as if to say, 
‘You led me here to show me your city and now you tell me to wait
outside?’ 

All I can say to her
without alerting the guards to my plan is, “Sorry, please have a little trust
and wait for me.” She seems to be somewhat content with that and walks back
outside the walls.

With the commotion gone
the guards slowly wander off and shops start to reopen. Prince Charming and the
woman were already gone before the crowd of players dispersed.

Next was to initiate my
plan, I was not entirely sure it would work but I did not see any reason why it
should not. First I walk through the main central courtyard and into a small
branch of the Bank of Iceridge. There were a few small branches of the bank
spread around this city and any money stored could be accessed from all of
them,
however you could only access your money from
Iceridge.

While it was possible
to have your money transferred to another started city to access it there from
their bank, you had to pay a large fee of ten percent. The further the money
had to be transported the higher the fee, so most people opted to withdraw all
their money in the form of platinum coins, each valued at a hundred gold coins
and people on ever held onto them when they were travelling to another city
with a bank.

Inside the bank I used
a coin converter in the corner of the room. The clerk could do it for me but I
did not feel like talking to them, so I tip my coin bag upside down
and ten copper coins fall into the hole on the top. Interestingly
coins cannot stack higher than 100

A small tray slides out
in the middle of the contraption containing nine silver coils and ninety nine
copper coins.

Next on the agenda is
the blacksmith. Approaching the NPC behind the counter
who’s
long hair was considerably messier than usual. I take not that his skin is a
few shades
darker,
perhaps he travelled outside for a
while, or got too close to his furnace and cooked himself a little bit.

“Sell,” Keeping my
words to him short as usual he didn’t seem as bothered this time, merely asking
me what I wished to sell.

Rather than placing the
items in front of him, I operated a trade menu to select every piece of weapon
and armour I scavenged off the dead goblins.

The blacksmith scrolled
through his panel at the items I selected, giving a grunt, “These items are ‘
pletely
rusted and useless. Where did
ya
get them?
The arse of a lake or
somethin
’?”

What a crude way of
speaking! Well it isn’t the first time I’ve heard him run his mouth like that.
I indicate to the items like I want to sell them regardless.

“Well, I’ll give
ya
seventy silver for ‘
em
.
That’ll be the best deal
ya’ll
get anywhere.”

I didn’t expect much
for this pile of rust, despite how much there was. I hurriedly nod my head
before he can reconsider the price.

I also have the
jewellery to sell that should get me enough money for what I need. At a
jewellery shop with a young lady at the counter I managed to
haggle
twenty one gold for the seven pieces, although half of that price was a
necklace that was a much higher quality than the rest.

Now that I should have
enough money I go to the only magic shop in the central courtyard, walking
around the giant frozen fountain I walk into a small shop covered in dust.

I didn’t even bother to
explore the
shop,
I have no use for most of the goods
here as I do not have any skills related to magic. Behind the counter is a
young man in his
mid twenties
, a bulky brown robe
covers most of his body, and large spectacles framed his face. Apart from that
he has a mousey brown hair the length of one of my fingers and a few freckles
across his face.

“Excuse me. I would
like to purchase a scroll.”

“Of course,
good sir.
May I ask which one in particular?” Oh so polite! I would
almost think maybe I had a good intimacy with him if his smile reached his
eyes.

“I would like a Scroll
of Shrinking.”

“Not a problem. That
will be
fifteen gold
.”

Surely that is a rip
off! But scrolls aren’t exactly cheap in the first place as they let
anyone use a once off magic without the need of any mana.

“Very well, thank you
for that.”

I am extremely
reluctant to hand over all the money, yet I need the scroll right now so I make
the payment and the item is transferred into my possession

Now that I have the
item I needed to walk back out the eastern exit and find Fen sulking in the
snow a little off to the side of the gate.

Walking up to her I open
the scroll.

“Okay, Fen. Are you
ready to go into town?” The wolf’s ears perk up at my words, “Now I need to
cast a very special spell so stay still for a moment.

Holding the scroll in
one hand and using the other one to hold an open palm at Fen for directing the
magic I recite the incantation, “Shrink!”

The spell has
a duration
of twenty four hours, but this is in game terms.
Technically it means it will last 8 hours in real life, one day in game. I
remember this confused me at first how in the game times passed by three times
faster than real life because also in game a full day was classified as 24
hours.

The scroll burned up
and disappeared and Fen started visible shrinking! I knew it would work!
Normally you would not be able to do this as you would be in combat but I have
just successfully shrunk a boss class monster into a… puppy.

I am completely
shocked, I didn’t necessarily turn Fen into a pup, but she now stand a little
under 30cm tall, the same size of a wolf pup. She is also bounding around the
snow excited and jumps up on me. Catching her in my arms I forgot that
shrinking does not reduce the weight.

I was literally body
slammed with a total weight of two thousand two hundred pounds behind it,
considering the small size of the wolf the concentrated damage was quite
severe, reducing a little more than half of my health.

“Okay, Fen, don’t do
that-,” I broke into a few coughs while trying to catch my breath, “again. Now
let’s go back into town shall we.”

I walk with Fen back
through the main gates and this time there are no windows slamming closed or
screams. I even overhear a few exclamations about how ‘cute’ Fen is, if only
they knew
..

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

-Verde-

The moment I saw that
giant white wolf in town my chest froze. Not just from knowing how powerful it
was but there was something about it, something about how white its fur was
that sends terror crawling up from my stomach.

It was the same colour
as that girl’s hair!

I grab Sir Laurence and
duck behind a nearby building, could it be possible that the wolf was the girl?
It seems impossible, clearly this wolf could not do something completely
fantasy like and transform into a human. Otherwise it would not walk into the
town looking like this. But why do I feel so afraid, is it the memory of the
pain?

The guards come and
settle the scenario rather quickly. There was a conversation between them and
the hooded player which resolved peacefully, the guards walking off as the wolf
leaves the city.

I decide I will follow
him again to see what he will do, is he just going to leave the wolf outside?
If he planned to do that then he would not have tried to bring it inside the
walls in the first place.

Dragging Sir Laurence
around, we crept through the shadows and tailed him as he sold a lot of stuff
at the blacksmith and jewellery shop. Lastly he snuck into the magic shop but I
would not be able to follow him in with Sir Laurence without getting spotted,
the shop was simply too small and had nowhere to hide.

He came out shortly
after and headed straight for the eastern gate where the wolf left, naturally
we snuck out as well and witnessed the wolf waiting for him a little down the
wall from the gate.

What happened next astonished
the both of
us,
he pulled out a scroll and shrunk the
massive wolf into the size of a pup. I would not have thought such a thing to
be possible!

He shortly after walked
right back to the gate and inside with the wolf again!

“My lady, what should we
do?”

“We will follow them of
course. I want to know about this man and mainly the people he knows.” It is
the truth, I want to find out
who
that girl was that
attacked me last night.

“If you wish it, it shall
be. But we must converse with him for that, not stalk in the shadows, we will
simply end up losing him or getting found out.”

“Yes, that may be just
what we need!”

Silently dashing
through the gate I still have one hand grabbing Sir Laurence and dragging him
along. My strength may not be overly high but when he isn’t resisting it is
easy to drag him around.

I follow the hooded man
and the wolf into the central square, he starts showing the wolf around the
city as if the animal could understand human speech. This is a game after
all,
there is not any particular reason why it should not be
able to.

We wander around in the
shadows for a good part of an hour, following the hooded man with the wolf
around the major areas of the city. If he was to show the wolf any more of the
city he would have to break into the giant castle in the middle of the city,
where the royal family reside.

The wolf caught our
scent at some time during our stalking and shot a few glances in our direction,
but it didn’t make any noises as to not alarm the hooded man.

He ends up returning to
the blacksmith in the end, coming out with a new short sword in his hands.

That is when we
approach him and Sir Laurence makes his move.

“Excuse me my lord. I
was wondering if you would like to join our party in hunting some
kobolds?
” The most surprising is how polite he was to
another man, but under the circumstances he is only doing it for me.

“No, I would rather
not. I already have a place to go hunting.”

Sir Laurence grabs his
chin with a hand as if he is trying to figure something out. It doesn’t take
long until he knocks his fist down onto the open palm of his other hand with an
“
Ahh
”. Speaking to the hooded figure
who
was starting to walk away Sir Laurence made an
exclamation.

“The short sword, that
voice, I know who you are! You’re Lost! Aren’t you?”

“Wait, he is lost?” I
interjected with my confusion, but Sir Laurence cleared it up for me.

“No, no. His name
is
 
Lost
.
“

The hooded man stops
and turns his head around to face us.

“Congratulations,”
Lost spoke with dry sarcasm, “so Prince Charming remembers who I am,
what about it?”

I giggled a little bit
at the nickname he has for Sir Laurence, it was quite fitting knowing what I
know of him. He doesn’t have any retort for Lost, so with his cheeks slightly
tinged red he ignores the comment to maintain some of the imaginary pride of
his.