End Online: Volume 1 (7 page)

I don’t know who I should
thank for this opportunity, but the effect of my aggravation skill seems to be
useless in this place.

The receptionist turned
over a safety and guidelines form that all I really had to do was fill in my
name and sign underneath. While reading all about any resulted death in the
training arena was not the fault or responsibility of the Iceridge Military
Forces, IMF for short, another player entered the barracks and filled out a
form as well.

One glance left me
dumbstruck.
Blonde.
Or should I say golden hair that
was neither long nor short, but completely straight. Bright blue eyes, height
wise a head taller than me, a solid build and face that looked like he fought
for the weak and elderly. This man next to me was the re-incarnation of Prince
Charming!

He didn’t even read the
paper that was given to him, just signed it and walked towards the training
ground without paying anything else attention. I was right behind him in
leaving the reception. This guy may be wearing the same beginner gear as me but
what an overpowering aura he gave off, the difference between the two of us was
astronomical.

We walked into a square
training ground thirty meters wide and about fifty long. There were a
few players around lined up and striking training dummies which all the snow
had fallen off and were lying around them. I couldn’t however quite understand
how there was no snow anywhere else on the
field,
it
was all hard packed dirt.

The biggest man I had ever
seen approached us and eyed us up and down. He had close shaved hair,
four scars lined diagonally down his face obviously from an
animal,
and thick brass plate armour all the way up to the
top of his neck.

Turning to Prince Charming
next to me he addressed him first.

“You, what’s your name?
You look like a promising trainee.” With a slight nod of his head it was
exactly one of the lines the internet informed me he would say, it differed a
bit depending on the size of the person he was addressing, but none seemed all
too bad.

“Sir Laurence, it is a
pleasure to meet you centurion!” With a loud voice that turned a few heads he
even straightened his back even further while saying it. Also what was with
that name? He is clearly going for the heroic knight type of person.

“Hmm, go grab some
equipment from the racks over there,” the centurion nodded towards about 4
racks of weapons and shields in the corner of the field, “show me what you have
by striking a practice dummy one hundred times.”

With an arm across his
waist, he gave a curt bow responding, “As you wish it to be, I shall do,” picking
up a steel long sword and kite shield he moved to an empty position in the
middle of the field and began diligently striking the dummy from various angles
and directions.

The centurion turned to
face me and just looked down at me without speaking a word. A vein across his
temple all of a sudden seemed to burst and he shouted.

“Well! Aren’t you going to
speak maggot!?” I was dumbstruck, that was just far too overbearing.

“…” I couldn’t even find
my voice, I started sweating profusely from my forehead and felt myself go
red from embarrassment.

“WEAK!” Basically
screaming this time, everyone had stopped what they were doing and looked
in my direction. Even Prince Charming had turned to face me with what
looked like pity on his face, no, that bastard is gloating!

“Go! Equipment! Practice
Dummy! Strike!
Four hundred times!”
This guy wasn’t
even using proper sentences anymore! Plus I had to do four times the work as
his new favourite student over there! Nonetheless I ran to obey his orders,
inspecting the rack for what weapon I thought would suit me best.

Considering my aggravation
skill that has once again proven its inconvenience, what I need is to be able
to run away when every enemy decides my death is the most valuable thing. And
I’m going to have to be able to run fast.

I grab a short sword about
the length of my forearm that should allow me to be more agile. Looking at
the shields even the smallest one would limit my movement, so I pick up another
short sword the exact same as the first one.

I’m the only person
now striking dummies who does not have a shield and everyone keeps giving
me strange glances,

“What’s with that
delinquent? He is just going to die without a shield. He must be a complete
noob
if he doesn’t know that common sense.”

“Yeah but there are plenty
of people who don’t use shields, it’s just harder to play.”

“I suppose, I wouldn’t
want to party and block for him though, those weapons are too small and he
wouldn’t do enough damage with them.”

“How did this guy manage to
make the centurion that mad? I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it”

Sorry, but with my
aggravation skill I don’t think anyone would be able to be my blocker, the
enemy would get aggro at me and do everything in its power to attack me and
nobody else. It would in fact make me a fantastic blocker, but being a primary
blocker would make it near impossible for me to play solo, plus it is an area
of effect taunt skill that appears to have an effective radius of around twenty
meters.

Ignoring their discussion
between themselves, I continued to strike the practice dummy at a decent pace
leaving red lines where I stabbed and slashed, even if they disappeared
relatively quickly. It is the same with monsters, this is not only to prevent
any gore complaints and issues, but if the server had to calculate
it all, it could potentially be too much.

A couple of times a small
notification of text appeared in my vision informing me of stats that have
increased,
mainly strength and dexterity.

After two hundred strikes
something jabbed into my back. It didn’t hurt much, kind of like a pinching,
but it took of a single health point. Glancing over my shoulder I saw the
centurion squatting down and holding a bare blade in his hand, jabbing me with
the hilt.

“Move it! If you were
any slower and I will die of old age!
NOW.
STRIKE.
FASTER!” This is unbelievable, a hundred of these
jabs and I will be dead, how can this guy be so heartless!

I picked up the pace and
started swinging faster, my agility rose once and a few others as well. After
another hundred strikes I had lost forty health points, I only had sixty
left and the fatigue of getting weaker was setting in, making the swords weigh
down in my hands.

The centurion then started
jabbing me faster, taking my health down quicker than he was before, the
pinching had now turned into what was feeling like someone punching me in the
back. Everyone else had long since finished yet this failure wasn’t even
paying attention to anyone else, only intent on tormenting me.

“TOO
SLOW!
You’re going to die like this!” Of
course I am while you’re attacking me with that sword! All the other trainees
had long finished their task and were sitting around watching, somewhere even
placing bets on whether I would finish or die first.

Faster! Faster! I need to
go faster! I could no longer put any strength in my swings I simply focused on
making the blades connect with the target. My agility and dexterity took
over as the primary stats being increased.

My health started to flash
red and the weapons were like lead in my hands, but I couldn’t give up here! I
had lost count but after practically throwing the weight of the swords at the
target the attacks on my back stopped and the centurion stood up. Left with
four health points, it occurred to me that this task would have been impossible
with a sword and shield. I would not have been able to strike the target fast
enough.

“
Hmph
,
barely a pass,” He had quietened down a bit at least, “looks like you need
something to relieve the fatigue.” Is he starting to like me more now that I
passed his test?

“LAPS!
AROUND THE FIELD! TWENTY!”
Of course not.
I’m not even frustrated right now, I had a feeling things wouldn’t end there.
But to be back to not using proper sentences was even beyond me.

Most of the onlookers were
stunned, some were even laughing, there were two girls mixed in that were
giggling a bit at my misfortune. The centurion told them not to sit around
finally and sent them to do five laps around the field but that was light work
for everyone still at full health.

Meanwhile my legs were
becoming one with the ground as I continued to run as hard as I could to
prevent the centurion from chasing me with his sword hilt or something else
that would quickly result in my death.

Once ten laps had been completed
a felt a dark premonition and darted forward slightly faster, sure enough
something hit the wall right where I was. This man was standing in the middle
of the field sure enough had picked up some small rocks, the evil grin on his
face showed me how much he was enjoying it.

My health had recovered to
twenty percent and my agility however had
risen
a
decent amount, I was quick enough to out run the projectiles heading my way.
The rest of the trainees appeared to have left already, all of them already
bored of watching my torture.

At five laps left
something connected with the side of my head, shaving of two health points and
dazing me slightly. The evil grin on the centurion had deepened at his
satisfaction of finally landing one.

His accuracy only got
better from then on and each hit fatigued me more and made it harder to run.
Trying to anticipate the rocks I did rolls, faints and occasionally I would
momentarily stop in my tracks to allow a rock to pass in front of me.

Diving at the very end of
the last lap, I avoided two final rocks and heard the devil clicking his
tongue. Sorry, but I’m not giving up yet, I will keep going just to spite you!
The day ended after that and he told me to be back at sunrise the next
morning.

Night time in the game is
incredibly dark, you can barely see anything if you don’t have a
torch or any other form of light, the moon gave off light but not enough to be
able to fight properly. Luckily the city is well lit with street lamps lining
all the streets, so moving around in town was relatively easy.

You will also get tired in
the game if you have been playing for too long, it is possible to sleep
overnight in game and you will also gain rest in real life equivalent to what
you slept. Apparently while sleeping in game the VL goes into a
semi-hibernation state and allows you to properly rest until morning in the
game comes and it re-activates. There is nothing that can replace food however,
even eating in game and getting the feeling of being full will not give your
body the necessities to live.

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

I opted to leave the game
and return to reality, I had no money to rest at an inn anyway. Sure enough
Joelle and Shari were home and making a mess in the kitchen.

“You two, what do you think
you are doing?”

“We were hungry and wanted
something to eat,” Shari had a silly little grin on her face as she has half
climbed into the food cupboard.

“The food stock is running
a little low. Let’s go buy some stuff for dinner and the next few days’ worth
of meals.”

“Okay, let’s go then! Can
I cook tonight?” Joelle put on the sweetest smile as she asked hoping to have
attempt two in the kitchen.

“Sorry, but after last
time I am more inclined to do it myself for now, I will start teaching you soon
though,” It was just the other night that she smoked out the kitchen, I think
it is best for her to wait and reflect on where she went wrong before trying
again.

They were both pouting a
bit as we left to go to the supermarket. We were really lucky that there
was one so close
by,
it saves us a lot of trouble in
travelling.

Dinner was spaghetti
bolognese
, due to it being cheap, quick to make and one of
the girls’ favourites. We also bought more ingredients for various
dinners, lunches and other snacks as well.

After cleaning up the
girls were playing some board game in the living room as I headed back to End
Online just before the sun began to rise in its skies. The entirety of the day
was once again completely gruelling for me, even worse I had to witness to praises
from the centurion being showered all over Prince Charming. Unsurprisingly the
two girls in the group seemed to be a little fond of him, but most of the other
players sent looks of scorn his way.

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

Two weeks of
dodging the centurion’s life goal of ending mine, my stats had raised
considerably, particularly my agility. Not to mention being around the
centurion was apparently also a fantastic way to train up my aggravation skill,
it had really risen exponentially.