End Online: Volume 1 (11 page)

Item classifications were
also here on the site, the border around the item in your inventory defines its
rarity. The classifications are
white
:ordinary
,
orange:rare
,
blue:unique
,
green:epic
,
purple:legendary
and
gold:divine
. The divine weapons are not much more than
rumours without any hard evidence, but the game isn’t even two months
old yet.

The ‘White Wolf Winter
Cloak’ had a green border meaning it was an ‘Epic’ item, not ‘Legendary’ as
Mouse had thought.

I also read the
Gladox
, the strongest player in the game, has recently
reached level 100 without any sign of slowing down. I can only imagine the
effort he has put into his character to already be at such a high level.

An hour after I began
delving through the wiki I turn off the computer and head into bed. Staring up
at the ceiling I think of the accident that cost my legs,
It
is still a bitter memory but I have come to an acceptance of how things are. If
it wasn’t for End Online however, I fear for the possibility of gradually
forgetting what it even feels like to walk.

Slowly my vision darkens,
wandering the stray thoughts in my mind until I enter a deep sleep.

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

I open my eyes to the
first rays of sunshine entering my room. My head felt like it had an incredible
hangover, most likely from not enough sleep.

First thing to do this
morning is make something to eat. In the kitchen Joelle and Shari are putting
bread in the toaster for breakfast. Already in their uniform, the girls have
been behaving extremely well
lately,
I haven’t even
heard a single argument between the two of them.

“Good morning Joelle,
Shari. Please don’t make too much of a mess.” I know full well they will, but I
smile anyway as it doesn’t particularly matter.

“
Unn
,
we won’t leave a single crumb!” Shari gave me a face far too determined for the
declaration.

“
Haha
,
don’t worry about it too much. Hurry up and head to school or you’re going to
be late!”

“But-“

“No buts, I have to make
myself some breakfast anyway so leave it to me, you need to be at school on
time!” These girls are at a critical stage of life and need a firm hand to help
them grow up and succeed in life.

“Okay!
come
on Shari, we have to go.” Joelle joined now that her toast is finally finished,
grabbing Shari’s hand and dragging her out.

“”See you tonight Holly!””
They both call out before leaving the
house,
I
honestly hope they have a good day at school.

Pouring myself a cup full
of breakfast juice my toast also pops out of the toaster, coincidentally
the doorbell also rings at the same time.

With a piece of toast in
my mouth I wheel myself to the front door to see whoever had come visit me. As
to who it could possibly be, considering my lack of friends or social life, I
had no clue.

Opening the front door,
two people dressed in suits are patiently waiting, a young woman in her
mid-twenties and a middle aged man around forty.

The young lady has short
brown hair a little past her ears, swept back behind her ears, she is a quite
short but that may be due to the slightly greying man next to her being six and
a half feet tall.

“Good morning, you must be
Hollis
Silvester
,” the young woman talked first, “My
name is Caroline
Haper
, and this man is Julius
Rath
. We are here from the department of childhood
services.”

My world came crashing
down, toast dropping from my mouth which could not utter a single word.

“I’m sure you are aware,
but we are here in regards to Joelle and Shari
Silvester
.”

“W-What could you possibly
want with them?” I stutter a bit but at least I manage to get the words out.

“We have been aware of
your current situation since you had your injury, and it’s about time
we stepped in.”

Julius stepped in and
got straight to the point, “We are taking Joelle and Shari away, they need a
proper home. Your Aunt originally approached us a year ago, but she could not
take them away at the time as you were their guardian. Now, however, the court
deemed you to be unfit to care for them.”

“N-no, I can look after
them just fine! We have a happy family! You can’t just destroy that!”

Yes, I was becoming quite
emotional over it, but how can
I
not when my two
little sisters are being taken away from me! Especially to my Aunt who has
loathed me for unknown reasons since I was little.

“You have done nothing for
your family, I understand that you can no longer do the kind of work you used
to, but you could still study to achieve some qualifications that would allow
you to work in a position at a desk or such.
Our investigation has shown us that all you have done run away into virtual
reality while your real life is crumbling down around you.”

He hit me right in a sore
spot with that one, yet I could not refute his words. I knew I needed money,
and I will get it, just a little more time!

“W-well can I still see
them?”

Caroline was looking
at me as if I was some pitiable creature and right now I did not feel much different,
however it was Julius’s words that brought me down the most.

“Your Aunt wished that you
do not meet with them, it is one of the conditions in taking in the girls. She
will also be meeting the girls at school shortly and taking them to their new homes,
she has already prepared everything for them to live there.”

“They will not be
returning here. If you wish to see them again, you need to make something of
your life, and you need to fight for custody of them.”

“D-do you just think I
will sit by and let this
happen
!?” I am still
stammering while trying to hold my emotions together.

“Unfortunately, this is a
common procedure we use. It avoids complications that require police
intervention if the adult refuses to cooperate.”

“I-is that all?” Complete
defeat. They were right, and despite my words, I knew that right now I could do
nothing to stop it.

“Yes that is all.” Turning
around, Julius walked back to his car, Caroline only a few steps behind him.

Turning his head once
before getting into the car he spoke to me across the yard one final time.

“Don’t misunderstand, work
hard, prove yourself to be capable and I will support you, I am a family
man after all so I hate to tear one apart. But it because of that I cannot
allow this current situation to go on.”

Just like that they were
gone,
along with a part of myself I may never get back
again.

Joelle and Shari were
gone, the torment inside me continued to escalate even after Caroline and
Julius left. I can feel an insurmountable amount of self-loathing over the fact
that I couldn’t do better.

I logged onto End
Online shortly after that, returning to the bazaar in Iceridge where I logged
out. Keeping the hood up on my cloak I ran through a world of mud, the effect
of running with a 50% slow effect. It was quite the sight for all the players
as while running past considering I would be appearing to be lightly
jogging, despite the fact I was running with all my strength.

I refuse to remove
the hood of my cloak and allow anyone see this pitiful expression, never again
can I show this face to anyone else. I will keep this hood on at all times!

Running through the
east gate I enter a territory of wolves, the hood makes it difficult to
avoid attacks but I’m acting like a berserker and taking them head on anyway. I
also notice ‘Aggravation’ appears to still work on taunting enemies
perfectly fine even if I have the hood on.

The suicidal battles
rage on and my health is flashing red, I could not stay still however, so
I began running further east. I come across more wolves but I avoid them before
getting too close, at least until my health recovers.

Dragging my weary legs
I do laps around the area of wolves while regenerating health slowly. I could
simply wait but I can’t rest, I must keep moving, I can’t afford to stop. A
small turn of luck prevailed and the ‘Slow’ effect of the cloak has the most
fantastic use for weight training, my agility is rising faster than ever
before, as is my strength.

I forget about my
health and continue running as hard as I can, flanking a few wolves from time
to time to get stronger when my health was full. I ran for about
thirty hours straight, or four days in game. During that time my agility
increased by thirty and my strength by fifteen, exactly half of my agility.

I could run at the
speed of a normal person thanks to all my agility training. I ran through
wolves’ territory to continue to train myself while fighting wolves at the same
time, my new weapons slaying a wolf in a single hit.

In twelve days I
have reached level twenty three. My agility is still increasing, as is my
strength, but mostly agility. Fighting while running had some great effects on
my dexterity as well. My mind stat increased a bit from the sheer concentration
I had to put into the training, and luck showed some progress that there was no
clear explanation for.

All my skills are
showing significant improvements as well, ‘Aggravation’ reached skill
level fourteen and ‘Advanced Military Arts’ skill level thirteen. Once they
went over skill level ten I noticed that even though ‘Advanced Military Arts’
gave an upgraded stat boost they both started giving less bonuses per level.

It also came to my
attention that the damage boost and proficiency only applied to the weapon
in my right hand, the
wakizashi
in my left hand did a
lot less damage but it still came in handy. The difference in the blade length
was incredibly difficult to get used to but enough practice allowed for fluid
motions.

This continued for another
half month, my daily routine becoming eating, playing End Online and
sleeping, often in the game. Levelling got slower and slower, eventually
getting to a point where it seemed to no longer progress, but I continued my
practice. Wolves died in one hit, and despite how futile it became to even try
raising my level further through wolves, I just could not stop myself.

Nearly all my Stats
seemed to stop increasing after some point in time, agility being the
only one still showing progress. My agility has increased an enormous amount. I
could now run faster than the wolves, at a speed that seemed to glide over the
snow when I ran my hardest. I fear what would happen if I removed my hood,
It
would surely be a disaster.

I had used my sacred
arts a lot during this time and now they mostly only used 80% of the original
cost, but the decrease was slowing down at an unimaginable rate, I doubt it
would ever go lower than 70%

‘
CrossX
’
was the second sacred art that I learned, an attack using both weapons to
slash in a downward angle, crossing the blades to strike an ‘X’ on the
enemy

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

Leaving the game my
body feels like it has had a massive crash after a sugar high, I could not seem
to muster any energy from within myself.

Sitting in the kitchen
I stare into an empty fridge with eyes of a dead fish, a slow groan
emanates from my stomach craving sustenance. A clock hanging on the wall shows
me the current time is 11:04pm, just past the time that the supermarket closes.

A glance around shows
filthy dishes piled up in the sink, crumbs and other bits of food still on the
table. I have also been reusing the dirty dishes each day for my food, barely
even rinsing them in between use. I couldn’t even grab new dishes from the
cupboards,
I had no way of reaching them.

I am currently an
absolute slob, completely unlike myself from just a month ago. I am more than
aware of that fact, even as I continue looking the other way.

There is no food so I
begrudgingly decide I will go to bed, conserve my energy and go food shopping
tomorrow.

With my eyes closed in
bed I recount once again the events of the past month. The memories roll by and
my mind begins to grow darker and darker, giving me the feeling of being
trapped in a nightmare.

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

I woke mid-morning sun
falling through the window, lighting up all the loose dust in my room,
creating miniscule fairies floating around in the sunshine. It would
have been perfect short of the cold sweat I was covered in.

For the first time in a
month I don’t put the VL on and enter virtual reality. I had gradually
numbed to the pain of loss and failure, but it was time I had to do something.
Half the money I got from selling my car is now gone, and I am going to be in
considerable trouble if I don’t do something.

My first task is to
raise money, I will do that by selling items in game, I haven’t been back to
collect more apples but its time I did that and make some more money.

If I am to make
something of my life and get my sisters back I will need to go to university,
considering I dropped out of high school I will have either take a competency
test to get a pass from high school or wait until I am 22 before applying to
university, to be considered a mature age student and not require a high
school graduation certificate.

All this is going to
require money, and a lot of it. The high school competency test will only
require about $500 but university can easily cost $20,000 a year, plus the cost
of books, transport, and everything else.

I don’t care how I have
to make the money. I will even sell my organs if it comes down to it! No matter
how low I have to act or how many people I have to scam, I will make this
money!

Steeling my resolution
I go to the kitchen to clean, it is a battlefield in here but don’t hesitate,
starting with the dishes and ending with dusting everything up to as high as I
can reach. The rest of the house was relatively clean, and only needed a light
dust. The girls’ room however was different, it was a mess, and I planned to
leave it that way and make them clean it up when I got them back!

It was at this moment I
remembered my quest from the apothecary that required me to collect materials
for her.

“Hmmm, I have no idea
even where to get these materials,” I mumble to myself as I finish cleaning, “I
had better look up the location of them on the internet.”

On the wiki I am surprised
to find that both the materials that I need can be found in the city, although
in order to be able to correctly identify and harvest them you require the
skill ‘Herbalism’ which not many people choose considering in order to make use
of the herbs you harvest you need even more skills such as ‘Alchemy’, ‘Potion
Creation’ or ‘Distilling’.

Even if I cannot
harvest them properly at least I will make an attempt as long as I can bring
the old lady twenty of each.

Logging in I returned
to the wolf hunting ground, in the midst of a considerable amount of
players hunting here. When I was here while I was the only one in the hunting
area, there were other players who passed by, but seeing me hunting in
such an embarrassing way caused them to hunt elsewhere.

My pouch contains a
little over ten gold coins at the moment, I had made some money selling an
enormous quantity of cheap wolf pelts and spent a little on weapon and armour
maintenance but I never ended up spending much so most of it was left over.

I am quite close to the
den of the great white wolf so I decide to go collect some apples before I
return back to Iceridge in order to complete my quest. The cave’s location is
still familiar to me so it doesn’t take long to find it. Wolves attack me in
the narrow corridors as soon as I enter, but I am a lot stronger than I
once was and with a quick dash through the wolves, well places slashes reduced
their numbers one by one.

The whole process of
the wolf attacks and my speed overwhelming them continued until I reached the
cavern in the deepest parts of the cave, I still had full stamina and my health
was at 87%, no reason to wait.

Just inside the cavern
a familiar howl reaches my ears, followed by an even more familiar wolf looking
down on me from about twenty meters away. It emanates a low growl for a moment
before sniffing the air, catching my scent. The hood I am wearing does nothing
for preventing it from recognizing me by smell.