End Online: Volume 1 (18 page)

I wasn’t my money
anyway so there is no need to hold back, paying the innkeeper got me a gaudy
looking key which I take with me upstairs on the way to my room.

The inside of the room
is just as flashy as the key, on the fourth floor all the furniture here was
created from rare or exotic woods and even inlaid with intricate patterns.
Looking through a window with two swinging doors to open outwards gave an
excellent view of
Iceridge’s
central courtyard,
overlooking all the shops and has a perfect view if the fountain of ice
completely frozen in its movement.

With the sun setting I
decide I may as well have an early night, I will have to lay low just in case
that man knows who was following him and figures out I was the one to steal his
stuff.

Closing my eyes I
peacefully enter into a quiet slumber.

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

My eyes shot wide open!
In the middle of the night something happened that should not be possible!
Someone has just broken in, smashing the window and a small part of the wall to
pieces in doing so!

This is a private room
so nobody should be capable of entering, let alone this! My heart was beating
like a frightened rabbit in my chest swimming in mixed feelings of
confusion and fear. I feel like my entire body is petrified, I had managed to
sit up against the back of the bed but I cannot bring myself to move an inch
from there.

The oil lights along
the street let enough light in throw the gap in the wall. In the room stood a
girl with her face turned towards me. She is only a year or two younger than me
in appearance and the same height as well. The most shocking part is she is completely
naked, not even a pair of socks. Apart from the curvature of her hips she has
an elegantly slender body, especially her limbs. Her chest is moderate,
not exactly
non existent
, but not exactly large
neither.

Her skin seems to
have never seen the sun. It is a perfect pale
white, lacking even the slightest mark on it like a perfect painting.
Her whole body emits an aura of animalistic beauty, unparalleled by
anything outside of nature itself, the feeling of a ruthless predator.

Her Hair is as white as
snow and has some a large volume to it, the back reaching the bottom of
her neck and the front it just covering her collarbone, cut at a perfect
angle to blend the back into the front. The fringe is dead straight sitting
just above her eyes, and underneath those eyes are thin lips with the slightest
rosy touch, positioned perfectly on her face. But the most shocking part of her
appearance
are
her eyes themselves.

Staring at me is a pair
electric blue eyes giving off the faintest glow in the semi darkness. They look
absolutely furious.

She looks down at the
table where I left the weapons I stole from the cloaked man and
picks
them up with one hand. Walking over to me she whispers
in a voice that while being quiet, rings throughout the room like a
crystal glass.

“
… 
Don’t
ever touch my man again
..”

“W-w-who are you??” I
ask in desperation as her spare hand undertakes a sudden change. With the sound
of the air cracking, ice forms on her fingers, turning them into long sharp
claws about seven inches long each. Every cell in my body screamed to get away
from this person as dread overtakes me.

“… You... Don’t deserve
to know...” I managed to raise an arm up to stop her but she had already driven
the icy claws deep into my chest, pinning me against the head of the bed.

Everything else was
drowned out in my scream. The cold was penetrating my lungs, freezing me from
the inside out. The worst of it was the pain, it didn’t quite feel real, but it
was a pain that wasn’t supposed to appear in the game. The agony crept along
most of my body, my blood freezing sending chills directly along my bones.

I could have cried in
happiness when I couldn’t take any more and passed out, fading into oblivion.

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

-Lost-

Finding my weapons and
money gone wrenched my guy sideways, it seriously set me back. Losing just one
of the two would have been astronomically better, with the money I could have
bought two more cheap short
swords,
with the weapons I
could have killed monsters to collect more money.

Sitting down against
the tree where they were, in a daze I just stared into nothingness. Fen
came over and used a paw to push me into tree, seeing me not resisting and in
no mood to play Fen got comfortable with her head across my legs.

“They’re gone Fen,
someone took my weapons and money. If only I had one or the other things would
be much better.”

Fen
rose
her head and sniffed around for a bit, seeming to pick up something but putting
her head back down over my legs as if to say it was nothing.

“
Ohh
what should I do
..
This is horrible
..”
I sat in that one position as the sun sank and the light in the cavern faded,
finally holding onto Fen’s head as I dozed off to sleep.

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

When I opened my eyes
the morning light was shining into the cavern, a freshest of air circulated
with the new light and a few deep breathes filled my chest with life.

Fen still has her large
wolf head over my legs, looks like she slept in that position. But next to me
for some odd reason
is
my two short swords.

“That’s odd. I wonder
if the thief returned
them?
No, I seriously doubt that
would be the case.” My mumbling woke Fen up and she raised her head slightly,
only to use it to once again to squish me into the tree before placing it back
down over my legs and refusing to move it.

“So, you want to come
with me do you Fen?”

Fen nuzzles her head
against me and I completely forget to think about who could have taken my stuff
and why it was returned.

-Lost-

I cannot believe that Fen
actually wants to be a companion to me! Having a powerful creature like
her join me is surreal at best.

“Well, I’m not sure to
on what to say to you fen, but please look after me,” I will remain humble at
least,
there is no need to get too full of myself.

It’s a shame Fen can’t
talk, but she understands what I say and I manage to understand her thoughts to
some extent through her behaviour. On that note the artificial intelligence in
this game is so far advanced beyond everything else I have ever imagined
that it’s scary.

“No point sticking
around here Fen, let’s go. I will introduce you to Iceridge.” I walk
through the exit to the cavern with Fen right behind
me,
at least, she was following until I went through the exit.

Turning my head to
check behind me Fen was still inside the cavern sitting in front of the
tunnel out. All I can see is her legs and most of her body.

“Of course
..
She’s too big for the tunnel!” 
I should have foreseen
this situation, but I was a little caught up in the thrill of getting a
companion, they are extremely rare after all.

Walking back to the
entrance I compared Fen’s size to the tunnel. It shouldn’t be impossible
for her to fit, but it will be close.

“Fen, there is only one
way for you to leave this place, you’re going to have to trust me on what I
tell you to do.” She is not going to like this, not one bit, but I need to not
make her too mad in getting her out.

“As you know you are my
first companion, so I will do whatever it takes to get you out of this place.”
Fen eyes are telling me that she trusts me.
Time to put
my plan in motion.

“Okay, Fen. I need you
to lie on your stomach with your legs stretched out.”

Not even an ounce of
hesitation came from the wolf as she did exactly what I said. I then grab both
of her front paws, barely managing to wrap an arm around each considering the
size of them.

“Please don’t hate me
for this,” Before she could have time to think I throw my weight forward and
drag her through the mouth of the tunnel. Fen make some painful noises and
struggles a lot, but there is no room for her to move as every side of her
large body was already scraping against that walls and ceiling.

My strength isn’t
particularly high compared to a
mid level
player and I would never be able to do something like picking Fen up. But
it is sufficient enough to drag her along the ground, albeit rather
slowly. I also gained a point in strength for my efforts.

Perhaps I should be
feeling more remorse but I am more focused on how with a strong companion I can
easily hunt more than I could by myself. Distracting myself from Fen’s howling
behind me, I compared the new knowledge I have about the ‘Companion’
System with the ‘Pet’ and ‘Summoned’ System.

Both pet’s and summoned
beings are extremely similar in that their owner’s words were
absolute, any commands given
must
be followed, even if it meant
sacrificing the minion. They could also both be dismissed, summoned beings
returning to the ‘Void’ where they were summoned from.

It is a little
different when you use the ‘Taming’ skill to acquire a pet. They gain a
special ability that allows them to turn into a piece of jewellery, which they
could return to upon being dismissed.

Death was the same as
dismissal, and you could bring them back with either a magical summon or
waiting for the cool down to expire for a pet to be returned from its jewellery
form.

The only major
difference between the two which caused the most arguments was the
experience system of the two. A summoned being received no experience share
and to have a stronger summon you needed to simply summon a stronger being, a
pet however grew with you and you could manually set the pet to gain anywhere
between fifteen and eighty five percent of the experience share.

Companions on the other
hand were altogether different, they follow you of their own volition and
didn’t necessarily follow orders, not to mention they may decide leave if
they were unhappy with you. There was no experience share with them, and in
this game it was the killing blow that gave all the experience. Lastly once
they die there is no way to bring them back.

Most companions are
known as soldiers or people who join you as a part of a quest, so a
companion permanently joining someone is unheard of, let alone the companion
not being human

I break through the
exit of the cave to the morning sun blurred behind a moderate snow
storm covering this entire area, preventing my sight from extending past ten
meters even with ‘Hunter’s Eyes’.

The wind and snow which
may have done damage to normal player and inevitably made them sick, did
nothing to me due to the special effect of my cloak maintaining the air around
me. Walking through the storm, snow swirled around me on its way past.
Yet inside my cloak, all I feel is a slight breeze.

Granted the wind was a
little cold, hence proving my cloak isn’t all powerful. And it still does
absolutely nothing against a paw the size of my chest altering my
orientation from standing upright to face first in the ground.

Fen had absolutely no
issue with the
weather,
being a boss class wolf with
the ice attribute she was standing there completely oblivious to the
weather. When I looked up to her from the ground I can see in her eyes that she
isn’t particularly angry, she just seemed to be in pain and a bad mood.

“I’m
sor-fmgh
,” I have my face pressed back into the ground,
cutting off my speech. This repeated itself several times in fact, every time I
attempted to stand without fail I was forced back into the ground.

When the pressure
finally let up I simply stood up as if nothing had happened, her attacks
weren’t meant to do any damage and they didn’t really.

“Okay, now that we’ve
had a little stress relief, let’s go.” I may not be able to see very far
through the snow but I have been here enough times I can get back to town even
if I can’t see it.

Leading the way, we
stroll through the snowstorm like it was a light afternoon breeze, not moving
too quick else we lose each other.

I didn’t encounter any wolves
on the way back which was odd, they could have gone into hiding considering the
weather but being winter wolves with their thick furs I wouldn’t imagine it
would have caused enough grief to warrant hiding.

For two hours we walked
through the storm, much longer than I could have imagined it would take to get
back to Iceridge. I finally came up to a wall and feel assured that we are
finally here, but I take notice that the wall is poorly made out of stones, not
to mention it only reaches my chest height.

The snowstorm that has
been plummeting down starts to ease and finally subsides enough that the sun
breaks the fog and reveals our surroundings.

I kind of gathered from
the wall that this wasn’t Iceridge, but the sight around me is absolutely
shocking, I could not be in a worse position. The low rock wall encircles an
area the size of a small town, and what was surrounded by the wall was an
encampment. Looking at a little dark green creature half my size
and covered in wrinkle and warts, it was wearing incredibly shabby
clothing, torn in most places. That confirms it, this is a goblin

Put me against a goblin
one on one any day, with my stats it wouldn’t even last a minute.
but
right now there was about a hundred goblins in this camp
and they were all staring at me, surprised to see a human.

This is a very short
encampment with the tallest huts being about one and a half times my height,
there are also small camp fires and strange tribal spears litter the area with
no particular organization. It is a perfectly hidden spot due to the
small surrounding hills around it, the only way to really spot it would be from
the sky, and there isn’t a single player who can fly.

I don’t feel like I’m
in trouble just because there is an encampment of about a hundred goblins
in front of me though, what I’m concerned about is the two hundred plus goblins
fully equipped and patrolling the hills outside god damned goblin central.

‘Of course there were
no wolves!’ 
During the snowstorm not only did I get my directions completely
mixed up but I ended up passing goblin patrols with neither of us noticing and
ended up sandwiched directly between the goblins front and rear lines. The
absolute worst position to be in.

“Fen, I understand that it was storming and
there was a lot of wind... But did you honestly not smell a single goblin when
there are so many?” The wolf turned its head away from me, 
‘Guilty!’

You’re really not going
to let go of a grudge are you... Well, I will go along with it but I expect you
to help me make money Fen! All I can do is
sigh
.

“Okay, Fen. Let’s go
take care of the goblins on the
hills,
we need to get
out of here before we are completely surrounded. Look, they are already
moving!”

Sure enough the goblins
from the surrounding hills were approaching together to trap and overwhelm
us with large numbers. From my knowledge they are considerably weak monsters in
most games but there are a large number of these weak monsters and I have low
levelled health and equipment.

Me
and Fen both sprint uphill,
dashing away from the encampment to break through a solid line of goblin
charging down the hill at us. Raising rusty iron
shotel’s
,
szabla’s
and various other weapons that look like
they could break at any moment, it was a scene out of a movie.

At least that’s how it
started, Fen in all her gloriousness took the lead to protect me from the
charging onslaught,
she
had ranged ice magic that is
no joke after all. She did a fantastic job of protecting me, first she charged
right up to their front line, then using her powerful legs leaped completely
over them, weaving around a few stragglers that were lagging behind the
main charge and…
Escaped.

‘God damn it wolf!
Damn! Damn! Damn!’ 
I couldn’t stop cursing. I was left to fend for myself in
the middle of this dilemma.

I have
seven goblins directly in front of me, and two on either side. My skills
are high enough I should be able to deal with them relatively quickly.

“Perceptual
Sight!”
Time slows down, unlike when I use this technique with Fen the goblins become
abnormally slow. I probably don’t need to use this sacred art but I need to be
able to react to the goblins in time, otherwise they will swarm me.

I decide to make the
first move, lunging to my right I activated ‘
CrossX
’
on the nearest goblin, using both swords to cover its torso with a large
‘X’. I also make a rapid slash across its neck as I move to the next goblin.
This goblin has already started its attack, a straight vertical slash with a
szabla
. Twisting my body I narrowly avoid the blade and
counter attack directly to its throat and chest.

Of course considering
all of a sudden now that I am standing still I no longer have the advantage of
speed to penetrate their natural defences. It is probably due to having weak
weapons but the skin on these goblins is extremely tough and difficult to cut.

I take a slash across
my back, giving me a numb pain, it removed a little over a quarter of my
health and an icon for bleeding appeared in the corner of my vision. The attack
came from the first goblin I had
attacked,
it had made
a quick recovery and still has sixty percent of its health left!

‘Curses!’
 
I have no hope of
winning this battle. Unless I do something fast, the second group of goblins
are going to be here and the enemies surrounding me will double or more.

There is no other
option, I never planned to use this but with no one else being around it
should be okay to reveal my face for a moment and double my speed. I raise my
hands up to my hood in preparation to take it off of my head. Grabbing one side
with each of my hands I tried to pull it off but...

‘Huh? It’s stuck!’ 
Holding onto the hood
no matter how hard I pulled I couldn’t budge it an inch. No, that’s not correct
at all, no matter how hard I tried to pull I couldn’t move my arms and inch.  It
was not a matter of the hood being stuck but a matter of me not being able to
bring myself to remove it.

It was almost as if there is a second set of
arms holding them and preventing them from moving. Quickly removing my hands in
panic of the current situation I open my equipment menu, pressing on the cloak
and then attempting to press on the unequip button. 
Once again something felt like it was grabbing my
hand, preventing
 
me from
pressing it.