End Online: Volume 2 (7 page)

"Everyone! I'm a celebrity in real life, make way!"

"Screw this! I will just buy food from stores. Hey! Get out
of my way, I want to leave!"

Seems like over half the players from Iceridge have converged on
this point to buy the cooking skill. It has been about twenty four hours since
the update so most of these players must be tired and frustrated.

My limbs start shaking slightly and all of a sudden I notice how
weak my body is feeling. It isn't like how weary you feel when your health
drops low, but almost like all my strength was being sapped away. Looking
at my hunger bar I witness that has dropped below twenty percent!

'It was still at a hundred percent an hour ago! What happened to
it?'

My thoughts roam back to the race. It looks like physical
activity will deplete the hunger bar faster than it would naturally drop. Well,
that certainly will make me pay closer attention to how often I use my speed. I
probably should not use it unless I am in battle at the very least.

First, I need to sell all the loot I have collected. Planning on
selling the most valuable items first, I walk into the jewellery shop and
approach the young female clerk.

"Excuse me. I have some jewellery I would like to
sell."

"Oh! Umm," The young lady turns her eyes away from me,
acting incredibly meek, “W-what would you like to sell?"

"I have five pieces of jewellery here,” I place the items
on the counter in between us, “some appear to be of higher value than
others."

"I-I see. By looking at them, how does f-fifteen gold for
the lot sound?"

She seemed to be stammering a lot. Looking at the face in
between her blonde bangs, she for some reason would not look me in the
eye. Was she trying to rip me off?

"Do you think you could inspect them on more time?" I
was happy with fifteen gold but I don't want to be ripped off if they worth
more.

"Ah! Well, they aren't really worth any more. B-but would
sixteen gold be better for you?" She seems incredibly nervous. She wasn't
like this last time.

"Yes, that should be fine. But please remember in the
future I really do not appreciate being ripped off."

"Of-of course!"

The clerk grabs a cloth out of her back pocket and gently dabs
her forehead and cheeks, removing the cold sweat from them. I passed over the
goods and once I received the money, two short messages appear in front of me.

'What the heck is this? I didn't intimidate anyone!' 

Thinking back I recall how 'Aggravation' got upgraded to
'Intimidating Aura' before becoming a part of my class skill. I glance back
through it and see that it is indeed there, I must have not paid enough
attention to where it speaks of my intimidating aura.

Plus, this title is extremely weird. It seems almost custom
designed for me, but I assume anyone would get a similar title if they hid
their identity for long enough.

I don't particularly feel much from gaining a bit of infamy. it
was bound to happen sooner or later anyway.

My next destination was the blacksmith, where the enormous
blockade of players ended. I was fortunate the rusty armour sold for a great
deal more than the rusty weapons. It turns out that scrap metal is sold by
weight, and a chest plate can weigh up to fifteen times a standard sword.

Although, even the blacksmith seemed to be intimidated by my
aura, despite the tough visage he usually gives off. I may have walked out
with a few more coins clinking in my coin bag but it had cost me another ten points
of infamy.

I didn't even dispute his price, accepting what he originally
offered still led to me gaining infamy.

At this point I had forty five gold coins in my possession. But
that was reduced to thirty once I purchased a large quantity of cheap
cooking equipment. I also stocked up a large quantity of proper precooked meals
that had a decent lifespan, not that rubbish sugar food I had in my inventory.

One of the store clerks threw in a free water canteen with my
purchase of food. But at the end of the day I garnered another fifteen infamy
from the purchases, proving that every transaction with an NPC resulted in an infraction
of infamy.

It is slowly turning into a bad situation. If I don't do
anything about this my infamy is going to rise every time I trade with an NPC.
Eventually they will refuse to even trade with me and in the worst case
scenario, I will even be denied entrance to the city.

I had originally considered purchasing some new skills to fill my
newly freed skill slots, but one glance at the crowd of players that seemed
even larger than before deterred me from doing so.

'I don't really need any new skills at the moment. Plus, the
cost of them for me is enormous.'

Leaving the main courtyard behind me I travel around all the
parks I am aware of, restocking my pile of herbs I use for healing
myself and potion creation.

Inspecting the information of herbs I have gathered, my improved
herbology also bears fruit. Where I previously could not determine any
information about an unknown herb, I can now view the herbs name even if I
don't know the effect of it. 'Green Paralysis Herb' and 'Fire Flower' were two
of the herbs in my inventory where the revealed name provided decent
idea as to what their effects were, but there was a 'Black N' herb that I could
not discern the effect of.

I left the city shortly after that, there was nothing left for
me to do other than gather unnecessary infamy points.

Fen was back in the game and waiting outside the town. She
seemed to be ignoring me but she quietly followed behind me as I headed off
towards the 'Unknown Goblin Lair' for more training.

I was completely broke again, spending my last thirty gold coins
on two scrolls of shrinking.

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

-Fen-

It was the first time Lost logged off in front of me that it
happened. When I saw him disappear I desperately tried to find out where he
went. From the point where he vanished I remember feeling some kind of distortion,
making all the hairs on my body stand up.

Pushing myself into the distortion I felt like I was a trying to
push myself into a tiny rabbit's hole. After pushing on it for long enough
however, it began to slowly be forced open by my body. Sliding deeper and
deeper into the distortion I eventually seemed to fall in.

I fell for a long time, until I came out the other end of
whatever kind of tunnel it was.

I was in a small room, and it was decorated extremely strangely.
There were odd seats and furniture, not to mention all the mysterious
machines around. Lost appeared to have left from here already, but unlike the
earlier distortion, I could not tell where exactly where from or to.

I notice I was also a lot smaller than usual, the same as when he
cast that spell to shrink me. I transform into my human form with a motion of
standing up, getting a better view of the room. The alien view outside of the window
was especially terrifying, I knew I had somehow left my world and entered
another one, but it was such a shocking sight.

I haven't revealed my human form to Lost yet, he is possibly the
only one I can't show it to. After all, not only am I terrified I might
frighten him away with it, but it would also be far too embarrassing for
him to see me without clothes on!

I had quite a lot of time to myself exploring this strange room
before he got back. I spent most of it sitting on a couch playing with a
strange machine on the table. After poking it a few times all of a sudden a
black liquid came pouring out, spilling all over the table and even onto the
floor.

Panicking, I found some kind of fabric cloth in the strange
kitchen to wipe up the mess, which soaked it all up and surprisingly was still
dry afterwards. There are a few cups on the table so clearly this stuff must be
for drinking.

Placing the cloth down on the table, and one of the cups on top
of it. I press the same button on the strange drink machine, picking it up
and holding it over the cup so the strange liquid filled it. The cloth
soaking up the rest that overflowed.

'Bitter!'

The drink was horrible, how could someone drink this? I spent an
hour taking little sips from the cup. Half way down the drink had gone
completely cold. I couldn't drink anymore even if I tried, so I poured the
rest of it into the magic cloth.

I was lying down on the couch, completely exposed in my human
form, when Lost appeared again. Fortunately the couch was facing the other way,
so he could not see me, but it did not help my anxiety.

In my panic to get out of there I somehow recalled the feeling
of the distortion, easily reopening it and entering back into my world,
transforming into the wolf as soon as I got there. I was not a moment too soon,
Lost appearing only seconds after me.

After that incident it was almost as if I was connected
to the other side of the distortion, easily able to move in between. There
was also the feeling that rather than entering into that other world, I was
returning to it.

I started entering Lost’s room time he disappeared back to the
other world. Only, I got a little to overconfident and got caught.

It was the day that he gave me the fluffy red and white hat.
When I returned to the other world, the hat I was wearing had fallen over my
eyes, causing me to walk into a cupboard.

Lost, hearing a strange noise that surely was not supposed to be
there, came rushing over. That was when our eyes met, and I knew there was no
escaping this one.

“Have you seriously been logging out into my VL every time I
leave End Online?! Is that even possible?!”

His voice contained an extremely large amount of surprise. He
used some strange terms I was unfamiliar with, but I could tell that at least
he wasn't mad like I thought he would be.

He didn't do anything else, not expecting a wolf like me to
be able to answer him, so he walked off shaking his head. He was completely
gone by the time I came around the corner to follow him.

I transform back into an eighteen year old girl. Sitting on the
couch, I have slowly acquired a taste the black liquid over time and could
pleasantly drink it now. It was quite a risqué scene, but there was no shame as
long as no one ever saw it...

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

When we returned to what Lost called 'End Online' he proposed a
race to me back to the city, Iceridge. He also promised he would do anything I
liked for a whole day!

I had a few thoughts about what I would do, but having him play
fight with me would be a waste of an opportunity. Maybe we could go hunting for
the succubus and cause her pain. He did say he would do whatever I wanted!

I made up my mind as to exactly what I wanted. Steeling my
resolve I eradicated the goblin in front of me and took off, eager to get as
much of a lead as I could. I was extremely confident in my speed, but I was
more than aware of how fast he was. It was that speed of his that originally
impressed me after all.

The contest took us through the woods where I somehow managed to
create a large gap between us. But his speed was somehow beyond what I
remembered, closing the gap by the time I was half way towards the city.

The terrain was rough, and four legs should technically hold the
advantage, but he kept closing the distance. Before he got too close I sent off
some ice bolts to slow him down at the very least.

I finally hit him with one but for some reason he disappeared as
if he was never there! Another image of Lost appeared slightly in front of me.
I have no clue what he is doing, but even as I continue sending ice bolts at
him, every time he all of a sudden is no longer there but somewhere else
instead. Each time he moves he is even further ahead too!