End Online: Volume 5 (16 page)

The boss doesn’t drop any loot upon death, but a large amount of
treasure is found in his sarcophagus. The game enforces fairness in splitting
the rewards by allowing each person to find three or four items that only they
can pick up. Of course, you can trade the items or give them away as you please
afterwards.

When I inspect the sarcophagus, I find two ‘Unique’ items of
women’s clothing which go together as a pair, an ‘Epic’ sceptre, and a ‘Unique’
whip. With a confused look, I stare at the skirt and a top. For some reason, I
suspect that someone placed these here knowing that Fen needs new clothes.

Despite acquiring dozens of ‘Common’ crafting items, weapons,
and rag-like armor, the inspection I give the boss rewards is much more
profound.

‘Actually, would she even wear this?’
 I wonder to myself with a wry smile.

The skirt is made from a brown hemp-like cloth with a single
cord on the side to tie it at the waist. It will only reach halfway down her
thighs with short slits at either side that allow for easy movement and are
quite eye catching. Along the hem of the skirt is thin golden trim inlaid with
several rubies.

The top is more shocking. I don’t even know if I can call it a
top. It is practically a swimsuit top made from a brown hemp similar to the
skirt.

Clothing sells on the online auction quite well to female
players who are trying to make a fashion statement, but the prices are only a
fraction of what a player will pay for a new weapon or armor. I will at least
offer this clothing to Fen to see if she likes it before choosing to sell it.

The sceptre is a truly rare find. The value of such a weapon
that allows the wielder to easily join a religion is unimaginable. And this is
a completely unique religion too. My arms tremble slightly when I hold it,
anticipating what it could sell for.

Everyone else is highly pleased with their rewards as well, each
person taking a long time to look over their items, inspecting some of them
more than once in excitement.

With everyone caught up in examining their items, I return mine
to my inventory and move over to the inscriptions on the walls. Each symbol is
a picture that seems to depict something. I try piecing words together for each
symbol that would best describe it, but that is completely useless in trying to
understand it.

The harder I try to understand the ancient language, the more
interested I get. It is not something I have previously been interested in, but
once I saw it in the game, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

After another hour, I am still lost in thought as we leave the
dungeon. Fen’s mood also seems to have improved with her completely forgetting
all anger upon my return. I rest against her silently as everyone begins
talking, but I completely miss the start of the conversation.

“Lost? Haha, you’re completely absent again, I see. Are you
okay? Did you get enough rest last night?” Mason asks with a hint of worry in
his voice.

“Sorry! I was just lost in thought. What were you saying?”

“We are trying to decide where to go next. Mikhail and his party
don’t seem to mind, I want to travel south to investigate Mikhail’s ‘rumor’.
What about you?”

I look around at several other pyramids I can see, and consider
having a look through them. I suspect each one is a different dungeon.

Giving it some thought, I finally decide to go with Mason’s
idea, “We will head south. We can’t spend forever around these pyramids which
are more than likely similar to one another. I’m curious as to what
this something is that is toward the south, but I am tired and have
some personal matters to attend to, how about we leave tomorrow?”

Mason chuckles lightly and nods his head. Mikhail’s party logs
off immediately after deciding on a time. The rest of our party sticks around
for a while as they see me approach Fen. I already told them about the clothing
I got from the boss rewards, but haven’t shown them yet. I mentally curse at
them to hurry up and log off as I know they are waiting for a show.

When I offer the clothing to Fen, she stares at it intently,
unsure what to do. Looking between me and back at the clothing she grabs with
her teeth and disappears over a dune nearby.

Ten minutes pass and she still hasn’t come back. I begin to
wonder if something happened just as she walks over the dune in her human form.

Pure white hair extending just beyond her shoulders in a wild
manner and an extremely flushed face are the first things I notice. A brown
skirt with several small rubies and a corded belt covers her waist and upper
thighs, but her slender legs still gracefully carry her over the sand one step
at a time. A small navel is revealed above the skirt along with a lot of skin
lacking a single blemish.

Her chest… is covered by her hands as she tries to hold the top
against her breasts. A pair of strings hang down from the side of the top,
showing that it is not tied at her back.

“I can’t… tie it…” Fen says with her crystal clear voice, shyly turning
around to expose her entire bare back to me.

My face turns as red as a burning ember by this point. I hastily
turn my head to glare at the others. Everyone is staring at us wide-eyed, lost
for words. Upon seeing me look at them, they awkwardly look elsewhere,
pretending to maintain conversations between themselves as if they didn’t see
anything.

‘If you’re going to pretend, then stop glancing over here every
two seconds!’
 I want to shout out
at them.

Awkwardly, with shaking hands and and my face completely red, I
tie the back of Fen’s top as quickly as possible.

The wolf girl turns around bashfully, wrapping her arms around
me and pressing her body to mine. At this very moment, I have a strong urge to
unequip my armor.

I hear the noise of several people clearing their throats behind
me, but when I turn around with my fists clenched, everyone has already logged
off.

-Hollis-

It’s late. I’m feeling strange and uncomfortable in my
wheelchair after so many hours running through the sand in End Online. I
reflexively attempt to curl and stretch my toes, but nothing happens except to
inject some bitterness in with my discomfort.

After a brief meal and attending to personal hygiene, I turn on
my computer. After an agonizingly slow start up, I open a popular search engine
and input a single word: university.

The site automatically searches based on my location and
prioritizes the local universities. By local, I mean the entire east section of
the city I live in, Taile. I open up the top result on the web page, Saint
Peter’s University.

As with all universities, it is privately owned so there is no
funding or subsidies. A select few may get scholarships and fee reductions
granted by the school board, but that is impossible for someone of my social
standing.

Navigating through the pages available, I find the current list
of courses offered. Saint Peter’s University has an extensive list of options
available. Science, art, medicine, and many other options are available if you
can afford it.

The cost of each course is in the tens of thousands of dollars,
some even nearing a hundred thousand dollars. I can’t afford the tuition fees,
and the campus is located in the Middle District, three districts above me.
Equal opportunity still exists in the current day and age, but I’m sure the
school board will find some excuse to reject my application.

Returning back to the search page, I look through the next three
universities only to find they are similar to the first. By the seventh search
result, I finally find something that looks promising.

Cambridge University, located in the Downtown District and
charging very reasonable course fees. The only downside is that it doesn’t
offer many of the more sophisticated courses that the more prestigious
universities do.

Fortunately, it still offers the only course I am interested in:
Philology and Semiotics. This is the study of ancient languages and the usage
of pictures as language. The two-year course costs a total of thirteen thousand
dollars. The price and thoughts of job placement after course completion make
me hesitant to proceed. An expensive piece of paper will look pretty on the
wall, but a respectable job will help me get my sisters back from my aunt.

Bringing up a new page on my browser, I search for work relating
to the study of ancient languages. To my surprise, there are several companies
searching for experienced people to help decipher texts in many of the ancient
ruins throughout the world. Apparently they will hire redundantly as each
person will often translate old texts differently.

Returning to my application, I press the ‘Sign Up’ button. The
next class begins in January, which happens to be four months away from now. I
fill out all of my personal details, but I also have to pay a twenty percent deposit
upon signing up. The loss of money is a bitter one, but I cannot turn back now
that I have found what I want.

Another benefit is the option to do the majority of the course
via correspondence, allowing me to not strain myself by trying to wheel to school
every day. All lectures are recorded, so I can watch them from the comfort of
my own home.

My bank account is currently running extremely low on funds, but
if my application to Cambridge University is rejected, the deposit will
automatically get refunded.

Once the money has been paid, a confirmation email is sent to me
with my application details. I look everything over then close the page.

“Arghhhh!” I place my hands over my face and shout. “Why did I
have to sign up now?! The course starts in four more months and now I have no
money! The student loan system is completely corrupt with massive interest
rates so I don’t want that! What am I going to do?!”

I was completely lost in the moment and only now do I realize I
should have waited until I had more money. Either way, I still have to pay a
minimum of fifty percent by the beginning of the course regardless of when I
sign up. However, if I had waited another month, I would have had the
opportunity to sell a couple more items from End Online through the auction
house.

My phone beeps, so I lower my hand from my face to check it. On
the phone, the screen is lit up with a message from Markus Forz, also known as
Sir Laurence.

The message is short and abrupt. I fail to understand why he
cares to inform me that Mason uploaded another video. He has plenty of them
uploaded already so that is nothing new.

‘Perhaps it is a surprisingly good video,’
 I muse as I log on to the End Forums.

I am wide eyed with shock as I see Mason’s video on the front
page of the site. The title is, ‘A new raid found – Sunken Rock, Mermaid’s
Lair’. The post has an astonishing number of comments and views, so much that I
cannot believe it.

A little nervously, I load the video and let it start playing.
Everything from entering the dungeon to encountering the first group of
mermaids are as I remember. Then, just as I recall, the lustful effect of the
mermaid’s glare takes hold on most of our party members. Everyone awkwardly
turns and faces the nearest player, approaching steadily.

Several long and passionate kisses take place soon after. While
some of the people are not under the effect and are fighting back at those with
glazed eyes, kisses are inevitable. The mermaid’s charm attack caused us much
pain and suffering before we realized it can only affect you if you look them
in the eye.

There are other monsters in the raid that we encountered later,
but I don’t watch that far. With an expression of shame, I scroll down the page
and inspect the comments.

The comments continue in an endless stream. The video has been
posted for a couple of hours and there are thousands of comments and tens of
thousands of views.

I now know why Sir Laurence informed me of Mason’s post. It is
something which should never have been posted and we will need to give him a
stern talking to. I would ask him to remove the video, but it has been up long
enough now that it would only result in someone replacing it with a copy they
made.

Trying to ignore that, I focus on other recent threads. Titles
such as ‘Gladox: Level 470 Confirmed!’, ‘New area/dungeon found!’, ‘Epic grade
class skill discovered’ flood the forum. It is mostly rubbish and gossip
though. All the useful information is over at the section of the website where
you must pay for information.

Nothing else catches my eye. I double check Mason’s account and
all the videos he has posted. A small sense of relief comes over me when I
realize that there is a lot that he hasn’t posted, but I still think he could
be a little more selective.

As it is already late, I am extremely tired and craving sleep.
Resting on my bed, I rapidly lose consciousness.

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

Logged back into End Online, Sir Laurence and I look at each
other gloomily.

“He’s not here.” The shining knight’s face darkens as he looks
around for Mason.

I look at him with a similar expression. “Perhaps he knows that
we know about the video?”

“Then he will never log on.”

Before I realize it, Fen is standing next to me. She is looking
at my face with curiosity. Glancing at her causes me to forget some of my more
depressing thoughts and blush slightly. Seeing her wear such a revealing top
only reminds me of the time I saw her dress pulled down, exposing her forbidden
fruit.

Just at this moment, two people log on near us. Glaring at the
figures materializing, I expect it to be Mason and Matrix. Surprisingly, it is
only Verde and CaptainGordon coincidentally logging in at the same time. They
both look at Sir Laurence and I and ask what’s wrong. CaptainGordon shamelessly
laughs when we explain the situation while Verde appears to be considerably
angry.

Shortly after, Mikhail and his party log in. While everyone is
conversing with each other and minding their own business, Verde comes up to
Sir Laurence and I.

She plays with her thumbs and avoids looking us in the eye. “Sir
Laurence, Lost, can I please umm, have a word with you?”

Unsure how to respond, I casually nod my head. Prince Charming
spouts off a cliche line with ‘my lady’ attached.

Following Verde, we leave CaptainGordon behind to draw the saber
he never uses and futily polish it. Fen attempts to follow us, but I suspect
this isn’t something she needs to hear so I ask her to stay behind. She doesn’t
take too kindly to that, staring daggers at me, but still stays behind.

Once we are far enough away from the group to avoid prying ears,
Verde says gently, “Umm, there’s something I want to discuss with you two.”

Neither of us say a word, waiting for her to continue.

“I don’t know if you were aware, but for some reason I suffered
a form of amnesia. Thankfully that is over now. My parents forced me to
continue playing the game in hopes of helping me recall my memories and also
locate the source of the amnesia.”

“My lady, we were aware. We tried to discuss past experiences
with you that might trigger some memories.”

“I am aware of that now. They made me feel like I was forgetting
something, but I couldn’t figure out what.”

I feel like something is amiss and can’t help but ask, “Umm, I
am glad you have got your memories back, but why are you telling us now?”

“Ever since it happened, my father has been watching over me in
the game and I have not had the chance to bring it up without him knowing. He
and my mother are currently out at an important meeting so I can talk without
them prying.”

“Is this something your parents can’t know about?”

“Sort of. He is simply too overbearing and often causes more
trouble than it is worth. Also, I don’t want him to know about the kiss.”

Sir Laurence turns serious and he looks at me before turning
back to Verde, “The kiss from the raid?”

“Yes, it was such a shock that I remembered the first time it
happened. After that, everything came back to me.”

Sir Laurence’s face becomes ugly to behold and is giving off an
enormous amount of bloodlust, “Excuse me my lady, I suddenly remembered
something important I wanted speak with CaptainGordon about.”

“W-wait!” Verde calls out as the knight turns and is about to
leave. “I want to speak with the two of you about this. I-I have already
forgotten about what happened previously.”

Verde doesn’t mean she has literally forgotten about it, but
moved on and no longer worries. Sir Laurence stops, sighing before turning back
around. He seems calmer, but his gaze still causes the hairs on the back of my
neck to rise.

“What is done has been done,” Sir Laurence’s serious voice
resound in my head and mine alone, “You should know that Verde in real
life comes from somewhere extremely high up. Practically the top, in fact. I’m
not saying don’t overstep your bounds, but the people around her will never
stay silent.”

I am taken aback by his words, and a little unsure as how to
respond. I don’t have any particular feeling for her in that regard, so it
isn’t a problem. I want to explain that it was nothing intimate, but Verde
speaks before I have the chance to reply to his private message.