End Online: Volume 5 (21 page)

I bang on the door ruthlessly with my fist, “Get the hell out
here, you have nowhere else to go!”

From inside the booth is utter silence. After a few minutes of
banging on the door, I draw my blades and start hacking at it, leaving deep
gouges on the door wherever the knives pass. Sir Laurence attempts to stop me,
but one fierce glare is enough to have him halt in his steps.

I eventually manage to break through the door. What is behind it
however, rather than a scared old priest, is nothing. An exact mirror image of
the other side of the booth where the player usually sits.

‘Damn it, where did he go!?’
 I
stomp on the ground and make sure there are no trap doors or anything like it,
but apparently he simply vanished into thin air.

Sir Laurence and Verde come up to me cautiously, even Fen gives
me a curious look, asking what’s wrong.

I begin from the start, relaying how I first logged into End
Online and walked out of the church. I explain that I was already in an
agitated mood from several real life concerns and ended up in an argument with
the guide for new players over choosing a name. It then escalated into assault
and I had my player name forcibly chosen and was even imprinted with that
‘Aggravation’ skill.

Verde expresses that she thinks I am still going a bit far, but
Sir Laurence secretly sympathizes with me over a private message.

Shortly after, we leave the church and start walk toward the
eastern gate. Day turns to night and glimmering street lights begin to light up
one after another. The meeting between players about the attack and defense of
the kingdom must already be over, as the number of players traversing the
city’s streets had exploded exponentially.

Every street has at least one player trying to hawk their goods
under a lamp, making the most of the large battle to come. From some of the
conversations I overhear while walking, the five assault groups will be leaving
tomorrow morning to try and catch Grenton unprepared. I sincerely hope they do
catch them by surprise, especially Mason.

At the east gate of Iceridge, we find a small inn out of the way
and rent a few rooms for the night.

The system wakes us up at sunrise. Fen is sprawled across me in
the clothing we got from ‘Emperor Rahad’s Tomb’. Her slumbering head is bent
backwards on my shoulder, exposing two bulging ridges on her chest. I do not
wear armor when sleeping either, so the sensation of her breasts pressing
against my ribs is extremely potent.

I roll around to try and get up off the bed and end up tangling
the two of us together. She awakens from the movement and opens her eyes when
our faces are only an inch apart. I stare into her crystal blue eyes, still
drowsy. Reflected in her eyes is my completely flushed face. The both of us lie
there, not moving when a banging sounds on the door.

“Stop flirting and get up!”

It is Verde that shouts, her voice somewhat hesitant.

Fen’s face in front of me suddenly pouts and becomes something
difficult to describe. If I had to put it into a single word: disappointed.

We surprisingly become untangled relatively easy and I get out
of the bed, equipping my armor again as I do so. Outside the door are both
Verde and Sir Laurence. The former is hesitant while the latter has a look of
indifference on his face, but both pairs of eyes shine with curiosity and a
myriad of questions.

I hastily leave the hallway with Fen in tow, not giving them the
opportunity to ask any questions. Outside the inn, the morning sun slowly melts
the thin coating of ice that is covering all the windows. Small fires are
burning in the back alleys of the area, players with the ‘Cooking’ skill taking
charge of breakfast before the big expedition.

Verde, Sir Laurence, Fen and I hastily leave the city through
the east gate before it becomes too congested. I have the nagging feeling that
someone is following me, but whenever I turn my head, there is no one there.

Half a day and three hundred wolf corpses later, we arrive at
the goblin village amongst a group of hills southeast of Iceridge. I look at
the wolf girl, my memory replaying the scene of her ditching me here and
leaving me for dead.

From the hills surrounding the village we casually stroll toward
the center. Some goblin scouts spot us blatantly walking down the center of the
hill and charge to attack us. I see them coming from a distance, but wait for
them to get closer before attacking them.

There are two groups of six goblins coming from two different
directions.

“Leave this to me,” I pridefully say to the others, charging
toward the group that is nearest and throwing all my knives at them.

My throwing knives are actually quite weak by themselves, only
made strong by countless damage bonuses from my skills and stats. Against a
strong monster they are practically useless, but against these weaklings they
do major damage. Two throwing knives are enough to kill a single one of these
goblins that we used to have to fight with our lives on the line.

Four of the six goblins in the group are instantly killed from
my ranged attack. Like a ghost against the snow, my figure almost flies down
the hill at a speed that would leave most people frightened, just before vanishing
toward the end and reappearing in the center of the final two goblins, one
blade cutting through each of their necks.

I have long since mastered the speed which even my senses can’t
keep up with. Rather than trying to control every action, I predetermine my
route, where I want to start and where to stop moving. This allows me to move
at a speed others can’t react to, but also limits me to linear movements.

I use this speed to appear in the center of the second group of
goblins like a spectre. I first use the sacred art ‘Triple Stab’, my blade
glowing brightly as it leaves three puncture wounds in one of the goblins. The
attack had so much power that not only did it kill the weak monster in an
instant, but pierced through and killed the goblin behind it as well.

I follow up with the sacred art ‘CrossX’ on the next nearest
goblin, sending it flying with a giant red ‘X’ on the torso that nearly
quartered its body. The final three are killed with normal attacks, my body
seemingly disappearing in the face of their attacks yet appearing to deal fatal
thrusts and slashes. The goblins are constantly chasing after images until they
are all dead.

The entire battle against the twelve goblins took me about
twenty seconds. It was over before it even began.

“Congratulations,” Verde claps unenthusiastically at me bullying
the weak monsters.

I ignore Verde’s sarcasm and reflect on how much stronger I have
become since leaving Iceridge. The difference is leaps and bounds beyond what I
thought it would be.

Sir Laurence, Verde and Fen join in as we quickly enter the
hidden goblin village and eradicate all the goblins within. Despite the massive
difference in strength, all the goblins still recklessly charge at us. Of
course, with my class skill causing an intimidation effect and over half the
goblins within its range, the majority of them attempt to overwhelm me with
numbers.

With the village clear, we descend the crevice in the middle of
the settlement and enter the dungeon below.

Having not been in this dungeon for so long along with the fact
that none of us have the ‘Cartography’ skill, we end up becoming lost on the
first floor of the dungeon. Nothing in this dungeon can prove a threat to us so
it becomes a task of navigating the maze.

Three hours pass and we finally uncover the enormous shaft that
leads toward the second level. On the second level, we have more luck than on
the first and find the passage to the third floor with relative ease.

From the entrance of the third floor, it is only a matter of
time before we find the final boss room. We find several areas we didn’t the
first time through here, but we eventually reach it. Once we arrive at the boss
room, I am a little disappointed.

I can see the chest in the center of the room is open, unlike
last time when it was closed. I still walk into the room regardless, hoping
that the boss is still alive. The four of us stand in the middle of the
circular room and inspect the walls for the goblin boss or any goblin minions
waiting to emerge.

A few standard goblins emerge from the walls, which are easily
taken care of by Fen, but the goblin boss does not appear.

Just as I suspected, someone had already killed the boss and it
has yet to respawn. I try to think of who would have killed it and my first
thought is Chronix and his guild, Swords of Light. It can’t possibly be him; he
has appeared all over the continent and attacked me every time he does.
Therefore he has moved on from Iceridge and toward bigger and better things.

‘No, he got teleported back to Iceridge the same as the rest of
us. But would he come back to this dungeon? By now there are bound to be others
who have discovered this dungeon,’ I wonder to myself helplessly and don’t
realize Verde and Sir Laurence are talking to me.

“Lost!” Verde waves her hand in front of my face, her voice
considerably irritated. “Let’s go, this wasn’t as interesting as I thought it
would be.”

“Ah, sorry. Yeah, let’s go.”

I continue to think to myself as we track back through the
dungeon and emerge in the goblin village. We walk toward the top of one of the
hills to get a better bearing when another player appears on the top. I look at
the person twice, not believing what I am seeing.

“Verde,” I whisper to the girl next to me equally as shocked as
I am, “things just got interesting.”

“Yeah, I think we should run away again. Just like last time,”
she whispers back to me, staring straight at the man in golden armour casually
looking down on us from the top of the hill.

“Definitely; on three?”

“How many times have I told you that my skill lets me hear what
you are whispering about to yourself? You give away your plans just by speaking
them. Why haven’t you figured out to just use party chat?” Chronix stares at us
in disbelief, drawing his sword and waving it in a few circles above his head.

With his signal sent, about a hundred players emerge from the
other hills and surround us.

“You think I didn’t learn from the last time you escaped?”
Chronix looks down on us with scorn, already believing he has won. “These people
are all elites. I have also gotten considerably stronger since you left
Swordbreak and went to the City of Sphinx. I have waited very patiently for
this moment.”

Seeing all the people surrounding us, I decide to become
serious, “You already killed me once, isn’t that enough?”

“Apparently not. I plan to kill you today, and keep killing you
until I am satisfied. That wolf girl too. She escaped once before, but it won’t
happen today.”

The group surrounding us are all equipped with top tier armor.
There is no way we can fight them head on. They also plan on specifically
targeting Fen and myself, which is the worst possible situation.

“Fen, listen to me. You grab Sir Laurence, break through the
formation and escape. I will grab Verde and be right behind you. Run as fast as
possible.”

Fen looks at me with disapproval and refuses to do it initially,
but after pressing the matter she eventually nods her head in resignation.
Chronix frowns as I make the plans. I know he can hear my plan as I speak of
it, but what can he do about it?

After saying the word “go”, Fen almost becomes a shadow, sending
tens of blunt ice bolts at several people in the line to break them apart as
she grabs Sir Laurence before charging at them. I am right behind her, scooping
up a surprised and struggling Verde and running behind Fen. Carrying someone
drastically reduces our speed, but it is still explosive enough to escape the
other players if we can emerge from this encirclement.

Three players are taken by surprise and get knocked away by the
blunt ice bolts, which opens a hole in their formation. Just before we can get
through, another player suddenly steps into the empty spot of the encirclement
with an enormous plated shield as tall as he is. This must be one of the
defensive specialist players who protect the parties from boss attacks.

His shield glows red like blood and gives off a faint mist. The
position of my real body is revealed in this mist and when Fen sends several
more ice bolts, they are weakened by the mist and easily blocked. Fen and I
enter the outskirts of the mist which causes the air to become thick and
difficult to move in, further halving our speed.

We both crash into the enormous shield, which absorbs the shock
of the collision before pushing back. The four of us fly through the air and
crash back to the center of the encirclement. While I was in the air, I noticed
that there were several more people with enormous shields just outside the
encirclement, ready to replace any fallen members.

I rapidly cast and throw dire flame fireballs at the
encirclement when I think I see those defensive players waiting to replace
anyone necessary. Thirteen players end up affected by the dire flame after
effects, but the damage is too little to prove a threat to these high levelled
players. Each will take at least several hours to die.