End Online: Volume 2 (11 page)

But this
guy cleaned out my entire dungeon, and caused me to act in such a way I allowed
my pride to be torn to shreds.

One of my
guild members recorded the entire spectacle, putting the short video up on the
End Forums. Over a hundred thousand views, and thousands of comments mocking
me. I cannot possibly show my face again.

Safe to
say the guild member who did it is no longer with us.

I turn
around to the shadow to speak.

"Congratulations,
as of today. You are excommunicated from the Swords of Light."

I see the
stunned expression come over the player as the guild symbol vanished from the
back of his left hand.

"But
don't worry. You are more than welcome to re-join. I just need you to do a little
task first. I want you to take all these location scrolls and find the player
called 'Lost'. Join his party, or follow him around. Just keep track of him and
report his locations to me so I can come and pay him a visit."

I have
thought it all through. He will not suspect my spy, considering he is not a
part of the Swords of Light. All I need to do is then come and extract my
revenge on the player 'Lost'. It that woman is there with him, all the better!

-Lost-

Somehow, I am certain
the person clinging onto my back is Fen. Yet, she should be a wolf. Since
when could she transform into a human? Was it a new technique, like when she
first began to use the ice attacks? Or has she always been able to?

Images of what the wolf
look like in human form are flickering through my mind, trying to match up what
little I could feel against my body to an image. 

'No. I should not think
those things!'

Slamming my eyes shut I
force all unnecessary thoughts out of my mind.

"You may not want
to help Verde, Fen, but I do. We can't just leave her there."

"Yes... You can.
Just pretend... She doesn't exist." Her icy voice sends shivers through my
entire body with each word, but it isn't exactly an unpleasant feeling.

"She is there
because of me. Being responsible, I could not do that." 

"... Only... If
you buy me clothes..."

A short silence passes
over, neither one of us knowing exactly what to say next. I break the silence
first by agreeing to buy her something to wear.

The embrace disappears
from around me and when I turn around, she has already transformed back into a
wolf.

Opening my inventory I
go to get the scroll of shrinking, but, even after three full
searches it was not there. I shake my head from side to side, refusing to admit that
I have run out of the scrolls.

"Umm. Fen,"
Looking up at the wolf as I speak, "it appears I may have, just
potentially, run out of shrinking scrolls." I try to play it off with a
laugh but the sound that comes out is too dry to be called that.

The wolf gives me a
furious look, stepping away from the passage entrance while reliving bad
memories.

"I didn't mean for
this to happen! Honestly!" Raising my hands above my head, pleading
innocent to the wolf, "And I'm not going to drag you through a tunnel again.
You know, last time wasn't pleasant for me either."

I can't help but say
those last words with a considerable amount of bitterness. 

"These paths are a
great deal larger than the tunnels near where you were, so you should be able
to walk down them easily enough."

The only problem is
going up floors. With her massive body she will not be able to climb the narrow
ramps around the edges of the seemingly bottomless pits. 

She begrudgingly
follows behind me as we leave the area to go rescue Verde on the second floor.
I was correct in saying the pathways were indeed larger. Fen can comfortably
walk down them standing upright and there is a reasonable amount of room on
either side of her. But, she would not be able to do any evasive manoeuvres if
we were attacked. 

I consider how odd it is
that we fought the boss after collecting the dungeon loot. Normally it would be
the other way around, you fight the boss, and then you gain the rewards after.

It was a nice trap to
have the boss sneak up behind the player who was all excited about the chest,
but it was just too different to any role playing game I have ever played
before.

Lost in thought, we
arrive at the ramp to climb to the second floor. Fen nervously shifts her gaze
between the ramp and me, suspecting I may trick her again.

"Fen, I need you
to do something for me," the wolf takes a few steps back, a few ice bolts
forming in the air, "Calm down! It's not something like that! All I need
you to do is transform into a person while we go up, then you can turn back
into a wolf."

The ice bolts shrink in
size, but they did not completely disappear. They whittle down till they are
about the thickness of a finger, before being launched at my eyes.

"Hey! Cut it out!
I won't look. You can just walk behind me!"

Dodging the attack, I
turn around and stand at the base of the ramp, facing the other way. Before
long, faint footsteps walk up behind me, stopping directly behind me.

"You... Peek, and
I will... Your eyes..." It was menacing, yet I could feel the nervousness
in her icy voice.

"You've already
tried that. It failed." I retorted a little more sarcastically than I
planned to, but there was no changing it now.

A pair of arms sneak under
mine, raising them up over my head as I am placed into a choke hold. Two small
ice bolts with dagger tips form in the air, a hairs width away from my eyes.

"I will... Your
eyes..." She repeats the words, this time having a slightly greater effect
on me.

"Okay, okay. No
peeking!" I wasn't going to anyway, but the cold beads of sweat on my
forehead tell me I have to make it perfectly clear to this wolf.

Fortunately, the
arms release me and the ice bolts dissolve into dust in response to my
words. 

Two nervous hands grip
onto the back of my cloak as I start walking along the wall. Slowly getting
higher, we climb up the pit hole to the second floor.

Once we get to the top
Fen let's go of my cloak and whispers, "Sorry... For not showing you...
Before..."

I turn around
surprised, but she has already turned back into a wolf nearly three meters
tall.

We encounter a few
freshly spawned groups of goblins, but we easily take care of
them, suffering next to no damage.

We approach near the
pit connecting to the first floor and come across Verde. She is sitting against
the wall near where she logged off. Something seems strange when she looks up
to greet me, a slight happiness in her hazel eyes. 

Her eyes! I can see her
properly for the first time with her hood down!

The eyes I could see
were entrancing. I almost lean closer just to stare into them. Verde's hair is
straight at the top, before flowing into loose curls that flow down onto her
chest. Her fringe is swept to the side, held in place by two clips.

I still could not tell
exactly what her size was thanks to the leather armour she wore, but it seemed
to be considerable.

'No, don't look there!
I still need to apologize! If she sees me looking there it will make things
even worse!'

Shaking the thoughts
loose from my head, I extend a hand to her.

"C-Can I help you
up?" I stutter a little, embarrassed about the kiss. She gave a short nod
and lent me her hand.

She did not say
anything until I hoist her up onto her feet.

"Thank you for
coming. Umm... Do you happen to have any potions? My health is still a bit,
low." Cheeks flushing red, her voice came out incredibly bashful. 

"Sorry! I don't,
and I kind of need more water before I can make any more." I did not realize
her health was still the same as when she logged off, but I could not do
anything without water. I also could not feed her any green medicinal
herbs due to not having enough left to make any difference.

"Umm, would this
help. I originally bought this when I started playing. I thought back then we
had to have food and water to survive. Since then I have drunk water for the
luxury." She averts her face as she hands me the bottle.

"Hah, this should
do." Taking the bottle and my potion making equipment out I grind up two
green medicinal herbs per vial and make a total of four health potions. This is
all the herbs I can manage to spare at the moment.

I drink about half of
what is leftover in the canteen and pass it back to Verde, along with the
potions. I don't consider drinking out of something that has been used by
someone else to be dirty simply because this is a game, and germs are non-existent
here.

Verde quickly drinks
the potions and washes the flavour down with the rest of the water, letting out
a small burp from her mouth. Quickly trying to cover up the unfeminine
exhalation of air with a cough into her hand, it will still adorable the quick
high pitched noise followed by an out of sync cough that did nothing for
it. 

I retrieve the empty
potion flasks from her as she pulls the hood of her cloak back over
her head. 

It is only around the
corner that the ramp to the first floor is. I ask Verde to log off for five
minutes due to there being something she shouldn't see.

Once again Fen's hands
are slightly quivering through my cloak. Half way up even I receive a massive
fright when her foot slips, causing her to half fall off the ledge, only being
saved by her holding onto my cloak. 

With my heart racing,
she quickly pulled herself closer to me, wrapping her arms around my chest. Lifting
her legs up, they quickly held onto my waist as well.

'She must be
terrified of heights,' 
Come to think of it, she did stick rather close
when she was the miniature wolf, 
'I completely had no idea.'
.

She is a very slender
wolf girl. I can feel a bit of fat on her, but not very much. The limbs wrapped
around me reveal her skin to be completely pale, almost as if it has
never seen the sun.

The most surprising
aspect is her weight. I had a moment where I panicked about it when she threw
her weight onto me. But she has lost all the weight as a wolf and is barely a
hundred pounds now.

Placing my hands under
her thighs, I support her weight as I carry her up to the first floor. The
memory of her skin in my hands remains while I wait for Verde to log back in
and join us.

The trip through the
first floor was also extremely easy, minor goblins falling before they could
even reach us. I had Verde repeat the same process of logging out when we
climbed up to the surface. Fen didn't climb on to me like last time, but she
was definitely closer than when we originally started.

Above ground my eyes
widen in surprise at all the goblins. We had been underground for quite some
time, yet, there are none here.

From over one of the
hills surrounding the encampment a group of ten players suddenly emerge, entering
the encampment just as Verde climbs up out of the dungeon. Maybe it’s just me,
but they seem to be heading directly towards us. 

"Not good,"
Verde whispers to me, "See that symbol on the back of their left hands,
that is a guild symbol. They are from the Swords of Light."

I had heard about the
guild symbols. Each guild assigns a symbol to a part of the body that every
member wears. It appears on the body, or clothing if that is specified, similar
to the symbol that every player receives on the back of their right hand when
they turn level fifty.

Surely enough, looking
on the back of their left hand revealed a tattoo like symbol. Activating the
‘Hunter’s eyes’ aspect of my class skill, I get a clear picture of the tattoo.
It is in the shape of a sword, with rays of light coming off of it.

Encountering other
players temporarily overwrites my embarrassment to Verde, but who wouldn’t feel
this daunting atmosphere that drowns everything else out.

"The Swords of
Light?" I whisper back to her, "I haven't heard of them before. What
is so bad about them?"

"Not only have
they been known to extort players for gold to hunt in grounds they claim to own,
but all their members are over level one hundred. Most players can't even do
anything to stop them. Shh... They're here!"

Hissing the last part
at me, she turns around and faces the Swords of Light members in front of us. A
man with short cropped blond hair, sticking straight up, steps forward from the
rest of them. His armour gleams like silver, yet it has a stange texture to it
showing it is some unknown metal that I do not know of.

"Well, well."
The man looks up and down us, determining our levels by our equipment. His gaze
stops on Fen for a moment, but he continues speaking after giving an odd facial
expression.

"It is relieving
that you know who we are, it saves a lot of explanations. Oh, sorry, I heard
everything you said before. I have a skill called 'Sonar' that enhances my
hearing you see. I am Chronix, the leader of the Swords of Light, and these men
behind me are our strongest members. All their levels are around one hundred
and fifty." He gives us a heart-warming smile as he introduces everyone. Surely
he isn't such a bad guy.

"But. It is
what you are probably thinking. We came here today to take care of the
boss that should have respawned since we killed it two weeks ago. After taking
care of all the small fry outside, we happen to see some unknown players coming
out of our dungeon. Players, in fact, that have not paid a fee to use our
hunting grounds."

He still maintains the
perfect smile, almost like this fee is not extortion, but a fair price. I was
definitely wrong, this guy is the worst!

"Judging by your
equipment, I would say you did not even get past the first floor. But,
just to be sure, we will say you made it onto the second floor. The price for
two floors is two hundred gold, per person, per day. The fact that there were
goblins around means you were in there overnight, making it two days. So,
please pay eight hundred gold."