End Online: Volume 2 (16 page)

It’s oddly quiet where we are, no NPC's walking
around, and no players either. Where exactly could they have gone?

Strolling through the town we split up into two
groups, Fen coming with me as if it is simply the natural choice.

Walking directly into the centre of town, Fen
and I turn left in our search for survivors. 

We make sure to check in every home that is not
completely destroyed, in case people are hiding inside. I have Fen go in first
whenever we do go inside. Not because of any possible danger, but because my
intimidating aura would probably cause the people to think they are under
attack again.

'Every house is deserted. Surely there
must be a few survivors, considering I haven’t seen any corpses. Did they flee
the town?'

Fen leads the way into a large
triple story building that still had the entire first floor intact. At
first glance, the interior appears to be an inn. Fully equipped with a kitchen
and a platform for a performer, what else could it be?

However, the entire upstairs was destroyed, eliminating
the key feature of an inn, the guest rooms. Perhaps I could now call this a
bar.

Standing behind a counter is a man with the
physique of a barrel. Quickly ducking back outside the shop, I leave Fen to
talk to him with the words I told her to say. 

Pressing the side of my face against
the door, I listen to the conversation

"Young miss! Welcome! Sorry, but we
currently have no rooms... Available. Can I help you with something else?"

"... What... Happened here..."

I frown slightly. She possibly could have
worded it better.

"It was devastating," the man sounds
physically strained, "A week ago, during the middle of the night, we were
the victims to an onslaught of Stone Kobolds. Normally we receive an attack by
a single group of twenty or thirty, but our guards can always hold them off.
However, this time, we received an attack of twenty thousand. There were even
Boulder Ogres mixed in with the group."

His voice grows even tighter as he continues to
talk.

"I sent an urgent message to Forste as
soon as it started. Alas, they could not make it in time... They took
them! Men, women, children. There were next to no survivors, only a few
survivors like me, cowering in hidden rooms."

"Then, the worst came. A pitch black
dragon easily a hundred meters long!"

I'm sure saying it was a hundred meters long is
a bit of an exaggeration, but I wonder how bad it could have been. All hope
drain from his voice after that, leaving only emptiness.

"It flew over once, and it breathed hell
down onto Leaz... Our entire town... burned for six full days!"

"... Oh... Okay..."

Fen! How can you be so heartless! 

"Young lady, I can see you are not from
around here. Did you come with any warriors?"

"... I did..."

"That's great!" I can
visualize his eyes sparkling just from his tone, "Would you please
ask them to help us. Our townsfolk have been taken to the eastern
mountain range and enslaved by the monsters. Who knows what they are
having them do. Please, save them!"

"... No..."

I can feel tears of blood running down my
face, why would you say "No"!? I did all the calculating, if I
returned with even a few hundred prisoners I would surely gain enough fame to
clear my slate of all the built up infamy. I don’t like being seen as a bad
person.

A few footsteps later the door opens, causing
me to lose balance but not completely fall over. Fen stands in front of
me, looking at me as if not knowing what to do next.

"... I found out... What
happened..." 

Behind her, I can see the inn owner crumpled
over the counter, defeat riddling his face. 

"Argh! How could you!?" I nearly pull
my hair out in frustration. 

Verde and Prince Charming approach us, showing
proud looks on their face.

"Verde!" I call out before they can
say anything, "Please go inside and offer our help to that man!"
Bending forwards at a forty five degree angle from the waist, I beg her.

"W-What!?" She is stunned at my
actions, "Why would you want me to do that."

"I wish to do this quest and save the
townsfolk, so please go accept the quest from the man in there."

"Well," I stand up straight to see
the bottom half of her thinking face. "I heard the story from a family
hiding in one of the houses. Apparently, the grim reaper covered the sky in
darkness and rained down fire. Don't you think it may be a little out of our
league?"

"I believe there are some benefits I
should not pass up on."

"Can I ask... Why didn't you go accept the
request from him."

"I kind of, have this skill... It prevents
me from interacting with NPC's properly. Whenever I do, I end up gaining
infamy. Also, I can't unequip it, so that is not an option."

Averting my eyes, I feel slightly awkward as
she laughs at my situation

'It's not that funny you know, it is
quite serious for me.'

"I didn't mean to laugh. I'm sorry,"
She is still giggling despite saying that, "But I still think that whatever
creature did this to the town in a single town is too much for us."

"We don't need to fight it, just rescue
the townspeople. Plus, the uncle in there said it was a dragon."

Prince Charming widens his eyes with my words,
a strange light entering them. Surely this guy isn't thinking of...

Like a bolt of lightning, he enters the
building behind me and with one bellowing shout...

"Good Sir! Please permit me, Sir Laurence,
to slay this dragon for you!"

"A warrior!" The man in the store is
so easily filled with life again, "Forget the dragon. Please just
rescue our-"

"I will slay the dragon!"

Just as I imagine him being instantly turned to
ash before some almighty dragon, a window appears in front of each of us.

The down side to turning down this quest wasn't
all that bad. However, Prince Charming and his child like dream of slaying a
dragon has already accepted the quest for all of us.

Out of curiosity, I open my quest log. In there
at the start of the ‘Rescue the citizens of Leaz’ it describes the acceptance
of the quest.

Closing the window immediately, I could not
possibly continue reading the words of some medieval poet writing about the
venerable actions of Sir Laurence in Leaz and his oath to slay the dragon. I
had hoped it would mark his foolish actions, but my quest log appeared to like
him just as much as everyone else did.

He walks out of the inn beaming, incredibly
proud of his actions.

"Hah–hah-hah! I knew my day would
come!"

""Go die on your own!""
Verde and I mimic each other’s words at him, Fen simply giving an irritated
look at the man.

"Well, shall we go?"

Looking at Verde and Fen and giving a small
shrug of my shoulders, we all decide we may as well go. The four of us head off
east in no particular rush, not exactly eager to chance running into a dragon.

"Remember not to die," Verde said
casually as we walk, "These marks on our hands indicate we are from Glace.
If any of us die, that is exactly where that person will respawn. There’s no
changing our spawn point after all, it's set to your home country and that is
it."

I visibly swallow, the thought of travelling
all this way only to respawn back in Iceridge was quite terrifying.

“What if another player kills us, we would be
sent hundreds of miles away.”

"That is the reason why a lot of players
 
will often try to kill players from
other kingdoms. Considering that if
 
they defeat
them, they are automatically far enough away from the respawned player that
they are basically free. Most people call it the 'Home Ground
Advantage'."

"I suppose you do have a point, I can also
imagine if they lost and died they would respawn a lot closer as well."

"Exactly," Verde raises a finger and
nods her head.

"But, what about the player killer status
if the other person initiated the combat, is it not a little unfair if they
receive it just by defending themselves? Prince Charming here got it"

"It would if that was the case," the
prince turns
 
red, knowing exactly
what she
 
is
 
about to say, "This idiot
here didn't receive the red skull for killing the first player who attacked
him. He received it for killing the second player who he attacked first. It is
a common ploy that is used quite often. They do this so the second person can
finish off the player without receiving
 
a red
skull."

We discussed various tricks and scams some
players pull on each other until nightfall, finally settling down inside a
small crop of trees for the night.

I've learnt a lot of information from Verde
during our journey. One of those was about sleeping in game. Not only can it be
dangerous sleeping in the wilderness at night, but there always had to be a
lookout. If there wasn't you may wake to find some of your stuff stolen by wild
animals or even that you've been attacked. 

Yet a lot of people choose to sleep in the
game, each for their own various reasons. The most common were either the
people who did it simply to immerse themselves in the game, or the people that
did it for the five percent experience bonus you gained for the next five hours
while the sun was up.

Deep in thought, it took me a little longer to
get to sleep than usual

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

The next morning Fen
 
is once again in my sleeping bag. This
is the fourth time it has happened, and the third time she is chewing on me!

The only time she did not chew on me was when I
didn’t feed her any meat the night before. Does she simply savour the taste in
her sleep?

I had thought she would not be here this
morning. Considering she was not the one on watch duty last night, there
is now currently one empty bed.

The person on watch last night was Prince
Charming. Did that idiot prince not see her move? Or did he simply not do
anything about it? 

Speaking of the person, he is sending me glares
as I drag the sleeping wolf girl out of the bag.

I hear him grumble about, "Waking a
sleeping maiden after she-." Only hearing up to a point where his voice
became too quiet to understand.

It was only one more day in the game until we
arrive at a range of mountains tall enough they block off the sunrise. Our
entire current surroundings are hills of various sizes right before the
enormous mountain range.

"I wonder where this army of Stone Kobolds
is? Surely it would be pretty hard to miss."

I wonder out loud as we climb to the peak of
the tallest hill around us.

Our entire surroundings unravel as soon as we
stand there. Just to the north of us, an epic battle is taking place.

‘Just how many players did that uncle
send here!?’

It is practically a thousand players against
ten thousand enemies. I suppose about half of them are here without the quest
though, only interested in the massive amounts of experience available.

The ground is looted with corpses of both Stone
Kobolds and players alike. There are a few Boulder
 
Ogres dead as well. They both really
lived up to their name, enhancing my eyesight I have a closer look at
them. 

The
 
Stone
 
Kobolds appear to be roughly five foot
tall humanoid reptilian creatures, dressed in various leather armour pieces.
They are wielding mostly battle axes and although a few have large swords, the
most noticeable part
 
is their
stone grey skin.

The Boulder Ogres
 
are hulking brown giants about the
same height as Fen when she
 
is a
wolf. They have
 
bulging muscles
coming out of every part of their body and while they are somewhat slow,
the swinging of their club like fists decimates everything in
their path.

Using my analyse skill I see the Kobolds are
mostly around level
 
sixty while
the Ogres reach a massive level one hundred and fifty.