End Online: Volume 3

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to
characters, names, locations or incidents are purely coincidental.

Copyright © D. Wolfin 2014

First Edition

E Edition © 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9942421-3-6

By making the purchase of this book you have been granted
non-exclusive, non-transferable, right to access and read the text of this
ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,
down-loaded, decompiled reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced in any
way without the explicit permission of the author.

Table Of
Contents

Chapter 13 – Law of
Vexl Underground Prison
.
7

Chapter 14 –
Religious Conscription
.
35

Chapter 14.5 –
Valentine’s Love
.
65

Chapter 15 –
Chain Quest
.
77

Chapter 16 – In Search
of ‘The Mysterious Boy
.
102

Chapter 17
– Eldenweiss
.
130

Chapter 18 – The
Second Grand Inferno
.
160

Chapter 19 - The Ghost
of Eltreant
.
188

I would like to thank you
all for purchasing my book. It is because of you all that I enjoy what I do so
much more than what I would without you.

I know that a lot of
people have been waiting for volume 3 and have felt that the wait is somewhat
too long. In which case I am here to let you all know what has been happening
over the past two to three months.

To sum it all up, I got a
full time job. This is basically the only delay in my book releases. But I
still manage to try and write at least one chapter every week or two.

A Few other notes on this
book in particular. There have been feelings of the books being too short and
feeling unfinished. I plan to improve that starting with this volume!

Volume 3 has an extra
chapter and is also about 15 percent longer than the previous two. Bear in
mind, this not mean I will be doing the rest this long. The length of each
volume will be individual. This brings me on to the next point.

I have begun working each
volume towards a ‘small ending’ so to speak which should hopefully give a
little more closure at the end. Of course, I still want to leave the feeling of
“I want to know what happens next”, of course.

I will not take up much of
your time, I can say that I hope to have volume 4 released in July. Thank you
all for reading and I will now disperse into mist until next time!

-Lost-

As I turned my attention
to the rustling in the bushes, a player stepped out in front of me. He was
slightly shorter than me, equipped with a grey armour made from an unknown
metal. Although, considering how much thinner it is compared to all the other
armours I have seen, I gather that it must at least be a medium armour.

He wears some kind of
broad rimmed straw hat that appears to just be for show, so I cannot see his
hair, or even his face, very well. I did however, notice the symbol of Forste
on the back of a hand wielding a white longsword.

All of a sudden I hear a
voice call out from up in the trees.

“Hoh, friends! What brings
you out here?”

Suddenly announcing that
there is more than one, I lost my ability to talk. Inside my head played out
all the possibilities as to why he would give away his position.

‘Perhaps there are
more of them around. Give me a false sense of sense of security, then ambush
Fen and I.’

Looking up in the trees I
spot the second individual, standing on one of the branches. He wears a couple
pieces of light leather armour, a light brown full torso armour as well as
wrist guards. His armour appears to cover more of his body than mine does under
the cloak, but it also seems to be thinner.

With short light brown
hair, his whole character blends in quite well with the natural surroundings.
If one wasn’t looking up, he would definitely be easy to go unnoticed.

With my hunter’s eyes, I
spot a considerably large longbow on his back. The bow itself seemed to have
been ornately carved with the finest craftsmanship. It must be either a
decoration or a formidable weapon, neither of which I would put a gamble on.

“We happen to be going to
a new dungeon. I suspect it may be quite tough though. Would you two care to
join us?”

Deep in thought, he
proposes for us to join them. As suspicious as I may be, it is a perfect offer
for someone like me. Glancing at Fen next to me, I see her not showing any
care. Accepting his offer, I will probably regret it later if I turn it down.

He tells me he doesn’t
want to form a party. With his reasons unclear, I have my own reasons to not
want to simply party with these strangers. If they discover my level, and it
happens to be well below theirs, they may suddenly decide I am worth attacking.

I follow them for a few
hours before we reach an incredibly dense thicket. Mason pulled out a large
shortsword, cutting his way through the overgrowth. Before long we had
encountered a small mausoleum that was slightly larger than my bedroom.

Apparently, this is the
entrance to an underground dungeon called ‘Vexl Underground Prison’. The front
gate easily swung open due to a broken lock, giving us entry to a flight of
stairs leading into the ground.

Once we had fully gotten
into the dungeon, I noticed just how different a dungeon can be from the
outside world. As the torches lining the stone brick walls, the entire area had
a chill that made me feel like the grim reaper was hanging over my shoulder.

I made sure to analyse the
monsters that appeared in the dungeon. There were two types of monsters we
experienced at the beginning, ‘Murderous Skeletons’ and ‘Imprisoned Zombies’.

Mason and Matrix started
their attacks first. I could have easily beaten them to the zombies, but I was
more interested in the level of their skills.

Holding Fen back, Mason
attacked first, shooting an arrow directly at the nearest skeletons chest. His
arrow passing directly through its ribs only to hit a skeleton behind it.

Matrix charged forward as
soon as the arrow was released, chanting magic as he ran. It was a considerably
long chant, which usually indicates a powerful spell. Yet, something about the
chant seemed strange.

I furrow my brows when he
finishes casting the spell. After miraculously managing to continue chanting
while being engaged in close combat, he released a simple fire ball onto the
blade of his sword, wreathing it in flames.

I am no expert on the
magic of End Online, but such an excessive chant did not exactly match the
output of the spell.

Seeing the two show
somewhat disappointing skill, I gave Fen the silent signal for us to attack. I
was ready to pounce as soon as she let out an overwhelming barrage of ice
bolts, annihilating the enemy. Through the companion window I read she even
gained a level from it.

Giving her an angry chop
to the head, I scolded her for taking all the exp. Companions don’t share any
experience with their kills after all.

Shortly after, a
collection of zombies ten strong came stumbling out of the mist further down
the corridor. Taking the initiative I dashed at full speed towards them. Using
my high speed I treated them like statues, weaving in and out as I hacked and
slashed.

One zombie at the end
managed to get close to grabbing me. But my concentration was already at its
highest. Activating ‘Backstab’, I quickly killed it.

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

I see Mason and Matrix,
the two brothers, staring wide eyed at me. Pride fills up in me that I have
enough power to awe these two.

I’m starting to feel a
little safer leaving my back to them. All Mason wants is to make a good video,
while his brother Matrix will follow him.

At least, that’s what I
have gathered from my impressions of them. If they do decide to stab me in the
back, I am quite confident I am stronger than them.

“Come on, let’s keep
moving. We have a lot of ground to cover.”

I want to clear this
dungeon as fast as possible and get to Grenton. Speaking of which, Verde is
still offline so I can’t talk to her to let her know I will be there after
finishing this dungeon. Maybe I should just leave a message.

“Verde, currently in
a dungeon, will be at Grenton after. Expect me soon.”

No, no, that’s a horrible
message. I attempt to delete it, only to find that I can’t. My good mood fails
in the face of my shame.

Walking towards the mist
concealing what lay ahead, somehow the mist moves along with us. It created the
optical illusion that we are walking down an infinite corridor, like we are
stuck in an infinite loop in space.

All of a sudden a piece of
the pavement beneath my foot sinks into the ground with no resistance at all.
With my foot travelling down further than I had thought it would, I am stunned
while falling off balance. At the same time, tens of stone bricks on the walls
shatter as spikes stab directly at and around me.

I try to activate my
speed, but with my mind a confused mess and my reaction being far too late, it
is futile. The moment I try to move, my foot is trapped by the depression in
the ground, causing me to trip and fall forward.

Slamming my eyes shut, I
feel a slight pain in my leg.

“…LOST!” Fen screams in
horror.

“Oh, wow!” “No way! How
lucky can you be!?” Matrix and Mason’s voice also reach my hearing.

Slowly opening my eyes,
currently facing the ground, I see a spike impaling my leg. I feel a little
queasy at the sight, but it doesn’t particularly hurt. Surprisingly, I don’t
feel any pain anywhere else.  In falling forward, I have fallen in between
the gaps of the array of lethal spikes. Currently, I am being pinned in
position by randomly positioned earthen spears under and around me.

A notification in the
corner of my sight repeats itself three times. Disbelieving my eyes, I feel
like I have just won the lottery.

In that one instant, my
luck had increased by a total of three points!

Although, it doesn’t
change the fact that I am currently trapped, incapable of any movement beyond
flexing my fingers and twisting my neck. These spikes also appear to be a
release once kind of trap. Once they are sprung, they must be physically
removed or reset.

“Umm… Can you please give
me a little help here.”

My voice comes out a
quieter than I intend, But the echoes of the room are sufficient for the words.
All of a sudden a barrage of ice bolts comes charging around me, randomly
breaking the stone lances when they came into contact with them.

I finally spot that my
health has dropped down to sixty percent.

‘Forty percent damage
from a single one of these spikes impaling my leg. If I was hit with just two
more…’

A cold shiver runs up my
spine. The thought of how close I just came to being respawned all the way back
in Iceridge was terrifying.

It only takes a few
minutes until Fen finishes breaking all the spikes. In the middle of an area
with mere stumps of the spears left, I face the others and casually brush
myself off, trying to pass the incident of as no big deal.

“Well, shall we continue?”
I incline for the rest of us to travel down the hall. Fen starts to pout all of
a sudden.

“Ah, Fen.” I continue
speaking, only directly to her this time, “Thank you.”

The wolf girl gives a
proud look, almost as if she was never grumpy in the first place.

A cool gaze comes from the
two guys, slowly easing off from the stunned expressions. They follow behind
Fen and I as we start walking ahead, not speaking a word. What seemed like an
endless tunnel abruptly turned into a wall.

Walking towards a dead
end, a quick glance towards the walls reveal two new paths splitting off from
the dead end, creating a ‘T’ intersection. From a distance, it was impossible
to tell with the texture of the stone bricks intersecting so perfectly.

I sincerely hope that we
don’t get stuck in some kind of labyrinth. To my knowledge, none of us have the
‘Cartography’ skill to create a map as we go.

“Left? Or right?”

I turn around to the
others and pose the question. Fen just looks like she will follow me wherever I
go, while the other two start to ponder.

“Well, let’s decide it the
usual way.”

Mason pulls out a gold
coin and flicks it in the air. As it falls back down, his hand flashes out,
catching the coin and slapping it on the back of his other hand.

Lifting his hand away from
the coin, he makes his decision.

“It’s a crown. I guess we
should go left then.”

“Huh? What do you mean?
And this is usual for you?” I am taken aback by how easily he decides on which
direction to go.

“Well, no matter which
direction you choose, it is still a gamble right? Rather than being indecisive,
we usually just flip a coin to decide. If it lands on the blank side, we go
right. If it lands on the side with the royal crown insignia, we go left.”

“We’re going right!”

My temper starts to get
the better of me. There is nothing wrong with their logic, but I simply can’t
agree with their decision making method. Feeling frustrated, I choose to go the
opposite tunnel they decided on. Whether they follow Fen and I is entirely up
to them.

“Heh. Well, I guess we
will go right then.”

Mason’s face smiles, but I
receive the sense that his face is resembling a mask, only showing the outside.
Fen also seems to notice this and gives him an intimidating stare.

With me in the lead, we
venture to the right. Another trap depresses beneath my foot, except this time
I was paying attention to my footing. I silently activate ‘Perceptual Sight’,
causing my world to start playing at sixty percent speed.

Bending my left knee, I
spring backwards at the sign of danger. Fortunately for me, the trap this time
is not an attack. Jumping back, I narrowly avoid the floor dropping out beneath
my feet, revealing a seemingly bottomless pit about four meters wide, and
endlessly deep.

With pale faces, everyone
else comes to an abrupt halt as well. The collapsing floor stops only inches in
front of their feet.

Mason would have fallen in
if it wasn’t for my retreating leap colliding with him and knocking us both
backwards.

“Ah, that is a bit
embarrassing.” My heart is beating at a rapid rate, adrenaline from the danger
rushing to my head.

“I guess we will have to
take the left path after all.” Mason regains his composure, putting on the mask
with a smile again.

“Why?” I ask directly
before crossing the gap in a single bound. It is fortunate the roof is so high
otherwise I possibly wouldn’t be able to do it.