End Online: Volume 3 (9 page)

I can tell by his serious
tone that he is being completely honest with me.

“Well, I may as well do
something with it. What can you do with it?” I feel my hopes for some kind of
fantastic armour dropping to rock bottom.

“Why don’t I ask an
acquaintance to use this and create some clothing? That way the durability will
not matter.”

“I suppose… It is better
than nothing after all.”

Mouse lightly shrugs his
shoulders, letting me know there is nothing that can be done about it. I lay
out all of the leather in front of him. A slight widening of his eyes shows his
surprise at the quantity, even though he takes it all nonetheless.

“It will be three gold
coins.” He says while smiling, which I quietly hand over to him, “And now that
that is out of the way. We need to discuss the real business.”

All of a sudden he takes
on the most serious face I have ever seen him make.

“T-the real business?” I
ask nervously.

“Yes. You must tell me,
who is that stunning lady attached to your arm.”

The words take a minute to
sink in, considering the atmosphere. I was expecting him to ask something a
little more… Suiting the seriousness on his face.

“Lost! We are all
here at the inn. Where are you?”

Verde’s almost urgent
voice suddenly interrupts my train of thought. Finally taking notice of the
sky, I see vibrant rays of crimson and orange light shining past the underneath
of the canopy from behind the large world tree in the center of the city.

“I’m sorry! I will be
there in a few minutes!” 
I send a
private message back in desperation, there is no way I can jeopardize my own
quest by being late.

“Mouse, sorry! But I have to
run! Please take care of that clothing for me!”

“Sure, sure. Go do your
thing. And don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” He gives another business
smile as I am about to turn around, only to stop in my tracks.

“What secret?” I am
genuinely curious.

“You know, that fire that
someone started the other day. The city guards are furiously trying to find who
did it, nearly every person with fire magic has been put to the question. I
even hear there is quite the bounty, considering that the flame burnt down 5
houses in the end.”

“Wait! What!? How did you
kn… Never mind, I have to go!”

I don’t even have the time
to wonder how he knows such a thing, nor why he is being overly kind to me.
There is a bounty on my head, and in the end, he is a businessman.

I rush off towards the
Gold Run Inn with Fen still silently attached to my arm, not questioning
Mouse’s knowledge again.

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

-Verde-

I return online and rush
over to the inn in no time at all. After all, I returned to the game only five
minutes before our meeting time. Considering that as the sun comes up, the
system wakes up all the players that choose to sleep in game. Naturally, all
the streets soon fill up.

Once I reached the inn, I
see the two brothers, Mason and Matrix, sitting at one of the table barrels
with Sir Laurence. The brothers are busy chatting to each other and
have completely excluded Sir Laurence. Even though he probably decided
himself to not talk to them, it was still somewhat of a pitiable sight to see.

“I’m here.” I put on my
best smile under the hood that covers most of my face. Mason only nods while
giving me a glance but Matrix immediately blushes and looks away. At the same
time, Sir Laurence gets up and walks over, instantly going to one knee in front
of me in the pose of a knight before his queen.

“My lady, I am glad you
are safe. I spent the entire time worrying that some fiend may have attacked
you.”

Despite how used to his
selfishly embarrassing lines I am, he occasionally speaks one that I can’t help
but feel incredibly awkward in front of.

“Where is Lost?” Passing
off the knight’s line like it was never spoken, I address the other two.

“No idea,” Mason replies,
“It says he is online though.”

“Hang on.”

I open up my friends list
and select ‘Lost’. From there I send a private message asking where exactly he
is considering the rest of us are already here. I know Fen is not here, but she
is an extension of Lost, and will be with him.

He almost seems to be in a
bit of a panic when he realizes the time, which causes me to let out a small
giggle inwardly.

Five minutes later, Lost
rushes through the door as it is time to start the quest. He immediately send
the party request to everyone, yet nobody other than me accept it. They are all
too busy staring wide eyed at him, including Sir Laurence.

“T-the hood!” Mason
stammers. He has not known Lost for long, but he was fully aware of the fact
that that hood does not come off.

I’m not shocked at the hood,
but the girl who was shamelessly wrapping her arms around Lost’s arm took me
aback. I need to do something about that!

“Nothing to do about it.”
Lost shrugged.

The next surprise that Sir
Laurence talks to him, for the first time without me explicitly wishing him to
do so.

“That ghastly expression
looks like something out of a horror film. Put it back on.”

There is no hatred in his
voice, it is completely emotionless. There is however, shock and hatred over
those words in the eyes of the two brother, Fen, and even myself. Sure, Lost’s
expression looks was something akin to someone who had been to hell, but to say
it so forthright and put someone down about it is going too far.

Through the silent
atmosphere, he slowly rises the hood up and brings it back over his head,
allowing that mysterious shadow to shroud itself back down over his face once
again.

He tests taking the hood
off and back on again, but eventually leaves it on.

“Let’s do this quest.” He
quietly mumbles to us as he walks past and towards the bar keeper who has just
come out of the back of the store.  With Fen clinging to Lost’s arm, as
soon as she passes behind Sir Laurence, with a sweeping motion one leg, kicks
against the stool he was sitting on. The two rear stool legs snap like
twigs and the knight in shining armour falls to the ground with a shout as
the wooden structure beneath him collapses.

By now, everyone has
accepted the party request and moves behind him to start this quest.

“Lost! You are here!
Perfect timing, my daughter has just left the back door. Follow me through to
the back.” Rix, the innkeeper, speaks most of the sentence in hushed tones, not
wanting to alert any unnecessary attention.

He leads us behind the bar
and out the back door of the room. We pass through what appears to be a living
area, and then a large kitchen, where a lady as large and round as a giant
tomato was busy flying up a large amount of stir fry in an equally
enormous wok.

She didn’t even turn
around when we walked in, so all we could see was her massive back. With one
thick braid of hair running down her back, she was dressed in blue overalls
over a pink and white floral shirt.

“Sweetheart, these are the
people that are going to find out where that pesky daughter of our is sneaking
off to with our food. They were recommended by my brother.” I can see the
loving affection he had for this woman

“I don’t care,” she speaks
over her shoulder in an incredibly harsh tone to her husband, “Didn’t I tell
you to just leave her alone!”

“Honey, I care for her!
I’m sorry, but I must know she is safe.”

The wife let out a snort
and Rix led us through to the back of the kitchen, where a door led to the
alley behind the building.

“Sorry to be a burden to
you,” Rix speaks to us quietly, yet very rapidly, “But, can you please follow
my daughter and find out where she goes with all that bread!”

The next thing I know, I
am standing in the alley behind the building with everyone else, the back door
to the inn firmly closed in front of me.

“Wait, what about her
name?” I ask towards the closed door.

“What about her looks? Who
exactly are we looking for here?” Lost follows up next to me.

I stare at the door the
same as everybody else, but there is no response.

“Unfortunately, we don’t
have time to wait around,” Lost let out a large sigh. “At least we know she is
carrying bread. Judging by the parents, she should be anywhere between five and
fifteen years old. Originally it was just you, Verde, that was going to
secretly follow her. But now, we all need to split up and locate her first.”

“Everyone, keep your party
chats on so we can keep each other updated. Make sure to make the call when you
find her.”

Everyone looks at each
other and gives their agreements.

As I go to head off in my
own direction, I notice Fen sticking close to Lost and suddenly get an idea.

“Lost,” I sheepishly call
out, causing him to stop and turn around. “It may be better if Fen splits up as
well, to cover more ground.”

Lost seems to give it some
consideration, nodding his head a few times. Next to him, Fen shoots a
terrifying glare at me that sends shivers all up my spine.

“Don’t… want to…” The wolf
girl speaks in an icy voice.

“W-well,” Lost starts
stuttering, “I g-guess there is no helping it if she comes along with me or
not.”

I don’t fully understand
why Lost seems so nervous, but I kind of get the premonition that he is afraid
of something.

“But you two are the
fastest among us. If you split up we all will cover a lot more ground.” It is a
solid argument. If we want to succeed this quest, we will need everyone
doing their part.

“I-I know. Let’s not worry
about it t-this time.”

From the glare the girl is
still giving me, I feel like the entire area around me has dropped a few
degrees.

As I let out a deep
breath, steam forms in the frosty air in front of my face.

‘My god, the
temperature has actually dropped! Is this that wolf’s doing?!’

“Okay, I get it.” I
actually don’t, but for some reason he seems to want to give that wolf girl
what she wants. I am also frightened of pushing too hard and causing her to attack
me.

Turning around I head off
into the crowded streets to search for this child that is supposed to be
running away with bread for some unknown purpose.

Five minutes into my
investigation and I start getting a headache. I don’t know if it is because of
this quest or the fact that I never really paid attention before, but while the
ratio is low, there is an incredibly large number of child NPCs running around.

I immediately rule out all
the boys and only look at the girls, but none have any bread on them.

“This is so
frustrating! How can I find the girl when the streets are so crowded and the
kids keep disappearing!” 
I call
out over the party chat in frustration.

“Verde,” 
Mason responds to me, 
“you need to be in a high place.
Get on top of a roof or similar where you can overlook the entire scene.”

“That would help!”

“No worries. Oh! I
found her!”

“What!?
Already!?” 
It was not just me who was
astonished, but also Lost, Matrix and Sir Laurence over the private chat.

“Ah yeah, she just
entered a pretty dark alley with a basket full of bread. Pretty sure it is her.
Let me send up a beacon on my location.”

All of a sudden a
translucent beam of golden light like an early sunrise reaches up into the air.
Even if through all the people a buildings, I can only see a fraction of it, I
instantly recognize the light for what it was.

It is an option called the
‘Beacon’ that any member of a party could utilize at any time. All it
does is send up a beam of light for one minute which indicates the players
position. The best part about it is that only the other party members can see
the light. Naturally, this is useless in underground dungeons and the like.

I weave my way through the
busy streets towards the faint light. Surprisingly, Mason is quite far away. It
takes me a good ten minutes to finally reach him, his ‘beacon’ being sent up
multiple times as he slowly follows the innkeeper’s daughter through the
crowded streets.

When I arrive I find him
on a rooftop, with Lost, Fen and Matrix already there.

Looking dumbfounded from
the street, I have no clue how to even get up there. Pursing my lips, I look
around for something to climb up.

While I can easily jump a
five or six meter gap with my agility, that does not mean I can jump five
meters up to get on top of a double story roof.

Around the other side of
the building I spot a few crates stacked up and a second floor balcony. Jumping
up onto the crates, I launch myself up onto the balcony ledge and further up to
the roof.