End Online: Volume 1 (19 page)

I understand the shame I feel by removing my
hood and revealing the face I wished to hide from everyone, but that can’t
possibly be what is preventing me from removing my hood. 

‘Is it the system?
If it is,
then why?
Who is causing this?’ 
It has to be the effect of someone’s or
something’s actions that is preventing me revealing my face. 

An impact to
the back of my head brought me to my knees stunned, the equipment menu
automatically closing. My health falls into the red zone and I
can feel the world around me start to blur.

Closing my eyes I
morbidly accepted defeat, even with my high stats there was nothing I could do
against this weak enemy. Weak weapons and armour prove to be a fundamental
barrier for me at this moment.

Fighting enemies
stronger than wolves? Who am I
kidding,
my weapons are
for level 4 and level 5 players after all.

Soon my vision turns
black, followed by my hearing and other senses. However the entire time my
anger at Fen remained, I wonder if I will get the chance to be a vengeful
spirit for a little.

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

Stalagmites forming on
the ceiling, a large slightly run down church and enormous ornate glass window
behind me, I must have died. I should have followed that stupid wolf and jumped
over the group, my agility is high enough that I should have had no problem
doing so. But I wanted to test the experience points of a new monster too much
and was overconfident in myself.

Those goblins were far
from weak too, how is a person supposed to judge the strength of a new monster
before fighting them? I assume there should be some compendium of information
about it somewhere on the internet at least, but I don’t have the time to log
out and delay myself to do that.

It is at this very
moment that a thought appears in my mind. I run outside the church and directly
into the confessional booth off to the side.

“Welcome adventurer, to
the place where you can define your destiny as you strive to become stronger.
Under the light of the sun goddess Verde, speak your name.”

“Lost.”

“… Welcome back,
Lost
.”

Once again with this
weird way of talking after hearing my name, what is up with that?

“As a
follower of the sun, a devotee of the Radiant Church.
Allow me to hear what
it is you wish for.”

The list of skills I
can buy appears in front of me. If I remember correctly there was a skill in
here that would help me determine the strength of a monster. Ah, there it is!

Perfect! This is just
what I need! I replace my currently useless ‘Smithing’ skill with my new
‘Creature Analysis’ skill and run off to the great white wolf’s cave to retrace
my steps and find where that goblin encampment was.

I dropped back down to
level 24 but it isn’t so bad this time and I should be able to get it back
relatively quickly.

Along the way I test
out my new skill on some wolves that were unfortunate enough to cross my path.

There was some more
information but I will have to go through it later. By the words it used it
seems like the more I battle a monster the more information I gain on it, even
if most of it is useless.

I have a
serious issue with Fen right now, I looked at my status window after I was
revived and losing one point in every stat was completely wrong. The higher the
skill was the more that was lost. My
mid level
stats
lost two to three points each and my agility stat lost a massive six points!

At the cave I
calculated the trajectory I took when I left during the storm. Instead of
walking to town I appeared to have walked considerably south of it, hopefully I
walked in a relatively straight line otherwise I will most likely not be able
to find the camp and Fen.

I’m not entirely sure
when it started but I take notice of a small list of messages a corner of my
vision, using a hand I pressed on it and it expanded in front of me where I
could easily read it.

Unbelievable! I die and
that god damned wolf finally decides to do something! Stealing all the
experience and gaining five levels since my death!

I start running faster
than I was in order to find the goblins. I can’t see any wolves around the
current area I am in which is a good sign, but I am running through a decent
crop of
tree’s
so they could still be out there.

I finally break out of
the trees into a large frozen tundra, low hills and snow expanding as far as
the eye could see. I couldn’t see during the storm but the goblin camp should
be hiding somewhere around here.

Walking up the
first hill I stood at the highest point and scanned the surroundings. The
village was well hidden according to my memory. However a few hills away with
my ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ skill I spot a little green thing running away from a white
wolf at least five times its size. At least it was running until a large
icicle impaled it into the ground, followed by some razor sharp claws cutting
it to pieces.

Fen! I broke out into a
run in the direction of the wolf and arrived in front of it in minutes. Fen was
startled that I was in front of her, even more so I bed when I launched a fist
onto the top of her nose.

“FEN!
****! How could you
just leave me there to die! I get you’re grumpy over me dragging you out of the
cave, but it had to be done so get over it! Else we are going to have a serious
problem, okay?! ****!”

Maybe I let loose a bit
too much, should I prepare to be a toothpick?
Although, I
really can’t afford to lose even more stat points.

In front of me the wolf
started wagging her tail and rubs her great big head against me, throwing me
off balance. I scold this wolf and it starts acting friendly? What the hell is
up with that?

“Cut it out! Now I’m
going to go see how strong those goblins are and you’re coming with me as my
guard! I’ve seen how easily you handle them and you better not abandon me
again!”

 I climb the hill
I am currently on to get a good view of the goblin encampment just ahead, Fen
following behind happily wagging her tail.

Poking my head over the
ridge I look for a goblin to test my analysis eyes on. All around the camp
were goblins, little boxes of loot hanging over their dead bodies.

“You seriously ran away
when you can do this?!”

I shoot a piercing
glare at Fen, this whole area is a slaughter, she has the same speed I do only
much more brutal attacks. I wonder what her level is, “Analyse.”

Impressive! Fen has
some really nice stats, although the ‘Queen Class’ next to her name
confuses me a little.  She also has incredibly high stats compared to
her level. Perhaps it is similar to how a boss monster naturally is much
stronger than a normal monster.

I turn around and spot
a goblin approaching the camp from the hill on the far side, looking at it I
activate analyse to get its stat.

Tch
, it seems to be too
far away, but I still have a method to still analyse it, first staring at its
location considerably hard to silently activate ‘Hunter’s Eyes’ my sight zooms
in on its position, not enough to make out any detail, but enough to analyse
it.

Damn, that was useless.
I guess I am not high enough level to reveal its any information on
how strong it is.

“Fen, that goblin over
there is mine and mine alone! You take care of any more that come.”

The wolf gives me a
look that seems to be an affirmative and casually follows behind me,
looking for prey to the sides.

Racing through the
desolate camp I meet the goblin in the central area. A few crude pole
torches are scattered around like poles of twisted metal, and off to the side
is a considerable crevice in the ground expanding about ten meters long.
Interestingly I failed to notice that from outside the village.

It also appears to have
a ledge running down it to go deeper, it must be some dungeon. I will have to
come back with a stronger weapon to explore it

No matter, my attention
needs to be on this goblin. It does not look very menacing, it’s half my size
and carrying a rusty machete. ‘Aggravation’ takes effect and the goblin seems
to lose all reasoning as it blindly charges at me, preparing its weapon to slash
directly down.

At two paces away the
blade of rust came swinging down, directly vertical as predicted. I place one
foot behind the other, and using that as the pivot point I spin to the side. I
use the momentum of the spin to swing one of my swords at high speed.

The machete strikes
empty air but my attack lands, even if it is only across the goblin’s
shoulder. I feel a little resistance from its tough body but I had enough speed
in the swing to break through its defences and land the attack.

A bar shows it
only lost about ten percent health from the attack but it’s better than
nothing. My speed outclassed the goblin to the point where it simply is
not even a fair match. Slipping behind its back and I activate ‘Triple Thrust’.

An ear screeching howl
broke my concentration as the goblin cried out in pain, thankfully there were
no more goblins in the area to hear the noise and come rushing over. No
surprise, I used a sacred art to score a critical hit on the
goblin’s
back after all. The health bar had fallen well below fifty percent and the
little green thing appeared to be panting for breath.