End Online: Volume 6 (3 page)

Noticing my gaze, Fen blushes
and averts her eyes. I also turn completely red in embarrassment at being
caught, 
‘You ignored everyone else when they looked!’

“Lost…” Fen looks directly
at me, her cheeks still flushed.

“Y-yes?”

“Tonight… stay with… me.”

“…Perhaps another night?”

“No.”

Fen’s lips quiver and a
small smile forms as she grabs onto me and pulls herself tight against my
chest, attracting a lot of attention from the public display of affection.

“Fine, I will stay with
you tonight! Just let go, everyone is staring,” I hurriedly say as I try to pry
her off of me.

Following my agreement,
she parts from me.

“Everyone… doesn’t matter…
Just you.”

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

“So, did everyone get what
they needed?” Mason asks once we regroup at the city’s easternmost gate.

“Well, you could say there
were some difficulties, I guess,” I awkwardly phrase my response as the others
all look suspiciously toward Fen and myself.

Sir Laurence puffs his
chest out, drawing a golden sabre that glows with a majestic aura. “Indeed!
This knight has been needing a new sword. With a maximum damage of 215, and a
fifteen percent chance to halve the enemy’s defenses for one minute, I have
found my ‘Excalibur’!”

The weapon looks
incredibly expensive, and I am confused as to how he got it.

“Verde, did you buy this
weapon for him? I find it hard to believe he bought it when you are constantly
stealing his money.”

“Ah, yes, I may have
bought it for him,” Verde coquettishly says with a guilty expression.

“Speaking of which, what
level is your ‘Class Skill: Thief’ at now? I mean, you steal his coin pouches
quite frequently, I’m surprised his armor hasn’t rusted from poverty.”

“… It’s level 54.”

“That is impressive.”

The victim of poverty, Sir
Laurence, is suddenly talking with CaptainGordon about his new sword while
pretending he can’t hear us.

While joking and teasing
each other, we exit the city and travel northeast along the coast. The smell of
salt assaults my nose but the ocean breeze is refreshing. Seabirds flock above
the waves and caw at low-level sea monsters that often come ashore.

Hundreds of players are
spread out on the beach as far as the eye can see. Most are in parties of two
or three hunting down the monsters, while others are taking advantage of the
enemies being engaged to peacefully swim in the ocean.

To avoid my auto
aggravation skill attracting the attention of these monsters, we steer clear of
the beach and walk parallel to it. Other than the beach, everything else around
the city is a grassy plain. It is strange though, as the ground is broken and
uneven everywhere. Small cliffs of two or three yards are formed by sections of
the earth being pushed up. Our vision is limited to the nearest jutting pieces
of land, and what is beyond them remains unknown.

‘I don’t blame
everyone for hunting on the beach, these small cliffs are everywhere!
Thankfully our agility is high enough to jump up… Well, except for Prince
Charming and his ridiculously heavy armor,’
 I
silently muse to myself while taking my turn in helping Sir Laurence climb one
of the cliffs before jumping up myself.

Scaling the next wall of
land, I see four ash-colored monsters with eight legs and hard carapaces like
an insect. One immediately falls under my auto-taunt skill and skitters toward
me with its foremost two legs poised to strike.

“Creature Analysis,” I
breathe out quietly.

I stare at the screen in
front of me, unsure how to proceed. I had thought it would be a strong monster
given its menacing appearance, but should have known better considering how
close we are to Kano City.

“Everyone, leave this to
me. I want to try out my new skills,” I say to the others who are drawing their
weapons.

“Partial Draconic
Transformation!”

I can use this skill not
once a day in the game, but in real life. It has a duration of fifteen minutes
and cannot be dispelled before then. My swords are automatically unequipped as
my hands become covered in scales, my fingers extending and forming deadly
claws.

The snow white scales on
my body also grow, covering about fifty percent of the skin beneath my armor
and clothing. From my back, two wings, each as large as my body, grow and
glisten under the sun.

Shocked, I read the
information several times. I had looked at the skill information previously, so
I know the attack damage is the value of my strength, but the other bonuses are
completely new to me.

Losing track of the ‘Stone
Dweller’ while reading the information, I am hit by a surprise attack. Both of
its front legs stab my chest, but are blocked by the scales. I slide back three
feet from the direct impact, but only take twenty points of damage.

‘This is incredible!’
 I exclaim in my mind, thrilled at the defensive power I
have. 
‘If only I could use this skill more often!’

The others are also
stunned at my resilience.

Initiating my attack, I
intend to dash to the side of the enormous critter before slashing it with my
claws. A truly embarrassing scene follows. With the extra agility and movement
bonuses from my new race and this racial skill, I am not used to this new
speed. The world flashes by me and I overshoot the distance by an entire three
yards and swipe my claws through empty air.

Trying to cover up my
actions, I ignore the failed attack and immediately start doing small dashes
around the enemy to get used to the speed. The ‘Stone Dweller’ starts turning
around in dizzying circles while trying to keep up with me.

Once I am confident using
my draconic speed, I close the distance to stand next to the creature. I am a
little closer than planned, but it is still acceptable. With a single swing of
my clawed hand, my fingers tear through the hard carapace as if it was paper.
Four large red gouges are traced in the wake of my attack and the ‘Stone
Dweller’s health drops by ninety percent.

Shocked by the attack and
damage, the enemy stumbles back several steps. It doesn’t exhibit fear,
however, as one of its legs emanates a dull yellow glow before abruptly
stabbing toward me. I am outside of its normal attack range, but the leg
extends and pierces the distance between us.

I immediately jump to the
side and easily dodge the attack before closing in and killing it with a final
slash of my claws.

By now, two more of the
‘Stone Dwellers’ have fallen under my aggravation status effect while the final
one is heading toward the party. Rather than wait for the enemies to reach me,
I flex what feels like an additional muscle on my back and extend the pure
white wings. I can clearly see the white, tattered leather membrane of the
wings, which should have originally been black, and the scale plated bones
supporting them.

With a single flap of the
wings, gravity seems to reverse and I am lifted off the ground and seven feet
into the air. These wings have some minimal flight and gliding capabilities,
but it still isn’t true flight. If this wasn’t a game skill guided by the system,
there would be no possibility of me achieving this on my first try. I shakily
manage to hover over the ‘Stone Dwellers’, before dropping down and
relentlessly attacking them.

Mason, unwilling to wait
for me to take care of it, rapidly shoots several arrows with pinpoint accuracy
and quickly kills the final enemy while it is still approaching them. His skill
with a bow has increased significantly since becoming an elf, leaving me in awe
at his speed and efficiency.

“Verde, what are the
benefits of becoming a Nekomata?” I ask, unable to withhold my curiosity after
seeing Mason.

Her ears twitch at my
voice before explaining. “I have a permanent twenty percent bonus to my speed,
and my agility is easier to raise at the expense of my strength. Not only is
strength harder to train, I lost a third of what I had as well. If it wasn’t
for your fame showing people how effective agility based builds can be,
everyone would still be the heavy-armored strength based build and very few
would choose this race.”

“I suppose that’s not bad,
but it doesn’t seem like much. Is there more?”

“Of course! My hearing and
sight are improved by ten percent, I can partially see in the dark, and I have
a racial skill called ‘Nine Lives’ that can be used once a week to revive me at
half health if I die. Once I get a little more skilled, I can also use my tail
to grab objects.” Verde giggles lightly and curls the end of her tail as if to
grab something.

Mason laughs before
adding, “Verde, I don’t think that last one can be considered a skill. But you,
Lost, you haven’t told us about your new race. Spill the beans about that
transformation of yours, it’s incredible!”

Everyone’s eyes become
harder as they stare at me intently, waiting for my response.

Clearing my throat and
deliberately extending the silence by not saying anything, I gratifyingly watch
everyone becoming more and more impatient. Eventually, when everyone seems
unable to hold back anymore, I explain.

“Well, the race itself is
called ‘Eternal Draconian’. All my stats are increased by ten percent. The
draconic scales give me a twenty percent defense boost and have an effect
similar to a shield. I gain twenty percent more experience than normal and I’m
completely immune to illusion magic.

“This transformation is my
racial skill, ‘Partial Draconic Transformation’. It increases my strength by
thirty points and triples my defense. I can’t wield any weapons, but my damage
is equivalent to my total strength. I move twenty percent faster and am immune
to fire and poison. There is no mana or stamina cost, but it can only be used
once per real life day and disappears after just fifteen minutes.”

Everyone listlessly stares
at me for some time before they speak almost in unison, “That’s completely
broken!!”

“What? What do you mean?”

Mason, the first to
recover from shock and disbelief, explains the issue. “Lost, all races are
supposed to be relatively equal to the original Human race. Some aspects are
amplified, while others are reduced. Your race, the ‘Eternal Draconian’ as you
called it, has none of these balancing reductions. Adding on top of that, your
bonuses are far beyond what others have; the only possible conclusion is that
your race is unfair.”

Not knowing how to reply,
I absentmindedly scratch my jaw. All of a sudden, Fen, who is standing beside
me, whips her head around and looks at a nearby ridge.

“What is it, Fen?” I ask,
confused because she has never shown interest in others.

“There was… someone.”

Unfurling my wings and
nearly hitting Fen, who moved to the side just in the nick of time, I flap them
several times and climb fifty feet into the air. This is the apparent limit of
how high I can fly, but it is enough of a vantage point to see all the way back
to the city and beyond the plains to the forest on the other side.

Despite searching the
area, I can’t see any other players nearby. I glide through the surrounding
area to see if anyone is hiding behind one of the cliffs, but still don’t find
anyone. With the only possibilities being that they either used an expensive
teleportation scroll, or more likely just logged off, I eventually give up the
search.

Returning back to the
party, I sullenly tell them that whoever it was is gone. I feel nervous knowing
that whoever it was, they heard me talking about my unique race. If the
knowledge is posted on the internet, it will be the ‘Royal Summer Tournament’
all over again.

Continuing northeast, we
gradually move through the rugged plain toward the forest. Night falls before
we reach the forest, and while it is still possible to continue travelling, we
decide to camp for the night.

We never used to use tents
as they take time to set up, but with more people we can afford to have two or
three of us set them up while the rest do other chores. Mason proceeds with his
usual duty of collecting firewood and starting a fire while I begin to prepare
our evening meal. Everybody flees from my potions, yet they flock to my food. I
secretly think about trying the effects of mixing one of my potions with my
food to spite them, but decide that would be petty and restrain myself.