End Online: Volume 1 by D. Wolfin

Complete
defeat. They were right, and despite my words, I knew that right now I could do
nothing to stop it.
    “Yes that is all.” Turning
around, Julius walked back to his car, Caroline only a few steps behind him.
    Turning his head once
before getting into the car he spoke to me across the yard one final time.
    “Don’t misunderstand, work
hard, prove yourself to be capable and I will support you, I am a family
man after all so I hate to tear one apart. But it because of that I cannot
allow this current situation to go on.”
    Just like that they were gone, along with a part of myself I may never get back
again.

 
    Chapter 4 – Determination
    Joelle and Shari were
gone, the torment inside me continued to escalate even after Caroline and
Julius left. I can feel an insurmountable amount of self-loathing over the fact
that I couldn’t do better.
    I logged onto End
Online shortly after that, returning to the bazaar in Iceridge where I logged
out. Keeping the hood up on my cloak I ran through a world of mud, the effect
of running with a 50% slow effect. It was quite the sight for all the players
as while running past considering I would be appearing to be lightly
jogging, despite the fact I was running with all my strength.
    I refuse to remove
the hood of my cloak and allow anyone see this pitiful expression, never again
can I show this face to anyone else. I will keep this hood on at all times!
    Running through the
east gate I enter a territory of wolves, the hood makes it difficult to
avoid attacks but I’m acting like a berserker and taking them head on anyway. I
also notice ‘Aggravation’ appears to still work on taunting enemies
perfectly fine even if I have the hood on.
    The suicidal battles
rage on and my health is flashing red, I could not stay still however, so
I began running further east. I come across more wolves but I avoid them before
getting too close, at least until my health recovers.
    Dragging my weary legs
I do laps around the area of wolves while regenerating health slowly. I could
simply wait but I can’t rest, I must keep moving, I can’t afford to stop. A
small turn of luck prevailed and the ‘Slow’ effect of the cloak has the most
fantastic use for weight training, my agility is rising faster than ever
before, as is my strength.
    I forget about my
health and continue running as hard as I can, flanking a few wolves from time
to time to get stronger when my health was full. I ran for about
thirty hours straight, or four days in game. During that time my agility
increased by thirty and my strength by fifteen, exactly half of my agility.
    I could run at the
speed of a normal person thanks to all my agility training. I ran through
wolves’ territory to continue to train myself while fighting wolves at the same
time, my new weapons slaying a wolf in a single hit.
    In twelve days I
have reached level twenty three. My agility is still increasing, as is my
strength, but mostly agility. Fighting while running had some great effects on
my dexterity as well. My mind stat increased a bit from the sheer concentration
I had to put into the training, and luck showed some progress that there was no
clear explanation for.
    All my skills are
showing significant improvements as well, ‘Aggravation’ reached skill
level fourteen and ‘Advanced Military Arts’ skill level thirteen. Once they
went over skill level ten I noticed that even though ‘Advanced Military Arts’
gave an upgraded stat boost they both started giving less bonuses per level.
    It also came to my
attention that the damage boost and proficiency only applied to the weapon
in my right hand, the wakizashi in my left hand did a
lot less damage but it still came in handy. The difference in the blade length
was incredibly difficult to get used to but enough practice allowed for fluid
motions.
    This continued for another
half month, my daily routine becoming eating, playing End Online and
sleeping, often in the game.