Endless Fantasy Online

by Devin Auspland

  When he opened the door, he immediately smiled, the inside of the shop smelled like walking through a field of flowers. Compared to the dung smelling city, Luke wished he could spend his entire day here. The shop contained rows of cluttered shelves both on the walls and covering the floor. There was a counter on one side with a door behind it leading to what he assumed was a storage room.

  “Hello?” There was no response, so he increased his volume. “Helloooo.” After a moment he shouted. “Is anyone here?” A sound like glass breaking came from the room behind the counter door and he could hear a woman shouting angrily before the door slammed open.

  He was confused at first because he didn’t see anyone on the other side of the door, but he heard footsteps behind the counter. A woman's head peeked above the counter’s edge as she climbed a small staircase and stood at the counter’s center.

  The woman couldn’t have been over three feet tall. She was slender and had short frizzled emerald green hair that matched her eyes. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, brown work pants, and a large leather apron. The apron had various tool ends sticking out of its several rows of pockets and her forehead sported a pair of thick goggles. She also had something Luke hadn’t seen before, long pointed ears.

  “What the heck do you want?” The woman barked.

  Luke was so shocked by the appearance of this woman he stumbled out a response. “Umm… I brought you herbs.”

  “I’m a gnome jack-ass, you can stop staring now.”

  Embarrassed, Luke averted his gaze and started emptying his pockets onto the counter. After a few moments of not getting a response he pushed up his glasses and built up the courage to look up again. The woman was inspecting the herbs and didn’t seem all that pleased.

  “You brought some extra herbs but they aren’t in great condition. Have you had these in your pocket all night? It looks like you laid on them. They’ve lost half of their durability.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m still new to this world and didn’t realize I was hurting them.” He shuffled uncomfortably.

  The woman looked up at Luke. She used both her hands to place her goggles over her eyes and she gave him a good look up and down.

  “Hmm… a traveler… yes… yes… level one… and herbalism beginner three… interesting…” She opened the register at the end of the counter and handed five gold over. She also took out the extra herbs and handed them back. Luke took the gold but shook his head to the herbs.

  “Since they didn’t have full durability, why don’t you keep the extra herbs as a gift. Also, sorry for staring, I haven’t met a gnome before.” He didn’t think the herbs would last much longer in his pockets anyway. Better to give them to her in hopes it would smooth things over a bit if he let her keep them.

  She moved her lips towards one side of her face in thought before she relaxed. She lowered her shoulders and let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’ve been working all day on some new formulas and nothing’s worked out for me. I may have taken some anger out on you. Let me make it up to you.” She clapped her hands together and then stretched her arms out, palms up, toward him. Her hands began to glow green and Luke’s body soon followed.

  Looking at this status he had two icons he didn’t recognize, one was red and the other green.

  Nature’s Regrowth. You will recover 10 HP every 5 seconds for the next 30 seconds.

  Poor Sleep. You have slept in a poor quality bed. You will take a small penalty to your appearance, interactions with others, stats, and actions for the next 1 hour and 24 minutes.

  Luke noticed that he still wasn’t at full health from a full night’s sleep. The nature’s regrowth buff would get him to full quickly, and the poor sleep debuff explained a lot of what happened this morning.

  “Thank you, I’m Luke.” The woman introduced herself as Rose and bowed. Since things were looking up, he asked a favor. “Any chance you could teach me the nature’s regrowth spell? It would really come in handy.”

  She took another look at him but a much harder look than the first time. “What are your affinities?” Luke shrugged and after letting out an exaggerated sigh, she continued. “Everyone has two spell affinities. They determine what spells and abilities you can learn. There are neutral spells and abilities that don’t require affinities, like using that bow on your back. But you can only learn spells from your specific affinities.” Luke continued to give her a confused stare before she sighed and continued. “Come with me.” She walked down the small steps attached to her counter and went through the door into her back room.

  Her back room was a workshop with large cauldrons, books, plants, and vials everywhere. It was a cross between a mad scientist’s lab and a witch's hut. Rose climbed onto a small metal platform and pulled on a rope. A large bag of sand started descending from the ceiling as the metal platform started rising. She hopped off the platform when it reached a few rows high.

  Rose was hunched over a crate tossing things out until she declared. “Aha! I knew it was in here.” She pulled out a large crystal ball that had a swirling vortex inside of it. “This is an affinity globe. It’s used to test and check one's affinities.” She placed the orb down on the shelf and explained that all Luke had to do was hold it with both of his hands.

  He picked the ball up and held it, waiting for a reaction. He was about to open his mouth when he started to feel a tingling sensation in his fingers. The spinning vortex inside turned white and started to warm up. It pushed toward the outside and closer to his hands. Before touching his hands, it quickly retracted and the crystal ball became jet black and cold. A fire started in the middle of the darkness and exploded outward, only to retract in with the darkness. Replacing the fire was a cooling sensation of flowing water and that too exploded outward from the center. Instead of retracting, the water coated half of the inner orb.

  “Ahh, your first affinity is water,” Rose declared as the orb continued working its magic.

  The water stayed to one side as a mini tornado formed and tried to take hold to the other side. Right when Luke was sure the tornado would take hold, a rock formation surrounded it and snuffed it out. The rocks continued to spread until they covered the inside of the crystal ball. Water rapidly began to flow through the cracks in the rocks before calming and creating a peaceful scene of flowing water through earth.

  Congratulations, you have unlocked the Magic Affinity system. You can now learn spells of your unlocked affinities. There are six affinities, but everyone is born with only two. Learning new affinities or changing your affinities is almost unheard of, and there are only a small number of people who have done so in their lifetime. Note: This is a one time system message.

  Water Affinity acquired.

  Earth Affinity acquired.

  “So you're a nature affinity.” Rose took the globe back and placed it back in its crate.

  “Nature affinity?” He inquired.

  “Yes. Someone with earth and water affinities is called a nature affinity. Water and air is called snow, fire and earth is volcanic and fire plus air is a lightning affinity. There’s also light and dark affinities, but those are more standalone. Each affinity spell has its strengths and weaknesses but, unless you go down a mage path, you shouldn’t worry too much about that. Just use your noggin and it’s pretty straightforward. Water puts out fire, but air freezes water. It's all a balancing act.”

  “Does this mean you can teach me nature’s regrowth?” He spoke with hope.

  Rose smirked. “It means you can learn nature’s regrowth but I can’t teach you.” Luke started to respond, but she raised a finger in defiance. “I’m not a mage and don’t have the teaching skills needed to teach you a spell. I can, however, provide you a spell scroll to learn the spell, but magic isn’t free.”

  Rose pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from one of the many pouches on her apron and handed it to Luke.

  Quest alert! Helping the Alchemist: Rose the alchemist has taken a shine to you. In exchange for a spell scr
oll, she would like you to plant a rare flower for her. Moonherb planted 0/1. Reward: Nature’s Regrowth spell scroll and added reputation with Rose the alchemist. Exp 300. Accept / Decline

  The scroll showed a crude map of what appeared to be the Howling Forest with an X marking the location to plant the flower. He accepted the small satchel containing a potted flower and gave his thanks. He left and headed for the city’s gate.

  Before leaving the city, he spent 2 of his remaining 5 gold on a shirt and a pair of pants. He tried purchasing health potions and armor, but they were all well out of his price range. I just have to keep moving forward for now. I can’t do anything to get out of this game so I might as well enjoy it. If Luke was honest with himself, he was truly enjoying his time in Endless Fantasy Online, even if he couldn’t leave.

  He smiled and left the city on his next adventure.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  You Are Dead

  Critical Hit! Fox takes 10 points of damage.

  Fox defeated. 15 exp gained.

  Skill up: Short Bow, Beginner 3.

  Luke had been advancing into the Howling Forest for over an hour now, taking things slowly to prevent what happened last time and gather herbs for Rose. He didn’t think a traveler would randomly come to save him for a second time. He also turned on battle notifications again but made them appear only in his log. Having them popup in his face was still too distracting but this way he could monitor how much damage he was dealing and how much the creatures could take before being defeated. He estimated that a fox had somewhere between ten and fifteen hit points, but a bunny only had between three and six. He made mental notes of all this for future battles.

  Checking over his map it appeared the quest destination was just ahead to the right. After going around a dense patch of trees he saw what had to be the spot. There was a circular patch of grass surrounded by foliage but no trees. Since there were no trees, it allowed for sunlight or moonlight to reach the spot.

  Luke pulled the potted plant out of the satchel and began to replant it in the ground. He used one end of his short bow to dig up the earth and packed the plant down tightly.

  Herbalism check, successful.

  Quest alert! Helping the Alchemist: Moonherb planted 1/1. Quest complete! Rewards: 300 exp. Other rewards delayed until you speak with the quest giver.

  Congratulations, Level Up! You have been awarded 3 attribute points and 1 skill point, based on your class. Be careful with your decisions as they can not be undone.

  When he leveled up, his health and stamina both maxed out and a wave of euphoria washed over him as he heard a trumpet’s fanfair play in his ears. Pulling up his character sheet and giving it some thought, he added two points in agility to increase his damage and one in constitution because having more health never hurt anyone. He didn’t spend his ability point because he wanted to wait until he got his new spell. He then reviewed his sheet to look at the progress he had made.

  Name: Not totally useless Luke.

  Class: Beginner

  Primary Profession: None

  Level 2: Exp 150 Exp to next level: 1850

  Hit Points: 60/60

  Mana: 50/50

  Mana Regen: 1/sec

  Stamina: 80/80

  Physical Resistance: +2

  Elemental Resistance: Water +10, Earth +10

  Attributes Base (Modifier)

  Strength: 1

  Agility: 3 (+1)

  Intelligence: 1

  Wisdom: 1

  Constitution: 2

  Social: 1

  Luck: 1

  Skills, Spells and Abilities

  Short Bow (Beginner 3): Basic knowledge on how to use a short bow. Increasing this skill will increase the damage dealt with a short bow. This is a passive skill and requires no activation. Effect: Adds 1+x% short bow damage where x = skill level.

  Herbalism (Beginner 5): This skill allows you to identify various plant life.

  First Aid (Beginner 0): Basic knowledge on how to apply basic first aid and use basic bandages. Increasing this skill will increase your knowledge of first aid techniques and increase the speed at which you can apply this skill.

  “Not so bad if you ask me,” he muttered aloud as he packed up his belongings for the trek back.

  “Not bad at all,” came a deep voice from the woods.

  Luke frantically searched the dense trees for the source of the voice but didn’t see anyone. He reached for his bow just as a dagger sunk into the ground at his feet.

  “Let’s not try something stupid now,” said the same voice, but this time Luke could see the man coming out of the tree line. The man was wearing all black leather and a crimson red cloak with a hood pulled over his face, concealing it in shadows. The only other identifying mark was the red outline of a dagger on his breast piece.

  “Ya, nothing stupid.” Another man in matching attire came out of the trees to Luke’s right, followed by another on his left.

  “Nice to meet you guys, but I really need to get going to town.” Luke attempted to act brave.

  The men closed in on Luke, leaving no space for him to run.

  “We’ll be taking your gold, weapons, armor, and anything else you happen to have on you.” The man pulled a pair of daggers and his motions were quickly copied by the other two men.

  Luke emptied his pockets of his three gold and collected plants, and tossed his bow to the ground.

  Pointing a dagger at Luke’s hands the main thug continued, “The leather armor too.”

  Pulling off his only piece of armor and tossing it to the ground, Luke backed up a bit while the two other men came forward and started stuffing Luke’s possessions into a bag. In the meantime, the main thug started digging out the Moonherb.

  “Hey! Leave the plant alone.” Luke shouted in protest.

  The man threw one of his daggers at Luke and it sunk into his gut. His shirt quickly became blood stained, and he fell to his knees. The man got up and stood over him. “That plant is worth decent gold. I’m going to dig it out and sell it and there's nothing a noob like you can do about it.”

  Filled with anger and fueled by adrenaline, Luke went for the dagger in his gut in order to make a last ditch effort to kill the man who stood in front of him. At least that's what he wanted to do. As soon as he grabbed the dagger, pain wracked his body, and he collapsed before he could pull the blade out more than a few centimeters.

  The man bent down and placed his face next to Luke’s ear. “Your death was courtesy of the Crimson Shadow Guild.” He snickered as he pulled his second dagger across Luke’s throat.

  Luke’s vision went dark and a system message came into view.

  You have died. Respawning at last known home point.

  It was hard to tell how much time passed in complete darkness. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes. Then Luke reappeared next the same fountain where he first entered this world.

  You have died. Death is a part of life. When you die, you lose all experience toward your next level. You will also drop everything that was not soul-bound to you at the time of your death. After dying you will respawn at your last known home point with the recently deceased debuff.

  Note: This is a one time system message.

  Recently Deceased I debuff added. You will suffer a 50% penalty to all exp gained for the next two hours.

  Luke rifled through his pockets, confirming all of his coins and plants were gone. He then opened up his character sheet and confirmed that he had lost exp and was now at zero of two thousand needed for the next level. He checked his skills, and was thrilled to see that his skill point was still available to use.

  At least I came back with clothes on, he thought timidly. After looking at himself he noticed that he had on the same simple white cotton shirt and brown cotton pants he started with, minus the leather armor he got as a quest reward. His armor and other items were all stolen by the Crimson Shadow guild.

  Luke looked to the sky and noticed the sun was beginni
ng to set. He didn’t have enough time to finish another quest and no money to do anything. He then decided to return to Rose’s and complete the one quest he still had.

  Luke entered Rose’s shop to find it empty. The back workshop door was open so he peeked in and saw Rose. She had several plants in front of her and was cutting branches off them. After cutting a branch off one plant, she would place it against the trunk of a miniature tree. Covering the spot with her hand caused green and blue light to emanate from the spot her hands covered. When she pulled her hands away, the branch would grow and weave itself around the trunk. Small flower buds then started sprouting from the newly placed branch.

  “That's amazing!” Luke couldn’t contain his excitement over the small display of magic.

  Rose looked up and pulled her goggles back to her forehead. After recognizing her visitor, she walked over and climbed to her regular spot on the store’s counter. “You’re back so soon. I didn’t expect you until tomorrow at the earliest.” She inspected him before continuing. “It appears you completed my quest, and a deal is a deal.” She pulled another small scroll from one of her apron pockets and handed it to him.

  Nature’s Regrowth Spell Scroll (Rare) x1 obtained. Requirements: Earth Affinity

  Luke looked at the scroll for a while before responding to Rose. Pushing up his glasses he asked, “How much does something like this sell for?”

  Perplexed, Rose responded. “Sell for? Didn’t you want that for adventuring?”

  “I did…” Luke’s hands clenched into fists. “But that was before I was murdered and had all of my belongings stolen.” He suddenly remembered that they also took the Moonherb he planted. He put the spell scroll back on the table and pushed it toward Rose. “I’m sorry. The people who killed me ended up taking the Moonherb. I don’t actually deserve this.”