End Online: Volume 4 by D. Wolfin Page A

be looking to the top
of one of the nearby hills. The location I need to go is not on top of the
hill, but directly after.
    Dinner consists of some
wild animal meat freshly caught mixed with a few herbs. The lack of extra
flavoring causes the meal to taste rather average, but I have gone too long
without replenishing my stock and can’t afford to waste what little I have
left.
    ***************************************************
    The next morning, I walk
towards the spot where I feel some herbs should be growing. As soon as I reach
the top of the hill, I spot a pocket of trees hidden from view by surrounding
hills.
    The grove is full of
paperbark trees and the ground is littered by fallen bark. Grass still grows
here, but there is clearly more bark than grass. I walk into the grove and hear
the sound of bugs clicking and buzzing around me. The canopy of the grove is
quite thick, preventing most sunlight from entering except for the occasional
ray of light penetrating the foliage to shine onto the ground. The golden rays
create a soothing atmosphere in the grove.
    I have been in enough
areas with herbs growing to know where to look. Brushing all the loose bark on
the ground aside, I begin inspecting the ground for something to harvest. Just
like beneath the snow in Iceridge, here there are herbs hidden under the
paperbark.
    Fen joins me in searching
for herbs but only leaves them exposed for me to take. She has long since
learned I get mad when she harvests the herbs. She doesn’t have a harvesting
skill and ruins most of the herbs she comes in contact with.
    Two hours later, I have
covered half of the area of the grove and replenished a large quantity of a few
types of my herbs. Perhaps it is due to the different climate, but I can’t find
the majority of the herbs that I am running low on.
    I do, however, find a few
new types of herbs. There are small, orange, berry-like herbs called ‘Simmering
Hip’, small yellow flowers known as ‘Gilded Meadow’, and a few thorny, grey,
four leaf clovers named ‘Despair Clover’. The latter of which I am disinclined
to test.
    I would like to continue
foraging the area and stock up on more herbs, but the rest of the party is
beginning to get restless. I doubt they will wait around for me for much
longer.
    With a needle of regret in
my chest, I put the small paperbark grove behind me and lead the party further
west.
    The amount of players in
the surrounding areas doesn’t change much from the savanna. Sometimes it
appears that there are a few hunting spots available, but they quickly fill up.
Over the next three hours, we finally leave the surrounding player-infested
areas and arrive in a small village not large enough to be registered on the
world map.
    There are a quite a few
villages and towns other than the capital cities registered on the world map,
but there are also ten times as many that are not registered. The world map
isn’t something viewable from inside the game, but is an image of the entire
continent released online by an unknown player who travelled the entire
continent, mapping it as he went. No one has any clue as to who this player is,
but from what I gather, they are from a different server than mine.
    The village is situated on
the top of a hill, but with a semi-broken wooden wall for defense and
ramshackle buildings.  I cannot say as to whether the terrain advantage
will save them if an invasion comes.
    After camping outside for
such a long time, my body desperately craves a real bed. Of course, I can just
log out and sleep in my real bed, but that leaves me at the risk of
oversleeping and holding everyone else back.
    “Excuse me,” I say to a
passing resident, “I am looking for someone to sell my goods to, and an inn.”
    “A t-traveller?” The NPC
responds fearfully. “O-of course. If you continue up this street and turn right
at the top of the rise, an inn is down that road. As for a trader, a local
peddler comes to this town every Saturday. If