Everlast Online

Liz stood looking over the corpses she had left behind of the enemy players.

She was not familiar with their guild, but their arrogant attitude told her they might matter; that and the way the gawking players around her mumbled about them.

"She just beat Wolf Fang!"

"Who the hell is she? She can beat Wolf Fang's elite members!"

"What the hell was that summon!?"

Liz had only used what was necessary to win, being unwilling to give away any information, especially when she had made enemies with 2 guilds who were seemingly quite powerful. This was the right mindset, although due to Liz's previous lack of interest in an industry she thought she could never get into, Liz did not fully understand how amazing her feats actually were.

Golden Radiance was one of the Mega-Guilds. Guilds who hold the most powerful and largest influences are called Mega-Guilds. Due to the innovation in VR technology, the gaming industry became highly profitable, as such those who controlled the games also controlled the money they produced; granting them real life influence, some being equal to actual politicians in the world.

As it stands there are only 5 Mega-Guilds in the entire world: Golden Radiance, Terracotta Army, Valkyries, Dominators and Diamond Star. All of these guilds possessed fearsome influence, they even controlled land in the real world; getting on their bad side was the same as giving up on playing any game that guild took part in. And Liz had made herself an enemy of 1 of them. 3 of the guilds had a head start and had quickly gained world achievements while Dominators and  Diamond Star defeated one of the blockage bosses much later as they chose to transfer into ELO later than the initial 3 Mega-Guilds.

This only went to show the innovation ELO displayed, for the first time in the history of VR games, all 5 Mega-Guilds, in full, are in the same game. Up until now no game had ever housed more than 3, even then it was a constant blood-bath with each trying to assert their dominance. Surely, ELO would be no different, but that was only when their roots had settled.

On the side of Wolf Fang, they were a notorious player killer guild. They got away with their rampant PKing by acting as mercenaries and were often hired by those Mega-Guilds when they were short handed. As such they also possessed their fair share of power by having connections with Mega-Guild higher ups.

Now Liz had just pissed 2 of those highly influential groups off.

During the fight Liz had quickly killed the entire opposition, through the use of a single skeletons warrior. As Wolf Fang were about to attack, Liz summoned and enhanced a skeleton warrior, this monster then swept through their ranks, killing them all swiftly.

Most of the Wolf Fang fighters were around level 20, the highest being the red hair girl at level 28, so killing them was an easy feat for Liz at level 36 and her warrior who was at level 5.

Although the skill did not say, Liz believed her summons gained more stats when the skill level increased, this was only shown further in their growing intelligence.

So, Liz stood there as a black skeleton cut down every single Wolf Fang, blasting any who came close with a [Bone Spear] attack that destroyed her opposition. She took a moment to check for any decent loot before continuing to head towards Barview in order to sell her materials.

It's almost time for dinner and those assholes keep taking up my time, Liz grumbled, I didn't even gain a level.

After that Liz made her way to the nearest 'Monster Hunter Guild'. These were buildings where one could take commissions to hunt monsters and sell their materials, Liz had no interest in joining as she was doing fine without the unnecessary extra quests it provided.

"Apologies, but we cannot purchase materials from someone without a monster hunter licence." The receptionist said with a forced smile, Liz was upset. She didn't want to join but she had to.

"Haah. Fine, sign me up." Liz said, handing over the 100 gold needed for a membership, this was the only prerequisite to join, but now she could take 'hunter quests', which she had no interest in, and sell her materials. As she finished her sign up, a notification showed up:

"Now can I sell my monster parts?" Liz asked. The woman nodded and led Liz to another part of the guild where a few people were waiting.

"Please present all of your materials here if you will." The woman spoke and Liz nodded; the receptionist's customer service smile began to fade as a giant pile of items began appearing in front of her.

One would have to kill entire nests of lizardmen to get this much! The receptionist screamed in her head, How the hell did this kid get this many parts!? I can even see a few nest mother hearts!

Liz had certainly brought a lot and she was becoming annoyed at how slow they were to appraise the items.

"Can you get on with it?" Liz complained, shocking the NPCs into action. It took a while, but they eventually came up with a total.

"Well... Most of this is low level materials such as the scales. But with the amount you have brought, it will amount to roughly... Thirty thousand gold." Liz managed to maintain a poker face as the receptionist woman began speaking, but inside she was celebrating like a mad-woman, "Now onto the more valuable items."

Liz and the receptionist, Beccy, began negotiating an amount for the 3 Nest Mother hearts Liz had acquired and an item that Liz herself had completely overlooked as it had been caught up in the pile of loot, too small for her to properly notice:

[Dragoon Crystal (D+)]

[Less than a drop of draconic blood has crystallised within a Lizardman Nest Matriarch as it died. Can be used as a catalyst to enchant items or weapons]

Liz was not surprised she had missed it as it was small enough to balance on the tip of her fingers. Liz didn't even know she fought a Nest Matriarch, having not bothered to inspect her enemies after the 2nd nest since they were all pretty much identical.

Though she did remember one particularly strong nest mother, the one Liz had decided to use [Enhance Undead] on; Not only was it smart but seemingly stronger too.

It must have been because of the dragon blood. Liz thought.

Beccy desperately wanted to buy these items, draconic items were incredibly rare and even the low grade ones were extremely valuable. She would have accused the little girl in front of her of stealing it if not for the guild warehouses 'anti-fraud' measures - using a special appraisal crystal to discover the person who acquired any materials - showing that the person in front of her was in fact the one who gathered these materials.

I need to make good relations with anyone who can gather this many materials. Beccy thought, Especially if that includes higher tiered monsters.

Negotiations continued until a price was agreed upon by the 2. In the background the other workers were properly cataloguing and moving the items, showing much more care for the valuable ones.

In the end, for the 3 hearts, Liz came out with 24 thousand gold in total. The Dragoon Crystal was an entirely different ball park, Liz knew a lot about fantasy so expected the dragon material to be much more valuable than items of the same rank, but it was only a single crystal, and not a real dragon material; so receiving 15 thousand for it was way beyond her expectations. She instantly made plans to visit the nest she thinks she got it at and see if there are more of these Matriarchs.

"If you come with me to the front desk I will hand you your money and process your rank increase." Beccy said, leading Liz back to where she came from.

"Rank increase?'' Liz asked, she had just joined and didn't think she would be eligible for an increase.

"Of course, anyone who can take down so many lizardmen and even the nest mothers cannot possibly only be an F-rank." Beccy said, "The guild works based on merit, not seniority and reputation; though older members do tend to have higher ranks."

Liz understood and went back to reception where the entire process was taken care of. In the end Liz was granted 69,800 gold for her items; the extra 800 came from the proof of having killed 3 nest mothers and 1 monster with draconic blood as they came up as quests in the guild; there were also rewards for the Lizardmen, but Liz had killed so many it was impossible to tell how much reward she should get, as a result she told them to just forget the extra. Other than the money Liz got some extra bonuses:

 

Liz quickly clicked no, before thanking Beccy and leaving. Looking at the clock in the top of her HUD, Liz could tell she had a few minutes before Piper would be finished with dinner.

Liz quickly made her way over to the nearest potion store and asked to see what recipes were available to be sold. She noticed the old woman behind the counter gave her a scowl but handed over the recipes for her to look at.

The NPC potion selling business had taken a slight decline when players began selling amongst themselves; sure NPCs still sold to one another, but now they no longer had the excess income the players created from their need of potions. So, for someone to come in looking for recipes, the old lady knew she was a competitor who would take business from her.

Liz looked over the scrolls handed to her, there were 7 recipes she could learn. She disregarded the HP and MP potions she already knew and looked at the other 5

[<Basic Strength Potion> Recipe (E)]

[Recipe for the <Basic Strength Potion>. Effects: Increases STR by 10 for 5 minutes <Cooldown: 5 minutes>]

[<Basic Speed Potion> Recipe (E)]

[Recipe for the <Basic Speed Potion>. Effects: Increases AGI by 10 for 5 minutes <Cooldown: 5 minutes>]

[<Basic Endurance Potion> Recipe (E)]

[Recipe for the <Basic Endurance Potion>. Effects: Increases END by 10 for 5 minutes <Cooldown: 5 minutes>]

[<Basic Intelligence Potion> Recipe (E)]

[Recipe for the <Basic Intelligence Potion>. Effects: Increases INT by 10 for 5 minutes <Cooldown: 5 minutes>]

The first 4 new potions were all just basic stat boosters, they gave a moderate increase to one's ability which would be useful at the beginning, but soon drop off in usefulness. Still Liz chose to buy them, they would help her now and would likely inspire her to discover how to make better versions later on. The same was happening with the HP and MP potions as her [Apothecary] skill improved, she could now see possibilities to improve them.

The last potion was a little more interesting:

[<Chameleon Potion> Recipe (D)]

[Recipe for the <Chameleon Potion>. Effects: Become slightly transparent for 10 minutes]

It was like a lesser invisibility potion that made you blend into the environment, she saw little use for it, but surely many assassin aspiring players would pay good money for it. Liz spent 5000 gold in order to acquire all 5 of these potions, quickly learning how to make them. (A/N: Works similar to skill scrolls, tear the recipe, learn it)

"Well, time for dinner." Liz said logging off of the game for the time being.

Liz found herself awake, smelling the distinct scent of curry, but also the sounds of chatter. Liz sat up and turned around to see 2 extra additions to the table.

"It's nice to see you again Jess, Bailey." Liz greeted the 2 as she stretched out and went to sit at the table. The girls greeted Liz back and then continued their conversation; until that is the conversation turned to ELO.

"So, Liz, I hear you got the chance to play ELO." Jess turned to Liz and began asking about the game, she wanted to know what it was like.

"If you want to know about the game, why don't you just get a console and play." Liz asked, she knew Jess' family were quite wealthy, if she wanted to play she definitely could.

"Ha. I'd rather die than ask for a favour from those freaks. I almost have enough money from work, so I'll buy one then." Liz had expected this answer; Jess despised her family and for good reason, her family were the worst.

Other than being extremely classist, they were religious fanatics. In the year 2035 a civil war against a fascistic government started; in it the most prominent religion in the country began forcing their beliefs into law, causing the people to fight back against them, this escalated into an all out war. Eventually, the people won and the religious group mostly died out; except in one place: City-G. The entire city is run and populated by zealots who preach their intolerant bullshit all day, her family is amongst their ranks. As such they are even more discriminatory than the regular rich people, hating minority groups as well as the lower class, all while preaching love and acceptance in a hypocritical show of faith.

Jess hated them and had recently cut contact with them, having made enough money in her job to buy an apartment in City-Z; she did occasionally see them, but it was very uncommon.

Liz pulled out her phone and opened the new app she had downloaded. It was an ELO app that allowed her to transfer money remotely; she quickly transferred around 20,000 gold into her bank account, gaining 30,000 credits.

ELO's influence was growing and now the ratio of money was 1.5 credits was worth 1 gold; a testament to the influence ELO was gaining, as no one had expected 'gold' to be more valuable than real money. Some worried this would affect the bankers but obviously they were gaining transactional fees from every conversion, so it was of no concern. (A/N: I know I said some money would be taken when gold was converted, but I don't want to right it down, just assume Liz hasn't gotten all of the money she transfers; even if the maths says she has)

"Here, consider this a gift." Liz transferred 10 thousand credits to each girl, enough money for all of them to buy a lower quality headset to play with. Thanks to her potions she was able to pay all of their bills and for medicine while still making enough profit to eventually pay for Piper's surgery in the future to cure her CLS. This would set her back a bit for getting a better house and surgery, but now Piper was eating better and on much better medication, any chance of her situation worsening had declined significantly. As a result, Liz felt it only fair that the 3 girls enjoy themselves.

A range of reactions occurred. Piper scolded Liz for being so flippant about money just because she had been making more; Bailey tried to return it, not feeling very deserving of the money; and Jess only cheered, profusely thanking Liz for her generosity, she even offered to pay for the other girls ELO.

"Please, everything is fine." Liz said, trying to get the girls to calm down a little, "I want you to enjoy yourself as a reward for your studying. Just make sure you only play after your homework."

The 3 girls finally accepted the gift fully, with the promise it wouldn't affect their school life. After the initial shock they were all excited and ordered their headsets, Liz returning to the game to continue levelling soon after dinner.

"What do we know about that summoner girl?" A red headed woman asked, a face full of rage.

"Not much Crim." Another man responded, "She must have had some kind of item to block identification."

There were a few sighs as they realised how disadvantaged they were.

In the room were the leaders of the group that had attacked Liz: Crim, BludWulf and Razor.

All 3 were executives within Wolf Fang and some of the most high level players in the game, their ego had taken a massive hit after being so easily beaten by another, single, player.

Crim felt especially annoyed, she had been a beta-tester and knew exactly how weak summoner-type classes were, yet they were completely destroyed; she didn’t even stop to think how her enemy had gotten the class so early. The 3 of them had been lucky enough to get the exact same spawn point, so they then used their influence to rapidly level, but now they were humiliated in front of an entire field of players. How could they stand for it!?

"I think our best bet is to use that item." Razor spoke up, referring to a fairly powerful item they had gotten their hands on in a dungeon.

"Why waste that on a summoner?" BludWulf baulked at the idea of using the item on a measly summoner, he was still in denial that Liz had handed their asses to them after having heard the rumours from the beta test about summoners.

"Well obviously she isn't an ordinary summoner, you fucking moron!" Razor was beginning to get tired of having this argument with BludWulf over this, it had already happened 5 times after they died that Blud refused to accept he had lost. Crim mostly stayed silent.

"Enough!" She shouted, silencing the other 2 immediately, "Here's what we do. We follow her into whatever field she enters, stationing players in all the respawn points she could end up in. Then we use the item to weaken her and kill her, before driving her back to level 1."

The plan was simple, and with the increasing number of Wolf Fang members making their way to Barview after learning 3 of the executives there; they had more than enough people to take her down.

"Boss!" One of the underlings ran into the room the 3 were talking in, "We spotted her! She just entered the swampy jungle!"

"Looks like it's action time." With that all 3 stood up and began preparing themselves to regain their lost honour.