World-Tree's End Read online

  He paused, glancing around the room. The bed looked properly made, and there was a bookshelf sitting beside it. An open book rested face down on the nightstand. When he turned his eyes to the open dresser, he saw men and women’s clothing stacked tidily inside. The nearby window caught his attention, and he hurried to it.

  A beautiful valley stood beyond the glass. Trees with exotic fruits covered half the area, and he also saw blooming flowers and vegetation. Beyond the valley, there were purple mountains with curved slopes. It looked like someone could stand at the top and slide all the way down the to the valley. Above the mountains, puffy white clouds flowed overhead, blocking any view of the World-Tree.

  “Where am I?” Vincent questioned aloud.

  He checked his HUD, but it listed the location as unknown.

  Vincent’s eyes caught the silhouette of a person in the distance. It looked like they carried a basket and were picking fruit, but they quickly disappeared from his line of sight.

  “This must be some world my friends found,” Vincent said. “I wonder how high up the World-Tree we are?”

  He opened the door, but paused in contemplation. “First, I should fix my name. I don’t want people thinking I’m still possessed.”

  Name Change: Old Man Vincent

  He continued into the hallway over creaking floorboards.

  “Hello?” he called. “Is anyone here?”

  The hall took him to a dining room where he found baskets of strange fruits and vegetables. On the table, someone had placed a piece of paper with the words: Enjoy breakfast. I’ll be back soon.

  Vincent picked up one of the odd-looking fruits and took a bite. The incredibly sweet yet savory taste almost overwhelmed him. “It’s like really sweet bacon.” He quickly finished the fruit in a few more bites.

  You’ve gained +20 to Strength for 1 hour.

  What? Seriously? I’ve seen plenty of plants that could be used for making potions, but I’ve never had anything give me a stat boost just by eating it raw.

  Next, he tried a multi-colored berry that tasted like eggnog.

  You’ve gained a 1,000% challenge rating bonus for thirty minutes.

  “Woah!” he said, trying another to see if it’d stack. The second one raised the timer for the bonus by another hour. “These would’ve been useful when training in the Kill Chamber.”

  Feeling even more intrigued, Vincent tried several different foods. One tasted like salted fish, another like ice cream. There was a see-through banana flavored like pudding and a square apple as sweet as candy.

  NPCs will be more favorable to you for 1 hour.

  Your ice attacks will be amplified for 1 hour.

  Monsters are less likely to attack you for 1 hour.

  All of your stats are closer to leveling up.

  Vincent’s eyes widened at the text that appeared after eating the apple. He looked around for another one, but it seemed to be the only fruit without duplicates on the table.

  Did that apple just increase the bar toward leveling my stats? Okay, I really need to know what this place is and where I can get more of those.

  Vincent stepped through the kitchen and then the living room before leaving for the valley outside. He double-checked his HUD, but it still showed ??? as the location.

  Is this some kind of weird Dead-World that tricks you into thinking it’s peaceful?

  He raised his eyes back to the white clouds. They looked like parts of the atmosphere that circled the edges of the skybox, only they were much closer. After staring for several seconds, he saw a wall of clouds briefly move, revealing the blue wall of the skybox far beyond.

  I must be on a world at the end of a long branch. That’s the only way I wouldn’t be able to see any worlds hanging near the horizon. Maybe once I climb over those purple mountains, I’ll be able to spot the rest of the World-Tree.

  “Hello?” a familiar-sounding voice called. “You’re Vincent, right? I was told you’d arrive soon.”

  Vincent lowered his eyes to the woman that’d been talking, and his heart sank. The shock of seeing her left him frozen as he gazed at her reddish hair, warm face, and curvy frame he’d known for most of his real life. Vincent couldn’t make himself move or speak, so he desperately Scanned her, just to be sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

  [NPC] Monika Ward – Age: 25 | Sex: Female | Personality: Cheerful

  “You’re M—” he said, struggling with the words. “No, no. You’re not her. You’re not Monika.”

  “I’m sorry?” she said, looking confused.

  Vincent took a deep breath, and then he stepped backward trying to think. His heart raced in his chest, and a dizziness in his head caused him to fall over. Monika grabbed him and held him steady.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Archie warned me ARKUS could make an NPC of her anytime. It has all her data from Titanus Online, plus decades of social media. This isn’t Monika. At best, it’s a very accurate replica… but why is she here with the daiglass shard? Where are my friends?

  “Do you need to sit down?” Monika asked.

  Her compassionate, worried eyes made Vincent sick to his stomach.

  “No, I’m okay,” he said, pulling away. “I need to find my friends. They must be here, right?”

  “There’s no one else here. Trust me, I looked. I woke up on this world one day and have been alone ever since.”

  Vincent’s eyes filled with distrust. She’s just another of ARKUS’s tricks. Like when Xan saw her mother in Marquis’s Hollow. I can’t trust anything she says. My friends must be nearby somewhere.

  “How’d that daiglass shard in the bedroom get here?” Vincent asked her.

  “It was there when I first arrived.”

  Vincent paused a moment to think. “Hang on, how did you know my name?”

  “Before I woke up here, I had a dream where I saw the entire World-Tree. A voice emanated from it, telling me I was supposed to wait for you. That was a long time ago, though. I didn’t hear the voice again until last night when it told me you’d arrive today.”

  “And you’re certain there are no other people here?”

  “Believe me, I’ve had time to search. This isn’t a world like the others. The voice told me it was a Challenge World, one that had been frozen before it could blossom for some purpose that made little sense to me. Something about challenging teams of heroes that climb the World-Tree. This area, which I call the Garden, is the only place where heroes can regain their mana on this world. There are four powerful monsters on the petals, but they seem to ignore me. I tried to leave by walking on the world’s stem, but an angel appeared and…” She paused, looking confused and nervous.

  “And what?”

  “She killed me—or maybe I dreamed she did. All I know is I woke up here again.”

  A Challenge World, huh? Maybe my friends came here and lost the shard. I’d message them, except Izrid deleted everyone off my friend list. He even removed me from the guild. I have no way of contacting them, so I’ll have to reach a City-World with a Cricket outpost.

  “Where’s the nearest Jump Gate?” Vincent asked.

  “There isn’t one. You can only reach Challenge Worlds by following the branches.”

  Vincent equipped his soulbound Builder’s Tome. With it, he knew he could make a new Jump Gate for 200,000 Builder Points. With a sinking feeling, he remembered Izrid had used the tome numerous times in the last few decades.

  Builder Points: 53

  “What’s that?” Monika asked, looking at the book.

  “This is my only way out of here that doesn’t involve fighting an angel and weeks of travel,” Vincent replied. “If I sacrifice enough alchemic materials to this tome, I’ll be able to build a Jump Gate to escape.

  “You want to leave already? But you just got here! The Voice of the World-Tree made it sound important that I wait for you. I’m not even sure I’m allowed to leave this world.”

  The worry in her eyes made Vincent’s
heart sink, so he avoided making eye contact with her.

  “I can’t do this again,” Vincent said, more to himself than her. “I can’t waste away spending all my time with computer code pretending to be my wife.”

  “What are you even talking about?” Monika asked. “I’m not pretending to be your wife. I don’t even know who you are.”

  Vincent stepped away and hurried for the house. He made his way back to the daiglass shard in the bedroom. Izrid had lost or destroyed many of his items over the decades, but Vincent gathered up everything non-essential and fed it to the tome, including all of his gild.

  Builder Points: 33,502

  That’s not even close to enough. I need to get off this world. I can’t stay here with her. I finally quit replaying the Divine Sanctum just a few months before I started this game. ARKUS probably thinks it’s giving me what I want, but this is an insult to my wife’s memory. It had no right to make a copy of her.

  Out of his remaining items, he grabbed a couple of basteel swords and a dozen mega-potions.

  Those four boss monsters she talked about might have good loot. Hopefully something alchemic so I can build a Jump Gate.

  When he backtracked to the living room, he found Monika by the door.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “To fight those bosses you mentioned.”

  “They’re too dangerous. The Voice said only powerful teams could defeat them.”

  “Trust me, I’m a lot stronger than I look.”

  “Let me gather some supplies to help you.” Monika hurried to the kitchen, where she placed various fruits and vegetables into a basket. “Take these!” She shoved the basket forward, and Vincent added the items to his inventory. “Use all of them before your fight. If you win, come back here to rest and regain your mana. I’ll get another basket ready for you in the meantime.”

  “Thank you for the help,” Vincent said. It felt awkward for him to talk to a copy of his wife as if she was a stranger, but he still didn’t trust her. “Is there anything you can tell me about those bosses?”

  “There’s one to the north, one down in the south, another in the east, and the last to the west. They’re special bosses made to challenge teams. I don’t know if this makes sense to you, because it confused me, but the Voice said they don’t have challenge ratings. Instead, they offer massive boosts to gaining something called levels, but those gains are divided between teammates.”

  A boost without challenge ratings? It’d been decades since he’d used True-Scan, but he remembered it showed him some kind of XP bar normally hidden from players. Most monsters had challenge ratings that quickened the increase of each stat while fighting them, but Vincent guessed the bosses on the Challenge World must’ve offered a flat boost to stat bars. Kind of like that candy apple. Speaking of…

  “Do you have any more of those square apples?” Vincent asked. “There was one on the table, but I didn’t see any others.”

  “Those are very rare,” Monika replied. “I only spot them from time to time, and they rot within days of being picked. Most of the fruits and veggies on this world are like that. The world magic in this area is very strong, allowing things to grow in the Garden that don’t exist anywhere else on the World-Tree.”

  “Well, if you happen to find more while I’m here, I’ll take them,” Vincent said.

  “Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for them. Maybe the World-Tree put me here to help you defeat these enemies. I only wish it had given me more instruction. I thought…” She paused, looking perplexed again.

  Vincent looked at her. “You thought what?”

  “I guess it wasn’t really a thought. It was more like a feeling I had that my life would be better when you arrived. I didn’t think you’d want to leave so soon.”

  “Oh,” Vincent said, looking away from her sad eyes.

  They stood in silence for several seconds before Vincent finally spoke again.

  “I—I ought to head out,” he told her. “It’s not difficult getting over those purple mountains, is it?”

  “No, it’s not hard,” she answered. “Also, they’re not mountains. Those are the petals that cover infantile worlds. If it had been allowed to grow, the petals would’ve dissolved and become part of the atmosphere that surrounds the World-Tree. The bosses you’re trying to find usually stay in valleys that form between the petals. I’ve seen them wandering about too, though. Luckily, this world isn’t too big, so it shouldn’t be hard to find them.”

  “Alright, thanks again,” Vincent said, heading out the door.

  He traveled through the Garden and circled around the lake to look at it. Swarms of vibrant-colored fish moved beneath the water like living rainbows. He watched the mesmerizing colors for several seconds before continuing. A few deer and rabbits ran by him, but some stopped to sniff him like they’d never seen another human besides Monika.

  What a strange world. I’ve never even heard of a Challenge World, so I assume there’s only a few out of the thousands of planets hanging from the World-Tree. They’re probably all in the high tier too. If the level gains are worth it, then I’ll have to bring my friends to one—just not this one. Not with Monika here.

  At the edge of the Garden, Vincent found the sharp slope where the petal started. It looked like the petals wrapped around the world and then ended at the Garden, but they laid flat enough that he couldn’t see under them. When he Scanned them, he discovered they had a 700 rating, making them weaker than the wood of the World-Tree.

  If the petals start near the stem, that’d put me at the southernmost part of this world. It shouldn’t be too long to find the first boss.

  Vincent jogged to the top of the mountainous petal. From that vantage point, he briefly spotted another world on the horizon before clouds moved in his way. A blanket of white passed over the entire Challenge World, and the blue skybox disappeared from his view.

  His gaze returned to the world below, and he stared over the sleek purple landscape. After a few minutes of walking, he neared the dip where two petals intersected. At the bottom, he saw a lake that stretched a couple of miles across. Part of one petal curved over half the lake, casting a shadow over it.

  Vincent journeyed to the start of the lake and peered into the crystal-clear water. Inside, he noticed more fish like the ones at the pond. Despite the lake being fifty meters deep near the middle, Vincent could see all the way through until it reached a layer of white petals.

  He stood there and stared at the lake in awe for some time before something on the surface of the water caught his attention. A figure in a rowboat slowly made their way over to him, and Vincent started eating the food Monika had given him in preparation. He thought it might be a man, although the figure stood about three meters tall.

  Vincent scarfed down the last few pieces of fruits, finding that together the items boosted all his stats by twenty for the next hour.

  The boat stopped at the end of the lake, and a tall skeleton stepped off of it. He wore pirate garb from head to toe and even had a hook hand that appeared to be made of 700-rated mithril. Vincent wondered how he rowed the boat that way, but what piqued his interest more was the fact that the skeleton had a bushy, white beard.

  Surely this isn’t the boss? Vincent wondered. He thought about True Scanning him, but instead he used the normal Scan to save mana.

  Silpher the Southern Storm (Exotic Boss) – Monster Class: S | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: Ten In-Game Years | Personality: Friendly

  Silpher used his hook to tilt his pirate hat at Vincent.

  Silpher wants to know if you’re here to challenge him or to fish? (Challenge/Fish)

  With the skeleton standing closer, Vincent’s sharp eyes caught the faint glimmer of world magic over the monster’s bones.

  I have no doubt he’s much stronger than he looks. S-Class means he could take down Narak on Lavrin. However, I bet I can still beat him with Voidfire. If I strike fast enough, he won’t even have a chance to fight b
ack.

  Vincent hurled Voidfire at Silpher, but the skeleton disappeared amidst a flash of light. The black flames continued through the air, disintegrating the rowboat at the edge of the water.

  Vincent turned, hearing a whoosh as the skeleton reappeared. The boss equipped a hand cannon that charged Vaporize, a powerful spell that many bosses used. Vincent used Zero Field on himself to rocket into the air as the spell fired. The concentrated center of the beam, which would likely kill him with its 800 Magic Rating, missed him. However, Silpher arced the rest of the beam into his path.

  Vincent’s Density Field, which raised his flesh to a 500 rating and bones to a 600 rating, prevented the non-direct attack from killing him. The impact knocked him out of the sky, however, and sent him crashing toward the lake. His left arm had taken the most damage, with spots of bone showing where his flesh had been burned away.

  On that non-bloomed world, Vincent couldn’t gather any mana naturally, and his Density Shield already stopped his normal healing process. As he sank into the lake, he struggled to drink potions while underwater.

  A twinkle of light flashed over the surface of the water, and the lake started to boil. Vincent ignored his burning skin, forced down another potion, and then used Zero Field to fly upward. He burst from the surface of the lake as Silpher fired another Vaporize at the water. The skeleton spotted him and started charging another shot.

  My god, I’ve never seen a boss spam this attack so much! It’s like he can’t run out of mana.

  Vincent readied Voidfire in his hand. He waited until Silpher unleashed his own attack, and then Vincent hurled his black flames straight through the center. Voidfire devoured the strongest, most focused part of the blast as it flew toward Silpher, but the boss disappeared just before the flames reached him. The outer layers of the beam circled around Vincent like a tunnel of energy, but his Density Shield protect him from the intense heat and pressure.

  He’s lightning fast, has incredible response time, and can endlessly spam Vaporize. How the hell do I beat this guy?

  Vincent hovered in the air, continuously wheeling about as he searched for Silpher. The skeleton reappeared and disappeared several times along the petal. Finally, he became a speck in the distance. Vincent spotted the twinkle of Vaporize and had time to move away from the beam. Even when the boss tried to arc it again, Vincent anticipated the move and circled around it.