Chapter 219: Gather, Craft, Repeat
¡°Welcome back to VGN Daily,¡± The VGN Broadcaster spoke with enthusiasm, leaning forward in his plushy red chair within the VGN broadcasting studio. He wore a black suit and tie and was sporting a thick brown goatee with a shaved head of short brown hair. Beside him sat a long wooden stand with a floating screen above it, on display for the viewers as it hovered side by side with the broadcaster.
On the screen, a view of Feng and his guild of the Vindicators wearing matching red outfits and tabards was on display. Feng and his guild were in the midst of a great battle with a hydra, somewhere within the Underrealms of Lanusk.
¡°It¡¯s been two weeks since the abyssal invasion of Kalmoore, and still no sightings of Aegis since his party split up atop the Skyport tower of Kordas, setting out to acquire their advanced class quests. Despite our desperate attempts to track Aegis and his movements, we¡¯ve been unsuccessful. It is believed that he has taken a small group and has been gathering loads of mithral to fulfill his promise to his fellow Kalmoorians.
Feng and Makaroth, our two top streamers here at VGN have followed in his footsteps on their respective islands and sought out alliances with the Dark Elves of their underrealms.¡± The broadcaster took a break to motion towards the screen beside him, focusing on Feng¡¯s raid.
¡°While they both managed to acquire the proficiencies to mine, refine, and forge the Mithral, as well as craft their very own eternal flames, neither has been able to locate any mithral themselves. They¡¯re currently scouring the underrealms of their respective islands in search of it, and we¡¯ll keep you updated the moment we have anything to share on that front.¡± He leaned back and waved his hand at the screen, switching the view over to Puagas, where the player Seraxus was visible in his own livestream.
¡°In other news, the feud between Seraxus and the guild Schadenfreude continues. The german guild has been determined since very early on in the games life to stop the evil antics of our infamous PvP player Seraxus, but were largely unsuccessful. That is, until Seraxus attempted to manually set out from Puagas to challenge the Kalmoorians in their PvP abilities. Some say he feels the need to avenge his fellow Dark players, given that he himself is acting as the Avatar of Hatred due to the artifact sword he wields. Others claim that Seraxus holds a grudge against one of the players on Kalmoore and wishes to enact revenge, but these are just rumors at this time.
Schadenfreude¡¯s airship blockade around the island of Puagas has held up so far, but Seraxus¡¯ incredible skill in PvP combat will undoubtedly result in a victory for him and his companions. It¡¯s only a matter of time before he breaks through their blockade - and once he does, we¡¯ll be there to report on it.¡± The broadcaster winked at the camera while the footage of Seraxus deep in a conversation with his party members continued to play out beside him. A moment later, though, he once again waved his hands at the display and the screen switched over to Yumily¡¯s livestream.
Yumily was dressed up in a flowery white sundress, her black hair tied back into a ponytail. She was walking around on the deck of her ship, giving out instructions to Kenji as he tried out various colorful illusions and Yumily commented on them, as if they were preparing the lights for her next concert.
¡°Yumily fans can finally rejoice, as the complications due to her recent contract obligations being broken have since been resolved. After a meeting with the higher ups at VGN, the network decided to forgive her and have since apologized for not being understanding of her requests to aid her island in it¡¯s time of need. No doubt thanks to the support of her fans who protested loudly on her behalf. Yumily will be scheduling a new tour to make up for the missed concerts in the coming weeks, and has already begun preparing. She is promising several new tracks to be heard for the first time ever, including a completed and remixed version of the song she freestyle sang during the battle with the Avatar of Jealousy. While some fans were shocked to hear Yumily, the soft spoken bard, suddenly rap aggressively, the vast majority of people absolutely loved her performance and have been eagerly awaiting the full version¡¡± His voice trailed off as suddenly Yumily and Kenji stopped what they were doing, and Kaito appeared on the deck of her ship.
¡°Hold on, it seems like something is happening¡¡± The broadcaster said as he leaned in closer to stare at her broadcast on display. ¡°Let¡¯s take a closer look¡¡± He added, before the camera on his broadcast zoomed into the studio until it was focusing solely on Yumily¡¯s livestream. A moment later, the audio switched over from the broadcasting studio, to Yumily¡¯s.
¡°Right now?¡± The pilot could be heard shouting down to Yumily from the stern of her large airship.
¡°Yup.¡± Yumily smiled up at him, giving a nod.
¡°Alrighty then, I¡¯ll get us right over there.¡± The Airship pilot replied. Yumily then turned to look at Kenji and Kaito who both had sudden expressions of childlike excitement, and the three walked towards the side of the Airship to look over the lands of Kalmoore. They were hovering above the farmlands on the outskirts of Kordas, the city visible in the distance.
The wing sails on the side of the Airship opened up to catch wind, and slowly the vehicle turned to face towards the Northwest. Once it was angled correctly, the main sail was lowered and began to catch wind.
¡°Everyone hang on!¡± The pilot called out, to which Yumily grabbed onto the main mast, and Kenji and Kaito both bent their knees. ¡°Airburst!¡± The pilot shouted, and a sudden blast of wind shot the airship forward, soaring incredibly fast through the air for a long while. Eventually, the ship slowed down as another settlement came into view.
The town of Rene, with its walls surrounding it, was now visible. A river ran along the southern walls of the town, with a watermill catching the force of the stream and carrying it through the walls into the Sawmill within.
The paved roads of the city were alive and bustling with various players and NPCs, some leading along carts that were pulled by various beasts of burden. It was primarily horses, but there were also plenty of Lagnuk¡¯s moving about as well - large goat-like creatures.
Towards the north, a large mountain towered over the town with a beautiful monastery built near the top. The monastery drew Yumily¡¯s eyes due to the large star-viewing tower that had been erected within it, which towered over the peak of the mountain despite the monastery not having been built near the top.
¡°Here is good, thank you!¡± Yumily called up to the pilot as the ship came close to hovering above the eastern walls of Rene.
¡°Alright.¡± The captain shouted back, and within a few seconds the wingsails had retracted and the airship came to a complete stop.
¡°Yuki said to meet them at the forge.¡± Yumily explained to Kenji and Kaito, and they both nodded back. Following this, Yumily hopped off of her airship alongside them, and Kenji cast a spell with a wave of his hand on the trio, slowing their falling so that they could softly land on the grassy fields outside of Rene¡¯s eastern gate.
Her live streaming camera continued to follow her as the three excitedly walked with haste towards the gate and stepped through, passing by the high level 100 Rene guards that flanked either side of the entry into the city.
Through the east, they found themselves walking through the residential side of Rene that was predominantly filled with NPCs, distinguishable from players due to their names above their heads being white. There were a few low level players present, doing quests for the various NPCs, but not many.
After walking for a short while, the trio arrived at the town square of Rene. A large fountain in the center with a statue of the beautiful, long haired goddess Eirene standing atop it, depicted wearing a simple sleeveless white dress. The townsquare was backed to the brim with market stalls, players, and NPCs all shouting out at each other. Some were recruiting party members to explore nearby dungeons, or complete difficult quests in a group. Others were attempting to sell items that they had crafted or collected on their adventures. All manner of leveled players, races, and classes were present, including quite a few rarely seen Dark Elf NPCs, selling exotic goods brought from their city in the Underrealm.
Many of the players took notice of Yumily¡¯s arrival, some screaming excitedly and waving in her direction. Yumily was sure to bow and politely thank anyone who approached her for their support, while Kaito cautiously kept watch of the players activities and movements, making sure to carry out his duties as Yumily¡¯s bodyguard properly. Despite looking to be in a hurry, Yumily made sure to be respectful to all of the fans that flagged her down, making sure that none of them felt left out. As a result, it took a good long while for the trio to reach their destination on the other end of the townsquare - Rene¡¯s crafting district.
They spotted Yuki''s tailoring shop built off to the side of the square, but it was currently closed due to Yuki not being there at the moment. Yumily instead was heading towards the Forge of Rene, where another large crowd could be seen gathered in front of it. It was so crowded, in fact, that Yumily and her companions saw no possible way to get any closer, and she began standing up on her tippy toes to try and see over the crowd, unsuccessfully.
¡°Ah, Yumily, you¡¯re one of the first completed orders.¡± Chax suddenly called out to Yumily, having spotted her. Chax was a merchant player, sitting at level 150 with bright red spiky hair atop his head and simple leather equipment otherwise. He was a familiar face to Yumily, though the two weren¡¯t well acquainted - she knew him to be a companion of Aegis¡¯ and was relieved to see him standing to the side of the crowd. ¡°Come, follow me, I¡¯ll get you through this mess.¡± Chax motioned her, Kenji and Kaito over.
¡°Okay.¡± Yumily smiled excitedly, before turning her attention to her livestream. Unlike Aegis, who had a tendency to never talk to his viewers, most streamers such as Yumily frequently read and interacted with their livestream chat. ¡°Guys, I just got a message from Yuki that she and Aegis have finished crafting a lot of the orders, including my new instruments!¡± Yumily squealed with excitement, then saw tons of messages scrolling by that she quickly tried to read.
¡°Congrats!¡±
¡°AWESOME!¡±
¡°YEAAAAH!¡±
¡°GRATS!¡±
¡°Wow, if Yuki helped him make it, that means they¡¯re probably gonna look fire!!!¡¯
¡°WOO¡±
¡°Grats Yumily!¡±
¡°Can¡¯t wait to see them!¡±
¡°Will you play us a new song when you get them!?¡±
¡°Wait, Aegis is back? He¡¯s still not streaming though¡±
¡°What about Kaito¡¯s sword!?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll play them right away!¡± Yumily replied to one of the messages. ¡°And, I think Kaito¡¯s sword is ready as well.¡± She added with a nod as she was led by Chax through the crowds. Excitement got the best of her though, and she could no longer focus on her chat - she closed out of her interface as the forge crafting stations came properly into view. A line had formed of players in front of one crafting station in particular, where several Rene Guards were making an effort to hold back a crowd of onlookers from entering the crafting station.
Covered in sweat, hammering away at a glowing red blade, was Aegis. He was wearing crafting gear, rather than his usual leather armor, which included a black apron made by Yuki to increase his crafting capabilities. His mithral smithing hammer, which he swung repeatedly down at the blade on the anvil, was giving off a light blue glow due to Aegis having used his ¡®enchant object¡¯ skill on the hammer to enhance his craftsmanship further.
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Aegis wasn¡¯t currently streaming, and was completely focused on the task at hand, ignoring the murmurs from the crowd of onlookers. At the front of the line off to the side of the crafting station, Yumily could see 10 players of various levels, races, and classes, all eagerly waiting to receive their promised mithral weapons - Aegis had promised to craft mithral weapons to the 10 players who had the most abyssling kills during the recent abyssal invasion of Kalmoore.
Across from Aegis, working on threading voidsilk into several crafts, stood Yuki. She too looked worn down, sweating from either the exhausting work, or the intense heat that was blazing outwards from the eternal flame that had been recently installed inside the Forge of Rene. When Yumily arrived, Yuki briefly looked up and caught her eyes, and the two smiled excitedly at each other.
¡°Please line up there, he¡¯s finishing up the last few items and then he will be presenting everyone with the crafts they requested.¡± Chax explained to her, motioning Yumily to move to the back of the line.
¡°Okay, thank you.¡± Yumily said with a polite bow before doing as instructed. After getting in line, she saw a large, towering human player named Herilon join the line behind her, Kaito and Kenji. From the back of the line, her view of Aegis¡¯ hammerwork was somewhat obscured, so she leaned her head out to watch him briefly, before going back to interacting with her chat for a bit.
Eventually, the hammering stopped, and the red glowing metal blade cooled off into a light pink metal. Aegis then pulled out a hilt that had already been crafted using other high level materials, including salamander leather, voidsilk, and ironwood, and fastened it to the blade properly. Once done, he pulled out his newly made mithral jewelcrafting tool kit and began engraving fine details and etchings into the long blade, and hilt. The crowd went completely silent as he did this, with many players trying their best to poke their heads up over the Rene guards to get a better view on what exactly Aegis was doing.
It wasn¡¯t long before he¡¯d finished, though, and lifted up the final product into the air to inspect it carefully. Once lifted it became much more apparent what it was he¡¯d been working on - a katana, which lit up Kaito¡¯s face as he saw it.
¡°It¡¯s exactly as I requested it! Wow!¡± Kaito squealed with excitement, in a voice completely out of character for him which caused Yumily and her viewers to laugh.
¡°Alright.¡± Aegis spoke up, causing any murmurs from the surrounding crowd to immediately die down. ¡°Sorry to keep you all waiting, but I wanted to make sure I leveled up my skills all the way before crafting your equipment, to ensure everyone got the best quality items.¡± Aegis faced towards the lineup of players, including Yumily. As he spoke, she briefly made eye contact with him and blushed, looking away as fast as she could - this didn¡¯t go unnoticed by her audience and they quickly began to tease her about it.
¡°Shh, I¡¯m just a big fan.¡± She whispered to her viewers with a sarcastic glare.
¡°I really appreciate everyone who stepped up to help defend Kordas. I also recognize that though they are the top 10, they were not the only ones who helped out, so once this is finished, Chax will be selling the lower quality mithral equipment that I have crafted while leveling my blacksmithing, at discounted prices for Kalmoore players.¡± Aegis motioned to Chax, and this got the crowd of onlookers murmuring excitedly.
¡°So, the first one¡¡± Aegis eyed the first player in line, a lizardfolk wearing leather. Aegis recognized the name and was able to pull out the gear the player had requested immediately, holding out a beautifully forged mithral longsword for them.
¡°Wow¡ thank you so much!¡± The lizardfolk said excitedly, taking the longsword from Aegis¡¯ hands.
¡°Thank you.¡± Aegis smiled and bowed. The lizardfolk added the sword to his inventory and disappeared into the crowd, and the next player stepped forward. One by one, Aegis handed out to each of the players in the line their mithral equipment that they had requested of him. And one by one, they left the line with big glowing smiles on their faces. That is, until the last person in the line in front of Yumily stepped up.
A tall old human male with no hair on his head to speak of, save for a small white goatee. Despite his wrinkly skin, the player¡¯s avatar was very muscular, with broad shoulders and a white sleeveless shirt, [Jorik - Level 150] hovering above his head.
¡°And lastly, the number one abyssling and reaper killer in the defense of Kordas, Jorik.¡± Aegis smiled at him and pulled out a mithral hacksaw. Jorik stepped forward with a big smile on his face, eying the saw, but Aegis pulled it back.
¡°You requested a mithral tool, rather than a weapon. Am I right in assuming you are an architect class player?¡± Aegis asked him.
¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct. I¡¯m currently working on my advanced class quest, like yourself.¡±
¡°How did you end up defeating so many abysslings?¡± Aegis asked him curiously.
¡°Trebuchets. I used my class skills to craft multiple before the battle, and continued to craft more as the battle went on. Several of my employed NPCs were skilled at operating them, allowing me to focus on building as many as possible.¡± Jorik explained.
¡°I see¡ no doubt you use more than just a hacksaw, right? I took the liberty of crafting other tools used by architects for you, in mithral.¡± Aegis explained as he pulled out a hammer, axe, and several other tools. Upon seeing them Jorik¡¯s face exploded with excitement. ¡°But, I was hoping you¡¯d be willing to help me out with an upcoming construction project in return.¡± Aegis explained.
¡°Oh? What project?¡± Jorik asked.
¡°I¡¯m going to be building a castle here in Rene, to max out the rest of my required crafting professions. I¡¯ll be building it with my lead architect Ruffily, but having another high level, skilled architect on board for the project would be a great help.¡±
¡°Will you be supplying all of the materials? I''ve been a bit low since the battle.¡± Jorik asked him, his excitement quickly transitioning into intrigue. The maturity of the player behind the Jorik avatar shined through and displayed a great deal of professionalism, despite the player clearly ogling the mithral tools that Aegis was presenting to him.
¡°Yup, we¡¯ll handle that. I¡¯d just like your help in layout, structural integrity, practicality and design.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Then, I¡¯d be honored to join your project.¡± He smiled back.
¡°Great!¡± Aegis shouted with excitement, handing over the mithral architecture tools to him. ¡°We¡¯ll be starting in a bit, Chax can you introduce him to Ruffily?¡± Aegis turned to Chax, and Chax nodded back. Within a few moments, Chax had led Jorik away from the crowds, leaving no one to stand between him and Yumily.
Aegis finished following Yorik out of the area with his eyes first before turning his gaze onto Yumily, and she looked back at him courageously with a smile. Seeing her, Aegis smiled back and began ruffling through his inventory, preparing to pull out the instruments he had crafted for her, but was stopped by a violent nudge in his back.
¡°Oh, hey, there you are Aegis.¡± Hae-won awkwardly spoke between her teeth, seething with anger.
¡°Hae-won? What¡¯re you doing here?¡± Aegis turned to look at her curiously - she was still wearing her standard red V-neck dress with her long black beautiful hair swaying down below her shoulders. Despite her beautiful appearance that stood out like a sore thumb in the fantasy environment, the expression on her face hid her beauty behind its vaguely concealed anger.
¡°So funny, I was just wondering what¡¯re you doing here, logged in, not streaming?¡± Hae-won grumbled in a whisper so that no one else but Aegis could hear her.
¡°I was gonna turn the stream back on once this was over with¡¡± Aegis shrugged. She then leaned into his ear with a hissing tone.
¡°Did you forget what you promised me?¡±
¡°Forget what?¡± Aegis turned to look at her, confused.
¡°Oh come on, she¡¯s right there!¡± Hae-won whimpered back, desperation mixing in with her anger as she motioned her eyes in Yumily¡¯s direction without directly turning her head to face Yumily, while Yumily awkwardly watched the pair¡¯s interaction.
¡°Oh, right.¡± Aegis nodded as he recalled his promise. Hae-won had made Aegis promise that he would introduce her to Yumily in return for her helping him with his island defense plan.
¡°Yumily, here¡¯s your instruments.¡± Aegis bowed politely to her as he pulled the first one out of his inventory and held it out towards her. Seeing it, all forms of shyness in her disappeared immediately and she quickly rushed forward to grab the beautifully crafted ironwood, mithral, and voidsilk violin that he¡¯d made for her.
¡°Oh my gosh, it¡¯s perfect!¡± Yumily squealed with excitement as Kaito and Kenji both watched her and smiled. ¡°You must¡¯ve helped, right?¡± She turned to Yuki, and Yuki nodded.
¡°Yes, I made sure everything on all of the instruments fit your style, and are similar in size and shape to your current instruments.¡± Yuki replied.
¡°Thank you so much!¡± Yumily rushed forward and gave Yuki a big hug, then turned to Aegis and rushed over to hug him as well - the excitement from the new item completely washing away all of her shy emotions. Once she released Aegis, she took the violin in her hands and carefully eyed it up and down with big glowing eyes.
¡°I¡¯ve got the rest made as well, but, well, I wanted to introduce you to my friend here, Hae-won. She¡¯s a big fan¡¡± Aegis awkwardly motioned towards Hae-won standing behind him, causing Yumily to look up from the violin.
¡°Oh, yes! I am a big fan of you as well!¡± Yumily cheered at her excitedly. ¡°I sometimes watch Aegis¡¯ stream, and you always make it really funny and entertaining! I¡¯m happy to meet you Hae-won!¡± Yumily said with a smile. Hae-won, however, just stared back at her with wide eyes, and her jaw dropped.
¡°You know my name?¡± Hae-won muttered weakly.
¡°Mhm.¡± Yumily nodded with enthusiasm before turning her eyes back onto her new instrument. Aegis awkwardly glanced between the two, seeing for the first time that Hae-won was broken, at a complete loss for words and frozen in place like a petrified statue.
¡°Right.¡± Aegis shook his head to himself and rolled his eyes, pulling out the remaining instruments from his inventory. One by one, he handed them over to Yumily, and she took them and complemented Aegis and Yuki on their work.
¡°It was a pain to tame the Mosmir hatchers into weaving more voidsilk for us, but Yuki, Ruffily, Amlie and I all worked together and got it done.¡± Aegis explained as she took the final instrument from his hands.
¡°Yes. Now I should be able to regularly craft new outfits for you using voidsilk!¡± Yuki cheered excitedly.
¡°That¡¯s so great!¡± Yumily squealed, giving Yuki another big hug. As this happened, Aegis once again turned to Hae-won to check in on her, seeing that she was still frozen with wide eyes and an open mouth.
¡°Right. And, here, Kaito. Thanks for sacrificing your old katana to save our island.¡± Aegis pulled out the recently finished mithral katana from his inventory and held it out for Kaito. Kaito eagerly stepped past Yuki and Yumily to take it from his hands and began carefully waving it around to get a feel for it.
¡°It is perfect. The balance and feel of it is wonderful. I can tell you are passionate about your craft.¡± Kaito said to Aegis, while both kept their eyes on the blade and watched it cut through the air.
¡°I looked up your blade of destruction skill - it does quite a hit to durability so I reinforced the blade to be able to withstand it. You won¡¯t be able to use the skill twice in a row, but if you repair after each skill use, the sword shouldn¡¯t let you down.¡± Aegis explained.
¡°That is perfect. I will put this blade to good use.¡± Kaito bowed to Aegis respectfully, followed by Kenji stepping forward holding a large pouch of gold.
¡°Here is the payment, on behalf of your merchant lead. We appreciate your hard work.¡± Kenji bowed as well, and Aegis took the gold from his hands and added it to his inventory without checking the amount.
¡°No problem.¡± Aegis smiled. Once the two polite men stepped to the side with Yumily and Yuki, all that was left was Herilon.
Aegis looked up at him, and Herilon looked down at Aegis, and the two had big dumb grins on their faces.
¡°Not gonna lie. This was my favorite thing to craft.¡± Aegis explained as he opened up his inventory and pulled out a giant mithral greatsword, covered in runes, and a beautifully engraved ironwood hilt at its base. ¡°Nothing like just slamming down some mithral and crafting a big ass sword.¡±
¡°You should try swinging one around.¡± Herilon smirked as he eyed the greatsword, then took it from Aegis¡¯ hands.
¡°Tullan¡¯s got the rest of your guilds gear handled, right?¡±
¡°Yep. He¡¯s armorsmithing all of our armor, and some of the weapons.¡± Herilon replied as he took out a pouch of coins as well and handed it to Aegis.
¡°Good.¡± Aegis took it. He watched Herilon ogle the sword in his hands for a moment, then turned to see Hae-won still frozen, and finally turned to the crowd of onlookers. ¡°Alright guys, all done here. If you are interested in picking up some mithral stuff, Chax will be opening up a market stand in the townsquare shortly. It¡¯s discounted, but mithral is still quite expensive due to how hard it is to gather.¡± Aegis declared, and following his words he witnessed the crowd begin to quickly rush eastward along the paved streets of Rene, towards the town square. Most didn¡¯t even wait for Aegis to finish speaking.
¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to start streaming again now, Hae-won.¡± Aegis turned to her, and she eventually nodded back.
¡°Mhm. Guess I should go then. Back to the studio¡ Aegis¡¡± She whispered to him, leaning into his ear again. ¡°She knew who I was!¡± Hae-won squealed into his ear breathlessly. Aegis just rolled his eyes at her.
¡°Yeah yeah.¡± He turned and started walking away from the forge. ¡°If you can manage to talk to her, do it, she¡¯s still there.¡± He motioned towards Yumily as she stood off to the side of the forge with Yuki, Kaito, and Kenji, deep in conversation about the instruments. ¡°If not, hop on the broadcast - it¡¯s time to build a castle.¡± Aegis cracked his knuckles.
Chapter 220: Castle of Rene
Chapter 220: Castle of Rene
The sound of hammering and saws echoed all throughout the streets of Rene as the construction of the castle began. On the northwestern side of the town, the structure slowly erected from the ground and began to tower over the other nearby buildings. Beasts of burden pulled carts towards the construction project, loaded with cut stone blocks and pristine planks of beautifully cut lumber.
Aegis got to work on multiple skills, with the help of Ruffily. Jorik, and numerous other architect players and NPCs. His first priority was stonecutting, doing his best to carve raw stone into usable blocks. He¡¯d arranged with Chax to order an incredibly large amount of stone from Tullan and the Night Hunter¡¯s quarry, which was being delivered in bulk daily.
| Level Up! Stonecutting has reached Level 150! |
Next, it was time for woodworking and woodcutting. Aegis worked with several druid players, led by a druid from the White Flame¡¯s guild that had been recommended to him by Erikson. With them, he repeatedly chopped down the highest quality tier2 trees on the outskirts of Rene, then had the druids regrow them so as to not completely deforest the surrounding lands.
After cutting down enough logs, he¡¯d make use of taming and vehicle skills to lug the logs back to Rene with a Lagnok-pulled cart. Once back in Rene, Aegis made use of his water-powered sawmill and cut the logs down into usable planks, getting very quality pieces due to his increasing skill level and the low tier of the wood. As he neared a skill level of 150, he was consistently cutting 90% or higher planks to utilize in the castle¡¯s construction.
| Level Up! Woodcutting has reached Level 150! |
| Level Up! Woodworking has reached Level 150! |
After enough materials were stockpiled for the construction, it was time for him to get started on the actual construction skills, Architecture and Artistry. His architectural skill flew up rather fast, alongside his leadership skill, thanks to the work project he¡¯d created that included Ruffily and Jorik. With their work and high level builder class skills, the quality of the build was turning out incredible and he was receiving huge chunks of experience.
This allowed Aegis to put a greater focus on his artistry skill, taking time out of the base construction to add fine artistic details into the stonework, including but not limited to statues and various other engravings depicting Eirene, or other beautiful scenes that Aegis had witnessed throughout his travels thus far in the shattered world. To facilitate this, Aegis focused on finishing the main entry hall of the castle first.
Once the hall was completed and pillars were erected to uphold the roof, he carved into the pillars the shapes of humanoid knights holding up the roof instead. Then, he engraved a scene depicting the battle of Hrath¡¯mir on the west wall, including the dragons flying over the city in the skies and burning the forces of Darkness below. On the right wall, he engraved an artistic depiction of the races and people of Kalmoore coming together to defend Kordas from the invasion. Then, as a final touch, he carved a night sky with the focal point being on a giant star of Aegis on the roof.
Yuki then aided in the artwork by placing tapestries and a beautiful deep purple and yellow carpet that stretched from the entrance to the castle, to the far end of the hall where several doors lead further in, to rooms still under construction.
The amount of effort Aegis had put into the main hall was enough on its own to top off his artistry skill, leaving him time to focus on architecture for the rest of the build. With everyone working together under great leadership, it only took a week for the construction to near its completion, and Aegis to receive three more welcome notifications.
| Level Up! Leadership has reached Level 150!
Level Up! Architecture has reached Level 150!
Level Up! Artistry has reached Level 150!
|
In the previous two weeks, Aegis had spent the bulk of his time either mining Mithral within the red river using Trexon and Tullan¡¯s assistance, then refining and blacksmithing the mithral to max out those skills. Following that work, he hunted Salamanders and tanned their hides, then worked with Yuki and the others to tame and harvest Voidsilk from the Mosmir Hatchers in a secret chamber carved out underneath Rene, in the ruins of the Darxon Hideout. With that work, he¡¯d maxed out his Tailoring, Weaving, Creature Harvesting, Blacksmithing, Refining, Tanning, Leatherworking, and Mining skills.
He¡¯d long since met the requirements for the quest, with only his enchanting and scribing skills lagging behind, but much to his disappointment, his Crafting Mastery skill was hanging at level 149 with 99.9% experience - something was blocking it from reaching the last level that he hadn¡¯t been able to figure out.
The problem resolved itself when the construction of the castle reached its completion, though. Thanks to the efforts of Jorik, Ruffily, Yuki, and the many other high level crafters within Rene, the end product turned out to be Aegis¡¯ highest quality creation thus far within the Shattered World Online.
| Level Up! Crafting Mastery has reached Level 150! |
|
Castle of Rene [Rename] [Register] [Abandon]
Quality: 98%
Durability: 10,000,000/10,000,000
Option 1: Increases Eirene''s favor of the land owner of any land this structure is registered to by 50,000.
Option 2: NPCs and Players that are employed by Rene, or are residents of Rene receive a 5% damage bonus when standing within the Land of Rene.
Option 3: NPCs and Players that are employed by Rene, or are residents of Rene restore 1% missing health and mana every 10 seconds when standing within the Land of Rene.
Details: A beautifully constructed castle, built with sturdy high quality materials and filled with wonderful artwork depicting scenes of the past, and symbols of the Goddess Eirene. Constructed by Aegis.
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Aegis stood proudly in front of the entrance gates into the castle, with Yuki, Ruffily, Amlie, Chax, Jorik, and many other workers at his side. The group had been eagerly waiting to hear the results of all their hard work as they watched Aegis fidget into his land management menu to check the quality of the building, and register it as a structure of Rene.
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Immediately upon registration, all players within the lands received the option buffs from the castle, and there were several impressed gasps from the nearby players.
¡°It¡¯s mastercraft. Incredibly good quality, with really good buffs. We did it guys!¡± Aegis announced to the workers, and his words were followed by cheers of great enthusiasm. Aegis glanced up to see his viewership hanging around 1million, lower now since he¡¯d taken a break and Yumily had started streaming again, but still much higher than it had been before the invasion.
¡°I¡¯m still not satisfied yet, though.¡± Yorik said as the cheers died down, motioning up towards a tall circular stone tower that stood high above the rest of the square shaped castle. Windows and a shingled blue roof could be seen on the tower, and it dwarfed the rest of the castle by a significant amount. ¡°Bedrooms, throneroom, dining room, kitchen - all still need furnishing.¡± Jorik excitedly spun his tools around in his hands.
¡°Ooh, I like designing rooms too. Can I do your master bedroom? Woof!¡± Ruffily barked at Aegis excitedly.
¡°Uhm. Sure, I guess¡¡± Aegis shrugged, and following his words he watched as her tail began to wag furiously.
¡°We should call everyone to celebrate, don¡¯t you think?¡± Amlie suggested.
¡°Yes! A big party in the great hall, with a huge feast!¡± Jorik nodded.
¡°That¡¯ll be expensive, depending on how many people we invite¡¡± Chax replied skeptically. Aegis glanced between them, and saw more eager faces than apprehensive ones, and eventually relented with a shrug.
¡°Okay, let¡¯s do it. I¡¯ll tell the Night Hunters to come along too, and ask my party to take a break. If we prioritize the furnishing of the dining hall and kitchen, how soon can we be ready?¡± Aegis asked Jorik.
¡°Heh, with my crew, just a few hours.¡± Jorik replied proudly, followed by a few more cheers of enthusiasm.
¡°Alright, let¡¯s get ready for a party.¡± Aegis replied before turning to Farlion. ¡°We¡¯ll need to get the guards ready for things to get a bit rowdy here this evening.¡± Aegis instructed him, and Farlion gave a nod in response.
¡°No problem, we¡¯ll be ready.¡± Farlion gave a thumbs up before heading away from the group. With that, everyone fanned out and got to work on the upcoming party. Aegis sent invitations to Quinn, Christoph, and Artaphernes, followed by notifying all of his party members to take a break and come by. Yuki tried inviting Yumily to join, but was disappointed to learn that her airship had already left Kalmoore to begin her next concert tour on the various other islands.
By the time the sun began to set over Rene, multiple portals had opened and hundreds of players had funneled over from Kordas. Bards began to play music, foods and ale were prepared by Erikson and his chefs, and Jorik had completed the furnishing of the large dining hall within the castle.
Aegis was in the process of helping out with the furnishing of the kitchen when the celebrations had already begun, and his first party member had arrived back in Rene. Lina walked into the newly constructed kitchen and silently watched as Aegis worked with Ruffily to place down multiple high quality cooking stations, arranging them as efficiently as possible. Once Aegis finished, he looked up to see Lina smiling at him from the doorway.
¡°Hi.¡± Lina waved excitedly.
¡°Hey, what do you think?¡± Aegis smiled back, motioning to the building around them.
¡°It¡¯s really amazing! I love it.¡± She cheered. Hearing this, Ruffily¡¯s tail began to wag furiously nearby, batting against the recently placed stone stove.
¡°You like it? I¡¯m glad you like it. We all worked really hard, woof!¡± Ruffily cheered.
¡°Mhm, I watched a bit.¡± Lina nodded.
¡°How is your advanced class quest going so far?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°It¡¯s going okay. I got the dagger advanced quest done. The class quest is tough though, I already died once¡¡± Lina replied shamefully.
¡°Oh yeah, I wouldn¡¯t feel too bad. I heard most people die a lot on their advance quests. Even Feng died a few times on his, they¡¯re pretty hard. Woof!¡± Ruffily commented. Aegis and Lina both silently nodded at Ruffily. ¡°Oh, Aegis said I can design your master bedroom. Do you two have any preferences for it?¡± Ruffily asked, glancing between them.
¡°Uh¡ well¡¡± Aegis replied awkwardly, looking at Lina as Lina¡¯s face suddenly flushed bright red and she looked down at her feet. ¡°There¡¯s two rooms at the top of the tower, aren¡¯t there?¡±
¡°Yeah! I was thinking since you guys only need one bedroom, I could use the other room like a giant closet or armory, I¡¯ve got some really cool ideas for it, woof!¡± Ruffily cheered excitedly, oblivious to the embarrassment currently befalling Aegis and Lina at the shared bedroom prospect. Her words were followed by more awkward silence, though, which she eventually picked up on.
¡°Unless, you had other plans for the two rooms?¡± Ruffily asked, and this caused Lina and Aegis to look up at each other, both of them trying to gauge the other''s reaction to Ruffily¡¯s question.
¡°Having an armory room does sound kind of cool, maybe¡ what do you think?¡± Aegis asked Lina, his face also glowing red. Lina didn¡¯t immediately reply, her face first went more red, but she managed to maintain eye contact with Aegis and eventually gave a weak nod.
¡°Great! Woof!¡± Ruffily cheered. ¡°I¡¯ll get started, I have a great master bed design in mind too, really fluffy.¡± She added, leaving the kitchen with a skip in her step so that the two were alone. They remained silent, avoiding eye contact for a few moments before Aegis eventually broke it by stepping towards Lina.
¡°Sorry, I got caught up in her enthusiasm. We can still have separate rooms if you want,¡± Aegis suggested.
¡°No!¡± Lina quickly replied in loud protest. ¡°I mean, no, it¡¯s okay.¡± Her voice quieted back down. ¡°Since¡ you know¡ we are sort of married in the game¡¡± She replied shyly, twiddling her feet around on the stone floor of the castle kitchen. ¡°It¡¯d be weird if we had separate rooms, right?¡±
¡°Yeah, I guess¡¡± Aegis replied, as he too looked down at his feet and twiddled them, accidentally copying Lina¡¯s behavior without realizing it. ¡°Wait, she said a master? She¡¯s only going to put one in the room?!¡± Aegis realized, looking up in the direction Ruffily had gone. Lina, who had already picked up on this detail, didn¡¯t react. Aegis, on the other hand, began rushing forward to chase after Ruffily, but was stopped in the doorway by the appearance of Darkshot.
¡°Only one what?¡± Darkshot asked curiously, followed by a coo from Darkwing on his shoulder.
¡°Nothing. Nevermind.¡± Aegis replied. ¡°You¡¯re back?! How are you doing?!¡± Aegis quickly changed the subject, somewhat flustered.
¡°Yeap. Advanced quest is kicking my ass though. I wasn¡¯t expecting you to throw an in-game party to celebrate your birthday though, pretty cool!¡± Darkshot cheered.
¡°What''d you mean? This party is for the castle being completed.¡± Aegis replied with a raised eyebrow, spotting Pyri and Rakkan approaching the entry into the kitchen from the great hall behind Darkshot¡¯s shoulder.
¡°We¡¯re only partying in-game for a bit, okay? I made dinner reservations already.¡± Pyri scolded him.
¡°Huh?¡± Aegis replied confused.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me, you lost track of real world time that badly?¡± Darkshot looked at Aegis with disbelief. ¡°Today¡¯s your birthday, dummy.¡± Darkshot shook his head at him.
¡°Oh. Oops.¡± Aegis looked shamefully between Darkshot and Pyri.
¡°Happy b-day, yo.¡± Rakkan smiled at Aegis as Aegis awkwardly eyed his livestream, then shrugged back at Rakkan.
¡°Yeah, thanks.¡±
¡°Not bad with the castle, though. Did you do all this stuff yourself?¡± Pyri commented, stopping in the main hall a few meters away to eye all of the artwork engraved into the walls near her.
¡°The game skills helped a lot. I¡¯m normally not really good at art stuff.¡± Aegis shrugged as he stepped into the hall with Darkshot and Lina behind him, all stopping to stare at the art now.
¡°It¡¯s pretty impressive.¡± Rakkan nodded in agreement with Pyri.
¡°The skill can only help a little bit, so some of it has to be from you.¡± Lina added with an encouraging smile. Before Aegis could reply, though, a loud cheer came in from the doorway leading out of the hall into the streets of Rene.
¡°Aye, Watcha doin¡¯ all alone in here?! We heard there¡¯s a party goin¡¯ on.¡± Tullan roared as he, Sapphire, Herilon, Quinn and Ren came marching into the hall.
¡°Free drinks, right?!¡± Ren asked excitedly.
¡°You¡¯re too young to drink.¡± Quinn scolded him.
¡°Let¡¯s get WASTED!¡± Herilon cheered, followed by a woo from Sapphire as she waved a carrot in the air excitedly.
¡°Guess we¡¯re partying in the castle first?¡± Darkshot shrugged.
¡°Drunk castle party first. Reservations after.¡± Pyri nodded in agreement.
Chapter 221: Birthday Boy
Chapter 221: Birthday Boy
¡°So I said to the guy, listen ter this *hick*,¡± Tullan shouted from atop a table, mug of ale in his hand as his feet wobbled and he nearly stumbled off of the table. The dining hall of the Castle of Rene was furnished with finely crafted tables, chairs, and decorative tapestries. All of it lit by finely crafted and enchanted glowing iron lanterns bolted to the light gray stone walls of the huge round chamber.
The place was packed full of players of all guilds, with many familiar faces present from the Night Hunters, the Blades of Kalmoore, and Artaphernes guild. Even Keldan and his buddies were present, as well as Eccen and Galanis, and all the members of the council of Rene.
¡°I said, we don¡¯t make ¡®em in that size!¡± Tullan shouted the punch line to his story, and the crowd burst out into laughter, including Darkshot and Rakkan who sat at a table beside Aegis, Pyri, and Lina. Behind them, in the corner of the room, the golem gryphon Snowflake was being curiously inspected by Darkwing, who hopped around his stony body and eyed it carefully. Snowflake let it happen, but didn¡¯t seem particularly happy about the bird''s behavior.
¡°Hey, that better not be water.¡± Herilon appeared across the table from Aegis and the others, taking a seat and plopping his mug of ale down.
¡°Of course it¡¯s water.¡± Darkshot shrugged.
¡°I¡¯m still a minor.¡± Rakkan joined in.
¡°Yeah, but what about this guy?¡± Herilon motioned to Aegis. ¡°He¡¯s old enough now, surely, right?¡± Herilon asked as Aegis nervously looked towards Pyri.
¡°In some countries, maybe, but not ours.¡± She gave him a warning stare.
¡°Yeah. Water only for me.¡± Aegis forced a reluctant smile to Herilon.
¡°Pah, that¡¯s no fun.¡± Herilon chuckled as Sapphire came up behind him with a carrot in one hand, mug of ale in the other.
¡°Someone should take Tullan off that table before he accidentally tells stories about things he shouldn¡¯t. He lets the virtual alcohol get to his head a bit too much.¡± Sapphire pointed Tullan out to Herilon, and the group turned their eyes back onto him.
¡°Oh, wait, you guys will all love *hick* this story.¡± Tullan waved at the crowd, as the laughter died down and they all stared expectantly at him. ¡°Lemme tell you the story about how we found MITHRAL!¡± Tullan cheered, and the crowd suddenly roared with excitement save for Aegis and his table. Herilon immediately sighed and stood back up, stomping over to Tullan.
¡°Alright buddy, time to relax. That¡¯s a bit too much storytelling.¡± Herilon said while forcefully lifting up the small dwarf in his large berserker arms and plopping him down on the ground next to the table, Sapphire following behind them.
¡°What? What¡¯d I say?¡± Tullan grumbled curiously as the crowd began laughing at the drunk dwarf again, Aegis rolling his eyes at the scene. A few moments later, both Quinn and Artaphernes approached their table and took a seat.
¡°Hey.¡± Quinn smiled, eying the room around them. ¡°You¡¯re own castle? Not bad.¡± She gave him an impressed nod.
¡°Bit too flashy for my tastes.¡± Artaphernes shrugged.
¡°You can¡¯t own land in a fantasy game and NOT build a castle.¡± Darkshot replied, and got several nods in agreement, including Aegis giving a shrug.
¡°Hey so, I know it¡¯s a big day for you, I heard you¡¯re taking off in a bit, right?¡± Quinn asked, turning her attention to Aegis.
¡°Yup.¡± Aegis replied, while looking at Pyri and seeing her nod back.
¡°We oughta leave within 5 minutes.¡± Pyri explained.
¡°Okay. Will you guys be coming?¡± Aegis turned to Lina and Darkshot.
¡°Yup, me and my Dad¡¯ll be there.¡± Darkshot gave a thumbs up, and Lina shyly nodded along without being able to look Aegis in the eyes.
¡°I guess I¡¯ll hold down the fort. I got something for you when you get back, though. It¡¯s late notice, but me and Amlie worked on it.¡± Rakkan replied with a smile.
¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡± Aegis smiled politely, then turned to Pyri and she grinned back at him.
¡°Cool. We¡¯ll take care of your castle while you¡¯re gone. Shouldn''t be anything to worry about though.¡± Quinn stretched her arms up into the air and panned her eyes around the dining hall. ¡°That Seraxus guy hasn¡¯t been streaming for the last week or so, but the blockade is still up on his island.¡± She added.
¡°Yeah¡¡± Artaphernes nodded along. ¡°We¡¯ve got our ears to the ground, so we¡¯ll let you know if anything interesting is happening. You go have fun and enjoy your big day.¡± Artaphernes patted him on the shoulder.
¡°Okay.¡± Aegis nodded back, standing up from the chair. ¡°Should we go now?¡±
¡°Yup. See you guys later. Don¡¯t trash the place!¡± Pyri winked at Artaphernes before logging out of the game world. Aegis, and then Lina and Darkshot followed after, leaving Rakkan to sit and talk with Quinn and Artaphernes within the rowdy dining hall.
As Eli stood up straight in front of his Simbox, Jillian climbed out of hers and eyed him curiously. Eli didn¡¯t notice her watching him at first, and he performed a strange little ritual to shake his nerves off.
¡°What¡¯re you nervous about?¡± Jillian asked him with a raised eyebrow.
¡°Huh? Oh.¡± He replied somewhat startled that he was being watched. ¡°Nothing. I¡¯m not nervous.¡± Eli shook his head.
¡°Riiiight.¡± She rolled her eyes at him before leaving the living room. ¡°Shower and get dressed quickly, we¡¯re out of here in 15.¡± She called out as her voice trailed off down the hallway of their house.
Eli had no trouble with the first part of her instructions, showering and cleaning himself up. But when it came to picking out something to wear in his bedroom, he found himself throwing a lot of clothes around, unable to decide. Eventually, his fifteen minutes were up, and Jillian came knocking on his bedroom door.
¡°C¡¯mon, we¡¯re going to be late.¡± She called in through the door.
¡°Right, yeah. One sec.¡± Eli replied flustered, hurriedly deciding on a plain open black dress shirt over a white t-shirt, and a black set of pants to match. He found himself looking at his outfit in the mirror, adjusting his short blonde hair a few more times desperately as he passed by the bathroom outside of his bedroom on the upstairs floor of the house.
¡°Let¡¯s move it, bucko!¡± Jillian called up to him from downstairs once again, finally getting him to leave the bathroom and head down the stairs to meet her. Jillian herself was wearing a simple yellow and blue dress to fit with the hot summer weather outside, and quickly put on a pair of matching slippers while Eli eyed his sneakers and slipped them on.
¡°Ooh, you¡¯re looking handsome.¡± Jillian smiled as she watched him make final touches to his outfit. ¡°Normally you¡¯re annoyed by our birthday dinners for you. This time you haven¡¯t complained once - you even dressed up. Hm¡¡± Jillian scratched her chin and eyed him mischievously. ¡°I wonder why¡¡±
¡°Are we going or what?¡± Eli grumbled at her.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
¡°Yup. Let¡¯s go.¡± She smirked before turning to lead him out of the house. The pair climbed into their two seated simple white autopod parked in the garage, and once inside Jillian entered a few commands to tell the autopod where to drive, and it was off.
Hands-free automated driving allowed Jillian to pull down a mirror hanging over the windshield overhead and make some last minute adjustments to her makeup, while Eli curiously watched, briefly checking the smell of his own breath to confirm it was minty like the toothpaste he¡¯d just used to brush his teeth.
Jillian caught this, though, and stopped what she was doing to smile and stare at him with a devilish gaze.
¡°What?¡± Eli grumbled at her.
¡°Nothing.¡± She shrugged, looking away.
¡°No seriously, what?¡± Eli replied frustrated now.
¡°Nothing!¡± She replied insistently. From there, the rest of the ride was silent until the pod pulled up into the parking lot of a fairly busy restaurant with a sign depicting spaghetti and meatballs covered in tomato sauce out front. The name of the shop read as Linuaga.
¡°Italian?¡± Eli asked as the autopod came to a stop and the doors opened. Simultaneously, a female voice spoke from the dashboard of the pod.
¡°You have arrived at your destination.¡± The voice spoke, but both Eli and Jillian paid it no mind and got out, shutting the doors behind them.
¡°Mhm. I know it¡¯s not mac n cheese but, you¡¯re a sucker for spaghetti too, aren¡¯t you?¡±
¡°Yup.¡± Eli shrugged. Just as they were walking up across the parking lot, Eli spotted Derrick¡¯s autopod pulling up with him and his dad inside, so they waited for it to park and his friend to come out.
¡°Yo! You¡¯re looking sharp!¡± Derrick called out to Eli with a grin.
¡°Not so bad yourself.¡± Eli eyed him up and down, seeing him wearing a dress shirt as well, but his shirt was buttoned up.
¡°Yeah, Dad made me.¡± Derrick motioned to his dad who was dressed similarly, and he chuckled.
¡°You¡¯re looking older.¡± Derrick¡¯s father grinned, walking forward and giving Eli a hug, followed by Derrick doing the same with him and Jillian until all had exchanged greetings.
¡°You¡¯re gonna love what we got you. We¡¯ll give it after, it¡¯s in the autopod.¡±
¡°Good. Food first, gifts after.¡± Jillian nodded. ¡°How have things been at work?¡± She turned to Derrick¡¯s dad, and the two began engaging in small talk. Eli and Derrick exchanged a few words as well before Eli noticed another autopod pulling up into the parking lot. He followed it with his eyes intently, his heart skipping a beat as he caught a glimpse of Selena sitting in it. Once he had, he tried his best to pretend he hadn¡¯t seen it and engaged Derrick in random pointless talk about the castle he¡¯d just built in Rene.
The sounds of Selena¡¯s autopod doors opening and shutting was enough to get Jillian¡¯s attention off of her conversation to turn and look, though.
¡°Oh, she¡¯s really pretty.¡± Jillian commented, drawing all eyes towards Selena as she began walking towards them, her head tilted downwards.
¡°Whoa, that¡¯s Selena?¡± Derrick said with wide eyes of disbelief. Eli as well had his jaw dropped as they watched her approach. She, like Jillian, wore a simple cotton dress with a light purple color and small frills at the bottom around her knees. She wore white flats that tapped on the asphalt as she approached, but her body was much thinner and more fit than it¡¯d been when they¡¯d last seen each other at the start of summer.
They all went silent as she approached, until she got a few meters away and looked up shyly at the group.
¡°Hi¡ sorry, I hope I am not late.¡± Selena spoke first.
¡°Nope, you¡¯re on time, we were just about to head in and get our seats.¡± Jillian replied with a smile. ¡°I really like your dress.¡± She added.
¡°Thank you. I like yours too.¡± Selena blushed. Eli and Derrick on the other hand remained speechless and just continued to stare at her with jaws dropped until Derrick¡¯s dad aggressively nudged Derrick.
¡°Come on, let¡¯s head inside.¡± He said, and Derrick nodded. With that, Jillian, Derrick, and his dad all turned to head into the restaurant, but Eli stayed with Selena for a moment.
¡°Hi¡¡± Eli said awkwardly, waving his hand as he managed to close his jaw finally. ¡°You uh, you got your braces removed already?¡± He asked.
¡°Mhm.¡± She nodded back, her head tilted downwards towards her feet. Seeing this, he too felt nervous for a moment until he recalled this exact same behavior from her in-game character, and something about that calmed him down.
¡°Hehe.¡± Eli laughed suddenly, but stopped himself.
¡°What?¡± Selena asked him anxiously.
¡°Oh, nothing, sorry. It¡¯s just¡ you¡¯re just like you are in-game, but prettier.¡± Eli shrugged, but realized after he¡¯d said it outloud that it might¡¯ve been a bit too much.
¡°Thanks¡¡± She managed to get the words out, keeping her head down. Eli turned to see the others already entering the doors of the restaurant, then turned back to Selena. Like in-game, he recalled how he needed to behave around her, and took a deep breath to muster up his courage.
¡°Come on, let¡¯s get a seat,¡± He held his hand out for her to take.
¡°Okay.¡± She nodded, then slowly reached out and took his hand. The pair then walked together across the parking lot to reach the restaurant, holding hands the whole way without speaking until they stepped inside to find themselves standing behind the others. The group was then led by a waiter to a reserved table in the relatively crowded restaurant, with menus set out in front of them already.
¡°Oh I love me some italian.¡± Derrick rubbed his hands together excitedly as he picked up the menu.
¡°So, Selena, you¡¯re a new face to these parties. Are you a classmate of Derrick and Eli¡¯s?¡± He asked curiously.
¡°Well yeah, but, she¡¯s also Eli¡¯s girlfriend.¡± Derrick shrugged, which immediately caused the seated Selena and Eli to blush, and Jillian smirked at their reactions. ¡°I mean, you guys are, right? Outside of the game too?¡± Derrick tried to confirm once he didn¡¯t get a reply. Selena and Eli briefly glanced at each other before Eli turned back to his friend.
¡°Yeah.¡± Eli replied, followed by Selena nodding along with a big red smile.
¡°Oh. Well that¡¯s nice. I promise not to share too many embarrassing stories about you, then.¡± Derrick¡¯s dad chuckled at Eli.
¡°Thanks.¡± Eli rolled his eyes. One by one they picked up their menus to order food and began browsing through the options, but once Eli had finished picking first, he set the menu down and began panning his eyes around the establishment. On the far side of the restaurant was a bar, with several floating screens displaying various broadcasts. Some were news, one was a sports match, and one was of a VGN broadcast which caught Eli¡¯s eye. There was no sound, but he watched the visual displays and read the text on the screen for a bit.
At first, nothing jumped out at him, but just as Jillian was finishing picking out what she wanted and a waitress approached their table, Eli spotted subtext on the broadcast that read ¡®Makaroth¡¯s Break!¡¯.
¡°Hello everyone, welcome to Liguano¡¯s. Are you ready to order yet?¡± The waitress replied, but Eli suddenly leaned forward in his chair with a serious expression, processing something. His change in expression startled the waitress and caused the others to look at him curiously.
¡°Something wrong?¡± Jillian asked him curiously. Eli didn¡¯t reply, he quickly hit his wrist implant to open up a live streaming viewing program in his eye implant, which began broadcasting the same VGN broadcast that was on the screen in the restaurant, only this time he had audio being fed into his ear implant so he could hear what the broadcaster was saying.
¡°Eli, really?¡± Jillian raised her eyebrows at him, seeing his implants light up in his ear and beside his eye to allow other people nearby to let him know he was preoccupied. He didn¡¯t reply, so she rolled her eyes at him. ¡°I¡¯ll order first, just give him a second.¡± She said dismissively, turning to the waitress. Selena and Derrick on the other hand continued to stare intently at him.
¡°We¡¯re coming up on the 7th day now of Makaroth¡¯s week-long vacation. The top streamer has been taking a break in order to ¡®visit friends and family¡¯, but promises to be back streaming sometime in the next 24 hours. So, fear not, fan¡¯s of Makaroth, the wait is almost over, and his adventures will continue shortly! It¡¯s understandab-¡±
Eli closed the broadcast quickly and stood up from the table, interrupting Jillian in the middle of the order.
¡°7 days ago. Exactly how long ago Seraxus stopped streaming.¡± Eli looked down at the others with a serious expression on his face. ¡°He knows it¡¯s my birthday. They¡¯re planning something. We¡¯ve got to get back to Rene, right now.¡± Eli said with urgency in his voice.
¡°Huh?¡± Derrick¡¯s dad replied confused.
¡°Who¡¯s planning something?¡± Jillian asked.
¡°David. I think he¡¯s doing something with Seraxus. They¡¯re going to attack Kalmoore together, I bet.¡± Eli replied, which prompted both Derrick and Selena to stand up as well.
¡°Shit, dad, you gotta get us home.¡± Derrick said.
¡°Wait, hold on.¡± Jillain said in an aggressive tone, standing up as well. ¡°Why would your father team up with a top PvPer to attack our island? I mean, I know he¡¯s petty, but he¡¯s not that petty.¡± Jillian put her arms on her waist. Eli didn¡¯t reply, but anxiously glanced between Selena and Derrick who nervously looked back at him. ¡°Unless of course, there¡¯s something going on with your father that you¡¯re not telling me?¡± Jillian asked. Once again, Eli didn¡¯t reply. Being his mother was enough for Jillian to be able to read it on his face though - she could tell he was hiding something.
¡°What did you do?¡± Jillian asked forcefully, now in an angry tone.
¡°There¡¯s no time to explain right now, we¡¯ve got to get back. Rakkan won-¡± Eli froze as he eyed the VGN broadcast across the restaurant, and his eyes went wide at what was being shown. The audio was missing, but the subtext read ¡®Seraxus arrives in Kalmoore!¡¯. The others followed Eli¡¯s eyes to see what he was looking at.
¡°Ok, let¡¯s go.¡± Jillian saw it, and without any hesitation the group began rushing out of the restaurant, save for Derrick¡¯s dad.
¡°Ah, sorry. Guess we¡¯re canceling.¡± He said apologetically to the waitress before rushing out after them.
Chapter 222: Manifestation of Hatred
Chapter 222: Manifestation of Hatred
¡°Can¡¯t we go any faster?¡± Eli asked from the passenger seat of their autopod. Jillian stood in the driver seat, but was leaning back somewhat relaxed. The pair were looking forward through the windshield of the small autopod as it drove calmly down the streets of their city, back towards their home. ¡°Time is sped up there, every minute outside is 4 minutes in game.¡± Eli explained frantically, as if Jillian didn¡¯t already know this fact.
¡°I¡¯m not breaking traffic laws for this, Eli. It¡¯s just a game.¡± She turned to him with a calm voice. ¡°Whatever we lose, we¡¯ll take it back. It¡¯ll be fine. Unless there¡¯s something you¡¯re not telling me?¡± She raised her eyebrows at him once more.
Once again, Eli avoided the question and her eye contact, shaking his head in response.
¡°Isn¡¯t this enough?¡± [Synopse - Level 183] asked Makaroth. He was a tall human wizard with short stylized black hair, wearing fancy blue and black robes with a magnificent wildwood staff strapped to his back with a glowing white orb atop of it. Synopse stood atop the mountain to the north of Rene, and he and several other high level players were staring down at the town below - all of them wearing the Sages of Destiny guild tabard on the front of their chest armor.
¡°No, not yet.¡± Makaroth replied, standing in front of the group to get the best view. His face was glowing from the bright red flames of the burning town below. Pillars of black smoke were rising up from the razed town of Rene, blackening the otherwise clear night sky above.
¡°Unleashing that guy on this island is a bit cruel, I don¡¯t feel good about this.¡± Another member of the guild, named [Calikgos - Level 180] commented.
¡°I know. It¡¯s not our usual style.¡± Makaroth turned to the group, seeing all of them having similar expressions of doubt about what was going on. ¡°But it¡¯s my duty as a father to discipline my son, and teach him valuable lessons. This is a lesson he was never going to learn on his own. Thank you all for helping me with this.¡± Makaroth explained, and got a few nods of approval, primarily from a female cleric who was smiling at him, and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, we all support you honey.¡± She smiled, the name [Lilya - Level 188] floating above her head. She was the closest in level to Makaroth, who now sat at level 195.
¡°STOP THIS!¡± Amlie screamed at the top of her lungs. ¡°STOP RIGHT NOW ZUON, OR I¡¯M TELLING MOM!¡± She stood behind Artaphernes, Herilon, Sapphire, Quinn, Christoph, Travis, Ren, Farlion, Snowflake and Rakkan.
¡°Hah, uh oh Zuon, you¡¯re lil sis is gonna tell on you.¡± Seraxus replied jokingly to Zuon who stood behind him. Hajax, Gambit, and a player Rakkan didn¡¯t recognize named Sylvia also stood at his back. Zuon held his bow in his hands with several instruments floating behind him. Hajax held a scepter and shield, giving off a dark aura to his allies nearby. Gambit had his fists up, ready to fight like a monk. Slyvia had a staff in her hands, glowing black with energy that transferred to runes on her body - informing everyone that she was a warlock.
Lastly, and most importantly, was Seraxus, with his large black sword in one hand, a spear in the other, and 5 weapons floating behind him identical to the weapons that Rakkan used, but all looking of incredibly rare artifact quality with various glowing effects on them.
¡°C¡¯mon Amlie, you know mom¡¯s not going to care. Besides, this time it¡¯s Rakkan¡¯s fault.¡± Zuon shrugged, motioning to Rakkan who stood beside an angry looking Herilon and Artaphernes, weapons at the ready with grimaces on their faces. The entire street of southern Rene was illuminated by red flames from the nearby burning buildings, which Kayliera, the druid member of the Night Hunters was desperately trying to extinguish with water magic, but failing. The entire while she was doing this, Sylvia kept her eyes locked on Kayliera with a mocking smile.
¡°You won¡¯t be able to put them out like that, lil druid.¡± Sylvia squeaked in an extremely high pitched, mousy voice. ¡°It¡¯s demon fire!¡± She added gleefully, shooting another blast of red flames out towards a nearby building.
¡°We gotta take out the cleric first, and the warlock. Don¡¯t bother with Seraxus until he¡¯s alone, his gear is too strong.¡± Quinn explained to the others, and got a few nods in return.
¡°Yo, Hajax, watch out, they¡¯re comin¡¯ for you.¡± Seraxus replied mockingly, having overheard Quinn.
¡°Don¡¯t underestimate us just because you¡¯ve got an OP weapon.¡± Quinn replied angrily, followed by a release of an arrow. The arrow split without her using words to cast, forming into 20 which she redirected around in the air above the street to maneuver them towards Hajax.
In response to this, Zuon strummed several notes of music on the instruments floating behind him, and Seraxus suddenly dashed forward with incredible speed. Artaphernes and Herilon both engaged with him, followed by Rakkan.
¡°Don¡¯t let the black sword hit you, I can¡¯t heal through that!¡± Sapphire instructed.
¡°Switch.¡± Seraxus shouted as he converged his floating weapons forward on the frontlines of Rene¡¯s defenders. All but his crossbow had engaged the blades of the others, but the Crossbow had been sent forward high in the sky above the battle, and his cast of switch suddenly swapped his crossbow with the black sword in his hands, followed by him sending it down like a thrown spear down at Sapphire with incredible speed.
Sapphire was quick and saw it coming, hopping backwards to avoid it. While this happened, Hajax raised his shield up to block some of Quinn¡¯s arrows, and avoid the others, and Gambit disappeared into the flames of the nearby buildings.
Snowflake and Farlion stood back behind the engagement in front of Amlie, looking tempted to join into the fight, but Quinn quickly held her hand out to instruct them to hang back. Once she was sure they were listening, she turned her bow towards the black sword pursuing Sapphire, and watched the look of pure fear on Sapphire¡¯s face as she danced around the glowing black sword.
¡°Can you get this thing off of me?!¡± Sapphire shouted frantically, but looked over and saw Rakkan¡¯s echoes, Artaphernes, and Herilon, we''re all struggling against Seraxus. Unlike Joltblade, Seraxus¡¯ movement was unreal. He continuously flipped, rolled, ducked and dashed around while manipulating his weapons simultaneously, forcing them to be completely on the defensive.
They managed to land several hits onto him, but were dealing damage only in the triple digits due to his equipment and bonuses from his black sword, and each hit he landed was stealing life and healing him back to full.
¡°Hey, hey, check this out guys¡¡± Seraxus said, directing his words to his stream now as he suddenly stopped swinging his weapons around in lieu of standing completely still and crossing his arms. ¡°No hands.¡± He laughed, letting Herilon, Artaphernes and Rakkan land dozens of hits on him for free, unflinching. ¡°Yo you guys got some sweet mithral weapons, you mind if we take ¡®em?¡± Seraxus asked Herilon as their eyes met, motioning to his mithral greatsword as it slashed into Seraxus¡¯ body, dealing only 835 damage.
¡°I don¡¯t even need to heal.¡± Hajax laughed from behind him, stepping forward with Zuon and Sylvia while Sylvia sent another blast of demon fire towards the nearby Lagnok pasture, destroying the fence and setting the field aflame. Quinn fired a pinning shot out at the blacksword to try and lock it down, but the arrow split on the blade upon impact, and this caused Seraxus to let out a loud laugh.
¡°Yo, she tried to pinning shot my sword.¡± He said mockingly, getting a laugh from Hajax.
¡°What are these noobs even doing?¡± Hajax shook his head.
¡°Peekaboo!¡± Gambit shouted suddenly, jumping out from a nearby burning building with his fists glowing yellow. He took a swing out at Quinn and forced her to jump backwards to avoid it, but it was a feint as his real target was Sapphire. Sapphire, focused on dodging swings from the deadly black blade, didn¡¯t notice Gambit coming at her from behind.
¡°Sapphire!¡± Quinn shouted frantically to warn her, but wasn¡¯t fast enough to react. Gambit, a high level 171 monk, closed the gap between himself and Sapphire in an instant and rather than punch her, instead pushed her forward into the black blade. Upon impact, the blade dealt a whopping 1,359,260 damage to her, killing her instantly, despite hitting her shield.
¡°Nice, new souls for the sword. Been awhile since we¡¯ve had new players to PK since we¡¯ve been stuck on Puagas.¡± Seraxus cheered as a black mist sucked out of Sapphire¡¯s disintegrating body and was absorbed by the black sword.
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¡°Fuckers.¡± Quinn shouted angrily, aiming her bow at Gambit and releasing several shots in rapid succession. Gambit was skilled in dodging and deflecting the shots, but Quinn was no pushover and caught him off guard, managing to get a shot through and pinning him down with a shot in the leg that released vines into the paved stonework of Rene¡¯s southern street.
¡°Uh oh, she¡¯s kinda good.¡± Gambit said as he eyed the vines. ¡°Need a root removal, Hajax.¡± He called out over the other fighters towards Hajax far in the back.
¡°Don¡¯t think so.¡± Kayliera shouted as she joined the battle, doubling the roots on Gambit with a druidic spell while simultaneously, Quinn fired a red mark on Gambit¡¯s chest.
¡°Rain of arrows.¡± Quinn roared angrily, firing her entire mana supply into an arrow that split into hundreds, and all converged on the red mark on Gambit¡¯s chest.
¡°Oh shit!¡± Hajax shouted frantically, stepping forward a bit but reacting too late. Quinn¡¯s arrows converged on the monk and killed him almost instantly, taking him out of the gameworld.
¡°One down, four to go.¡± Quinn declared to the others.
¡°Ah man¡¡± Seraxus sighed in annoyance, unfolding his arms. ¡°Gambit¡¯s always dicking around. Alright, guess it¡¯s time to stop messing around.¡± Seraxus began manipulating his black sword once more, sending it after Quinn and Kayliera. They did their best to avoid it, but it kept them preoccupied and unable to help with the rest of the battle in anyway. It was still somewhat manageable, until three arrows hit Quinn from behind, being fired by Zuon and redirected around the burning buildings to get at her from a blindspot. It pinned her in place, allowing the blacksword to cut her down in a single hit.
¡°Quinn!¡± Kayliera shouted anxiously, momentarily shocked by the death of their guild leader. She watched as Quinn¡¯s black soul was absorbed into the sword, and this brief moment of distraction left her open for the sword to turn on her, stumbling away and eventually being hit by it as well.
¡°Whelp, there goes the back line.¡± Seraxus said nonchalantly.
¡°Nice shot, Zuon.¡± Hajax commented.
¡°Thanks.¡± Zuon replied proudly. Sylvia said nothing, but instead threw another ball of demon fire at Amlie¡¯s farm fields, setting the crops ablaze.
¡°Zuon, stop this!¡± Amlie screamed angrily. Chax and Ruffily, who¡¯d been gathering materials to try and start repairing the damage, arrived behind where Amlie, Farlion and Snowflake were standing.
¡°It¡¯s getting worse, woof!¡± Ruffily said with wide eyes of terror, taking in the scene of the burning town.
¡°Can¡¯t we do anything? This is a pretty shitty birthday present for Aegis to return to.¡± Chax said, turning to Ruffily with a look of desperation in his eyes.
¡°Until the fire is put out, we can¡¯t.¡± Jorik replied, running up behind them.
¡°Alright, alright.¡± Seraxus shouted, jumping back away from Artaphernes, Rakkan and Herilon to get back to where his companions were. He looked unscathed, while Rakkan, Artaphernes and Herilon were all breathing heavily.
¡°This is impossible, how can that weapon be so fucking strong?¡± Artaphernes shouted in frustration.
¡°It¡¯s because it scales, and he¡¯s been scaling it nonstop since the game launched.¡± Herilon explained.
¡°You guys get it though, right? Ya¡¯ll can¡¯t touch me.¡± Seraxus explained to them, then looked beyond them at the gathering of crafters further north on the road, cowering behind Farlion and Snowflake. ¡°I also don¡¯t wanna get Zuon in trouble with his mom, so, here¡¯s the deal.¡± Seraxus pulled his blacksword back into his hand.
¡°Rakkan, you¡¯re the tough guy who started all this, right? You thinkin¡¯ you¡¯re hot shit just ¡®cause you took out that nobody Joltblade. You and me, one on one, lemme put you in your place. You do that, and I¡¯ll tell Sylvia to put out the fires for all those hard working crafters back there.¡± Seraxus motioned to Amlie, Ruffily, Chax, and Jorik.
Hearing this, Artaphernes and Herilon both turned to Rakkan, whilst Rakkan stepped forward with his echoes.
¡°Good man. You don¡¯t wanna have a repeat of Puagas, right? Your boy Aegis wouldn¡¯t be too happy to come back and see his whole island burned down, just ¡®cause of you, right?¡±
¡°You can¡¯t beat him, not alone.¡± Herilon warned Rakkan as he watched him step forward.
¡°It¡¯s fine. This is my fault. Maybe if he kills me, he¡¯ll leave the rest alone.¡± Rakkan replied, taking a deep breath as he lined himself up in the middle of the street a few meters away from Seraxus.
¡°Even though you¡¯re weak, you got balls man. You really went through all this trouble to reroll and make friends with some Kalmoorian noobs, just to get back at us?¡± Seraxus asked him, raising his eyebrows curiously. Rakkan looked from Seraxus, to Hajax, to Zuon, and then Sylvia, all four staring at him curiously.
¡°Shut the fuck up.¡± Rakkan roared back, dashing forward angrily at Seraxus. Seraxus bent his knees as if preparing for Rakkan to engage, but instead he suddenly threw his blacksword up into the air like a spear, above Rakkan, Artaphernes, and Herilon¡¯s head. They followed it with their eyes, caught off guard by this action - and by the time they saw what trajectory it had, it was too late. Seraxus used his advanced warmaster class skills to manipulate the sword at an extended range, and used it to cut through the crafters and Amlie, killing all of them - including Farlion. The only one who managed to avoid it was Snowflake, whose golem body dashed to the side in time to only lose one of his stone wings.
Rakkan, Artaphernes and Herilon looked back in horror at all of their bodies disintegrating, and their souls were absorbed by the blacksword. Meanwhile, Seraxus and Hajax burst into laughter.
¡°Oops, sorry, got your sis.¡± Seraxus said mockingly towards Zuon, who shrugged back at him nonchalantly.
¡°The fuck? You said you just wanted a duel? What kind of cowardly shit is that?¡± Herilon shouted angrily, stomping forward alongside Artaphernes.
¡°Haha, yo, you really think I¡¯m gonna turn down free soul stacks? They¡¯re all around me on this island. My sword is hungry.¡± Seraxus replied with a grin.
Eli rushed into the house, Jillian following quickly behind him. Despite her calm demeanor within the autopod, once it had been parked she began moving with a level of urgency that matched her son. The two didn¡¯t bother with their simulation suits - they threw off their shoes and ran right to their Simbox¡¯s, shutting them and beginning their simulations as quickly as possible.
Both Pyri and Aegis appeared within the castle¡¯s dining hall inside Rene, exactly where they¡¯d logged out. Inside, numerous low level players and NPCs were all cowering and whimpering in fear to the sound of explosions outside. Aegis and Pyri glanced at each other, then the pair rushed out of the dining hall and through the main hall of the castle until reaching the outside streets of Rene.
It was there that they saw the blazing red flames that had erupted across the entire southern portion of Rene, with the black pillars of smoke towering up into the sky and blacking out the light from the stars and moon above. Seeing it in this state, both Aegis and Pyri glanced at each other once more, this time with looks of anger. Then, amidst the sounds of burning and crackling wood, they heard the sound of blades clashing coming from the direction of the town square. The pair broke into a sprint and arrived shortly after, watching as Seraxus cut down and killed multiple Rene guards, all while taking hits willingly from Rakkan.
¡°Look, it¡¯s just like in Puagas. You get to watch everything burn around you, and you can¡¯t do anything about it.¡± Seraxus said mockingly as he continued to kill the desperately fighting guards, despite Rakkan and his four echoes swinging at him.
¡°Yo, Rakkan, give it a rest already.¡± Hajax sighed as he threw out a heal at Seraxus to help him recover from Rakkan¡¯s damage.
The last remaining two Rene guards charged forward on either side of Seraxus, maneuvering around Rakkan and his echoes, and Seraxus prepared to swing his black blade down on them, but the blade, as well as all of other Seraxus¡¯ weapons were engulfed in cinderbolts and redirected into the paved stone ground of the town square.
¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± Pyri shouted, drawing all eyes towards her and Aegis as they arrived in the townsquare.
¡°Guards, to me!¡± Aegis ordered the two guards charging at Seraxus, and they both complied, rushing over to him rather than getting closer to Seraxus.
¡°Oho, here he is.¡± Seraxus turned to face Aegis, while Rakkan looked towards Aegis shamefully and took a few steps back from Seraxus. Hajax, Sylvia and Zuon all moved to stand behind Seraxus and the two groups stood off from one another.
¡°Where¡¯s everyone else?¡± Aegis asked Rakkan.
¡°He killed them already. Farlion¡ all the guards, except those two. Snowflake lost his wing, but I sent him away.¡± Rakkan explained. As he did, Hajax pulled out Herilon¡¯s mithral greatsword from his inventory and started waving it around.
¡°Yo Aegis, you think you could make me something like this? A greatsword Isn''t really my style.¡± Hajax asked before tossing the sword to the ground at Aegis¡¯ feet. Following this, he and the rest of their group let out a condescending laugh.
¡°Yeah I want a pretty violin, like that one you made for Yumily.¡± Zuon joined in. Aegis didn¡¯t reply, he just looked from Rakkan, to Pyri, then back at Seraxus, while simultaneously fastening his shield onto his left arm.
¡°That shield¡¯s not gonna help you, bro.¡± Seraxus watched him equip the shield.
¡°Sorry¡ this is my fault he¡¯s here.¡± Rakkan replied with his head down, frustration in his eyes.
¡°No. It¡¯s not.¡± Aegis replied as he lifted his head and straightened his back.
¡°Yo Seraxus. I have a question. How¡¯d you get to Kalmoore with that blockade around Puagas? Did someone give you a lift? Are you taking handouts now from PvE players?¡± Aegis replied with a mocking grin. Immediately, all of the laughter stopped and Seraxus glared angrily at Aegis. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I would¡¯ve turned my stream off for 7 days too if I was doing what you were doing.¡±
¡°Yo, fuck this guy.¡± Seraxus shouted angrily, preparing to rush forward at Aegis, but stopped as a puff of black smoke erupted in the middle of the townsquare between the two groups. Once it had cleared, Lina and Darkshot had arrived and were standing behind Aegis. Both said no words, but instead glared angrily at the high level Puagas players standing off with them.
Chapter 223: Rene on Fire
Chapter 223: Rene on Fire
The two groups glared at each other in silence for a long few moments. Sylvia had her eyes locked onto Pyri with a malicious smile, revealing her bright white teeth and incredibly sharp canines. Pyri returned the gaze, her attention drawn to the strangely large fangs out of curiosity until she eventually spotted the small pointy ears sticking out of Sylvia¡¯s head. This lead Pyri¡¯s eyes downward towards the long leopard spotted tail whipping back and forth behind Sylvia¡¯s legs, revealing her race as a cat demi-human.
Zuon was eying Darkshot, while Hajax kept his eyes locked on Lina, and Seraxus grinned at Aegis, ignoring the grimace from Rakkan and his echoes. Before any action could be taken by either side, though, a long drawn out sigh was huffed by Zuon.
¡°Seriously?¡± Zuon shouted up towards the sky to no one in particular, tilting his head back. ¡°But, mom, it¡¯s not my fault she went on the other side. I didn¡¯t even hit her, it was someone else. Come onnnnn!¡± Zuon groaned, drawing all eyes on him until he eventually sighed and tilted his head down at his feet shamefully.
¡°Amlie told on you?¡± Hajax asked.
¡°Yeah. Sorry guys, mom says I¡¯ve got to log out and apologize, then reflect on my actions.¡± Zuon shrugged. Hearing this, Pyri smirked and shook her head to herself.
¡°No problem bro, we got this.¡±
¡°Aite, cool. I¡¯ll be back later.¡± Zuon waved.
¡°Cya.¡± Seraxus waved, followed by Zuon logging out and disappearing from the game world.
¡°You sure the rest of you don¡¯t need to leave? I think I hear your mom calling you for dinner.¡± Darkshot smirked at them as they all turned back to glare at Aegis and his group.
¡°Yo, that¡¯s rich comin¡¯ from your group. I¡¯m older than Rakkan, y¡¯know?¡± Seraxus replied.
¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡± Lina asked Aegis quietly, ignoring a back and forth that began between Darkshot and Seraxus about maturity, which Darkshot wasn¡¯t doing as well as you¡¯d expect. Pyri and Rakkan huddled in close to listen as well while Hajax and Sylvia continued to stare at them. Aegis didn¡¯t immediately reply, but instead began panning his view towards the nearby rooftops and burning buildings around them.
¡°In a straight up fight, we can¡¯t win. I¡¯ve seen footage of him, and that sword when I was researching PvP. Only thing we can hope for is for Pyri to buy us time.¡±
¡°Time for what? I think we can kill him. He¡¯s right there.¡± Rakkan replied.
¡°No, that¡¯s not the play.¡± Aegis shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s a bigger plan in motion here, if we can shut that down it¡¯s still our win.¡±
¡°What plan?¡± Rakkan asked.
¡°I¡¯m thinking he¡¯s nearby, watching this unfold. I dunno his plan yet, but if we can find him, it¡¯ll ruin it.¡± Aegis explained, turning to Lina. ¡°Can you search the area?¡±
¡°Got it.¡± Lina nodded, followed by her immediately shadow stepping away from the group.
¡°What¡¯re you doing, why are you sending her away?¡± Rakkan replied in frustration. ¡°We need to kill Seraxus.¡± He motioned angrily towards him, shouting loud enough that he interrupted Darkshot and Seraxus¡¯ childlike string of insults towards each other.
¡°Just, calm down and trust me.¡± Aegis replied to Rakkan.
¡°Who is Lina looking for exactly, Aegis? You seem to know he¡¯s here. What are you not telling me?¡± Pyri eyed him inquisitively as well, neither openly co-operating with him and causing him to sigh in frustration.
¡°Aegis, you oughta just tell them, before it¡¯s too late.¡± Darkshot suggested, seeing Rakkan and Pyri¡¯s reactions.
¡°No, I¡¯m not - there¡¯s no need.¡± Aegis replied frustrated. ¡°Just, listen to me guys.¡±
¡°Fine.¡± Rakkan shrugged.
¡°Ya¡¯ll good?¡± Hajax asked mockingly.
¡°Trouble in paradise.¡± Sylvia smirked. ¡°Wait, where¡¯d the Shadow dancer go?¡± She asked, and following this, all three began glancing around for Lina but not spotting her. Aegis ignored this question and stepped forward in front of the others.
¡°I think we got off on the wrong foot here,¡± Aegis waved. ¡°Nice to meet you all, I¡¯m Aegis, the shattered healer.¡± He tried bowing politely.
¡°Aegis what the hell are you doing?¡± Rakkan whispered angrily from behind him.
¡°Just, Rakkan¡¡± Aegis turned to face him, speaking angrily through his teeth. ¡°Trust me, will you?¡± He ordered, and Rakkan glared back at him. For the first time in a long while, Aegis saw the angry orc that had attacked him back in Darxon hideout. He saw Rakkan completely losing control of his emotions like he had before, due to the presence of Seraxus.
¡°Nice to meet you, yo.¡± Hajax waved, while Seraxus and Sylvia smirked.
¡°Still looking, nothing in Rene.¡± Lina said through the party interface as she continued to rapidly shadowstep around the surrounding area.
¡°So, you¡¯re the Avatar of Hatred?¡± Aegis asked Seraxus.
¡°Yep, basically. The sword says so, at least.¡± Seraxus shrugged, a proud smile appearing on his face.
¡°How¡¯s that work? Does it talk to you? Can you grow wings like Finley could?¡± Aegis asked him, putting a curious expression on his face.
¡°Nah, I get messages from acolytes. Quests¡¯ n stuff. Don¡¯t do ¡®em though, I aint about that PvE stuff. I also aint bout talkin¡¯ all nice. We PvPin¡¯ or what? I saw you vs Finley, you aint bad. Let¡¯s do this, put your glowy form on.¡± Seraxus motioned at him, others remaining tensely quiet.
¡°Eh¡¡± Aegis replied as he began looking around at the burning town nearby. ¡°I¡¯m not really feeling like it.¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°Hah?¡± Seraxus replied with a raised eyebrow.
¡°You don¡¯t fight us, we¡¯ll just burn your whole town down.¡± Sylvia shouted angrily.
¡°Oh, yeah¡ but, you kind of already did that, right?¡± Aegis replied while motioning to the southern buildings on fire. ¡°Besides, it¡¯s my birthday, and I got some really nice presents waiting for me out of the simulation.¡± Aegis turned to Pyri and Darkshot. ¡°You guys wanna head back to the restaurant?¡±
¡°Huh?¡± Darkshot replied curiously.
¡°Fine with me.¡± Pyri smiled and nodded.
¡°Yo, you don¡¯t seem to understand the situation you¡¯re in.¡± Seraxus shouted angrily, suddenly dashing forward towards Aegis as he stood in front of the others. Holding his black sword in his right hand, Seraxus swung it down at Aegis from above, whilst Aegis didn¡¯t even so much as lift up his shield. Instead, Aegis locked his eyes onto Seraxus and glared back at him as Seraxus swung the sword down, but stopped it from hitting him mere millimeters away from Aegis¡¯ forehead.
Pyri had tried to react with cinderbolts to block it, but saw Aegis hold his right hand out to signal her to stop. Darkshot nocked an arrow and aimed it at him, while Rakkan prepared to lunge forward with his echoes in Aegis defense, but no help was needed.
Seraxus held the black glowing blade millimeters away from Aegis¡¯ forehead for several seconds while the two remained glaring at each other - Aegis having not even flinched and refusing to blink as they maintained eye contact.
¡°I think I understand the situation completely.¡± Aegis smirked at him.
¡°Tch.¡± Seraxus sucked his teeth and pulled the sword back. ¡°Even if he told me to leave you alive, didn¡¯t say shit about your friends.¡± Seraxus roared, jumping backwards and preparing to throw his black sword at Darkshot, but stopped when he saw a projection of Aegis¡¯ shield appear in front of him. ¡°This how you doin¡¯ it?¡±
¡°Yep.¡± Aegis nodded.
¡°Aegis? What¡¯s going on, what¡¯re we doing?¡± Darkshot asked anxiously, continuing to point his nocked arrow at Seraxus, Hajax and Sylivia from behind the shield projection.
¡°Nothing. We¡¯re doing nothing at all.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°He¡¯s really this petty.¡± Pyri shook her head to herself. ¡°You and I are having a conversation after this.¡± She said in a scolding voice to Aegis, and he nodded back at her while making sure to avoid looking directly at her as she stood behind him, arms crossed.
¡°Fine, if ya¡¯ll won¡¯t fight, we torch the place. Sylvia?¡± Seraxus turned to his cat demi-human warlock companion, and she nodded back with a joyous mousy screech. Following this, she formed more blazing red flames in the palms of her hands and flung them at some of the nearby buildings, exploding a shop that lined the townsquare into flames and breaking the windows.
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Aegis didn¡¯t react, he just kept his arms crossed and stared at Seraxus and Hajax, who glared back. Sylvia saw Aegis¡¯ lack of reaction, and prepared another ball of flames, throwing it at another shop and setting it ablaze.
¡°Yo, Aegis, you sure about this?¡± Darkshot replied.
¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not giving him what he wants.¡± Aegis replied confidently.
¡°Giving who what he wants?¡± Rakkan shouted angrily at Aegis, but Aegis didn¡¯t reply. ¡°What about what I want? That asshole is right there, and you¡¯re not even gonna fight him?¡± Rakkan motioned angrily to Seraxus.
¡°We can¡¯t win, not as we are right now. It¡¯s suicide.¡± Aegis replied as calmly as he could, the sound of another shop exploding into flames overtaking his voice for a moment as Sylvia began to cackle demonically.
¡°Maybe if you called Lina back we could.¡± Rakkan shouted.
¡°She¡¯s doing something more important.¡±
¡°What¡¯s more important than stopping that guy? He KILLED FARLION! Or do you not care about NPCs anymore, now that you¡¯re a big shot streamer?!¡± Rakkan added.
¡°That¡¯s not it at all, of course I care. Rakkan, calm down.¡± Aegis turned to face him, and saw him seething with rage.
¡°Yeaaah, must suck that you left me, just to join a guy like him, huh? At least I had the balls to fight. This guy¡¯s just sittin¡¯ there.¡± Seraxus joined in.
¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± Rakkan shouted at Seraxus. ¡°You told me, you said you¡¯d help me.¡±
¡°I will, but now is not the time.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Fuck that, I¡¯m not sitting back and letting him destroy all this we worked towards.¡± Rakkan charged beyond Aegis with his echoes towards Seraxus, as Seraxus readied his weapons and Syvlia stopped flinging fire to face the approaching Rune Knight.
¡°Uh, Aegis?¡± Darkshot asked anxiously, as he, Aegis and Pyri watched Rakkan charge in by himself.
¡°RAKKAN!¡± Aegis yelled at him, but got ignored.
¡°Aegis, I found them, they¡¯re on-¡± Lina called out through the party communications, having shadowstepped up the mountain using the darkness of the night.
Hiding in the shadows near the peak, she¡¯d come into view of a group of Sages of Destiny guild. Unfortunately, just as she had spotted them, they had spotted her. Mercilessly, Synopse threw a spell out at Lina before she¡¯d properly perceived him, landing it with little effort and causing her to freeze in place for two seconds.
¡°Sorry, lil girl.¡± Makaroth said as he glared at her, followed by him drawing out his blade and engulfing it in red flames. He then slashed the sword out towards Lina and hit her multiple times in quick succession, killing her before Synopse¡¯s stasis spell wore off.
Aegis heard her, then saw her health hit zero, and this caused him to hesitate in his reaction to Rakkan¡¯s actions. His hesitation gave time for Pyri to make a choice on her own, and she sent her cinderbolts forward alongside Rakkan as Seraxus began swinging his blades down towards him. Pyri¡¯s incredible spell control was able to keep up with Seraxus¡¯ blades and redirected the trajectory of each swing away from Rakkan.
Aegis turned to see Pyri focused on her casts, then looked at Rakkan as he and his echoes began to swing wildly at Seraxus, and finally at Darkshot who was eying him nervously.
¡°Guess we¡¯re fighting?¡± Darkshot asked Aegis.
¡°We can¡¯t win, these guys PvP for a living. Rakkan!¡± Aegis tried to shout at him, but got ignored.
¡°Sylvia, the ole one-two combo?¡± Seraxus called out, suddenly jumping into the air and throwing his black sword like a spear at Pyri. Pyri sent her cinderbolts up to intercept it, but all attempts to do so failed. It took her a minute to recognize why - a blackhole spell had been cast at the tip of the blade by Sylvia, and it was being manipulated to follow the swords movements. It absorbed every and all cinderbolts that came near the sword.
¡°Tch. I guess I should expect a player warlock to be better at spell control than an NPC like Mayiera.¡± Pyri grumbled to herself, forced to dash backwards to avoid the black blade from hitting her.
¡°That¡¯s why PvE sucks. The only real challenge in an MMORPG is the PvP. You agree, don¡¯t you?¡± Hajax replied to her as he charged forward towards Aegis, seeing Aegis moving to try and stand between Pyri and the blacksword.
While Seraxus¡¯ main body continuously dealt with Rakkan and his echoes, he controlled his black sword effortlessly and avoided hitting Aegis while keeping pressure up on Pyri. Sylvia controlled the location of her blackhole spell carefully, repeatedly using it to disable any and all attempts Pyri made to cast cinderbolts.
¡°I watched you play a bit, I know you rely on cinderbolts. Unfortunately, they¡¯re kind of useless against warlocks.¡± Sylvia squeaked at her with a big smile, watching Pyri struggle to manually dodge the black blade. Hajax was about to arrive at Aegis and slam his shield into Aegis to prevent him from defending Pyri, but several arrows were fired from Darkshot at Hajax. None hit, but it stopped Hajax¡¯ forward charge when he was forced to dodge the arrows.
¡°Yo Ranger, I aint like other clerics.¡± Hajax turned to Darkshot and fired out several black bolts from his right hand at Darkshot. Darkshot jumped to avoid them, but as they flew past Darkshot the three black bolts of energy converged and formed into a black misty snake which coiled through the air and swerved back towards Darkshot. Darkshot looked at Hajax and saw him focused on the snake - he was manually controlling its movements. This gave Darkshot the idea to interrupt the spell and fired several more arrows at Hajax before moving to avoid the snake as it pursued him. From there, the two took turns dodging each other''s attacks while Aegis finally managed to get between Pyri and the blade, forcing Seraxus to pull it back to his main body while he continued to handle Seraxus.
¡°Target swap. Lockdown healer.¡± Seraxus told his group. Aegis was familiar with the terminology, and the words were enough to understand what the commands meant for him, but he wasn¡¯t completely prepared for what spells these classes would employ upon being given such commands.
Despite the sword leaving Pyri¡¯s vicinity, the blackhole from Sylvia was left behind to continue to block her spells. Sylivia then suddenly broke into a sprint towards Aegis and Pyri, whilst Pyri desperately tried to create distance between herself and the small black ball of energy floating near her that was absorbing all of her cinderbolts.
Aegis'' attention got split when simultaneously Seraxus whipped his black sword over Rakkan¡¯s head towards Darkshot, and Sylvia came charging at him with her staff in front, giving off sparks of purple lightning before she swung out towards him.
Aegis saw that Darkshot was too preoccupied dodging Hajax¡¯ snake - he didn¡¯t see the sword flying at him with incredible speed. So Aegis desperately turned his attention to Darkshot, creating a guard projection beside Darkshot to protect him from the black sword, but this opening was enough for Sylvia to swing her staff down at him. He held his shield up and was able to brace the attack easily, but that was his mistake.
The spell she held on the end of her staff did not deal damage, but instead sent purple bolts of electricity outward from its tip which spread through Aegis¡¯ shield and eventually his body, paralyzing him for three seconds.
¡°DISPEL!¡± Pyri reacted quickly, casting it on Aegis to remove the paralysis within 1 second - but 1 second was too long, and Seraxus had maneuvered the black sword around Aegis¡¯ guard and slashed through Darkshot with it, dealing over 1 million points of damage and killing him.
¡°Finally.¡± Hajax said with relief. No longer being forced to dodge arrows, he turned his attention fully to Aegis and rammed him full on with his shield. The damage from their shields clashing was minor, that wasn¡¯t Hajax¡¯s intent. Rather, Hajax repeatedly bashed his shield into Aegis with great force, releasing bursts of black energy upon each impact. Aegis struggled to hold his ground, bracing each hit desperately, whilst Seraxus waved his blacksword across the battlefield towards Pyri once more. Sylvia backed away behind Hajax and went back to controlling her blackhole¡¯s location more elegantly, pursing Pyri with it while Pyri had a look of frustration, desperately trying to think of something she could do - unfortunately she hadn¡¯t the time yet to earn her advance class and learn new spells to circumvent a black hole spell.
It became clear very quickly to Aegis what Hajax was trying to do with the repeated shield bashes - keep Aegis busy and prevent him from helping Pyri. He fully grasped what ¡®Lockdown healer¡¯ meant, they aimed to just disable Aegis completely from the fight. This type of pressure in a PvP fight, he hadn¡¯t fully experienced it before and his adrenaline was pumping violently through his veins as he tried to recall what he ought to do in these situations.
¡°It¡¯s common in a PvP match as a healer to have all aggression placed on you. Either to kill you, or lock you down. In situations like these, it¡¯s up to your party members to relieve pressure from you.¡±
Aegis recalled the voice of one of the many PvP videos that he¡¯d studied after fighting Emerill, but even knowing this, he looked and saw that Pyri had been completely disabled, and Rakkan wasn¡¯t listening to anything he was saying.
¡°Rakkan!¡± Aegis shouted at him desperately, but all this confirmed to him was that Rakkan was indeed ignoring him. Aegis let out a sigh, took a deep breath and did his best to clear his head until finally coming up with a plan. He suddenly began to retaliate bashes on Hajax, and extended long claws out from his right hand. Seeing the claws, Hajax¡¯ eyes went wide with fear and he jumped backwards, avoiding a swipe from Aegis¡¯ claws out at him.
¡°Yo, he equipped those Jealousy claws.¡± Hajax called out to the others. Aegis didn¡¯t give time to react, taking advantage of the space provided for him by Hajax. He ran to the side around him, sprinting towards Sylvia. Sylvia jumped to the side to get away from Aegis.
¡°Don¡¯t let him hit her, we dunno how much damage those deal.¡± Seraxus ordered Hajax, and he nodded back before moving to defend Sylvia. Hajax jumped in and tried to block a swing from the claws while Aegis quickly cast bless on himself before the attack landed.
| You deal 4312 Slashing damage.
You deal 326 Shadow damage.
You deal 291 Holy damage
|
¡°Dang, hits hard even with my armor.¡± Hajax commented after having braced the hit. Aegis bashed his shield into Hajax¡¯s shield to knock it away, slashing at him from the side but his claws were parried away by Hajax¡¯s scepter in his other hand. While this happened, Sylivia put her focus back on following the fast moving Pyri with her black hole spell, but Pyri rather suddenly began charging forward to fight alongside Aegis, avoiding the black sword that swung at her from behind due to Seraxus.
Seraxus eyed her and saw how difficult it was going to be to focus on hitting Pyri, especially given Rakkan and his echoes were still keeping his body and his other 5 floating weapons busy. Seraxus let out an annoyed sigh as he suddenly ordered the blacksword back towards himself.
¡°You got good, playin¡¯ as a Rune Knight. But you still aint shit against me.¡± Seraxus said to Rakkan with a growl as the blacksword returned to his hand and he swung it down at Rakkan. Rakkan jumped his main body backwards out of the path of the blade as Aegis briefly glanced over to see them fighting. Frustrated with Rakkan though, Aegis wasn¡¯t sure what to do about the fight and instead decided to prioritize Hajax and Sylvia.
¡°Fly.¡± Pyri cast on herself, suddenly leaping up into the air over Hajax and Aegis to get at Sylvia behind them, then shot herself forward with her fists extended in Sylvia¡¯s direction, punching into her from above while encasing her hand in red cinders. Sylvia desperately canceled her blackhole spell that had fallen too far behind Pyri to be of any use, and instead recast a new one directly in front of her to block Pyri¡¯s cinders, while simultaneously sidestepping Pyri¡¯s fist to avoid it hitting her head.
Both of these measures, Pyri didn¡¯t mind. She followed through with her punch with a big hug, wrapping her arms around Sylvia to grapple her.
¡°What are you going to do? Love me to death?¡± Sylvia replied mockingly as Pyri smirked in response.
¡°Sort of. Warlocks can¡¯t learn the fly spell, right?¡± Pyri suddenly jumped up off the ground using her fly spell. She carried Sylvia up into the air with her, and within seconds the two of them were high above the town square of Rene, disappearing into the black smoke rising up from the demon fire on the surrounding buildings.
¡°Shit.¡± Hajax commented as he followed Sylvia and Pyri with his eyes, watching them disappear above them. Seraxus watched it happen as well, letting out a grunt of annoyance.
¡°Aite, that¡¯s enough playin¡¯ with you.¡± He suddenly sped up, rapidly swinging and flipping around Rakkan and his echoes at incredible speed. In an instant, he¡¯d managed to get through Rakkan and his echoes defenses, slashing through Rakkan¡¯s main body with his blacksword and killing him.
Simultaneously, though, Sylvia re-appeared as she fell down through the black smoke, plummeting to hear death as Pyri had flown her high enough up into the air to kill her with fall damage. Hajax jumped back away from Aegis towards Seraxus, while Pyri slowly hovered back down to the ground through the black smoke and landed behind Aegis.
¡°Can¡¯t blackhole a fly spell.¡± Pyri said proudly to Aegis after having landed behind him.
¡°Two on two then, eh?¡± Seraxus grinned.
Chapter 224: The Number One Streamer
Chapter 224: The Number One Streamer
¡°This is too much. I mean¡¡± Hae-won watched intently at the scene unfolding before her. She was pacing around her broadcasting simulation in front of a screen that displayed Aegis¡¯ broadcast. Like before, Aegis¡¯ viewership had shot up to an abnormally high number and put him into the 9th slot of the top 10 streamer list, with Seraxus sitting in 4th. ¡°We all thought there was no way Aegis would win against the Avatar of Jealousy, but he did somehow come out on top. Is it possible he wins here too?¡± Hae-won asked Aegis¡¯ audience, unable to read the chat zooming by.
¡°This is bad.¡± Shinji said in a voice call with Tommy, their ear implants lit up as they both sat within their own respective office simulations, frantically working.
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Tommy asked.
¡°This whole situation. It¡¯s bad. Aegis picked up on it, but I think it¡¯s too late.¡± Shinji replied with anxiety in his voice.
¡°Explain a bit?¡± Tommy responded.
¡°I worked for VGN before. I¡¯ve been on Makaroth¡¯s editing team, I know the tricks he pulls to make events exciting. This is a setup. We gotta get Aegis out of this situation, fast¡¡±
¡°How¡¯re we supposed to do that? We can¡¯t just cut the feed. Seraxus is streaming the other side of this anyway,¡± Tommy replied.
¡°I know¡ just¡ shit.¡± Shinji shouted in frustration.
Aegis and Pyri stood side by side, glaring at Hajax and Seraxus. Both sides had their weapons at the ready, waiting for the other side to move. Aegis had his eyes locked onto the glowing back sword in Seraxus¡¯ hand, watching for any slight changes in Seraxus¡¯ posture to tell when and where he was planning on attacking. He¡¯d seen him throw the longsword like a spear multiple times, and knew that was one of his most preferred methods of attack.
Meanwhile, behind him, Pyri had reformed her cinderbolts and spread them out around herself and Aegis - with Sylvia dead there was no one left to interrupt her spell control and stop her from deflecting Seraxus¡¯ strikes as far as she knew. While Aegis was approaching the situation nervously, Pyri still appeared completely calm and focused.
With a lack of words being exchanged between the players, the sound of crackling wood under the blazing demon flames around them permeated throughout the town square, filling their nostrils with the smells of the various burning objects nearby.
¡°Hm.¡± Pyri eventually broke the silence, raising her eyebrow curiously after about 20 seconds of stand off. ¡°They should be the aggressors, but their behavior suddenly changed¡¡± She whispered so that only Aegis could hear her. ¡°Are they waiting for something?¡± She asked Aegis curiously.
After hearing her say this, Aegis saw Seraxus¡¯ eyes wander upwards, towards the sky. There, he seemed to have spotted something. Aegis quickly followed his eyes to see it too, a small blue flashing light, barely visible through the black smoke. The moment Aegis and Seraxus saw it, a smirk grew on Seraxus face and he suddenly dashed forward towards Aegis.
¡°A signal?¡± Aegis asked rhetorically as the gap between him and Seraxus closed almost instantaneously, and he swung his weapons out at him. Aegis lifted his shield whilst Pyri acted very quickly with her cinderbolts, to deflect Seraxus'' strikes downward into the paved stone below their feet. Each blade she sent into the ground cut into the stonework and left large slashing marks, but thanks to her actions, no attacks got through to Aegis. It also allowed Aegis time to easily retaliate with his claw and shield, but Seraxus was dodging the strikes.
The engagement didn¡¯t last long, though - as suddenly a blazing red flame flew down from the sky towards them, forcing Seraxus to jump backwards and avoid it. The flames crashed down onto the ground in front of Aegis, revealing its source. Makaroth, wielding a longsword encased in magical fire had jumped from the sky somewhere nearby and slashed his sword downward at Seraxus, breaking up the engagement. His livestream had just been turned back on, and his viewership was skyrocketing upwards, putting him quickly to the number one slot on the streamer list.
¡°Back off, Seraxus.¡± Makaroth shouted, and within a few moments, several other members of his guild landed around Aegis and Pyri, as if to defend them. Amongst the players that landed were Synopse, and Lilia, whom Pyri immediately glared at with disgust. Both she and Aegis took several steps backwards to stand together, away from the Sages of Destiny members. Aegis¡¯ teeth immediately clenched as he glared angrily at Makaroth¡¯s back.
¡°Makaroth? What the hell are you doing here?!¡± Seraxus asked, but the surprise in his voice came off as incredibly forced.
¡°This was your plan?¡± Aegis shouted loudly, in an attempt to interrupt the flow of their conversation. ¡°Don¡¯t act like you¡¯re surprised, Seraxus. He¡¯s the one that flew you to his island in the first place.¡±
¡°Hah? You stupid? Why would he fly me here?¡± Seraxus denied it.
¡°You have to forgive my son, he doesn¡¯t exactly trust me.¡± Makaroth replied, causing Aegis and Pyri¡¯s eyes to go wide with anger.
¡°Yo, did he just say his son?¡± Hajax called out excitedly with a laugh. ¡°So all them theories were true?¡±
¡°The hell are you doing?¡± Aegis shouted at Makaroth.
¡°Telling the truth.¡± Makaroth sighed and shrugged, briefly glancing back towards Aegis to see both his and Pyri¡¯s seething stares. ¡°Sorry viewers, I may have lied to protect my son''s identity earlier. It¡¯s why I haven¡¯t been streaming the past week - I came to visit him on his birthday in private, because, well, I didn¡¯t want anyone to know the truth. It¡¯s a good thing I did, though. Otherwise I wouldn¡¯t have been here to put a stop to this.¡± Makaroth turned back towards Seraxus and spun his flaming sword around in his hand. ¡°As many of you had guessed, Aegis is indeed my son, and the player formerly known as Winter.¡±
¡°What¡¯re you doing?¡± Pyri asked in anger. ¡°Why are you here?¡±
¡°I just told you. I came here for my son''s birthday.¡± Makaroth replied with a straight face. ¡°I mean, I can understand him not wanting me here, given that bet we made, but, I didn¡¯t want to miss it regardless.¡± Makaroth shrugged, turning his eyes towards Aegis with a smirk sneaking its way through his otherwise straight expression.
¡°What bet?¡± Pyri asked, glancing between Makaroth and Aegis, and causing Aegis to look at her anxiously.
¡°Oh? You didn¡¯t tell her? I guess that makes sense.¡± Makaroth shrugged. ¡°You see, the whole reason Aegis started playing this game was because I made a bet with him that if he could surpass me, I¡¯d delete my character. That¡¯s why he¡¯s been so determined to get to the top.¡± Makaroth explained. Pyri¡¯s expression was that of disbelief, and she turned to stare at Aegis.
¡°Is that true?¡± Pyri asked him. Aegis didn¡¯t immediately reply, he just stared back at Pyri, trying to think of what to say. This delay in response was all she needed, though. A second later, she disappeared from the game world, having logged out.
¡°You piece of shit!¡± Aegis turned to face Makaroth again, while all eyes turned on him from both Seraxus¡¯ stream, his stream, and Makaroth¡¯s stream - as well as all of the other players present. ¡°If you¡¯re so interested in suddenly telling the truth, why don¡¯t you tell them all why I made that bet? Huh? Tell them a little bit about who you really are, and how you abandoned your family after being a shitty, worthless guy!¡± Aegis shouted.
¡°Hah, yo, this guy¡¯s throwing a tantrum.¡± Hajax replied mockingly, taking over the flow of the conversation.
¡°I ain¡¯t hear for you to air out dirty laundry. I¡¯m here to mess up Kalmoore and collect souls.¡± Seraxus replied - and with that, Aegis saw Makaroth''s plan in its entirety. As he yelled out angrily at Makaroth, he was being made to look like a immature child throwing a tantrum, and they were all contributing to the narrative. He angrily glanced between Makaroth, Seraxus, Hajax, and Synopse, and he saw them all staring at him, waiting for his next reaction.
Aegis did his best to stay calm, taking deep breaths - but despite his best efforts, he felt his blood boiling with rage as he completely lost control of the situation. More than anything, though, the face of Pyri was burned into his head, and he couldn¡¯t imagine what she was now doing in the real world after having logged out.
His mind began to race, looking for a solution to the situation, the optimal way to get out of it cleanly, but his thoughts were too clouded by anger. All he wanted to do was charge at Makaroth and attack him, kill him - anything to shut his lies up and end the manipulated, staged scenario that he had set for himself. But, any fragment of a plan that formed in his head seemed to play into his hands further.
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¡°He¡¯s right. I owe an explanation to my viewers about all of this, but now is not the time.¡± Makaroth smirked at Aegis before turning back towards Seraxus. ¡°You attacked my son, his town, and his peaceful island. The Sages of Destiny will not let that stand.¡± Makaroth spoke in a cold, commanding tone. All of his guildmates then drew out their weapons.
¡°You really think you can take me on, old man?¡± Seraxus replied with a smirk.
¡°I¡¯m not certain, but we outnumber you, and out level you. You really want to risk your sword against us?¡± Makaroth asked. The way they spoke - everything from mannerisms to tone - it all screamed bad, forceful acting. Aegis could see through it, but it didn¡¯t seem like anyone else would. ¡°I¡¯ve got another option for you.¡± Makaroth said as the flames faded from his sword and he sheathed it.
¡°I¡¯m listenin.¡± Seraxus shrugged.
¡°You¡¯ve been bored, winning the gladiator tournament every month with no real challenge, right? I will assemble a team of the Sages of Destiny¡¯s greatest PvPers and have our guild enter the tournament for the first time ever, to challenge you and take you down from your throne. In return, until then, you leave Kalmoore alone. Because this island is now under my protection.¡± Makaroth said proudly.
¡°Hah, your weak ass top PvE guild thinks you can handle a PvP tournament? You gotta be kiddin¡¯ me.¡± Hajax replied with a laugh, both Seraxus and Hajax turning to face each other and chuckle. Eventually, though, Seraxus nodded in Makaroth''s direction.
¡°Aite, I¡¯ll except that challenge. You aint gonna qualify for this month¡¯s tourney, though - too late for that. The next one will be in 5 Weeks.¡± Seraxus said as he lifted his black sword and pointed out towards Makaroth. ¡°I¡¯ll crush the Sages of Destiny guild in a nice, fair, 5 on 5 fight in the gladiator arena. Just don¡¯t come cryin¡¯ to me when I show the world how weak ya¡¯ll PvE lovers really are.¡± Seraxus grinned.
¡°And you, don¡¯t complain when I destroy that sword of yours and end your reign of terror on the Shattered World once and for all.¡± Makaroth grinned back at Seraxus - their viewership numbers were shooting up rapidly as they spoke to each other issuing this challenge.
¡°Guess that means we¡¯re leavin¡¯ then. You¡¯re lucky this time, Shattered healer.¡± Seraxus said mockingly to Aegis before he and Hajax both turned from the townsquare and began walking southward out of the town, disappearing into the burning streets around them.
It went quiet as the players present followed Seraxus and Hajax with their eyes, waiting for them to leave.
¡°Synopse, can you put these demon fires out?¡± Makaroth asked once they were gone.
¡°Yeah.¡± Synopse said with very little enthusiasm, looking towards Aegis with a worried expression. He let out a short sigh before pulling out his staff and waving it around in the air, creating blue streams of white ice that began to flow out from the end of his staff towards the various fires around them. As the ice connected with the fires they were quickly extinguished.
¡°The rest of you, fan out and help any of the villagers that you can.¡± Makaroth ordered his guildmades, and they all complied save for Lilia who walked towards Aegis.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll take care of things here. You should go check on your mom, I think.¡± Lilia said with a look of sympathy on her face, but Aegis could see the joy hiding behind her eyes as she looked at him. His logical thinking and planning had been completely negated by his uncontrolled anger at this point - all he wanted to do was attack Makaroth¡¯s back as he watched him walking away from the town square.
Everything in his body was telling him to just unleash his anger, save for a sliver of reasonable thought still holding on by a thread and granting him control of his actions. That sliver was enough to restrain his anger and frustration, but not enough to come up with a clear plan of action. Anything - any words he could say to break up Makaroth¡¯s plan - he desperately tried to think of it, but nothing came into his head. The only thing he was certain of was that if he lashed out angrily now, it would only serve to make things worse.
In fear of not being able to hold himself back much longer, he opened up his interface and logged himself out of the gameworld.
When Eli climbed up out of his Simbox, he saw Jillian staring blankly up at the television screen in their living room with her arms crossed. On it, a VGN news cast was playing. The two didn¡¯t speak a word to each other immediately, allowing the sounds from the broadcaster to take over the room.
¡°Unbelievable! The showdown of all showdowns! Sages of Destiny will be entering the gladiator tournament for the first time ever, to take on the Avatar of Hatred and undefeated gladiator king Seraxus!¡± The broadcaster shouted, hyping it up as much as possible as he played footage from both Seraxus and Makaroth¡¯s livestreams.
¡°He staged all that. That was his plan from the beginning.¡± Eli explained to Jillian. ¡°He used my birthday against me, because I was getting close to winning that bet. I can still come back from this though, I just need to come up with a plan to expose him for what he really is.¡± Eli mumbled to himself, looking down at the ground as if going deep in thought.
¡°Why did you make a bet like that?¡± Jillian turned towards Eli, looking him in the eyes. He didn¡¯t immediately reply, instead caught off guard by her expression. It wasn¡¯t anger he saw on her face, but sadness.
¡°Because I¡¯m angry. I¡¯m angry about what he did to us. To you!¡± Eli replied loudly. ¡°Aren¡¯t you angry at him?¡±
¡°I would be, if I wasn¡¯t so busy being angry at you right now!¡± Jillian shouted, catching Eli off guard - he rarely ever heard his mother yell in anger and he quickly pulled back. ¡°I¡¯m such an idiot.¡± She shook her head to herself, looking down at her feet briefly. ¡°All this time, I was so excited to finally share my passion with you, and experience it alongside you. I thought we were having fun together. But all this talk about reaching the top - this whole time, it was all for this? This was the reason?¡± She pointed towards the VGN broadcast on display. Though what was on screen was not necessarily relevant to their conversation, Eli understood what she meant.
¡°You worked endlessly, day in and day out, just to let that bum leech off of you for his failed career. And when he finally made it, he betrayed you and left us with nothing!¡±
¡°What, so you thought you would ¡®defend my honor¡¯ by getting revenge for me, and destroying his career on my behalf?¡± Jillian snapped back at Eli.
¡°Yeah. The whole world is calling out his praise. I wanted them to understand what a worthless guy he really was!¡± Eli replied with frustration.
¡°To what end? You put aside your own dreams and ambitions to become a doctor, just to get revenge?¡± Jillian shook her head. ¡°Did you really think that doing something like that would make me happy? Make you happy?!¡± Jillian added. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this.¡± She turned and began walking away from Eli, while simultaneously tapping her wrist implant and making a phone call.
¡°Wait, what are you doing?¡± Eli asked, trying to stop her. ¡°Where are you going?¡±
¡°I¡¯m going back to work. I need to act like an adult, because no one else in this family ever will.¡± Jillian replied coldly.
¡°But, you don¡¯t need to, we have millions now!¡± Eli replied.
¡°That¡¯s your money.¡± She turned to face him. ¡°And I¡¯ll say the same thing to you that I said to your father when he offered me his money before he left us. I don¡¯t want it. I don¡¯t want anything to do with any of it.¡± She snapped at him, and Aegis¡¯ face went blank with disbelief upon hearing this. ¡°I don¡¯t need you to take care of me. I don¡¯t need him to take care of me. I¡¯m not some pity case who cannot handle herself. I worked all these years, day in and day out, to raise this family and keep a roof above our heads, BY MYSELF. So don¡¯t come around here, throwing money at me out of pity like you¡¯re going to save me, or get revenge for me. Because I never cared about the money. I just wanted¡¡± Jillian stopped herself from finishing her sentence as tears began to build up in her eyes, and seeing them, Eli felt his heart break. She didn¡¯t need to finish her words, he felt what she was going to say.
A moment later, her call picked up and she turned from Eli, beginning a conversation with her boss, whilst simultaneously she began getting dressed and prepared for work. Eli remained frozen, unsure of what to say as his emotions raced within him. Anger, mixed with guilt, and shame - it all prevented him from taking action as he was unable to form a clear thought. Before he knew it, Jillian was dressed and heading out the door.
¡°They¡¯re shorthanded for the night shift, so he needs me back right away. Have fun with your friends.¡± Jillain replied coldly as she stepped out of the door and shut it behind her.
¡°Wait!¡± Eli tried to call out and stop her, but got ignored, leaving him standing alone in the living room with nothing but the VGN broadcaster¡¯s voice to fill in the silence and draw Eli¡¯s attention.
¡°So, Makaroth, quite an exciting turn of events there. What an interesting way to return from a 7 day vacation, huh?¡± The broadcaster spoke, suddenly interviewing Makaroth on the VGN broadcast. The broadcaster was sitting in his chair, with Makaroth¡¯s livestream display floating on a screen above a desk beside him.
¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure many people have a lot of questions, but first let me apologize by lying about my relationship with Aegis. I wanted to give him a chance to play privately, but I guess secrets like that can¡¯t last long in this world.¡± Makaroth shrugged. The broadcast continued, with Makaroth taking complete control of the narrative and playing it out in his favor.
¡°This is bullshit.¡± Hae-won shouted out angrily as she stomped through the Fanta-see Network, pacing behind Tommy and Shinji as they both stared up at multiple broadcasts on display. Among them were Feng, Seraxus, and Makaroth¡¯s streams.
¡°He¡¯s got the whole of VGN broadcasting in his favor, spinning this narrative.¡± Tommy shook his head. ¡°Is this what you were worried about?¡±
¡°Yeah¡¡± Shinji sighed in frustration.
¡°We don¡¯t have the streamers to launch a counter-offensive. The only streamer we have that gets any views is Aegis.¡± Hae-won grumbled.
¡°Yep. It¡¯s our loss. A big loss. He¡¯s having a field day with this, painting Aegis out to be a vengeful, angsty teenager throwing a tantrum at his dad.¡± Tommy pointed at several of the interviews currently ongoing. ¡°You need to call Aegis and tell him to log back on now, and start defending himself fast. If he doesn¡¯t, it¡¯s only going to keep getting worse.¡±
Shinji looked at his wrist implant and was about to press it, but stopped himself.
¡°No. That won¡¯t do anything.¡± Shinji shook his head to himself. ¡°Makaroth¡¯s number one for a reason, his image always comes out on top, and he doesn¡¯t care who he tears down in order to do it.¡±
¡°So what, we just sit here and let this happen?¡± Hae-won asked.
¡°No. I need to clean up this mess. This is my fault. I¡¯m the reason Eli started streaming in the first place, and got put into this situation.¡± Shinji replied as he began walking out of the Fanta-see network studio, grabbing his jacket on the way out as both Tommy and Hae-won watched him leave. Once he was gone, the two exchanged unknowning shrugs.
Chapter 225: What Matters
Chapter 225: What Matters
Eli sat alone in his living room, long after the sun had set. His wrist implant flashed with several messages from both Derrick and Selena. He¡¯d read them, asking if he was okay, but he hadn¡¯t yet properly replied. The screen on the wall continued to cycle through various virtual news networks, all of which were reporting on the story of Makaroth¡¯s son, and the showdown coming up between two of the top 10 streamers. To add onto the excitement, several other top streamers were announcing their desire to participate in the tournament as well, increasing the hype and taking some attention off of Aegis¡¯ true identity, thankfully.
He made several attempts to get away from the news, though - eventually landing on a peaceful broadcast of an advanced farmer class player. It was a silent, calming stream as the player moved about his fields, tending to the crops underneath the sunny sky of the Shattered World online where it was still daytime. He occasionally stopped working on the plants to check his chat log and respond to some questions, all of which centered around farming. His peaceful voice and his passion for what he was doing somehow began to aggravate Eli after a while, though.
¡°He realizes it¡¯s all fake, doesn¡¯t he? None of that is real.¡± Eli angrily mumbled to himself. ¡°The tournament, too. It¡¯s all fake. All staged.¡± He spoke while eying his open Simbox. He glanced at the clock to see he still had a long while to wait before his party would be able to log in, and decided to lay down on the couch to try and pass the time. He was able to sleep a bit, but not much - the anger from everything that had happened was still burning inside of him.
After a while, he even began to feel anger towards his mom, as he thought about how she¡¯d never told him about David offering her money when he left. How she stormed out and was angry at him, instead of David. Then he thought about Rakkan, how he wouldn¡¯t listen to his instructions. If only he¡¯d listened, it would¡¯ve been fine. Finally, his anger settled on Makaroth, who set it all up. How desperate he¡¯d become, and how far he¡¯d be willing to go to manipulate everyone and turn them against him. More than that, though, was the fact that everyone was going along with him, and believing his words. That made him angrier than everything combined - how the entire viewerbase of those VGN streams were just eating up his words as he gave out apology after apology.
He heard several news broadcasts summarizing Makaroth¡¯s apology, where he claimed that he¡¯d accepted Aegis¡¯ bet in a hope that he and his son would learn to understand each other better, only to find that Aegis¡¯ anger for him needed more time to subside. That¡¯s why he¡¯d been leaving Aegis alone and letting him play in peace. He thought that now that Aegis had understood the game and shown passion for it by defending the island of Kalmoore from an invasion, they¡¯d be able to reconcile their differences despite the break up with Pyri - but he was wrong. That was the jist of what Aegis had heard from Makaroth¡¯s explanation as he finished up watching one final summary from a VGN broadcaster.
¡°All bullshit.¡± Eli shook his head at the screen angrily. One final glance at the clock told him that the time was up, and Derrick and the others would be back in the game world by now. He got up off of the couch and stepped towards his Simbox, briefly looking from the door, to Jillian¡¯s empty Simbox, then back to his. He sat down, closed it, and loaded up the Shattered World simulation.
¡°He¡¯s back online. The stream is going to automatically start. Are you ready?¡± Tommy asked Hae-won as she was leaning back in her broadcasting studio, picking at her teeth. She quickly sat up to see Aegis¡¯ livestream come into view, showing his face as he loaded into the townsquare of Rene. The time was now early morning within the gameworld.
¡°No.¡± Hae-won quickly replied. ¡°Cut the feed.¡±
¡°Heh? But he needs to get online to start defending himself against this bullshit Makaroth¡¯s spewing.¡± Tommy retorted through a voice call with Hae-won.
¡°Not like this. Trust me.¡± Hae-won said as she saw a look of rage on Aegis'' face as he looked around at his surroundings. ¡°We don¡¯t want people seeing him right now.¡± Hae-won concluded.
¡°Alright. If you say so, you know him better than me.¡± Tommy shrugged, shutting off the broadcast manually before it had even been announced to be online.
Aegis looked around at the many players near him - market stalls had already been repaired and NPCs and players were back to selling their wares. At his appearance, the NPCs continued on with what they were doing, but nearly all the players stopped to look at him. Most began pointing, whispering amongst one another.
¡°There he is,¡±
¡°That¡¯s him, Makaroth¡¯s son.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t believe Aegis was actually Winter the entire time¡¡± The mumbles and whispers went on all around him.
¡°Yo.¡± Chax called out loudly over the sound of the murmurs, drawing Aegis¡¯ attention away from all of the stares. ¡°Everyone¡¯s waiting in the town hall. C¡¯mon, let¡¯s get some privacy.¡± Chax motioned him to follow. Aegis didn¡¯t so much as nod to respond, but began walking forward and following behind Chax. As they left the townsquare along the northern street, the murmurs from players nearby didn¡¯t stop, nor did the pointing. Eventually, though, they stepped into the town hall building, then entered the large chamber with a round table at its center.
There were a lot more players waiting there for him than he¡¯d been expecting. Every member of the council of Rene was present, in addition to Quinn, Tullan, Sapphire, Herilon, Trexon, Artaphernes, and Christoph. All of his party members were there too, save for Pyri. There was murmuring from amongst them going on, but once Aegis had entered, it fell completely silent and all eyes fell on him as Chax closed the door behind them.
Aegis didn¡¯t say anything, he just panned his eyes over the group, looking at their various expressions.
¡°I¡¯m sorry. I found them watching from atop the mountain, but they had a high level wizard who hit me with a stasis spell before I could react.¡± Lina explained, breaking the silence.
¡°So it was a setup.¡± Herilon sighed.
¡°Character assassination, more like.¡± Trexon added, and Quinn nodded in agreement.
¡°Unlike the rest of us¡¡± Christoph turned to the group of Night Hunters, ¡°None of you seemed all that shocked to hear who this kid really was. Did you guys know the entire time?¡± He asked, directing his words at Quinn as many eyes fell onto her.
¡°Three of us, only. Just myself, Herilon, and Sapphire. Herilon learned it using a wand of identification, and Sapphire with her ears. They reported it to me, and I kept it secret.¡± Quinn explained.
¡°You didn¡¯t think I oughta know something like that?¡± Artaphernes asked with a hint of anger in her voice.
¡°Why would you?¡± Herilon raised an eyebrow.
¡°The son of the most popular streamer walking around on our island is kind of a big deal, don¡¯t you think?¡± Artaphernes.
¡°Isn¡¯t that the exact reason why we shouldn¡¯t have told you? He just wanted to play the game without that hanging over his head.¡± Sapphire replied before biting into a carrot.
¡°Not according to what Makaroth¡¯s been saying. He¡¯s playing just to get back at him.¡± Christoph replied while crossing his arms, looking towards Aegis. ¡°Is it true? Is that why you¡¯ve been playing so hard, hunting down mithril and voidsilk? Unlocking that rare class?¡± Aegis felt all of their eyes fall on him once again, but he didn¡¯t immediately answer.
¡°What if it is?¡± He eventually responded.
¡°What if it is? That¡¯d mean you¡¯re dragging our entire island into a war because of your daddy issues.¡± Artaphernes snapped back at him.
¡°I¡¯m also the reason the island is still standing. Did you forget that part?¡± Aegis retorted with an angry tone that none of them had heard him used before, causing several of the players present to look at him in surprise, including Amlie, Yuki, and Ruffily.
¡°I could argue that you¡¯re the reason the island even got targeted for an invasion in the first place. Ever since you showed up, nothing but bad stuff has been happening, and now it finally makes sense why. I¡¯m not interested in entering some PvP fight with Seraxus, or Makaroth.¡± Christoph replied, siding with Artaphernes.
¡°Yeah? Then maybe it was a mistake that I even started here. I can leave, if that¡¯d make you feel better. So you can keep acting like tough guys while losing to any serious player that shows up here.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Whoa, alright.¡± Quinn put her hands up and stood up from her chair. ¡°No one¡¯s talking about you leaving this island. They¡¯re a bit angry that the truth was hidden from them, and you¡¯re pretty pissed about the shit that Makaroth is saying right now. Let¡¯s have everyone take a second to calm down.¡± Quinn shouted. Following her words, Aegis, Christoph and Artaphernes exchanged long tense stares with one another.
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Eventually, they broke eye contact and Aegis panned his head towards his companions, seeing Darkshot, Rakkan and Lina standing near Snowflake off to the side of the room looking at him anxiously. It took him a moment of staring to notice the damage done to Snowflake¡¯s wing, and he quickly walked over to check on him as he sat on his bottom, staring stoicly towards Aegis with a blank expression.
¡°How bad is it, lil buddy. Can you still fly?¡± Aegis asked the Gryphon, but he got no response as he walked over and saw the sliced wing. He rubbed his hands over it to see that the cut was clean, then turned to look up at the others. ¡°It should be easy to fix, right?¡± Aegis asked. ¡°Where¡¯s the wing?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve got it. That ain¡¯t the problem.¡± Tullan replied with his head down, and once again the tension built up in the air as Aegis looked at all of their stares on him.
¡°What do you mean? Why isn¡¯t he replying? What¡¯s up lil buddy?¡± Aegis asked Snowflake again, but got no response. ¡°Snowflake?¡± Aegis asked, and it finally responded by turning to face him obediently. It was only then that Aegis realized that the Elite tag was missing from the name above his head. ¡°What happened?¡±
¡°Because he got hit by Seraxus¡¯ sword, even though it didn¡¯t kill him, it still absorbed his soul¡¡± Darkshot replied reluctantly.
¡°It¡¯s gotta be some sort of weird interaction that his sword has with golems.¡± Rakkan explained as Aegis looked down at the simple, mindless, personality-less gryphon. Once again, the room fell silent. ¡°Sorry¡ it¡¯s my fault, I taunted him after I beat Joltblade, but I didn¡¯t think things would turn out like this.¡±
¡°Yeah. You didn¡¯t think. Just like you didn¡¯t think when I told you not to attack him in the town square. If you had just listened, we could¡¯ve controlled this.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°If you hadn¡¯t sent Lina away, we also coulda won. He was right in front of us, we had him. We took out those dark players, we coulda taken him out.¡± Rakkan replied angrily.
¡°Are you delusional? The only reason we lived that long was because he was playing the role of a puppet for Makaroth. Trying to kill him wasn¡¯t the play.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°I¡¯m the one who fought him the most here, I¡¯ve got more PvP experience than all of you combined, you should¡¯ve been listening to my calls.¡±
¡°Why? So we could have Kalmoore end up like Puagas did? A lot of good your calls did on that island.¡± Aegis replied angrily.
¡°Yo.¡± Darkshot quickly stepped in between the two with his hands up, interrupting the conversation. ¡°That¡¯s too far.¡± The two glared at each other in a moment of silence, and Aegis felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him.
¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine. Good he says what he¡¯s really thinking. Your priority is your daddy issues, not helping me take out Seraxus. So I think we oughta part ways here.¡± Rakkan replied before storming out of the room.
¡°Rakkan, wait!¡± Amlie called out after him, but got no response. The rest watched him silently as he left, until eventually Amlie gave Aegis a nasty glare, then took off after Rakkan. Once the door shut behind Amlie, he looked up at the stares on him.
¡°What?¡± Aegis snapped out at them.
¡°Uhm¡¡± Chax cleared his throat to speak up. ¡°We¡¯ve already been handling the repairs on the damaged buildings.¡± Chax explained while motioning towards Ruffily.
¡°That¡¯s right, woof! We¡¯re using materials fro-¡±
¡°Why are you woofing?¡± Aegis interrupted her angrily, causing her to look at him shocked. ¡°You¡¯re not a real dog, right? It¡¯s not part of the game?¡± Aegis asked, but she didn¡¯t reply, instead just stared in shock at him. ¡°And you, you¡¯re always eating a carrot.¡± He motioned to Sapphire. ¡°It¡¯s stupid. So is your accent.¡± Aegis pointed at Tullan. ¡°It¡¯s all fake. It¡¯s all just game, you guys realize that, right?¡± Aegis explained to them, but got no immediate response.
¡°Yeah, of course, but, we¡¯re just trying to have fun, right?¡± Darkshot replied on everyone¡¯s behalf.
¡°Whose having fun here? Anyone?!¡± Aegis shouted. ¡°Who is having fun being tricked by 5 players, nearly losing all of your hard work and invested money? Who is having fun having a 15 year old on a powertrip coming here and having his way with us?! HUH!?¡±
¡°You need to calm down.¡± Herilon squinted at him, crossing his arms.
¡°Nah, I don¡¯t think I do. I should¡¯ve never let you talk me into playing this stupid game. This is all his world, all fake lights and electrical signals to our brain. A nice fantasy land where he gets to pretend he¡¯s worth something, when he¡¯s not. It¡¯s all fake, and a waste of time.¡± Aegis shouted, this time directed at Darkshot who pulled back despite Darkwing cooing curiously from his shoulder.
¡°Look man, I didn¡¯t know it was going to turn out like this, I just wanted to play with you. I didn¡¯t tell you to make that deal with him. You¡¯re the one who wanted to play the game out of spite, instead of just having fun with me.¡±
¡°Yeah, then I guess it¡¯s my fault. I just played the game wrong, right?¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s not what he¡¯s saying¡¡± Lina tried to defend him, nearly to tears as she watched Aegis¡¯ anger unfold on everyone around him. Seeing the way she was looking at him was the last thing he wanted to see. Lina, who he cared about, looked at him with fear in her eyes. He couldn¡¯t bear to stare at her for more than a few seconds as shame overtook him, and he¡¯d realized how far he¡¯d already gone. He panned his eyes around the room once more and saw similar expressions on Ruffily, Erikson, Yuki, Josephine, Sapphire, Tullan and Quinn.
¡°Forget it. Here.¡± Aegis quickly went into his interface and fidgeted around with a few buttons.
Are you sure you wish to transfer ownership of Rene over to [Chax - Level 150]?
[Confirm] [Cancel].
With little to know hesitation, he hit the confirm button and a look of shock befell Chax.
¡°Yo, Aegis, what¡¯re you doing?¡± Chax asked in shock.
¡°What¡¯d he do?¡± Quinn asked him.
¡°Congratulations, you¡¯re the new Lord of Rene. I¡¯m done. Playing this game was a mistake.¡± Aegis said with finality, and before anyone could respond, he disappeared from the game world.
¡°It¡¯s for the best, isn¡¯t it?¡± Christoph shrugged, breaking the silence after Aegis had left.
¡°Fuck off.¡± Quinn shouted at him angrily. ¡°I took over leadership of this island under the condition that it would remain peaceful, and welcoming to all. That little boy has done more for us and the players on this island than either of you, combined. And now, when he needs us most and is hurting, you fucking chased him away.¡± Quinn roared with tears in her eyes, pounding her fist down on the table. ¡°If he doesn¡¯t come back, I¡¯m exiling both of you.¡±
¡°Seriously?¡± Artaphernes looked at her with disbelief.
¡°Is the sky fucking blue?¡± She shouted back through her teeth.
¡°He isn¡¯t coming back. It¡¯d take a miracle. He¡¯s not the sort to go back on his word.¡± Darkshot sighed as he saw tears streaming down Lina¡¯s face, of which she quickly tried to hide before logging out herself.
¡°Is it my fault? Because I woofed?¡± Ruffily asked with a whimper in her voice.
¡°No, it¡¯s not your fault.¡± Yuki replied as she and Josephine moved in to comfort her.
¡°Guess he didn¡¯t like my accent very much.¡± Tullan spoke shamefully in normal, perfectly clear english.
¡°I like it.¡± Sapphire replied as she shamelessly bit into her carrot, making a loud crunch.
Eli stepped out of his Simbox feeling empty, wobbling over to his couch and plopping down on it and staring blankly at the television screen mounted on the wall. The stream of the farmer player was still on, so Eli quickly tapped his wrist implant to shut it off. He then leaned back into the couch and scanned his eyes around the room, spotting several medical textbooks on a bookshelf across the room from him. As he looked at the spines of the books, recognizing the titles, he recalled the contents of the books, and tried to focus in on it as best as he could. However, despite his best efforts, his mind was still full of the Shattered World online.
Spells, skills, strategies, locations, NPCs, players - all of the things he had been planning to do in the game world. Strangely, none of it truly involved Makaroth. He wanted to get his advanced class. He wanted to stop the Avatars, and help Eirene. Befriend the Wildlings? His curiosity still ran rampantly wild with what that might¡¯ve entailed. What advanced class skills was he going to get? But it wasn¡¯t long before his mind eventually wandered its way back towards Makaroth, and hatred seethed out of him and encapsulated all of his thoughts about the game. It frustrated him beyond belief, that he couldn¡¯t control his anger any longer and let out a loud shout of frustration to no one but himself, punching his fist into the cushion of the couch.
It felt good for a moment, but only a moment, and soon the frustration was building up again. Before he could release it in any way a second time, though, he was distracted out of his thoughts by the sound of knocking on his front door.
Eli looked at the clock on the wall to see it was now 5 a.m. in the morning. He knew Jillian¡¯s night shifts went on longer than that typically, and that she had a key, so his curiosity was piqued. He stood up from the couch and walked to the door, putting his eye up to the peephole to see Shinji standing on the other side in his plain gray suit.
Aegis opened the door and eyed him up and down curiously without saying a word.
¡°Hey. Hae-won informed him you''d just logged out, so I knew you¡¯d still be awake.¡± Shinji spoke first.
¡°Is this about what I just said on stream? Did I break something with my contract? You got here fast.¡± Eli replied coldly.
¡°No, nothing like that. I caught a flight here the moment it happened. And, there was no stream, Tommy cut the broadcast when you logged in just now.¡±
¡°Oh. Yeah. Makes sense. You want to protect your image, huh?¡± Eli replied.
¡°Yours, yeah, but that¡¯s besides the point.¡±
¡°Well I¡¯m done with the streaming thing. Do I have to pay a fine for breaching our contract for that or something?¡±
¡°No, nothing like that.¡± Shinji shook his head with a forced smile. ¡°You¡¯ve already done more than enough for our Network. If you were really going to quit right now, we¡¯d still be very thankful. There was nothing predatory about our contract.¡± Shinji explained.
¡°Then why are you here?¡± Eli asked him curiously.
¡°I¡¯m here for you. Come on, we need to talk.¡± Shinji motioned him to follow before he began walking across Eli¡¯s yard towards the street where Eli spotted a rented Autopod waiting for them. Eli hesitated in following, glancing back towards his living room where he¡¯d be alone with his thoughts. After a moment of consideration, he sighed and quickly put on his shoes, following Shinji to his Autopod.
Chapter 226: An Editors Eyes
Chapter 226: An Editors Eyes
Shinji and Eli had gotten a seat in the corner of a moderately fancy asian-themed restaurant. As they sat down at the table across from each other, both of them swiped their wrist implants over a black plastic bar built into the center of the table. After they had, a menu of the restaurant''s dishes was loaded up into their eye implants, displaying what food was available to order on a small, scrollable screen floating in their peripheral vision.
¡°It¡¯s on me, since it¡¯s your birthday. Well, a day late I guess.¡± Shinji said as he eyed the rising sun that was peeking up over the roofs of the buildings outside the window their booth was next to. ¡°Only place around here still open at this hour, so¡ Just pick whatever you want.¡± He shrugged.
¡°Thanks.¡± Eli replied as he kept his head down, reading the menu. No more words were exchanged until a waitress arrived to take her order, then left once she¡¯d heard their requests, leaving nothing for them to stare at but each other.
¡°You wanted to talk to me about something, right?¡± Eli asked to break the silence.
¡°Yeah. Yeah, more or less.¡± Shinji replied, taking a deep breath. ¡°I worked at VGN for a while. I thought it would be the next step in my career - an upgrade if you will, from my work at Fanta-See network. I left my friends behind. Hae-won, and Tommy, you¡¯ve met them. Even though I did that, they never held it against me.¡± Shinji spoke as his eyes wandered down to the table and he began fiddling with the glass salt shaker that¡¯d been placed in between him and Eli.
¡°Because of my ability to edit fast, in real time, they quickly put me to work for the biggest money makers. Whenever Feng was live, I¡¯d edit his stream. When Makaroth was live, I would edit his. Normally, if you told an editor they¡¯d be working on the number one streamer¡¯s broadcast, they¡¯d be thrilled. I was.¡± Shinji chuckled to himself. He briefly held off speaking to gauge Eli¡¯s reaction, but he had none and was just staring blankly down at the table in front of him.
¡°But, it was short lived. Very quickly, I saw through all of their staged events. VGN regularly worked with planted players, and other streamers, to set up exciting scenarios where the outcomes were rarely not known beforehand. They were and are funneling extra resources to keep their top streamers on top.¡±
¡°What¡¯s your point? That Makaroth and Feng really aren¡¯t that great, and shouldn¡¯t even be in their first spots in the first place?¡± Eli asked him.
¡°No, not exactly. I can¡¯t tell you how Makaroth, Feng, and the other high streamers got into those positions. But even with VGN¡¯s help, they wouldn''t be able to keep those spots if they weren¡¯t good at what they do. My point was that, when you picked a fight with Makaroth, it was never just going to be you vs him. It was going to be you vs all of VGN. Just like when he lawyered you out of streaming a couple days after you started playing. VGN is the largest streaming and broadcasting network in the virtual simulation space, and they¡¯re not about to give up their control so easily.¡± Shinji explained.
¡°If they¡¯re so great and powerful, why¡¯d you quit?¡± Eli asked, raising his head up to look at Shinji with skeptic curiosity.
¡°Because they¡¯re only interested in their hold over the viewer base. It¡¯s all about making money for them. I can¡¯t blame them, but that''s not why I became an editor. There¡¯s no sense of wonder, or adventure. No genuine story to be found, no matter how hard I looked.¡± Shinji continued as he leaned back into the bench on which he sat, while Eli listened silently and tilted his head downwards once more.
¡°Then you came along. You pulled your pants down to win a fight with your classmates. You didn¡¯t care what you had to do to win, you just did it, and you had passion behind it. Sure, you had a bit of anger, but that gave you the drive to push the game to its limits, doing whatever was necessary to come out on top. I saw something in you that I was hoping to find in the VGN streamers. That¡¯s why I quit, and signed a contract with you, but¡¡± Shinji tried to look into Eli¡¯s eyes,
¡°It was selfish of me. I did it in complete disregard for your motivations, only caring about mine. I wanted you to help me tell a great story within the Shattered World Online. I encouraged your anger towards your father for the sake of content. In a way, I staged this - knowing full well what tricks VGN would pull to keep things in their favor, and prop up their top money making streamer.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not your fault that I made the deal with my dad. I made those choices, to play like that.¡± Eli shook his head shamefully.
¡°Yeah, maybe. But I enabled it.¡± Shinji shrugged. ¡°For that, I am sorry.¡± He bowed respectfully towards Eli. Eli hesitated in replying, and at that time a waitress arrived with their food and set the plates out on the tables in front of them. They both respectfully thanked the waitress as she left, then turned to their meals.
¡°I¡¯m actually starving.¡± Shinji commented as he quickly dug in.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter either way now. I ended it all. Gave leadership of Rene away.¡± Eli explained to Shinji.
¡°Is that what you really want? For it to be over?¡± Shinji asked as he finished swallowing a mouthful of food.
¡°I only played to get back at him, and it was stupid. It ended up hurting my mom, which is the last thing I wanted to do. And, well, he won anyway, right?¡± Eli motioned across the restaurant towards a bar, where several broadcasts were being played. None of them were clearly visible to the pair, given their distance from the screens across the restaurant, but Shinji understood what Eli meant.
¡°Hm. Maybe.¡± Shinji nodded. ¡°But did you really actually care about that?¡± Shinji stopped eating to stare at Eli with a raised eyebrow.
¡°That¡¯s why I was aiming for the top.¡± Eli replied.
¡°Hm.¡± Shinji nodded again before taking another mouthful of food.
¡°What?¡± Eli asked him curiously, seeing that he had more he wanted to say.
¡°It didn¡¯t look like that to me.¡± Shinji put his fork down after swallowing the next bite. ¡°I watch everything you do. In some ways, I know you better than you know yourself. I can angle your livestream cameras to capture your next actions, because I can predict them. To predict them, I need to understand intent. What does Aegis want to do in this situation? Why does he want to do it? What is he willing to do to get it done? These are questions I have to be able to answer, constantly. It¡¯s my job.¡± Shinji began to explain as Eli decided to take his first dig into his own food.
¡°You saved Arallia. That had nothing to do with your dad.¡±
¡°I got all of those viewers from it¡¡± Eli replied.
¡°Yeah, you did. But I know you - you didn¡¯t plan for that, it was just a happy side effect. You didn¡¯t save Arallia for the viewership. You did it because you wanted to.¡±
¡°Well, yeah, those bandits messed with my quest giver.¡±
¡°Not just your quest giver, the entire island. All those players and NPCs¡¡± Shinji nodded in agreement.
¡°Yeah, exactly.¡± Eli joined in nodding.
¡°But, you were having fun doing that. Everything you¡¯ve done since you founded Rene, you¡¯ve been having a blast with. I saw it in your eyes, and your enthusiasm. I think that''s why now, you want to quit.¡± Shinji explained.
¡°I don¡¯t follow¡¡± Eli looked at him curiously.
¡°Well, based on your words, it seems like you think that if you admit you enjoy the world inside the simulation, and accept the reality within that world for what it is, you¡¯re also admitting that Makaroth was right. That¡¯s what¡¯s angering you so much right now, right?¡± Shinji asked before focusing on his food once more. Eli didn¡¯t immediately reply, but instead thought on his words for a moment.
¡°I¡¯m angry because all of it is stupid. They worship him in that fake world, with fake gods. Fake islands. Fake NPCS¡¡± Eli¡¯s voice trailed off into silence as Shinji stopped eating and gave him a judgemental stare. ¡°None of it really matters. It¡¯s just a game. Because money is involved, they all take it so seriously. But at the end of the day it¡¯s just a stupid game.¡±
¡°Hm. You don¡¯t really believe that, do you?¡± Shinji asked, and got no immediate response. ¡°If you think this is just a useless hunk of metal, then that¡¯s what it is for you.¡± Shinji held up his fork. ¡°If you think it¡¯s a tool for eating, then that¡¯s what it is, to you.¡± He went on. ¡°If you think it¡¯s just a game, then it¡¯s just a game. But¡¡± Shinji didn¡¯t need to finish his next sentence, Eli already knew what he was going to say.
¡°You¡¯re allowed to have fun in that world, and be immersed in it. It never needed to have anything to do with him.¡± Shinji said after a few more mouthfuls, while Eli fell into silence with his head down. ¡°Deal or not, I think those adventures still would¡¯ve taken place, because you were having fun with your friends. You got so into the game world that all of your viewers were pulled in along with you. You showed everyone a different way to experience the game, without all of those theatrics that VGN uses.¡±
¡°That¡¯s all gone, now, though.¡± Eli replied weakly.
¡°Because Makaroth came after you? You really think you can¡¯t come back from that? I¡¯ve seen these tricks pulled a few times. There¡¯s ways back, trust m-¡±
¡°No. Not because of him. Because of me.¡± Eli replied as Shinji watched tears drip down from his face onto his plate in front of him. ¡°You¡¯re right, but I got so mad after seeing him, I lost it. I lied to my mom, I yelled at Renault, Derrick, even Lina and the others¡ I already ended it all.¡±
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¡°Yeah, that sounds tough. I didn¡¯t see what happened, but I can imagine. Something like that¡¯ll hurt.¡± Shinji nodded, reaching over and putting his hand on Eli¡¯s shoulder.
¡°There¡¯s no way they¡¯re gonna trust me after that. They all think I¡¯m exactly what Makaroth is saying I am. Angsty kid with anger issues, throwing a tantrum at his dad.¡±
¡°Hah.¡± Shinji let out a burst of laughter, but quickly pulled it back in as Eli looked up at him with surprise. ¡°Sorry, just, that¡¯s rich coming from him, based on what I know.¡± Shinji shook his head. ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I meant. If they¡¯re truly your friends, I guarantee you that they¡¯ll forgive you, if you explain yourself properly. But before that you¡¯re going to have to admit something that might be hard for you.¡±
¡°What¡¯s that?¡±
¡°That it¡¯s not just a game to you. That you love playing the Shattered World Online. That the world that Makaroth currently sits on top of is real, and does matter.¡± Shinji pulled his arm back from Eli¡¯s shoulder and leaned into his bench once more, while Eli tilted his head back down to stare at his table in silence again.
Eventually, the two went back to eating without exchanging many more words, until finally finishing, paying for the check, and standing up to leave. As they headed out of the restaurant though, Shinji nudged Aegis and pointed out one of the livestream broadcasts on display on the wall of the restaurant as they passed by it. The sound was muted, but there were subtitles on display at the bottom.
¡°Don¡¯t believe Makaroth¡¯s lies. It¡¯s all a setup!¡± Keldan shouted to his audience, with Swiftstar, Vriflow and Rocknight nodding along with him in agreement. ¡°I was Winters¡¯ classmate, I know the truth. Makaroth¡¯s just trying to make his son look bad. What kind of decent dad does that, huh?¡± Keldan continued.
His viewership sat well above 100,000 much to Eli¡¯s surprise.
¡°You¡¯ve sown a lot of seeds already, since you started playing the game.¡± Shinji smirked as he watched Eli¡¯s dumbfounded expression. Of all the people Eli thought might stick up for him, Keldan had to be near the bottom of the list. The pair continued out of the restaurant side by side, back into Shinji¡¯s rented autopod. As it automatically drove back towards Eli¡¯s home, he began fidgeting with his wrist implant out of sheer curiosity, navigating to Miranda¡¯s stream. Sure enough, her viewership was also abnormally high and sitting at above 250,000. She was also defending him, in a similar manner to Keldan, whilst walking around Kordas.
When the autopod finally pulled up to Eli¡¯s house, he closed out of his implants and turned to Shinji who smiled at him.
¡°There we are.¡± Shinji leaned back in the chair and sighed. ¡°Ultimately, it¡¯s up to you if you quit, or keep playing. My intention was not to come here to convince you. Like I said, you¡¯ve done so much for Fanta-See network already, we can never thank you enough. I only want to help you see what I saw in you, as I worked as your editor these past months. Because sometimes it can be hard to see things about yourself.¡± Shinji explained. ¡°Whatever you choose to do, just know that me, Tommy, and Hae-won, will support you to our fullest ability.¡± He gave a polite bow.
¡°Thanks¡¡± Eli bowed back respectfully before opening the door and stepping out. Once he had, he spotted Jillian¡¯s autopod already parked in the driveway once more.
¡°Good luck.¡± Shinji said with finality before the door was shut, and his autopod drove off down the street by itself.
Eli stood on the street for a few moments, knowing full well that Jillian would be home now. He wondered if she¡¯d be sleeping already, or waiting for him, and took a deep anxious breath to try and calm himself down. As he stepped forward and walked across their lawn towards his front door, he pondered heavily on everything that Shinji had said.
Once in front of the door, he stopped again and hesitated before finally turning the knob and opening it. Immediately upon entry, the smell of his favorite meal wafted into his nose. As he was processing this, he looked down to take his shoes off and saw two other pairs set up beside Jillians¡¯ that he didn¡¯t immediately recognize. Once his shoes were off, he slowly walked forward down the main hall of his house until he came into view of his kitchen table, where he saw Jillian, Selena, and Derrick all sitting there, waiting for him.
¡°Hey, you¡¯re back.¡± Jillian smiled. ¡°They were both waiting at our front door for you when I got home, so I invited them in.¡± Jillian explained while motioning to Selena and Derrick, and Eli nodded back as he glanced between the three of them. ¡°I was¡ we were worried about where you went. Is everything okay?¡±
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s fine. Shinji just came by, took me out to dinner.¡± Eli explained.
¡°Oh¡ Well, I guess you aren¡¯t hungry anymore, then.¡± Jillain shrugged, awkwardly motioning to the plates of food that she¡¯d set out for everyone. Eli nodded weakly in response, followed by an awkward silence as everyone refused to look at one another. The silence was finally broken by the sound of Selena¡¯s chair scraping out from under the table, and she shot up from her chair and lunged at Eli, throwing her arms around him with tears in her eyes.
¡°Even if you don¡¯t want to play, I still want to be your girlfriend. Please don¡¯t break up with me. I know it was just a game, but I really love being together with you.¡± Selena cried out, her voice muffled as she dove her head into the shoulder of Eli¡¯s black dress shirt. Derrick and Jillian both watched Eli and Selena with expressions of concern, anxiously waiting for how Eli would react as he looked down at the top of Selena¡¯s head, seeing nothing but her shiny black hair but feeling her arms around him.
He put his arms around Selena to pull her in tight and hug her back, but didn¡¯t respond. Rather, he looked up to meet Derrick and Jillian¡¯s eyes.
¡°I¡¯m sorry too. I kept pressuring you to play, even though I knew how you felt about it. It was a shitty thing to do, I was only thinking of myself.¡± Derrick said once he was sure he had Eli¡¯s eye contact.
¡°I also should not have yelled at you.¡± Jillian spoke up, ¡°Seeing him again, with that woman, triggered a lot of dark feelings inside of me, and I may have lashed out at you for it. Truthfully, I should have told you that I turned down his money. I was angry at him, too, for a long time. But I tried so hard to convince you not to be. I was, and am, a hypocrite. I can¡¯t blame you for trying to hold such a grudge.¡± Jillian explained as she shamefully lowered her head.
Just as Shinji had told him, they were all still there. There was still the one thing Eli knew he had to do though, and he took a deep breath before saying it, feeling Selena hold him tighter.
¡°It¡¯s not just a game.¡± Eli spoke, the three listening to him intently. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to admit it so I got angry when he came after me and I lost. But, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s just a dumb game.¡± Eli explained as Selena pulled back just enough to be able to look up at him. ¡°You talked me into playing, and I¡¯m glad you did.¡± Eli turned to Derrick. ¡°Because of that, I got to know my mom better than I ever have. I got to get close to Selena, who I¡¯ve grown really close to, and I¡¯ve made a lot of friends and experienced things that are just not possible in the real world. I love the game. I started out taking it seriously because I wanted to tear down David, yeah, but, to be honest, it¡¯s barely been on my mind lately. I want to just keep playing with you guys. This has been the best Summer of my life. I¡¯m sorry for yelling at you,¡± Eli motioned to Derrick again as he began to smile. ¡°And, I¡¯m sorry for hiding it from you. I really just want to keep playing together, with everyone.¡± Eli said with desperation in his voice, and tears streaming down his cheeks.
It wasn¡¯t long before both Jillian and Derrick rushed forward and joined in on the hug, the three of them squeezing Eli together.
¡°I really messed things up with everyone, huh?¡±
¡°Nah, after you left, Quinn scolded everyone pretty badly. I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re all waiting for a chance to apologize.¡±
¡°Even Ruffily?¡± Eli asked.
¡°Eh, you should probably apologize to Ruffily, that was pretty mean with the woof thing.¡± Derrick nodded as he backed out of the hug, as did Jillian, but Selena continued to hold on tight.
¡°And Rakkan¡ you think he¡¯ll forgive me?¡± Eli asked.
¡°He should understand what it means to lose your temper more than anyone.¡± Selena answered.
¡°Just, be careful, he¡¯s young, and our friend.¡± Jillian cautioned Eli.
¡°Right.¡± He replied while wiping his tears away. ¡°Man.¡± He let out a deep sigh of relief. ¡°It feels good to finally admit that I like the game.¡±
¡°I know, right? You don¡¯t need to act like you¡¯re just playing to get back at him anymore. We can forget all about him and just play.¡± Derrick grinned.
¡°Nuh uh.¡± Jillian shook her head at the three of them, cracking her neck excitedly. The three turned to look at her, slightly confused.
¡°Earlier, I said I¡¯d be mad at him if I wasn¡¯t so busy being mad at you. Well, I¡¯m done being mad at you, so¡¡± Jillian smirked.
¡°What, you want me to keep trying to get revenge on him?¡± Eli asked her with a look of surprise.
¡°No, not you. Me. I¡¯m already over what he did to me. But this time, he came after you, his own son, and tried to tear you down right in front of my face.¡± Jillian looked forward with a terrifying expression of determination whilst pushing past the three into the hallway, then heading towards her Simbox. ¡°No more miss nice Pyri.¡± Jillian growled.
¡°Guess we better get back to our Simboxes?¡± Derrick asked the others, and both Selena and Eli nodded. Derrick moved past into the hall, leaving Selena and Eli alone in the kitchen, but Selena gently tugged on his shirt to stop him from leaving the room.
¡°I didn¡¯t bring the birthday present with me right now, so¡¡± her face flushed bright red as she used all of her courage she could muster to rise up onto her tippy toes and quickly kiss Eli on the lips. He, too, quickly flushed red in the face and the pair looked away from each other awkwardly.
¡°Can¡¯t get forced to log out in the real world, huh?¡± Eli chuckled after a few seconds of awkward silence between the two, causing Lina to giggle as well.
¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go,¡± Derrick snapped his fingers to hurry Selena along.
¡°Right. Bye.¡± Selena nodded, smiling at Eli one last time before she rushed out of the house with Derrick, leaving Eli alone with Jillian. Eli headed to the living room to see Jillian already putting on her Simsuit.
¡°Did you say anything to your boss?¡± Eli asked her.
¡°Didn¡¯t have to. He¡¯s a big fan of your stream and knows who we are now. He practically forced me to go back home to do something about this VGN character attack going on.¡± Jillian shook her head while pursing her lips to the side.
¡°Heh.¡± Eli let out a huff of air as he began putting on his simulation suit as well. ¡°Do you have a plan, then?¡±
¡°Nah, well¡ maybe.¡± Jillian shrugged. ¡°First, we¡¯re going to need to get things back to normal. You need to properly apologize to everyone and be honest with them, so they can forgive you. Also, get the leadership of Rene back from Chax.¡± Jillian explained.
¡°Right.¡± Eli nodded, but once he¡¯d finished putting on his Simsuit he stood frozen in front of his Simbox, staring at it and going deep into thought.
¡°Hey, relax. Just keep playing the way you¡¯ve been playing.¡± Jillian put her hands on his shoulder to snap him out of his trance.
¡°How have I been playing?¡± Eli asked her.
¡°Hmmm. Well, you¡¯ve always been a protector. When you see someone who needs help or is in trouble, no matter who they are, you try to protect them.¡± Jillian shrugged. ¡°You did it with me, that¡¯s why you made that deal. You did it with Rakkan, even though he attacked you. Luryala, Arallia, Savika, the Dark Elves, Quinn¡ And anytime someone has messed with us or any of your friends, you aim to take them down no matter the cost. You¡¯re pretty spiteful, in that way.¡± She smiled. ¡°That¡¯s how you¡¯ve always been, even before this stuff with your father.¡± She added
¡°Right.¡± Eli nodded back with hesitation, as once again his mind filled up with ideas and possibilities on his path forward - and this time there was no guilt or anger seething into his thoughts alongside it.
¡°That kid hurt Rakkan, burned down Rene, and stole Snowflake¡¯s soul.¡± He clenched his fists shut tight, grinning demonically to himself which Jillian caught a glimpse of. ¡°Someone¡¯s gotta stop him.¡± He mumbled as he and Jillian climbed into their Simbox¡¯s and loaded up the simulations.
Chapter 227: Honesty
Chapter 227: Honesty
Aegis entered into the Shattered World simulation within the meeting room of the Rene town hall. Nearby, focusing on several parchments set out before them on the table was Chax and Ruffily, deep in a discussion. The sound of Aegis logging in stirred them, though. They both quickly looked up to see him standing there, with expressions of surprise.
¡°You¡¯re back?¡± Chax spoke first.
¡°Yeah. I¡¯m back¡¡± Aegis shrugged awkwardly at the pair, while Ruffily avoided eye contact with him. A long silence followed his words as Chax began to look around the room uncomfortably.
¡°I¡¯m sorry. For getting angry. I¡¯ve been in denial about loving this game, because doing so means I acknowledge Makaroth, who I hate. But, some friends helped me realize that, I just enjoy it, and it¡¯s okay - it has nothing to do with him. I love working together with you to make Rene prosperous,¡± He motioned to Chax, ¡°and I¡¯ve loved working with you to build up this from nothing. I especially like your woofs, and that your tail wags whenever you are happy.¡± Aegis motioned to Ruffily.
¡°Really?¡± She looked up at him with watery eyes, and he heard the sound of her tail beginning to whack the back of her chair despite him not being able to clearly see it.
¡°Yeah.¡± Aegis nodded and smiled. ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten that you were the very first player that ever helped me in this game.¡± He added. ¡°I¡¯m also sorry for dumping Rene on you¡ I hope you guys can forgive me, because I¡¯d really like to keep playing with you both.¡±
¡°I forgive you, woof!¡± Ruffily cheered.
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯d be a bit mad if my old man did stuff like that to me too, so I can understand. But, you¡¯re mistaken, you didn¡¯t dump Rene on us.¡± Chax shrugged.
¡°I didn¡¯t?¡± Aegis raised an eyebrow.
¡°You confirmed that you wanted to give me leadership of Rene, but logged off before I could decline the offer. Both people have to accept, so, you¡¯re still the Lord of Rene.¡± Chax smirked.
¡°Oh. Really?¡± Aegis replied awkwardly as he went into his interface to confirm it. Sure enough, he remained the Lord and Ruler of the Lord of Rene.
¡°Yep.¡± Chax nodded.
¡°Okay. Well.¡± Aegis pondered for a moment. ¡°Good thing I came back, I guess.¡±
¡°Mhm.¡± Ruffily nodded with enthusiasm, while Chax chuckled.
¡°Do you think you could gather everyone back here? I¡¯d like to apologize to everyone properly.¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Yeah. Well, most of them. I don¡¯t think Rakkan will listen, though. He¡¯s pretty set on leaving. Amlie convinced him to stay a bit longer to train some new guards first, at least.¡± Chax shrugged.
¡°So he¡¯s at the training hall?¡± Aegis confirmed.
¡°Yep. Woof!¡± Ruffily replied.
¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go talk to him then.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°I¡¯ll let everyone know you¡¯re looking to chat, including Quinn and the other guilds.¡± Chax replied. Without another word, Aegis left the town hall building and made his way out onto the streets of Rene where he saw Pyri waiting for him expectantly. She looked at him, he smiled, then continued walking down the paved roads of Rene in the direction of the training grounds, Pyri following behind him wordlessly.
When he arrived at the training grounds he spotted Amlie sitting on a bench off to the side, with her head down. Rakkan was across the grounds with several rows of NPCs, some named and some not, all copying his movements and training basic combat stances while wielding wooden sticks. Aegis didn¡¯t recognize most of the NPCs, but one of the youngest stood out to him - Farlion¡¯s son.
As Aegis began crossing the grounds to approach Rakkan, Pyri headed towards the bench that Amlie sat on, and took a seat beside her whilst causing her to look up at her, then worriedly towards Aegis as he approached Rakkan.
¡°Take a break, guys. I¡¯d like to have a word with Rakkan.¡± Aegis spoke loudly, interrupting the NPCs current movements. They all quickly complied and bowed respectfully in Aegis¡¯ direction, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. As they began walking away, Rakkan locked eyes on Aegis and the two stared intently at each other until Aegis finally continued his approach and walked closer to him. Eventually, the pair broke eye contact and both looked down at the ground.
¡°Chax told me you were here training new guards to Protect Rene. Thanks for that.¡±
¡°Wasn¡¯t about to leave everyone here unprotected like you did.¡± Rakkan replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
¡°Well, I¡¯m back. Turns out Chax didn¡¯t even take the lordship from me.¡±
¡°I know.¡±
¡°Look. I¡¯m sorry for what I said.¡± Aegis replied as the two looked up at each other.
¡°Are you?¡± Rakkan asked with his eyes squinting. Aegis hesitated in replying for a moment, staring back and seeing the anger in his eyes - and it somewhat annoyed him.
¡°Partially. Why didn¡¯t you listen to me?¡±
¡°Why¡¯d you send Lina away?¡±
¡°Because I was trying to look at the bigger picture.¡± Aegis sighed. ¡°Look, I know what that guy did to you. I get you are pissed off at him, hell, I¡¯m pissed off at him too. He stole Snowflake¡¯s soul after I just by some miracle managed to bring him back as a golem. He burned our village, killed all our guards and killed Farlion. Do you not think I¡¯m pissed off at him?¡± Aegis shouted, causing Pyri and Amlie to both stand up and worriedly take a few steps in their direction.
¡°Then WHY WOULDN¡¯T YOU HELP ME KILL HIM?!¡± Rakkan shouted back angrily.
¡°BECAUSE WE COULDN¡¯T!¡± Aegis shouted back. ¡°Not like that. Not by rushing in mindlessly, consumed by anger.¡±
¡°Why not?! We beat an abyssal invasion, we killed the Avatar of Jealousy. He¡¯s the acting avatar of Hatred - he¡¯s just a player, not a raid boss!¡± Rakkan shouted back.
¡°Did we stop the invasion by just running at them angrily?¡± Aegis retorted. ¡°Or did we plan it out, methodically, and strategically place our assets in our favor in order to pull out a victory. And even then, still BARELY won!?¡± Aegis snapped at him, and following this the two glared at each other for a moment as Pyri and Amlie began rushing over. Aegis held his hand out to signal them to stand back, though, which they both hesitantly complied to.
¡°I¡¯m going to go after Seraxus. I¡¯m going to take out that sword. I¡¯ll keep my promise. But the only way we¡¯re going to beat someone like that is if we plan, methodically, and prepare properly. Not by running at him, swinging our weapons like a wild mindless barbarian. Do you want to help me, or not?¡±
¡°You know damn well that I do. I want nothing more than to break that sword and tear him down for what he did to me, my grandpa, and all of Puagas! He¡¯s my enemy, not yours!¡± Rakkan shouted back.
¡°Then I need to know that I can trust you! That I can rely on you to keep a cool head, and follow a plan. Because if you can¡¯t, we¡¯ll never succeed. You¡¯re not the only one who has someone in this game world that pisses them off, but if we both keep losing it every time they¡¯re around, we¡¯ll never win.¡± Aegis declared, followed by another long silence between the pair. This time, the NPCs were now listening intently as they stood off to the side of the training grounds.
¡°The next time we fight him, can I trust you to work with us calmly, as a team?¡± Aegis asked, and with these words, Rakkan looked briefly at Amlie before staring back down at his feet. He went silent, pondering Aegis¡¯ words for a long few moments as Aegis waited for a response.
Eventually, though, Rakkan mumbled a few inaudible words with his head down, which Aegis couldn¡¯t fully understand.
¡°Huh?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°I said I¡¯m sorry. Sorry for losing my cool like that. You¡¯re right. I should¡¯ve listened. I just¡ after seeing him again after so long, then watching him kill everyone around me again¡ I lost it.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry too. I said a lot of stuff out of anger as well. I was in denial about how I feel about the game, and, well, I lashed out.¡± Aegis replied while extending his hand out towards Rakkan. ¡°We¡¯re both just a couple of angry nerds, but we¡¯re still friends. Let¡¯s take Seraxus down, together.¡± Aegis said as Rakkan looked up to meet his eyes. A slight smile crept onto his face as he reached out and grabbed Aegis¡¯ hand, and the two shook. As they did, Amlie let out a loud audible sigh of relief.
¡°I got Zuon in trouble and mom said if he comes to my island again to attack me and my friends, she¡¯ll forbid him from playing the game anymore.¡± Amlie quickly joined into the conversation, approaching the two with Pyri beside her.
¡°That means if we want to take him out, we¡¯ll need to go on the offensive, huh?¡± Pyri shrugged.
¡°I know the perfect place. Somewhere where you are forced to fight to the death, and there¡¯s no escape.¡± Aegis smirked, and Rakkan nodded.
¡°You guys are going to join the gladiator tournaments?¡± Amlie asked with wide eyes. None of them replied - instead, Aegis turned from the training grounds and started walking back in the direction of the streets of Rene once more.
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¡°Come, we¡¯re gonna have another meeting with everyone in the town hall.¡± Aegis motioned them to follow.
¡°I¡¯m sorry for lying to everyone. I¡¯ve been hiding who I was partially because of the actions Makaroth took with lawyers to silence me as Winter, but primarily because I wanted to raise up my reputation from outside his shadow.¡± Aegis spoke now to a full town hall of players. Included within were all of the same individuals that had been there the days prior, though they all looked much more complacent and willing to listen to him.
¡°Is what he¡¯s saying true? That you had a deal with him to make him delete his character if you surpassed him?¡± Christoph asked curiously.
¡°Yeah. That¡¯s true. Originally, that¡¯s why I started taking the game seriously.¡±
¡°Heh.¡± Artaphernes shook his head and chuckled.
¡°I didn¡¯t know anything about the game back then, just that it was his domain, and everyone here worshiped him. So I hated everything about it¡ but¡ As I came to play more with my friends and got to know the world, I slowly changed my mind. I met all of you, and had so much fun playing together with everyone. I didn¡¯t want to admit it but, I have come to love this game world just as much as you guys do. I didn¡¯t save Arallia, or Kalmoore, out of spite. I did it to protect the things I care about in this game world.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t know about any of this, by the way. I¡¯ve just been playing for fun the whole time.¡± Pyri added as a few eyes turned to her.
¡°So you¡¯re not mad at Makaroth? He¡¯s also saying not so flattering things about you in his interviews¡¡± Quinn raised an eyebrow at her.
¡°Oh no. I¡¯m pissed. I¡¯m going to destroy him and his entire little guild of puppets.¡± Pyri replied with a terrifying look of determination appearing on her face.
¡°But first¡¡± Aegis cleared his throat, giving Pyri a look. ¡°We¡¯re going after Seraxus. If someone doesn¡¯t stop that sword, he¡¯s going to just keep terrorizing other players like he tried to do here.¡±
¡°Sounds like Makaroth is going to stop him in the tournament though, right?¡± Christoph replied with a raised eyebrow, but got several chuckles and sighs of disbelief from half the room.
¡°You really think that Makaroth is going to seriously try to break that sword?¡± Sapphire bit into a carrot.
¡°That was obviously just a publicity stunt.¡± Herilon joined in.
¡°I doubt Makaroth will even enter the tournament himself. He carefully chose his words to imply he¡¯d be putting a team of his guilds PvPers in the tournament. Facing Seraxus directly would be too big a risk to his image. That¡¯s all he cares about.¡± Pyri replied coldly.
¡°Alright, but then¡¡± Artaphernes leaned forward over the table. ¡°That means you plan on picking a fight with not only the Top PvPer in this game world, but the top streamer, and potentially the entire network that backs both of them. Is that what you¡¯re saying?¡± Artaphernes clarified.
¡°Yeah.¡± Aegis nodded back, panning his eyes around the room and pausing on Yuki to gauge her reaction, but saw only curiosity in her eyes. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m mentioning it first, to all of you. I understand that Kalmoore is a peaceful island, and you¡¯ve all worked hard to keep out bad actors, allowing players who love the lore and immersion of the world to live out peaceful lives here. So, I¡¯d understand if you want us to leave and not draw any more anger towards this place.¡± Aegis explained, and following his words, there were murmurs of silence and several members turned to chat with one another.
¡°That¡¯s fair.¡± Quinn stood up from her chair and looked over the room. ¡°In this room are the major pillars of this community. If we continue forward in supporting Aegis, we will likely be dragged into a violent conflict with many bad actors that could threaten to destabilize our peace, so let¡¯s put it to a vote. If anyone objects to participating in this, now¡¯s your chance to speak up.¡± Quinn explained as all eyes turned to her.
¡°Raise your hand if you are willing to sacrifice everything we¡¯ve built in order to help Aegis and his party take down Seraxus.¡± Quinn said, and following this, raised her hand. Aegis and his party kept their hands down, but saw Herilon quickly join Quinn, followed by Tullan, Sapphire, Josephine, Erikson, Amlie, Chax, Ruffily, Yuki, and Trexon.
Christoph, Anazia, and Artaphernes kept their hands down as they looked around the room, but Miranda quickly raised her hand up as well, nudging at Christoph.
¡°C¡¯mon. He¡¯s my class-mate. Also, his dad really is a big fake. I know you hate guys like that too.¡± Miranda rolled her eyes at Christoph. Christoph let out a reluctant sigh before raising his hand.
¡°I hope we don¡¯t regret this.¡± Christoph replied. All eyes now turned to Anazia and Artaphernes.
¡°Art?¡± Quinn prompted him. ¡°If anyone says no, we won¡¯t do it. This needs to be unanimous.¡± Quinn explained, to which Aegis gave a nod of understanding.
¡°Aw hell¡¡± Artaphernes sighed, leaning back in his chair. ¡°So many whales come to play here because of how low risk their investment into the game world is on this island. Since Aegis saved the island, they¡¯ve never felt safer. Profits in my Kordas casinos are way up.¡± Artaphernes explained as he exchanged looks with Anazia, and Anazia smiled as she knew what was coming next.
¡°I¡¯d like to keep my profits safe and secure, but when the guy who made it all possible comes along, needing my help¡ I can¡¯t say no. Honestly, I like you more now that I know you¡¯re not actually a goody two-shoes Eirene follower, but actually just a spiteful healer.¡± Artaphernes shrugged, reluctantly raising his hand up, which was followed by Anazia joining in. With that, all hands were raised within the meeting room, and the group let out several cheers of excitement.
¡°Guess that¡¯s that. Kalmoore is declaring war on Seraxus.¡± Quinn smiled at the group. ¡°I assume you¡¯ve got a plan?¡±
¡°Not yet. That sword is insanely strong - it¡¯ll kill anything it touches. Not only that, Seraxus is extremely good at the game.¡±
¡°Best battlemaster there is.¡± Herilon nodded in agreement.
¡°You played with him for a long time, is there anything you can tell us about him that might help us out?¡± Aegis turned to Rakkan, and all eyes fell on him.
¡°Uh. well¡¡± Rakkan awkwardly rubbed his hand through his orcish hair. ¡°He¡¯s a kid, like me. He¡¯s easy to provoke, I guess¡¡±
¡°Yeah, I saw that when Aegis fought him. You managed to set him off without even really trying, just by hinting at him teaming up with Makaroth.¡± Artaphernes nodded.
¡°I¡¯m not gonna feel too good about emotionally provoking a 15 year old to win, though.¡± Aegis sighed, and got a few nods of agreement. ¡°Anything else?¡±
¡°Let¡¯s see¡¡± Rakkan rubbed his chin for a moment. ¡°They relied on me for the lore. They¡¯re not the type to do research or look up and try to find hidden things in the game world. They get most of their discoveries from his chat, not themselves. They¡¯ve always been like that in all the games we play together. Extremely skilled mechanically, but¡¡±
¡°Got it.¡± Herilon nodded. ¡°You¡¯re saying they rely heavily on their mechanical skill rather than game knowledge.¡±
¡°So that means it should be fairly easy to blindside them with attacks and spells they¡¯re unfamiliar with.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Or items.¡± Tullan nodded.
¡°Ok. Good. We can work with that.¡±
¡°How are you planning to fight him, exactly?¡± Christoph asked.
¡°In the gladiator tournament, 5 weeks from now.¡± Aegis explained.
¡°5 weeks isn¡¯t a long time. You don¡¯t even have your advanced classes yet¡¡± Christoph replied.
¡°Not to mention, you¡¯ll need to qualify for the tournament by earning gladiator marks. I don¡¯t think any of you have stepped foot into an arena yet to earn some, right?¡± Quinn asked as she motioned to Aegis and his party.
¡°And on top of that, you¡¯ll need to find an answer for that sword.¡± Artaphernes joined in.
¡°Yeah.¡± Aegis nodded as he looked around at everyone staring up at him. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to need everyone¡¯s help.¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°Tullan, Yuki, I need you two to power level your crafting professions. The most likely answer to that sword will be within your advanced crafting classes - so get your skills as high as you can within the next 5 weeks and look into any and all leads on rare, powerful crafting materials. Use any resources you need from Rene to do this.¡± Aegis said.
¡°Got it.¡± Yuki gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.
¡°Aye, suppose I can dip into Kordas¡¯ funds to power level meself a wee bit.¡± Tullan grinned as he eyed Quinn and she nodded approvingly at him.
¡°Trexon, please use your knowledge of ancient runes to research any and all possible leads on a way to stop that sword. From what I understand, the original avatar of hatred was defeated and sealed within the sword inside Puagas. That means, someone or something was able to stop Hatred from between Hrath¡¯mir, and a year ago. There¡¯s gotta be some record of that, somewhere. If you come across any unique runes that a Rune Knight might be able to use, please save those as well.
¡°Got it.¡± Trexon nodded.
¡°Everyone else, please prepare yourselves with as much PvP knowledge as you can acquire. If you can help out with our advanced quests to speed them along, that would be great too.¡± Aegis finished, and got several nods.
¡°I¡¯ll help out your ranger. I recently completed my advanced quest, so it¡¯s still fresh in memory.¡± Quinn smiled at Darkshot, and he nodded back at her excitedly.
¡°Alright. We¡¯ve got a lot of work to do then. Our guild sucks at PvP.¡± Christoph admitted as he and Miranda stood up.
¡°Anything else?¡± Artaphernes asked as he stood up as well.
¡°No¡ that¡¯s all for now but¡¡± Aegis paused to pan his eyes over the group once more. ¡°Thanks, you guys. For forgiving me, and making this game so much fun to play.¡±
¡°D¡¯aw, he¡¯s gonna make me blush.¡± Sapphire replied sarcastically as she stood up as well, causing a few people to chuckle.
From there, one by one the players began funneling out of the meeting room, passing by Aegis and his party near the doors leading outside.
¡°Glad you¡¯re back.¡± Erikson patted him on the shoulder as he left.
¡°Me too.¡± Josephine smiled.
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis bowed to them. Eventually, Yuki approached and smiled at Aegis, but he held his hand out to stop her from leaving.
¡°Yuki¡ sorry about all of this¡¡± Aegis spoke to her.
¡°Hm? I don¡¯t mind. Power leveling is great, lots of fun - I can try out many design ideas all at once.¡± Yuki smiled enthusiastically.
¡°No, not that¡ I mean, with Yumily being with VGN and all¡¡±
¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯m working independently.¡±
¡°Will Yumily get mad at you?¡±
¡°I doubt it. She doesn¡¯t really like them much anyway.¡± Yuki grinned.
¡°Okay. good. Glad to hear.¡± Aegis replied before Yuki bowed once more and continued out of the room with Ruffily and the others.
¡°So¡¡± Quinn was the last to be leaving the room, and stopped beside Aegis in the doorway. ¡°When I first learned that you, Winter, were still playing on our island¡ you know what I said to Herilon?¡± Quinn asked, and Aegis shook his head.
¡°No, what¡¯d you say?¡±
¡°I told him that things in Kalmoore were about to get interesting.¡± Quinn smirked. ¡°Understatement of the century.¡± She added, causing Lina, Darkshot, Rakkan and Pyri to chuckle. ¡°What are you going to be starting with? You¡¯ve got a lot of ground to cover in 5 weeks.¡±
¡°Well¡¡± Aegis looked down at his shield. ¡°Before I finish my advanced class quest, I oughta make it so I can start gaining shield mastery experience again.¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°You¡¯re going to go for Advanced Shield Mastery? Baffo¡¯s been working on that nonstop since he hit advanced Guardian. You realize no one in the game has passed that quest yet, right? It¡¯s supposedly insanely hard compared to the other advanced mastery quests.¡± Quinn explained, raising her eyebrows at Aegis curiously.
¡°Oooh boy.¡± Darkshot sighed.
¡°You shouldn¡¯t have told him that.¡± Pyri shook her head as a big grin grew over Aegis¡¯ face.
¡°Mom, I need a portal to Kordas, right now.¡± Aegis said with excitement.
Chapter 228: The Spiteful Healer
Chapter 228: The Spiteful Healer
¡°Three weeks.¡± Aegis spoke through his party interface. He was in a group with Pyri, Rakkan, Darkshot, and Lina, but none of them were currently near one another. ¡°In three weeks'' time, we¡¯ll need to be ready for our final preparations to join the tournament.¡±
¡°I know it¡¯s not a lot of time¡¡±
Lina heard his voice as she walked through the streets of the City of the White Tree, with Dark Elf citizens staring at her curiously as she passed them. The long, thick glowing branches of the giant upside down tree were hanging above her, illuminating her face as she continued forward, approaching the Prison of the city on the ground floor of the underrealm, where she knew Viella was waiting for her.
¡°It might be a bit unreasonable to request it¡¡± Aegis continued.
Darkshot walked alongside Quinn through a forest of strange trees whose branches intertwined with one another. There was no path for them to follow through the wild vegetation that grew over the gigantic roots of the nearby trees, but yet both seemed to be following a path they¡¯d sensed using their tracking skills, carefully avoiding razor sharp, wriggling vines that slithered around the trunks of the trees.
¡°But I know how you guys all handle high pressure situations. We¡¯ve already been through a lot of them so far¡¡±
Rakkan began his ascent up a narrow mountain path, the same he¡¯d climbed to acquire his intermediate class. There was a presence of many other aspiring Battlemaster class players, fighting their way up the mountain alongside him. Rakkan ignored them and walked beyond a few as they fought through the lower level enemies on their way to the top - his eyes focused on the ruined city that sat near the peak.
¡°I know that you guys will be able to handle it.¡± Aegis finished.
Pyri stood within the office of Archmage Jael, in the Mage Tower of Kordas. It had long been since repaired from the damage caused by him and Pyri - all of the books were neatly set back on the curved shelves that lined the walls of the circular room. Jael stood behind his desk reading several unrolled parchments, empty scroll cases off to the side. As the doors of his office shut behind Pyri, he looked up from his desk to stare at her.
¡°You¡¯re finally ready to go after your advanced class quest?¡± Jael asked with a raised eyebrow.
¡°The Staff Mastery took a bit longer than I would like to admit, but, yeah.¡± Pyri shrugged.
¡°Good. As I said during our previous encounter, whatever you choose I will support to my fullest ability. But I would be very disappointed if you were still only interested in becoming a Greater Controlmancer.¡± Jael smiled weakly at her.
¡°Oh no. I owe you thanks for stopping me from making that choice. With this intermediate, I¡¯m still able to choose whatever path I want for advanced, right?¡± Pyri confirmed.
¡°Correct.¡± Jael nodded back.
¡°What would you recommend?¡± Pyri asked, and Jael¡¯s grin widened. He stood up from his desk and waved his hands at the air in front of himself, forming three runes in the air in front of him with glowing magical light. Pyri didn¡¯t recognize the symbols that the runes represented, though.
¡°There are three advanced paths that are far beyond the others in terms of difficulty. Offering these paths to one incapable of fully manipulating magic would not only be a waste, but lead to a frustrated, incapable wizard. You, on the other hand, I believe would be more than capable in handling either of the three.¡± Jael motioned to the first rune, a white circle surrounding a shape that looked like an hourglass.
¡°The first is a Chronomancer. You will unlock the ability to utilize advanced spells that are able to manipulate time. Speed it up, slow it down, and even reverse it. Very difficult to understand and utilize.¡± He explained, and Pyri nodded along. ¡°The second,¡± He motioned towards the rune directly above his desk, ¡°A Transmutation Mage. Understand the fabric of this reality. With careful manipulations of magic, you will find yourself able to warp reality, altering the forms of your magic or the objects around you into their equivalencies. A great amount of knowledge and skill is required to draw out the true potential of this path.¡± Jael explained, seeing Pyri¡¯s interest piqued.
¡°And finally,¡± Jael motioned to the last rune, a symbol made up of a dozen staves crossed over each other with a blue coloring. ¡°A Magelord.¡±
¡°What does a magelord do?¡± Pyri asked curiously, leaning in with anticipation for Jael¡¯s explanation.
Aegis approached the Kordas training hall, walking through the grounds beyond the rows of training dummies. There were, like always, a large number of players practicing their skills on the dummies. Some were dueling with each other off to the side of the grounds, practicing their combat skills with large explosive displays of magic that flashed in the corner of Aegis¡¯ eye.
He watched them with interest, but once he reached the bottom of the stairs that led up into the training hall, he tilted his head back to stare up at the gigantic magnificent building, with the large statues of warriors being depicted flanking the huge, open archway leading inside.
He took a deep breath to prepare himself, knowing full well that all of his companions had already completed their Advanced Mastery quests in the time he¡¯d been grinding his mithral. It wasn¡¯t that part that was intimidating him, though - nor was it the prospect of going up against an undefeated quest. Instead, he found himself fidgeting into his interface to his livestreaming button, and held his finger in front of his face over the transparent interface floating in front of him, in his peripheral vision so that only he could see it.
Once more, a deep breath, then a release of air as he slowly tapped the button to activate his livestream. The moment he had, though, the interview button was blinking to signal that Hae-won was waiting to speak with him. In addition, despite going live, his viewership remained at 0. Aegis pressed the button promptly.
¡°Hello?¡± Aegis asked curiously, seemingly talking to himself as he remained standing at the bottom of the training hall¡¯s wide staircase that led up to its main entrance.
¡°Aegis? Can you hear me?¡± Hae-won asked.
¡°Yup.¡± Aegis replied.
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¡°Good! Glad you are back! Really happy. I was worried I was going to have to go back to broadcasting for all your up and coming wannabes.¡± Hae-won sighed with relief.
¡°Wannabes?¡± Aegis raised his eyebrow as he asked her curiously.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Hae-won shook her head dismissively. ¡°So, as you know, your old man is really laying it on thick, and most of VGN is participating¡¡±
¡°Yeah.¡± Aegis replied with a grumble.
¡°It¡¯s not the first time I¡¯ve seen something like this happen.¡± Shinji suddenly spoke, joining into the conversation. ¡°I know how to handle it, and how to come out relatively unharmed¡¡±
¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t care that much.¡± Aegis shrugged. ¡°More important than that right now is that I help Rakkan deal with Seraxus. Makaroth can parade himself around with his bullshit network as much as he likes.¡±
¡°Good, I¡¯m glad you feel that way. Because generally there are two ways to move forward - One, we try to disprove the image he is painting of you. Your committed fans will see beyond Makaroth¡¯s words. The rest of the world¡¯s image won¡¯t be changed by you, those who don¡¯t care enough to look past what VGN is spewing will continue to believe the narrative at large. But those who watch you and matter most will know the truth¡¡± Shinji explained.
¡°Okay¡ and what¡¯s the other way?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Ahem.¡± Hae-won cleared her throat to speak up. ¡°He¡¯s given you a nickname. He turned the abbreviation S. from your class Shattered Healer, and has been calling you the Spiteful Healer.¡± Hae-won explained, to which Aegis rolled his eyes. ¡°But his words and negative narrative, they lose all of their effectiveness if everything he says is true.¡± Hae-won explained.
¡°What do you mean?¡± Aegis didn¡¯t fully grasp what she meant.
¡°I mean¡ If you call a fish a fish, does it really care?¡± Hae-won explained.
¡°Wait¡ but, he¡¯s calling me an angsty, angry, spiteful kid who hates him¡¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t you, though?¡± Hae-won asked, and Aegis could hear the smirk behind her voice despite not seeing her. ¡°He¡¯s the one who took the gloves off. I feel the easiest way out of this is honesty, as your viewers would see through any fakeness.¡±
¡°I¡¯m with Hae-won on this one, believe it or not¡¡± Shinji added.
¡°You guys are just telling me to be myself?¡± Aegis asked as a grin slowly crept across his face as he thought to himself.
¡°Don¡¯t hold back. Be yourself. Embrace the nickname, and you¡¯ll retake control of your image. I¡¯ll handle the rest.¡± Hae-won replied with enthusiasm.
¡°His lawyers won¡¯t be able to do anything, given that he threw the first punch. Ready to go live?¡± Shinji added. Aegis didn¡¯t immediately reply. Instead, he let out a long gasp of air, slowly stretching his arms into the air as his grin towards the sunny skies above turned somewhat demonic. He took it all in, the prospect of not needing to hide anything anymore or hold anything back - it crept into his skin in the form of overwhelming excitement.
¡°Yeah.¡± Aegis finally put his arms down and began climbing the staircase into the training hall. ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡±
¡°Good luck.¡± Hae-won replied before ending the interview. Once she had, his viewership was no longer locked at 0 and quickly shot up to 10,000, then 20,000 and beyond. He looked away, ignoring it and focusing on the task in front of him.
Walking through the large hall along the carpet that stretched down its center, he glanced to the sides where various doorways leading into intermediate class quests sat. There were lines in front of each quest door as per usual - players around the levels of 30 were waiting their turn to take a stab at completing their intermediate quests to move on from beginner. Seeing them brought back memories of Aegis¡¯ own attempts at the quests, having completed the Shield Mastery Intermediate on his first try.
This time, though, his destination wasn¡¯t any of the doors in this hall. As per the instructions given to him by his party, he¡¯d learned that the advanced quests were found in the floor below. Towards the end of the hall he spotted a large staircase that led downwards. He descended the steps, leaving behind the bulk of the other players on the floor above.
Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, they opened up into a large circular room with archways leading out of it in all directions. There were tons of varying archways with no doors in front of them, symbols etched into each keystone that represented every type of weapon mastery available in the game.
In the center of the circular room was an altar, with the statue of a Knight that had every type of weapon protruding out of his torso and pointing in the direction of the respective weapon¡¯s archway. At the base of the statue were stone benches, set in a circle around him where several exhausted players sat, some looking quite dejected.
Aegis started by stepping towards the center statue where the other players were gathered, some talking amongst each other. All of them were level 150, and some he recognized - particularly Baffo and Uggard. Baffo was the main tank and guardian player for the Night Hunter¡¯s guild, and Uggard was the same for the Blades of Kalmoore. The pair were both in a deep discussion with one another, looks of frustration on their faces as Aegis approached and interrupted their conversation.
¡°Ah, Aegis. Was wondering when you¡¯d show up here.¡± Baffo stood up from the stone bench and extended his hand to shake Aegis¡¯ which he obliged.
¡°Finally gonna take a stab at the advanced shield mastery quest?¡± Uggard asked as he too stood up and shook Aegis¡¯ hand, while simultaneously motioning towards the archway with the shield embedded into the keystone.
¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve heard no one has beat it yet, is that true?¡± Aegis asked them curiously.
¡°That is correct, and for good reason.¡± Baffo nodded.
¡°Yep. Like the others, the skill assistance is gone, but¡ man. What it expects you to do, it¡¯s unreal.¡± Uggard said, and Baffo nodded.
¡°We originally tried looking for a gimmick of some sorts, you know? Some sort of mechanic that was required for us to understand in order to clear thq quest, but¡ we¡¯ve been talking with some other players trying this quest on other islands, and that doesn¡¯t seem to be the case.¡± Uggard explained, while Aegis nodded along.
¡°So, no gimmick?¡± Aegis confirmed.
¡°No, it doesn''t seem to be. Just pure skill. You¡¯re either a master with a shield, or you¡¯re not.¡± Baffo shrugged, and Uggard nodded in agreement with him.
¡°There¡¯s no line up, though?¡± Aegis asked as he turned towards the archway.
¡°Nope. It¡¯s not like intermediate - it¡¯s a single player dungeon scenario. Once you step through the archway, you¡¯re teleported to a private dungeon just for you and given the quest. If you fail, you get kicked out and can start again after a 1 minute delay.¡± Uggard explained.
¡°Well, that¡¯s good at least.¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°We¡¯ll see if you still feel that way after you try it a few times.¡± Uggard and Baffo chuckled.
¡°It forces your pain threshold to level 10, by the way. It¡¯s required for all of the advanced mastery quests.¡±
¡°Oh, right¡¡± Aegis went into his interface and adjusted his pain threshold to 10, having set it to 1 during his fight with Jealousy. ¡°Wish me luck, I guess.¡± Aegis shrugged as he began walking towards the shield archway.
¡°Good luck. If you beat it, I¡¯m going to watch your footage back and copy you.¡± Baffo called out to him as he walked away.
¡°Please don¡¯t beat it on the first try, you¡¯ll make us look bad.¡± Uggard joined in with a chuckle. A few quick steps later Aegis found himself standing directly in front of the archway. Now that he was close, he saw that there was a light, transparent wavy wall of blue magical energy that was shimmering beyond the archway. Seeing it, he took a deep breath, glimpsed at his viewership of now 300,000 people, then stepped forward through the archway and into the shimmering light.
Once he had, his vision went blank and he was hit with several prompts.
Chapter 229: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt.1
Chapter 229: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt.1
|
Quest: Close the Voidrift within 15 minutes.
Objective: 0/1 Voidrift closed
Quest Giver: Advanced Mastery Dungeon
Reward: Shield Mastery(Advanced)
Difficulty: Extreme (III)
Restrictions: Shield Mastery(Intermediate): 150
|
| Entering Unique Dungeon: Altar of the Maelstrom
Dungeon Option 1: Dying in this dungeon will reset the dungeon and eject you. Re-entry is possible after 1 minute.
Dungeon Option 2: Your equipment and available skills are altered while within this dungeon. Only Shield Mastery related skills, items, and abilities will be usable.
Dungeon Option 3: Pain threshold is set to and locked at 10 for the duration of this dungeon.
Dungeon Option 4: Attacks that hit your shields or guards will deal no damage.
|
Aegis quickly read the messages, then looked downward to confirm his claws had been removed from his hands. In addition, his red, salamander scaled leather armor was replaced by plain simple leather armor, and his mithral shield was replaced by a plain iron shield. A second later, the black darkness that surrounded him disappeared, and he appeared in the middle of a ruined street.
Everything around him was frozen and unmoving, but a countdown timer appeared in his peripheral vision.
| Dungeon Will begin in 10¡ 9¡ |
It was counting down the start of the scenario. Aegis had 10 seconds to take in his surroundings before everything would unfreeze and go into motion. In front of him, he saw 3 soldiers wearing equipment identical to his own, though unlike him they had spears. In the middle of the three, an elven priestess with long shining silver hair and pointed ears protruding out from under it was standing. All four of the NPCs were tagged as Elite and were frozen in poses that implied they were rushing toward down the streets in front of them.
Aegis looked down the street to get a sense of where they were heading - the ruins reminded him heavily of Belmiure in terms of the structures that lined the streets. Made of obsidian blocks, most of the buildings were crumbling to pieces, but unlike in Belmiure, the destruction appeared recent. The furniture within the buildings was not decaying or decrepit, and several of the buildings were on fire. Smoke was rising up in pillars all over the city, but it had nowhere to go as they were in a deep underground cavern - somewhere in the underrealm.
Despite all of these similarities though, with a few quick glances Aegis could tell that this wasn¡¯t Belmiure exactly, but instead a city of possibly the same civilization in ancient times.
More distressing was that threats that Aegis was able to quickly perceive. The streets ahead of them on which the NPCS appeared to be running lead right up to a giant obsidian block chapel, of which the roof had been torn off and gigantic creatures were pouring out of it into the skies above the burning city. Aegis hadn¡¯t countered many void creatures thus far, aside from Mosmir. There were Mosmir¡¯s present, he saw them frozen in place as they scurried out of the destroyed chapel, but they were a minority and barely seemed to be a threat compared to the size of the other gigantic creatures climbing out of the building.
¡°Close the voidrift.¡± Aegis said to himself, taking a deep breath as his eyes glanced between the elven priestess, and the chapel. ¡°She¡¯s the closer. Gotta keep her alive.¡±
| Dungeon will begin in 3¡ 2¡ |
He fastened the straps on his ironshield onto his left arm tightly.
¡°Simple in concept¡¡± he mumbled to himself, cracking his neck and preparing for the dungeon to begin.
The dungeon unfroze. Aegis broke into a sprint to keep up with the Priestess and three other knights that ran alongside her.
¡°If we don¡¯t close it quickly, there won¡¯t be anything left!¡± The priestess called out frantically. The guards were visibly terrified of continuing forward towards the chapel, but the priestess ran with determination. Aegis knew he couldn¡¯t afford to hesitate, based on Baffo and Uggard¡¯s descriptions of the quest. The sound of screaming filled his ears from the surrounding city. The familiar scurrying of Mosmir stampeding around the nearby streets caused the ground to quake, while vicious roars of peculiar void entities filled the skies.
One particular void creature, resembling a giant black stingray, suddenly burst out of the chapel a few 100 meters in front of them. It was initially small, with its side flaps furled inward, but as it got further into the sky above the city, it unfurled its flaps and extended a long razorsharp tail out of its back.
It had no eyes and no visible mouth, and its skin was odd - like a shimmering reflection of a night sky that was mesmerizing to stare at.
¡°DO NOT LOOK AT IT!¡± The priestess shouted in terror. Aegis quickly complied, looking down back towards the priestess, but one of the three guards was not so quick to follow his instructions. Mesmerized by the skin of the void stingray, he stopped running forward alongside the others and began staring blankly up at the void stingray, whilst its body seemed to expand in size as it soared high above the city within the gigantic underrealm cavern.
Seconds later, his skin went black, and shimmered in the same way as the void stingray. Then, he began to evaporate, his essence flying upwards towards the creature as his armor and shield fell to the ground - and his body was added to the creature as it grew in size.
¡°Fuck me.¡± Aegis mumbled to himself, as this single instance reminded him just how terrifying void creatures were, even in comparison to abysslings. Before he could fully take it all in, though, a Mosmir Soldier suddenly burst through the walls of one of the obsidian buildings lining the street, extending its pincers out in an attempt to slash at the Priestess. Aegis reacted quickly and dashed forward, swinging his shield up at the pincers and managed to brace the attack. Following this, though, another Mosmir appeared atop the buildings on the opposite side of the street, scurrying along the roofs.
It lunged down at them, attempting to slash at one of the other guards who hadn¡¯t noticed its arrival. Aegis wiggled his fingers to cast guard and projected a shield in front of the guard and stopped the abduction. Just as the dungeon had said, he took no damage from either attack, and had a feeling that based on his armor he¡¯d die in one hit if he ended up failing to block an attack with his shield.
The Mosmir soldiers were not about to give up after two failed attacks, though, and they began scurrying after the group as they continued running forward towards the chapel. Aegis covered their rears, blocking several more strikes from the pursuing Mosmir soldiers who were unfortunately much faster than the group. It was only several blocked strikes later that he heard a familiar air sucking, warping sound coming from the area in front of the group.
Aegis turned his head to look in front of the priestess and two guards, seeing that a Mosmir Voidreader had teleported onto the road in front of them, cutting off their path towards the chapel while simultaneously charging up a voidball within its shimmering black pincers and preparing it to fire it at them. The priestess and two guards froze, staring at it fearfully.
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¡°Fuck if I¡¯m gonna try blocking that shit ever again.¡± Aegis shouted, glancing between the terrified guards and yanking a spear out of one of their hands, then thrusting it over the Priestess¡¯ head in the direction of the voidreaver. He recalled that any attacks directed at a Mosmir Voidreaver would interrupt its voidbeam attack as it would teleport away to dodge it.
It worked - as the poorly thrown spear flew through the air towards the voidreaver, it teleported off of the street and onto the roof of a nearby building, clearing the path before them.
¡°Go, run!¡± Aegis shouted desperately at the NPCs. Being Elite, they were able to overcome their fear thanks to his words while simultaneously AEgis was forced to turn back and focus on blocking two more strikes from the Mosmir soldiers behind him. After blocking them, the NPCs ran forward, and the familiar humming of a charging void beam could be heard from the voidreaver that now stood atop a building lining the street. This time, it was aiming its beam in Aegis¡¯ direction.
He briefly glanced up at it, sighed in frustration, then bent his knees and prepared for what he had to do next.
Aegis jumped backwards to avoid two swipes of Mosmir pincers from the Soldiers, then dashed to the side as the Voidreavers beam shot out from its pincers and blasted into the obsidian paved street where he¡¯d been standing. The beam was a channeled effect, meaning that so long as nothing interrupted the voidreaver, it would continue to aim the beam towards Aegis.
The last time he¡¯d fought these, he had his companions with him to interrupt them, though. This time, he had nothing. The voidreaver adjusted the path of the beam as it blasted along the street, following Aegis and forcing him to continue running from it. The beam moved slower than Aegis, but wasn¡¯t slow by any means as it pursued him, making a disturbing, sound absorbing hum that silenced the sound of Aegis¡¯ own footsteps as his leather shoes tapped on the streets nearby.
¡°Keep running!¡± Aegis tried to shout to the NPCs in front of him, but his voice too was seemingly absorbed by the void beam nearby. He partially hoped that at least, with the voidbeam now chasing after him from behind, that the soldiers wouldn¡¯t pursue. But he soon learned that the beam had no effect on the Mosmir Soldiers, and they completely ignored and ran through it to attempt to lunge out at Aegis from behind with their pincers. He was forced to spin around and block their strikes with his shield before continuing forward behind the others.
In that time, unfortunately, another Mosmir voidreaver had teleported onto the street ahead of them and began charging up a beam. Following Aegis lead, this time the other guard copied his attack by throwing his spear forward at the Mosmir. It worked - interrupting its beam and forcing it to teleport away to a nearby building before beginning to channel its beam. This one however wasn¡¯t aiming its beam at Aegis, but at the guard who¡¯d thrown the spear at it.
¡°Get ready, it¡¯s aiming at you!¡± Aegis called out, but his voice was absorbed by the pursuing beam behind him. The guard continued rushing forward alongside the other guard and priestess, unsuspectingly, as Aegis saw the second voidreavers beam charge up and aim at him. Aegis contemplated using guard to block it, but he knew being hit by that beam would be a game over for this quest - that couldn¡¯t possibly be the answer.
In his moment of hesitation, the voidreaver fired its beam and hit the guard, causing him to stop running and fall to his knees in pain. Aegis had no voice but to keep running past him, leaving him behind, as he still had a beam pursuing him alongside the two soldiers.
They were closing in on the chapel now, and thankfully after a few meters more of running, Aegis¡¯ managed to cut off line of sight with the voidreaver that had been aiming its beam at him. Furthermore, the voidreaver had seemed to lose interest and didn¡¯t teleport to get closer and attack again but rather teleported deeper into the city, leaving Aegis with just the two pursuing Mosmir soldiers.
But just as they came up onto the small staircase leading into the front entrance of the destroyed chapel, a flood of black liquid came pouring out of it, splashing down the stairs towards them. The moment the liquid appeared, both Mosmir soldiers screeched in terror and stopped pursing Aegis. Instead, they both turned tail and fled from the liquid as Aegis looked forward and saw it spilling out over the streets towards the final guard and the priestess.
¡°Watch out, Priestess Ysilda!¡± The guard shouted, moving to stand in front of her and putting his shield down to block the liquid from touching her.
¡°No, do not touch it!¡± The priestess cried out, backing away frantically towards Aegis who stood behind her. The guard heard her warning too late, and the moment the black liquid came into contact with him, tiny oily tendrils shot up out of the liquid and grappled him on multiple parts of his body, yanking him down into the liquid where his body and equipment were quickly dissolved.
Aegis looked forward and saw that the liquid still kept coming - it was flowing out of the chapel like an endless wave, but at the same time knew they needed to somehow continue forward.
¡°Guard.¡± Aegis projected his shield vertically in front of them, like a platform. ¡°Get on!¡± Aegis called out to the Priestess, jumping up onto the shield projection as it hovered a meter above the ground. Aegis jumped up first, then held his hand out for her to take. She listened, taking his hand, and he pulled her up onto the shield to stand on it with him, holding her tight so that neither would fall off as the black liquid flowed over the obsidian streets that they¡¯d been standing on.
¡°I¡¯m going to hold you and jump, don¡¯t resist.¡± Aegis explained, and she nodded understandingly. He held her tightly in his arms and jumped off of his shield projection as its 2 second duration was up, then quickly recast a new projection below them, slightly higher than the previous one.
In the small moment that there was no projection of his shield beneath their feet, the black liquid attempted to shoot out oily tendrils up at them, but his new projection had been formed quick enough to block them.
¡°Wait for it to pass.¡± Aegis explained, and she nodded, but her eyes then suddenly went wide.
¡°Behind you!¡± She called out, causing Aegis to spin around on his small platform of footing where he saw a voidreaver had teleported to the roof of a nearby building and was aiming at them.
¡°Of course.¡± Aegis sighed in frustration. A second later, the beam finished charging and shot out towards them. Aegis quickly lifted the light elven priestess up off her feet, holding her cradled in his arms as she allowed it to happen, then jumped to the side out of the path of the void beam while simultaneously recasting his shield projection beneath his feet at a new location.
The voidbeam missed, but the reaver continued to angle it to pursue Aegis, curving it through the air. He was limited in directions he could jump to avoid it, as the tall walls of the ruined chapel were on his right, and his left was the voidbeam. He bent his knees as the beam closed in, then used all of his character''s strength stat to launch himself high into the air, several meters up above the beam. Once high, he recast his shield projection and watched the voidreaver curve the beam upwards in pursuit.
To his right, he saw the possibility of jumping into the chapel through its broken roof after another leap, so did exactly that. He jumped up with great strength onto a fourth shield projection, which gave him a view into the chapel over the top of its destroyed front wall.
From here, the void rift in question came into view. A black mass of swirling wild magical energy of which the void creatures were spilling out of en-masse. Some of the creatures were somehow, luckily, destroying each other as they squeezed out of the rift, but this resulted in absolute chaos within the chapel itself.
¡°How close to you need to be to close the rift?¡± Aegis asked her as the pair looked down into the chapel with wide eyes.
¡°Within 5 meters.¡± The priestess explained.
¡°Right.¡± Aegis rolled his eyes, glancing between the rift and the voidbeam still being angled towards him. He took a deep breath, then jumped off of his shield projection onto the top of the ruined walls of the chapel. As the voidreaver curved its beam towards him this time, it crashed into the outside wall of the chapel and began disintegrating it, but Aegis didn¡¯t stick around and quickly jumped down into the chapel, falling 8 meters to the floor in a spot he saw the black liquid had vacated.
The voidreaver¡¯s beam canceled on Aegis once he jumped down, as he¡¯d broken line of sight with the voidreaver, while simultaneously the last of the black liquid creature had finished seeping out of the chapel through the door. The moment Aegis landed on the stone floor of the chapel, several meters away from the rift, he saw three Mosmir¡¯ soldiers hiss and chitter in his direction, scurrying out of the rift. Aegis raised his shield and prepared to block their attacks, but before they got close enough to him to strike, suddenly three gigantic reptilian heads shot out of the rift behind the Mosmir and snapped their gigantic fangs around the Mosmir, crunching into their hard chitinous bodies and killing them instantly. Only one of the three heads had a red name floating above them, labeled [Void Hydra(ELITE) - Level 180)]
¡°Don¡¯t move.¡± The priestess quickly whispered. Aegis understood and complied immediately as they watched the rest of the Void Hydra¡¯s gigantic body stomp out of the rift, gulping down the bodies of the Mosmir soldiers in a single bite. Aegis could see the lumps in the hydra¡¯s three throats as it swallowed their corpses, simultaneously raising its three heads up above the walls of the chapel. Once it had, the center head let out a violent roar that was amplified by the other heads joining in. Aegis and the priestess remained completely still, as Aegis recalled many void and underrealm creatures lived in pitch darkness and therefore likely had strangely adapted methods of perception.
¡°He made it to the chapel on his first try.¡± Baffo commented, as he and Uggard sat side by side on the bench outside, elbows on their knees and chins on their hands. Both had Aegis¡¯ livestream open in their livestream viewers, watching intensely with serious expressions on their face.
¡°That kid¡¯s something else. But, that was just the easy part.¡± Uggard took a deep breath.
Chapter 230: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt.2
Chapter 230: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt.2
Aegis and the elven priestess Ysilda stood motionless, the loud vibrating warping sounds continuously echoing out of the rift in front of them. Their eyes were staring up at the long necks of the curious hydra, as it rotated its three heads above the destroyed walls of the chapel, taking in the city sights.
After a long, tense few moments, the hydra seemed to pick up on something that piqued its interest, and began stomping forward. The rest of its body formed out of the rift behind it as its large front claws crashed through the walls of the chapel in front of it, walking through them as if they did not exist in the first place.
The obsidian blocks of the structures exploded outward and scattered along the streets and nearby buildings outside, and the hydra dragged its large thick torso along with it using the force of its legs until the creature had completely left the building. Unfortunately, in doing so, it completely destroyed the chapel walls all around the front of the building, removing any cover that the structure was providing for Aegis and Ysilda from outside threats.
Still, the pair waited motionlessly, until Aegis was sure it was far enough away that it wouldn¡¯t turn one of its heads back to look at them and see them moving about.
¡°How long will it take to close it?¡± Aegis asked, speaking only loud enough to be heard by Ysilda over the sound of the rift.
¡°A few minutes.¡± Ysilda replied in equal fashion.
¡°Get started, I¡¯ll keep you safe.¡± Aegis took a deep nervous breath. Ysilda nodded and stepped forward, her eyes on the rapidly rotating strands of black void energy that were whipping outwards and rotating around the condensed, large orb that was the rift. The pair took a few steps forward to get Ysilda in range, cautiously and quietly preparing for any other creatures that might begin pouring out of it.
Once close enough, Ysilda held out her hands in the direction of the rift and closed her eyes, and bright holy light began to seep out from between her eyelids. Moments later, her hands as well began to glow, and she began murmuring an incancation using a language unfamiliar to Aegis.
The moment she had, the white light from her hands also appeared at the center of the rift in front of them, and slowly began to expand and consume the rift.
Aegis kept watch, looking in all directions for any potential threats while primarily keeping his eyes on the rift itself. Not long after Ysilda¡¯s ritual began, a large black mass of starry skin erupted out of the top of the rift and began soaring upwards. Aegis recognized the pattern on the creature''s skin to quickly identify what it was - another one of the stingray monsters that would kill you if you looked at it. Aegis quickly jerked his head away in the opposite direction, towards where the entrance of the chapel once stood.
There, he saw a pale elf rushing towards him from the street, wielding a double-sided glaive in his hands and a long black cloak with the hood down. He had short silver hair that flowed behind him as he rushed forward with determination. Aegis wasn¡¯t immediately sure what to make of it until he got close enough to look up at Aegis in the eyes, where Aegis saw his eyes glowing black with void energy and a grimace on his face.
¡°You will not destroy my beautiful creation!¡± The elf, now with his name visible as [Kilyak(Elite) - Level 163)], shouted at Aegis. This line told Aegis all he needed to know about what to expect from this NPC, and with no hesitation he lunged forward with his glaive pointed at Ysilda. Aegis moved in front and blocked the strike, but he quickly spun the double-sided glaive around in his hands to strike at her with the opposite end of it. Aegis moved to block it, and he repeated the motion - striking left, right, left, then right repeatedly. Aegis was forced to jerk his shield back and forth rapidly to block each strike in quick succession.
After a few more attempts, Kilyak altered his attack pattern to add in a jump strike where he swung one of the glaives downward at Aegis from above. Once Aegis raised his shield up to block it, he swerved the glaive horizontally to strike at Aegis from underneath his shield using the other end of the weapon. Unfortunately for Kilyak, Aegis was still able to pull his shield downward to block the strike from below in time. With the experience he¡¯d had with PvP in the last few weeks, a single attacker with a glaive wasn¡¯t going to be enough to get past his shield - his reaction time was more than enough to keep up with these strikes.
The situation was completely under Aegis¡¯ control with Ysilda safely behind him, up until the moment he began to hear a strange reverberating hissing sound coming from the rift, and a long pink tongue began to wriggle out of it. Both Aegis and Kilyak eyed the tongue out of the corner of their eyes as it retracted back into the rift, and a moment later the head of a gigantic, voidscaled serpents head protruded out of the rift. The scales were pitch black and appeared to absorb nearby light, each scale giving off its own unique shimmer. The eyes of the snake itself were a dull yellow, and it¡¯s head alone was double the size of Aegis.
As more of its head formed from out of the rift, a grin grew over Kilyak¡¯s face.
¡°I get it now.¡± Aegis mumbled to himself. ¡°Intermediate quest was a mechanics check. A tank has to not just be able to block attacks, but understand everything that their enemy is capable of.¡± Aegis called out to Kilyak, but Kilyak gave no reaction. ¡°What¡¯s a¡¡± Aegis asked rhetorically, eying the red name that appeared above the snake''s head - [Void Serpent - Level 193].
Once its head had fully formed, it stopped moving forward and panned its yellow eyes towards Kilyak and Aegis. Kilyak stopped attacking and unequipped his glaive, causing it to disappear from his hands. The instant he did, the Snake lunged its head towards Aegis with his mouth open, revealing razorsharp silver fangs that attempted to snap down on Aegis¡¯ body. Aegis was quick to react, jumping backwards away from the snake as its large serpent body extended out of the rift.
One jump back wasn¡¯t enough - it slithered after him and lunged several more times. Aegis found himself jumping backwards repeatedly, back into the streets in front of the chapel. He attempted to utilize one of the obsidian structures lining the streets for cover, but the serpent easily crashed his head through the walls as if they were made of paper, chomping his fangs down on where Aegis had been standing repeatedly.
¡°Why¡¯s it going after me but not them?¡± Aegis asked himself curiously, staring up at Kilyak and Ysilda over the body of the long serpent, seeing that Kilyak was preparing his fists to strike out at Ysilda. ¡°Guard!¡± Aegis shouted, projecting his shield out in front of Ysilda to block the strike, but as he did, he understood it. ¡°The iron¡.¡± Aegis looked down at the shield he was still wielding. Too late, he¡¯d realized why Kilyak unequipped the glaive when the serpent appeared.
The moment he casted guard, the snake lunged at him again. Aegis knew now he was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he unequipped the shield he wouldn¡¯t be able to cast guard, but if he kept it equipped the snake wouldn¡¯t leave him alone. To make matters worse, he heard the familiar humming sound of a voidreaver beam charging up. Glancing across the street towards the roof of a nearby building, he saw that he¡¯d caught the attention of another Mosmir Voidreaver.
He jumped up off of the ground to get overtop of another lunging strike from the snake and landed on top of a ruined obsidian building not far from the chapel. Once atop it, he quickly cast guard in front of Ysilda to block another fist strike from Kilyak and saw that the serpent¡¯s body had finally finished forming - its tail was now visible slithering out of the rift. From there, he dashed to the side as the void beam fired out from the Mosmir voidreavers pincers at him, absorbing sound as the black energy narrowly missed hitting his legs.
¡°I don¡¯t have time to redo this quest over and over again.¡± Aegis gritted his teeth and glared at the various creatures attacking him and Ysilda. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the Voidhydra still rampaging in the distant city. With it in his sights, an idea came into his mind. He began running atop the obsidian structures, repeatedly casting guard at its maximum range around Ysilda to protect her from a flurry of strikes from Kilyak, while simultaneously jumping repeatedly over lunging strikes from the serpent. His goal was to angle the path of the void beam from the voidreaver out in the direction of the hydra to bring it back.
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After jumping over a few more buildings and creating more guards, it worked. The voidreaver wasn¡¯t aware enough of its surroundings to realize that the beam it was aiming at Aegis shot past him, through the air and across the open city above the buildings, hitting the otherwise preoccupied void hydra in the distance.
Once hit in the back, the void beam bounced off the scales of the hydra and it let out a ferocious roar, turning all three of its heads to glare at Aegis, the serpent, and the Voidreaver who promptly ended its beam. The hydra then turned its body and began stomping aggressively towards them, tearing through any and all obsidian structures in its way and knocking them over with its might.
The serpent hadn¡¯t noticed, it was so focused in on the iron of Aegis¡¯ shield that it continued to lunge out at him, while the voidreaver turned tail and ran with several teleports away. Once the Hydra got close enough to Aegis, he froze in place and held up his shield, allowing the serpent to lunge his head into it and blocked the attack. Due to the dungeon option, he took 0 damage from it, and the motion drew the attention of the hydra whose three heads lashed out at the body of the serpent, biting into its black scales.
The serpent let out a horrific hissing sound which mixed in with a strange whale-cry coming from a gigantic void stingray flapping its fins in the sky far above the city, which Aegis had to resist the urge to look up at.
The only movement Aegis did was a wiggle of his fingers, recasting his guard repeatedly in order to keep blocking attacks from Kilyak as he repeatedly struck out at Ysilda. Eventually, Kilyak gave up and turned to glare across the ruined streets to see Aegis, and the Hydra feasting on the dying serpent that now had several chunks bitten out of its body. The serpent died, but the Hydra remained beside Aegis, forcing him to stay completely still.
Seeing this, Kilyak equipped his glaive again and grinned at Aegis, preparing to strike it out at Ysilda. Aegis knew full well that while his guard could keep up with unarmed strikes, the glaive strikes could attack too quickly from various angles, more than his guard skill alone could handle.
¡°Fuck it.¡± Aegis sighed, breaking into a sprint as he simultaneously guarded the first glaive strike on Ysilda. The moment he started running, all three of the hydra heads jerked upwards and followed his movement. It stomped after him, abandoning the corpse of the serpent and crushing it under its flaws as it moved forward quickly behind Aegis, whilst Aegis ran up the stairs into the chapel and thrust his shield forward at Kilyak, bashing him in the side to interrupt a secondary swing of his glaive down on Ysilda.
¡°I AM WILLING TO DIE FOR MY CAUSE. ARE YOU?!¡± Kilyak laughed maniacally as he saw the Hydra approaching behind Aegis.
¡°Nope.¡± Aegis replied. ¡°Shield skills are allowed. That includes shield bash.¡± Aegis said to himself, bashing his shield into Kilyak again to push him backwards into the rift. Once Kilyak touched the rift, it distorted his body slightly and caused parts of it to disappear, then reappear, but otherwise didn¡¯t seem to deal damage or had any lasting effects.
The hydra had arrived and gotten close enough at this point to strike out at Aegis, shooting its long necks out like spears with gigantic snouts filled with razor sharp fangs inside its jaws that collapsed down around where Aegis had been standing. He jumped to the side to dodge one, then jumped backwards to dodge another. The third, he was forced to jump back again into the rift itself to avoid it.
As he did, his body was partially transported between locations. Part of his body remained in the chapel, another seemed to enter a strange, unfamiliar world of the void where everything appeared like a starry night sky, and Aegis felt an intense surging pain through all of his muscles. He quickly closed his eyes to avoid dying to whatever he was looking at, but not before seeing a large pool of warping black liquid hovering towards him on that side of the portal.
Using his legs still in the chapel, he ran forward to pull himself out of the rift in time to see Kilyak rushing at Ysilda under the rising heads of the Hydra as it prepared to strike out again.
¡°Guard.¡± Aegis shouted to block the glaive strike on Ysilda, while simultaneously the hydra roared out in anger with two of its head, and the third lunged down at Aegis again. He jumped to the side and the snout crashed into the obsidian block floor of the chapel, destroying it and sending chunks of stone and debris upwards into the sky - of which the majority fell into and was absorbed by the rift.
Aegis then lunged at Kilyak and bashed his shield into his side, knocking him off balance once more and pushing him away from Ysilda. He then glanced back at the rift and confirmed what he had seen - the black liquid began seeping through the rift towards their side of the gameworld, pouring out around their feet and creeping towards them. The hydra didn¡¯t seem to care, and the liquid neared the hydra''s feet and rather avoided getting too close to it as if afraid of it.
It was seconds before the liquid reached his and Ysilda¡¯s feet, and he already knew what would happen if it did. Kilyak did as well, and quickly got back to his feet and jumped up onto some nearby pieces of rubble created by the collapsing chapel walls, to get off the ground.
¡°I¡¯ll keep you within 5 meters of the rift.¡± Aegis said to Ysilda. She couldn¡¯t reply she was still murmuring her incantation. He had no choice but to assume that picking her up wouldn¡¯t interrupt it. Aegis swiped his arms under her calves to sweep her off her feet and cradle her in his arms while she maintained her incantation, her eyes continued to glow - as did her hands. Aegis was relieved that the spell hadn¡¯t been interrupted, but that was short lived as the liquid pooled towards him rapidly.
Where Kilyak had jumped was safe, but it was more than 5 meters away from the rift. Aegis had to find alternative methods of keeping Ysilda protected from the liquid monster.
¡°Guard.¡± Aegis shouted, casting it in the air above him, then jumping up on top of it just in time to get away from the liquid seeping towards him.
With the projection between him and the floor, the liquid poured outwards without shooting up any tendrils, much to his relief. His movement, however, prompted a reaction from the Hydra¡¯s three heads. Aegis saw their shadows extending up over him from behind in the light of the many flames now burning across the city, and let out a desperate sigh to himself.
Aegis canceled his guard after jumping forward off of it, just in time to get out of the path of a lunging strike from the hydra¡¯s middle head. He recast his guard a meter away, orb walking around the rift and catching his footing just in time to prevent several black tendrils from grabbing him that had lashed out from the pool of oily black liquid below them on the ground.
Kilyak was forced to do nothing but stay completely still in order to avoid drawing the attention of the hydra, as he had no clear method to attack Aegis given his current position. The hydra made another strike a moment later, forcing Aegis to jump again. After several more jumps to dodge the hydra¡¯s strikes, Aegis saw the liquid on the ground below slowly slinking away, seeping out of the chapel and into the surrounding city. Aegis sighed with relief at this, but Kilyak had a different reaction. His eyes were on the void rift, where Ysilda¡¯s light within it had grown and was beginning to overtake the void energy of it.
¡°You will not undo my creation. This world will fall into the void, and you will not prevent it!¡± Kilyak shouted, drawing attention unto himself from the hydra, but he didn¡¯t seem to care. He then suddenly plunged his glaive into his own chest, and following this his body exploded into a black mist that engulfed Aegis, Ysilda, and the Hydra. Several debuffs then appeared on Aegis, which he could only assume also appeared on Ysilda and the Hydra as well.
|
[Greater Mosmir Voidreaver Lure]
[Greater Mosmir Soldier Lure]
[Greater Void Hydra Lure]
[Greater Void Serpent Lure]
[Greater Void Ooze lure]
[Greater Void Beholder Lure]
[Greater Void Ray Lure]
[Greater Ilmian Lure]
[Greater Mimic Lure]
|
The list of debuffs was unrealistically large. The only good news was that in order to spread them, Kilyak had committed suicide in some odd way.
¡°5 meters.¡± Aegis said to himself anxiously as he removed the guard under his feet to drop to the ground of the chapel, while all three heads of the hydra panned to look at him. Simultaneously, the sound of endless amounts of void creatures began to hiss and roar throughout the burning city, and strange sounds began to come from within the rift itself. Every void creature that had made it through the rift was now coming to its defense, stomping towards them.
¡°Holy shit.¡± Baffo leaned forward anxiously, clutching his fists together nervously.
¡°No one¡¯s gotten this far before.¡± Uggard took a deep anxious breath. Both of their eyes were wide, peeled to their livestream viewers floating in front of their faces. ¡°He used the hydra on the snake.¡±
¡°I know, I saw. I never thought to call that hydra back.¡± Baffo replied. Aegis¡¯ viewership had shot up to 1 million once more, and Hae-won¡¯s rapidfire commentary focused on nothing but his gameplay.
Aegis carefully lifted Ysilda up over his shoulder, so that her body hung over the back of it, head down with her eyes closed - she remained focused on the incantation despite the odd way Aegis was holding her over his shoulder. He was grateful for how light weighted elves were, and with her in this position he could somewhat utilize his left arm to block incoming attacks. Pairing that with his guard, he felt he stood a chance, and dug his feet into the ground, preparing for the oncoming swarm of enemies that were announcing their approach through various roars, hisses, and screeches from within the rift and throughout the city.
Chapter 231: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt.3
Chapter 231: Advanced Shield Mastery Pt. 3
¡°Level and damage doesn¡¯t matter, as long as I block it. It¡¯s purely about game knowledge.¡± Aegis whispered to himself, taking a deep breath as the three heads of the void hydra loomed above him and the nearby rift, the center letting out a feral roar. They then proceeded to snap their fanged snouts down towards Aegis with lightning speed, forcing Aegis to flick his shield into each strike. Once he¡¯d blocked all three, they didn¡¯t let up and continued with more strikes, slowly pushing him back as he did his best to hold his ground with Ysilda over his right shoulder.
Within seconds he began to hear the scurrying and chittering of approaching Mosmir converging on his location from the surrounding burning city. The first began clamoring up over the rubble of the destroyed chapel walls. Initially, it was just soldiers, and Aegis briefly glanced over his shoulder to gauge their distance and speed at which they were approaching. It wasn¡¯t long before he heard the familiar hum of void reavers charging up their beams.
There were three, aiming at him from varying locations, and he had no cover and no way to interrupt them. The only thing he was certain of was that the void beams were good at provoking the hydra.
Aegis prepared to dash forward into the hydra, timing his movement to coincide with breaks in the hydra¡¯s three headed attacks. Once he had his timing down, he dashed forward under their recoiling long black-scaled necks, but was forced to back off and stop his plans when he spotted a black liquid seeping over the chapel floor between him and the claws of the hydra.
Just as black tendrils were preparing to shoot out from the ooze at Aegis, he quickly cast guard and jumped up on top of his shield, causing the tendrils to latch onto the underside of his shield projection. He then uneasily launched himself forward off of the projection towards the hydra, while three void beams shot out from nearby voidreavers and converged on where he¡¯d been standing.
Aegis was barely able to land on the back of the hydra¡¯s large bulky torso, tumbling and almost falling over off of the other side of it. The hydra didn¡¯t appreciate this and hissed out angrily, turning its heads around without any difficulty in order to face him, as if they were on a swivel. The ooze showed fear of getting too close to the hydra and backed off, opting to begin firing its tendrils at the approaching Mosmir soldiers, who brainlessly pursued Aegis through the ooze due to the lure and their non-elite status.
Meanwhile, the void beams were curved and angled to continue to follow Aegis, despite him now being on the back of the hydra. The result was that all three beams crashed into the black scales of the void hydra and began somewhat reflecting off of it, proving to do no damage and only aggravate the elite Hydra.
It was elite, so Aegis wasn¡¯t quite sure how it¡¯d react, so he opted to drop to his knees on its back to stabilize himself easily, then go completely still. Two of the heads turned to face the void reavers, one looked at him curiously. His stillness was his hope to lose its attention and allow him to stay on its back, safe from the ooze, and after a long few tense seconds, it seemed to work.
The two heads facing void reavers let out a strange gurgling cry as a bulge formed in their necks. Aegis followed the bulge with his eyes as it rose up towards the mouths quickly, until finally a blast of deep purple liquid streamed out of their two heads with impressive propulsion that matched the range of the void beams, spewing out towards the reavers. Both reavers that it had shot at were forced to shift away to avoid it, whilst the liquid covered the obsidian block buildings they¡¯d been standing on. WIthin seconds, the entire structures were dissolved by the purple acidic liquid, and the two heads began angling around to get a view on where the void reavers had teleported to.
With the ooze holding back the soldiers, and the hydra holding back the ooze and void reavers, Aegis was feeling safe, and every second that went by with him staying completely still felt like a vital progression towards success. The easy piggyback ride was short lived, however - interrupted by the sound of a deafeningly loud whale cry. The moment he heard it reach his ears he was reminded of the banshee¡¯s he''d fought in the past, and quickly pulled Ysilda up to cover her ears and protect her from the damage.
| You take 13,350 Psychic Damage. |
Aegis felt his entire body vibrating from the sound, as if he was a bell being rung atop a bell tower. His muscles began to spasm and he fell forward onto the back of the hydra, desperately keeping his hands clutched over Ysilda to protect her. It seemed to work - her eyes were still closed and she winced, showing some pain from the attack, but once the whale cry ended, she was still alive and muttering the incantation. Aegis couldn¡¯t hear her muttering, due to the lasting effects of the whale cry. He was momentarily relieved to see that they¡¯d survived the attack, and looked up to see that the three headed hydra was also affected by it and recovering by attempting to ¡®shake¡¯ the sound out of its three heads.
The bigger issue was the source of the sound. The two [Void Ray(Elite) - Level ??] beasts that had made it into the ruins and were soaring high above the city within the open cavern were now flying towards them. As they got close to each other, Aegis briefly glimpsed up at them to see that they didn¡¯t collide, but instead their astral starry skinned bodies seemed to merge with one another and passed through each other with ease. Aegis knew better than to stare at them longer than a second, as just glimpsing at them caused a surge of pain through his body that momentarily felt him feel dizzy.
The effects of the dizziness wore off as the ground began to rumble and shake violently, and a loud scraping sound of destruction could be heard in the distance. Aegis briefly glanced up once more to see that the Void rays were flying right towards them with incredible speed, and were dragging their gigantic spiked tails along the ground, slicing up the paved obsidian streets as they closed in on the chapel - sending chunks of obsidian, rock, dirt, and other debris into the air as everything failed to obstruct the sharp astral tails of the void rays.
The hydra, for the first time, showed fear as it too glanced at the tails converging on its location. To his luck, it looked as though the hydra would do the dodging for him and began frantically stomping out of the path of the void ray tails. It stomped out of the chapel, the Void Ooze on the ground around its feet coiling out of the hydra¡¯s path while Aegis remained clinging onto the hydra¡¯s back.
¡°Shit.¡± Aegis realized it late that the hydra was about to take him and Ysilda out of range of the rift in order to dodge the tails of the void rays - one tail coming from the left, the other from the right. Aegis quickly got his footing on the hydra¡¯s back, put Ysilda back over his shoulder, then jumped forward off the back of the hydra towards the tails.
To his relief, the ooze, too, had cleared out of the area in fear of the incoming tails. The closer they got, the bigger the tails appeared - it looked as though two jumbo jets were cutting through the earth and soaring towards him at rapid speed, with no signs of slowing down.
The attacks were too large to dodge - the only way to dodge would result in Ysilda being taken out of range of the rift. Aegis resisted the urge to look up at the astral bodies of the void rays soaring above, the source of the tails. Instead, he dug his feet in and took a deep breath.
As long as I block it with my shield, it does no damage.¡± Aegis reminded himself, but the size of the attack and the force it was bringing with it as it tore up the ground of the city was beyond intimidating.
¡°No way is he going to block those, is he?¡± Hae-won asked with disbelief, sitting on the edge of her seat as she watched alongside Aegis¡¯ audience of now 1.3 million viewers.
¡°He¡¯s got no choice.¡± Baffo replied, also on the edge of his seat as he and Uggard watched the broadcast with wide eyes.
¡°Fuck me.¡± Aegis took a deep breath, dug his feet into the floor of the chapel, and held his shield up. The ground shook violently due to the tails, but he kept his footing and gritted his teeth, clenching all of his muscles. When the tail was just a few meters away, Aegis involuntarily shouted out a battle cry to himself to help psych himself up. When it connected, he could no longer hear his own voice due to the loud sounds of destruction being caused by the tails, but he felt the most painful, violent force of destruction to ever hit his shield.
Due to the empowerment of the dungeon options, his footing held and he took zero damage. The tails made a loud metallic clanging sound as they clashed with the iron shield he was given, their path being impeded by Aegis to the point that the tails recoiled backward and were flung up into the air, trailing behind the void rays as they continued to soar beyond the rift overhead.
First, the overwhelming sensation of having his arm shattered into a million pieces faded. Then, the chunks of obsidian and other debris and dust fell from the sky all around Aegis. The other void creatures that had fled from the tails were some distance away, giving Aegis a few moments to recover from the attacks. He looked around the take in his surroundings and made sure he was safe to catch his breath and saw nothing but the settling of debris all around him and the rift.
Then, he turned to Ysilda to make sure she was okay, still muttering the incantation and channeling holy energy into the rift. Afterwards, he looked back at the surrounding rubble and saw something odd - the amount of broken obsidian blocks somehow seemed to have increased in the few seconds he¡¯d been looking away. It took Aegis a second to register this, and whether he was seeing things or not, but then it clicked as he recalled the lure debuffs that he had.
¡°Mimics.¡± Aegis sighed, and the moment he had, he watched as several obsidian debris blocks grew long black tendrils and used them as legs to scurry forward, while black mouths filled with razor sharp white teeth formed on random locations, varying from block to block. They let out horrendous hissing sounds as they closed in, whipping their tendrils out at Aegis in an attempt to grapple him.
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He reacted quickly by raising his shield up to block two charging at him from the left, and making use of guard to block a third on his right. They were relentless and made several more strikes that he was able to block, but at the same time Aegis heard the sound of the hydra stomping back towards him, alongside the scurrying of Mosmir soldiers.
He knew it was only a matter of time before the ooze got back as well, and his mind worked overtime to concoct a method of using the other void creatures to minimize the aggression of the mimics - this was interrupted by a large black ball rising up out of the center of the rift. The center of the ball opened up to reveal a large white eyeball, and multiple glowing eyestalks then extended out of the top of its head. [Void Beholder(ELITE) - Level ??].
¡°Oh come on.¡± Aegis whimpered as he saw it turn all of its eyestalks to face him, and a large mouth formed below the eye with a big grin.
¡°It¡¯s finished!¡± Ysilda declared loudly, opening her eyes as she remained hanging over Aegis'' shoulder.
¡°Then close it!¡± Aegis shouted with excitement as the eyestalks began to glow, aimed at him as he frantically blocked more strikes from the mimics.
¡°If I close it now, these creatures will be stuck on this side of the rift! We must use the lures on our bodies to take them back to their realm. Only then wi-¡±
¡°Yeah yeah okay I got it.¡± Aegis cut her off in annoyance, and with no hesitation he dashed forward into the black rift of wild whipping energy, now encapsulated by holy light that was mixing in with the dark magic. Just as Aegis passed through the rift, the beholder shot out several beams at where he¡¯d been standing, forcing the mimics away to avoid getting hit in the crossfire. The eyebeams missed Aegis as he passed through the rift and was warped into the realm of endless void.
His body began to warp and distort. As Aegis tried to find a footing after stepping through the rift, he found none. They were suddenly drifting through the air, weightlessly, away from the rift that seemed to be floating in the middle of nothingness. There was light, from multiple sources of far off stars that gave an ever present sense of illumination. Everything alive and moving around them was visible, but it was otherwise a black space surrounded by distant stars.
The space around the rift was filled with various creatures that had been attracted to Aegis¡¯ lures and were all swimming through the space towards him.
Aegis opened his mouth and attempted to speak to Ysilda, but no sound came out. The only sound Aegis could hear was that of distant whale-like cries, coming from Void Rays that were flying towards them through the void space, far off in the distance much to his relief.
The closest enemy Aegis had to worry about was a void serpent, slithering through the void towards him from below as it moved quickly through the weightless sky, bearing its fangs up at him. Aegis quickly cast guard to project his shield under his feet, then propelled himself forward off of the projection to take himself out of the path of the serpent as it lunged at him, narrowly avoiding the strike. Simultaneously, Aegis turned back towards the rift as he caught out of the corner of his eye that the beholder had come back through it and was aiming its eyestalks at him.
He knew he¡¯d take no damage from the attacks as long as he blocked them, but he also knew that the beholder wasn¡¯t dangerous due to its damage, but it''s status effects. As multiple colored eye stalks began to charge up, Aegis frantically created a new shield projection under his feet and bent his knees into it, timing a jump off of the projection at the last second before the stalks fired to avoid the beams.
As a result, the beams shot past him and Ysilda and hit the serpent who was swerving around behind Aegis and preparing to lunge at him again from behind. The Serpent froze, but Aegis hadn¡¯t time to fully grasp what had happened to it as he spotted three more copies of his shield projection suddenly appear out of the rift and begin soaring towards him with tiny tendrils wriggling out of the sides, revealing them to be mimics. Luckily, with Ysilda freed up from her incantation, she was able to fire bolts of holy light out at the mimics and knock them away, freeing up Aegis to focus solely on avoiding the eye beams from the beholder which were quickly charging up again.
Another set of beams fired at Aegis, he dodged them, then saw that the void reavers from outside of the rift were now teleporting around him, floating in the void space around him in random locations. There was nowhere to hide, no cover, and no way to out run the beams and dodge the beholder at the same time.
Aegis frantically pointed out the voidreaver to Ysilda and she nodded, spinning around to shoot at them with one hand while holding onto the back of Aegis¡¯ armor with the other so as to not get separated as the two floated together weightlessly through the space.
It worked - her smite casts were enough to prevent the void reavers from finishing their channels and casting void beams onto Aegis. He dodged another set of beams from the beholder, then saw two large puddles of void ooze seeping through the rift, followed by the three headed void hydra.
Aegis took a deep breath upon seeing this - he knew now that the only thing left was the void rays, but they were absolutely surrounded and being attacked from all sides. It took all of the focus he could muster to continue to block and dodge the attacks of all of the nearby enemies. The hydra throats began to bulge as they built up acid in their mouths, this time the three heads aimed at Aegis.
The void reavers continued to try and take aim, interrupted repeatedly by Ysilda. The Beholder continued to charge up eyestalks, focusing Aegis to use his guard to keep propelling himself away. The mimics continued to wriggle through the endless void towards him with their tendrils, repeatedly disguising themselves as different objects to throw Aegis off, unsuccessfully. As they closed in, he used his shield to block their black tendrils that lashed out at him in between avoiding eye beams.
Suddenly, though, the eye beams stopped. The mimics pulled back their tendrils and started frantically swimming away in fear, and the void hydra swallowed the bulge, not managing to spew out any acid. The void reavers started shifting away, and the void serpent, the moment it regained mobility, began to slither through the space in terror.
Everything around them, including the beholder, was fleeing from them in the same direction. Naturally, seeing this, Aegis slowly turned his head up into the direction of the void around them, to see what they were fleeing from. He wished he hadn¡¯t.
At first, he wasn¡¯t sure what he was looking at - there was simply a large section of the space around him where no light was coming from. It took him a while to realize that something was there, blocking the light in that direction, and it was approaching rapidly. He saw Ysilda staring at it with her jaw dropped, a look of absolute terror on her face.
Then, as Aegis looked more closely, he saw it - a large black skeletal face was soaring towards them, giving off a strange, deep groaning sound. It had a single eye near the top of its strangely shaped skeletal head. It lacked a lower jaw, but not a lower lip as the rim of its mouth could be vaguely seen, due to the edge of its body being outlined by the glowing stars behind it that illuminated its silhouette.
There were various writhing tendrils sticking out from its body from behind its head, but Aegis couldn¡¯t see much of the rest of its body due to the size of its head and the fact that it was approaching them head on. Then, he saw as large claws began to extend out from its torso hidden behind its head. The claws were not black like the rest of it¡¯s body, but instead blood red, and thanks to them, Aegis was given perspective to just how large the approaching creature actually was.
Glancing back briefly to Ysilda, he saw her mouthing something frantically to Aegis while tugging on his armor and pointing back towards the rift. He couldn¡¯t fully grasp what she¡¯d mouthed, but as he recalled his list of lure debuffs, he remembered one creature that hadn¡¯t been seen yet that matched what she¡¯d mouthed - Ilmian. When he turned back towards the rift, he saw the tail end of the two Void rays swimming through it, away from the Ilmaim. That was it, Aegis thought - all the dangerous creatures had come back through the rift.
Ysilda nodded, and the two began desperately swimming through the space back to where the rift was. However, despite their best efforts, they were only drifting further away - being pulled by some unseen force in the direction of the approaching Ilmian. Aegis glanced back in its direction to see it. Not only was it soaring towards them rapidly, it became clearer to him just how massive this creature was.
Desperation sank in as he saw the unfathomably large enemy closing on, and he quickly cast guard to propel them forward towards the rift. It worked for a moment, but then they were sucked back to the guard projection he¡¯d just launched them off of.
The force behind the Ilmiam¡¯s pulling quickly escalated, to the point where propelling off of the shields was completely pointless, the projection was serving only to stop them from being pulled closer to the Ilmiam.
Aegis stopped and stood on one of his projections, now roughly 8 meters from the writhing rift. It looked so close, but at the same time so far. Ysilda remained clinging desperately to his back, wrapping her arms around him as he thought of a solution. The only thing that came to mind was the projections, but jumping wouldn¡¯t work. Then it clicked in his head - he reached his hands out up towards the rift, and the moment he canceled the projection he was using for footing, he recast guard where his hands were and grabbed it.
The pulling force of Ilmiam quickly yanked his legs away from the projection, but he had two seconds to pull himself forward using his arms, and did exactly that, quickly standing up on the projection, then extending his arms and casting another one in his hands.
He repeated this as fast as he could, several times, while avoiding looking back at the Ilmian as he felt its presence closing in on them. All he had to do was see the look on Ysilda¡¯s face to get a sense for just how close the creature had gotten to them by the time Aegis reached the rift and pulled himself and Ysilda through it.
The moment he had, his body shimmered, and the two collapsed onto the ground of the chapel - sound returning to their ears. Immediately upon landing on solid ground, Ysilda spun around and waved her hands at the rift with a flash of holy light emanating from them. In an instant, the rift was pulled in onto itself and absorbed in a ball of light, then disappeared.
Aegis didn¡¯t have time to recover, or say anything to Ysilda. Immediately upon seeing the message pop up in his peripheral vision, his body was ejected from the dungeon and he found himself standing in front of the archway, back in the basement of the training hall of Kordas.
He breathed heavily, eying his stamina to see that it had nearly been completely emptied, then looked up and saw Baffo and Uggard rushing towards him excitedly. Before they could get to him, though, another message popped up on his screen.
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Congratulations! You have advanced from Shield Mastery(Intermediate): 150 to Shield Mastery(Advanced): 151. You may now level this skill up to a maximum of 300.
Your use of the Shield Mastery skill has unlocked the Shield Mastery ability: [Reflect],
The following Shield Mastery abilities have been changed:
[Shieldwall] -> [Greater Shieldwall]
[Guard] -> [Greater Guard]
[Shield Bash] -> [Shield Slam]
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Chapter 232: Yee-haw
Chapter 232: Yee-haw
When Aegis wiped away his initial few notifications, he found another large one flashing in front of his face in his peripheral vision, separating his view from the approaching Baffo and Uggard.
| [WORLD NOTIFICATION]
The player [Aegis - Level 150] has become the first player in the world to reach [Advanced Shield Mastery]. |
¡°Good stuff!¡± Baffo cheered with a big smile as Aegis waved the notification away.
¡°That was incredible. Your reaction speed to those attacks was insane. And the way you used the monsters against each other¡¡± Uggard¡¯s voice trailed off as he and Baffo watched Aegis¡¯ expression twist, and he looked upwards towards the roof of the training hall looking somewhat disappointed. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± He asked as he saw it, Baffo looking at him with confusion.
¡°Nothing¡¡± Aegis sighed with a shrug.
¡°C¡¯mon, that aint nothin. You just completed a world first clear of one of the, if not thee hardest mastery quest.¡± Baffo replied with an inquisitive squint.
¡°Feels like I cheated.¡± Aegis shrugged as he finally met their eyes. ¡°I brute forced it. I feel like the quest wanted me to stop Kilyak from hurting himself. That, or take him out with shield bash faster, so he couldn¡¯t utilize the lures. I just think I could¡¯ve done it better.¡± Aegis said while scratching his hair, looking somewhat frustrated.
Uggard shook his head dismissively at this and rolled his eyes, while Baffo went into thought and began scratching his chin, his eyes wandering curiously as he pondered.
¡°Yeah, maybe. I mean, it did seem a bit extreme to have to go into the void for a bit there.¡± Baffo nodded in agreement, and then with a spring in his step, he began walking around Aegis towards the quest archway. ¡°I¡¯ll try it out, using what I learned from watching you.¡±
¡°Alright. Same. I¡¯ll try something with that Kilyak guy.¡± Uggard joined in, not wanting to be left behind by Baffo. Aegis turned and watched as the two of them disappeared inside the archway to begin their own attempts at completing the quest, leaving Aegis alone with a slight smirk. He took this time to open up his skill menu and take a look at the new abilities he¡¯d gained from reaching Advanced Shield Mastery.
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[Greater Shieldwall] - Shield Mastery(Advanced)
Activate by slamming the bottom of your shield into the ground in front of yourself. The shield will expand in size based on your level of Shield Mastery. Anyone standing behind the shield will be protected from incoming attacks and status effects.
Cost: 20% of Maximum Stamina
Duration: 5s
Cooldown: 1 minute
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[Greater Guard] - Shield Mastery(Advanced)
Project your shield at a desired location that you can see within 15 meters. Any attacks that hit the front of the shield will be redirected to you as if you had blocked it with your shield. Attacks taken by the projection will benefit from 50% of the brace effect. A maximum of two shield projections can exist simultaneously.
Cost: 15 Stamina
Duration: 2s
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[Shield Slam] - Shield Mastery(Advanced)
Deals more damage than Shield Bash. Attacking with shield slam is guaranteed to interrupt channeled spells.
Damage: 5330-5352 [904(Str x 8) + 1,510(ShldMstry x 10) + ) 2927(ShieldAC x 0.4)]
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[Reflect] - Shield Mastery(Advanced)
Properly bracing certain projectile attacks will bounce them back with momentum equal to that of which they hit your shield. The angle of their return path will be based on how they are hit with your shield. Only attacks that are properly braced can be reflected. Does not reflect status effects. Stamina cost for brace on attacks that are reflected is increased. The damage dealt by projectiles you reflect is reduced.
Cost Increase: 10 Stamina
Damage Reduction: 54.7% [100% - (ShldMstry x .3)]
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¡°Hm.¡± Aegis mumbled to himself as he eyed the Reflect skill. He swung his shield around in front of his face before turning the frontside upwards to look at it more carefully, eying the curved front. ¡°Probably gotta change how I craft shields to utilize that skill.¡± He thought out loud before pulling his shield back and quickly scrolling back into his interface. This time, he navigated his way to his quest menu where he could check the list of skills he was still missing for the next step. Everything was now checked off except two skills.
¡°Riding, and Holy Mastery¡¡± Aegis said as he read them out loud. It took him a moment of brainstorming before he came up with an idea on how to handle each of them, and once he¡¯d come up with it, he made for the staircase leading up out of the basement of the training hall.
The first was riding. Aegis stopped by the stables of Kordas on the outskirts of the western gate and asked to rent three horses. Then, he rented a wagon and hooked up two of the horses to its front, and mounted the other. He got a few strange looks from passerbyers as he took off westward from Kordas along the road, in the direction of Orm. He carefully held the reins of the horses on the wagon while simultaneously riding the horse he rode on, hoping that if he controlled three at once he¡¯d gain experience faster.
Initially, his plan worked, and he was able to gain quite a few skill levels. He reached Orm quickly, then doubled back towards Kordas, doing his best to increase the speed of the horses to gain more experience. Unfortunately, though, the experience gains started slowing down drastically on the return trip, leading Aegis to return the rented beasts and go back to the drawing board.
He¡¯d recalled back to when he¡¯d first entered Hrath¡¯mir, how he gained massive leaps in riding skill experience when he¡¯d started on a new creature, but it slowed down the more he got comfortable on the beast and understood it. This led him to conclude that he¡¯d be able to level up riding more quickly if he tried riding different animals, other than gryphons, Lagnoks, and horses.
Unfortunately, no such variety of beasts were available at the Kordas stables, but the prospect of riding more exotic creatures gave Aegis an idea on how to knock out two birds with one stone.
After paying for a portal from Yorgi, who he tracked down within the Wizard Tower of Kordas, Aegis found himself back in the Underrealm village of Pakro¡¯Vielle. There, he was taught by the Plashrim how to ride the spiky-shelled giant snails that the Plashrim utilized for their small farms and gardens within the village. There were a couple of skilled elite NPCs that were willing to teach him, and he was surprised just how difficult they were to control compared to a standard horse.
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Worse yet, was that if you mistreated the snails or aggravated them, they¡¯d expand boney spikes out of their shells like a puffer fish, which was painful and dealt a not insignificant amount of damage to Aegis. Luckily, he was able to heal through it and continue his progress with the snails.
| Level Up! Riding has reached Level 125! |
It was a long few hours of riding the snails and learning all there was to learn about controlling them, but after reaching this level, the experience he was gaining from riding them once again slowed down to a standstill, and it was time for Aegis to move on to another creature.
With his new gear and his higher level, he felt comfortable heading out of Pakro¡¯Vielle into the underrealm on his own, and did exactly that. He navigated his way through the glowing mushroom forest of Reltrak, avoiding the trappers that were hiding on the floor to the best of his ability, and making sure not to walk underneath any mushrooms with giant fisher worms hiding in their underside.
Without Darkshot to guide him through the forest, he accidentally stepped into several trappers, but was able to take them out on his own relatively easily using his claws and powerful shield slam ability. His destination was the hole in the forest floor that led deeper into the under realm - the Red River.
When he got to the familiar hole, he descended down the winding ramp into the heated tunnel and traveled down it towards the glowing red light visible at the end. The familiar wafts of heat began barraging him, and he consumed some salamander meat to gain a stamina recovery buff just as he passed through the end of the tunnel and stepped out onto the obsidian shores of the red magma river.
The familiar deep rumble of the slow flowing molten lava filled his ears, and he wasted no time in navigating to one of the nearest crudely carved caverns on the sides of the cavern wall. He went inside and sure enough found a sleeping salamander who was awoken by the sound of Aegis¡¯ footsteps as he entered the cave.
As the level 135 Salamander opened its fanged mouth and released small bursts of flame to intimidate Aegis, Aegis pulled out a void silk rope that¡¯d been tied into a lasso, and began spinning it around anxiously, a nervous grin growing on his face. He then engaged in the most uncomfortable game of cat and mouse that he¡¯d ever played.
He failed to wrangle the salamander countless times, taking large amounts of painful fire damage. Luckily, through all his time spent leveling down in the red river previously, he had plenty of fire resistance. He wasn¡¯t at risk of dying, but he ended up wasting a lot of time before he was finally able to successfully lasso the robe around the Salamander¡¯s neck.
The next challenge was getting on its back and staying on. The salamander did not like being ridden, at all. The moment that he finally managed to get onto its back, the bucking battle began. Unlike a horse who relied solely on kicking forward and backward, the Salamander made full use of its flaming tail and its ability to climb along the walls and ceiling of the cavern to desperately fling Aegis off of its back.
It wasn¡¯t long into it, after having been knocked off the Salamander¡¯s back dozens of times, that Aegis began considering the fact that this wasn¡¯t exactly the most optimal creature to try and level his riding skill with. But his stubbornness and determination egged him on, and after having already invested so much time to wrangle it he had no intention of backing down.
The amount of flame breaths, burning tail strikes, and bite attacks he had taken from the beast unwillingly quickly shot up into the hundreds. The amount of time he¡¯d been flung off of its back as it jumped between the floor, to the walls, to the roof the cave also made its way into the triple digits. But Aegis kept going, for several hours, refusing to give up. Hae-won, as his broadcaster, had turned the stream into a comedy show for Aegis¡¯ viewers.
Despite all the failures, though, Aegis was gaining riding experience extremely fast for the few moments that he was able to stay on the salamander¡¯s back, and slowly the length of time in which he was able to hang on was growing. Until eventually, after 8 long hours, Aegis had an attempt where he stayed on the creature''s back and didn¡¯t let go despite its best efforts, tiring it out.
The salamander appeared exhausted as well, having had to use its stamina to defend itself for such a long time, and eventually, it gave up and stopped trying to knock him off. Instead, it dropped onto its belly and panted with its red tongue out in defeat.
¡°Good.¡± Aegis breathed heavily, also exhausted. He gently stroked the neck of the red-scaled beast. ¡°Good boy.¡± He said to it sarcastically, causing it to burp out flames in annoyance. He let it and himself catch breath and recover stamina for a long 5 minutes before using the void silk leash around its neck to get it to stand back up, which it reluctantly complied.
¡°Now, the hard part. I¡¯ve got to level riding AND holy mastery, so, let''s go for a ride.¡± Aegis said to the non-elite salamander, which clearly had no idea what he was saying. He then used what he¡¯d learned in the last few hours to direct the salamander with the rope and his legs on its sides, getting it to walk out of the cavern back out onto the obsidian shores of the red river.
¡°Giddyup!¡± Aegis cheered, whipping the rope to get the Salamander to sprint along the shore eastward. The creature moved incredibly fast, beyond the speed of the horses he¡¯d been riding just half a day prior, and it wasn¡¯t long before they made it around the bend in the river cavern that separated them from seeing the nearest Flame Giant that patrolled the magma. It was the same one that Aegis and his party had slain for the eternal flame - it had long since respawned and was currently resting waist-deep in the river.
As Aegis and his new salamander mount came into view, the Flame Giant followed them with his eyes, and eventually stirred, stomping forward towards them from across the other side of the river with a loud rumbling roar from his molten rock mouth.
¡°Okay, lets do it.¡± Aegis smirked before holding his hand out in the direction of the giant and firing multiple smites with his Holy Mastery skill. The salamander was visibly unhappy with this arrangement and started trying to run away from the giant in fear, but Aegis did his best to keep it under control and angle it so it ran up the walls of the cavern instead, avoiding a slash of manga that the giant flung at them by dragging his giant fists through the lava.
Aegis continued to barrage the giant with smites using one hand, while holding the rope and steering the salamander with the other, and eventually found himself crawling along the roof of the cavern upside down, desperately clinging onto the salamander using his legs.
It took awhile, but eventually the Salamander realized that as long as it did what Aegis instructed it to do, the flame giant¡¯s attacks would never hit them. The salamander was extremely fast and nimble. The giant was fast as well, but with careful maneuvers, Aegis and his mount were able to avoid the swipes, flings, and punches from the molten giant that repeatedly crashed into the cavern around them leaving large dents and destruction in the obsidian rock.
The giant had a massive amount of health, but this was perfect for Aegis. It allowed him all the time in the world that he needed to max out his holy mastery by bombarding the giant with multiple smites at once. It was slow and tedious, but thanks to Aegis¡¯ experience bonuses, eventually after several hours of fighting the giant on Salamander-back, he was able to achieve his goal.
| Level Up! Holy Mastery has reached Level 150!
Level Up! Riding has reached Level 150!
Quest Complete!
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¡°Alright,¡± Aegis said to his Salamander after steering it back down off the walls of the cavern and onto the flat obsidian shore nearest the giant. ¡°Let¡¯s finish you off, you oughta be close to being done.¡± Aegis declared while drawing out his claws and mithral shield. He engaged with the giant, bracing attacks and retaliating against the giant¡¯s fist with his claws after each braced attack. He needed to heal himself quite a bit, but it wasn¡¯t long before the beast went down.
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Level Up! Shield Mastery has reached Level 152!
Attribute Up!: You¡¯ve gained +1 Strength.
Attribute Up!: You¡¯ve gained +1 Constitution.
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As the body of the giant collapsed and disintegrated, Aegis retrieved another flame giant heart and added it to his inventory. He dusted himself off, let out a huge sigh of relief and stretched his arms up to the roof of the cavern.
¡°It¡¯s been awhile since I¡¯ve done some solo grinding. I forgot how long stuff takes to kill on my own¡¡± Aegis mumbled to himself as he walked over to the salamander and began untying the void silk lasso from its neck. ¡°Well, I guess I didn¡¯t really kill stuff on my own. I had pacifism before, so¡¡± He shrugged before adding the rope to his inventory, then heading back towards the exit of the cavern. To his surprise, though, the Salamander obediently followed behind him.
¡°You can go now, go now, shoo.¡± Aegis waved the creature away, but it didn¡¯t listen and continued to follow. He let out an anxious sigh and tried walking more quickly, but the Salamander easily kept up with him. It wasn¡¯t until he got to the tunnel leading out of the river and stepped beyond its threshold that the Salamander stopped, and looked longingly at Aegis as he traveled away from the beast. Aegis turned back to see its sad stare.
¡°Oh come on, seriously? You¡¯re not elite, don¡¯t try to pull that on me.¡± Aegis grumbled at it, but it continued to stare at him. He let out an annoyed sigh and shook his head at the beast. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t think you can survive in cold places. You gotta live here, okay? Maybe I¡¯ll come back and visit you though. That sound good?¡± Aegis said to the creature. It continued to stare curiously, not understanding a word he said. ¡°Whatever.¡± Aegis waved dismissively and kept walking away, but as he turned his back he heard a build up of flames coming from the salamander¡¯s mouth.
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s more like it.¡± Aegis sighed as he was blasted with a salamander flame breath from his back, and nonchalantly healed through the damage while simultaneously he continued to walk away. He eventually got out of range of the breath and found that the Salamander hadn¡¯t been following him, leaving him to travel up the ramp back into Reltrak by himself.
Once there, he excitedly rubbed his hands together and smiled.
¡°Alright. Time to continue my advanced class quest¡ but first I gotta remember how to get out here.¡± He said excitedly, panning his eyes around at the endless mushroom forest that surrounded him on all sides.
Chapter 233: Bihi
Chapter 233: Bihi
¡°Heh, I knew they¡¯d fight dirty, but this is a new low¡¡± Tommy spoke into a voice call with Shinji. The two were both working within their office simulations - Shinji was editing Aegis¡¯ livestream as he was taken by Yorgi and Leonard back to the Silver Garden. Tommy was working with various advertising agencies and going over various past broadcasts of Aegis¡¯.
¡°What is it?¡± Shinji replied, without losing focus on his current task.
¡°VGN is refusing to cover anything related to Aegis. Even with that world notification recently, there hasn¡¯t been a single mention of it on any of their broadcasts, not even the daily news update that tracks all major progression milestones within the gameworld.¡±
¡°Is that bad for us, or bad for them?¡± Shinji replied in monotone.
¡°Normally, it¡¯d be bad for us. But since Aegis triggered a world notification, people heard about it anyway - we didn¡¯t need their coverage. And if viewers can¡¯t get information from you, they go somewhere else. They¡¯re shooting themselves in the foot just to be petty.¡± Tommy shrugged back, despite knowing Shinji couldn¡¯t see him.
¡°Still¡ that¡¯s just the first of their tricks. If they go all out, it¡¯ll keep getting nastier.¡±
¡°I aint about to let a big network bully us around.¡± Tommy growled back. ¡°If they wanna mess with our clients, they¡¯ll learn that I ain''t afraid to go below the belt too.¡±
Aegis approached Ysil¡¯mareina with Yorgi at his back, having had Yorgi awkwardly use his fly spell to carry him up from Leonards airship and onto the cloud island high up in the skies above Kalmoore. Yorgi was visibly out of breath while Aegis seemed perfectly fine. Ysil¡¯mareina was now walking around outside of her nesting structure, trotting around her garden with her gigantic dragon claws whilst carefully not stepping on any of the plants.
As Aegis and Yorgi approached, she stopped what she was doing to turn her large, silver scaled body towards them and face Aegis with her huge snout. He still hadn¡¯t gotten used to seeing her large tongue flapping behind her razor sharp teeth as she opened her mouth to speak to him, sitting down on her bottom and towering her large neck over Aegis. He craned his neck to look up at her attentively as she spoke.
¡°I am impressed. You have shown diligence like this world has rarely seen before. With the knowledge and skill you now carry with you, you will surely gain the respect of the Wildlings. With them at our side, I have no doubt we will learn of a way to return this world to its former state.¡± She smiled with a big toothy draconic grin. ¡°But¡ I shall warn you. You have defeated one Avatar of Darkness, yes¡ but a lesser. Once you embark on this path, the remaining ones will no doubt do everything in their power to stop you. Are you sure you are ready to bear such a burden?¡±
¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± Aegis nodded back with no hesitation.
¡°Very well.¡± Ysil¡¯mareina nodded, and following her words a new quest prompt appeared in front of Aegis¡¯ face.
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Quest[5/6]: Earn the trust of the Wildlings so that they willingly share information on the ancient world, and tell of a way to retake the Shattered World from the Dark Gods.
Objective: 0/1 Wildlings Trust Earned
Quest Giver: Ysil¡¯mareina, The Silver Garden, Kalmoore
Reward: Advanced Class: (Unknown)
Difficulty: Extreme(III)
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Aegis hit the accept button quickly, after which Ysil¡¯mareina bowed to him respectfully.
¡°I should warn you. They do not speak ancient, or your common dialect. They speak in the natural tongue. You would do well to bring one with you that is able to communicate with them, else learn the complex language yourself.¡± Ysil¡¯mareina explained.
¡°Okay, got it. Thanks.¡± Aegis bowed to her before turning and walking away, Yorgi nervously following behind him.
¡°Good luck.¡± Her voice trailed after them as they headed to the nearest edge of the floating sky island. Once they were far enough away from her, Aegis slowed down so that he was walking side-by-side with Yorgi.
¡°Natural tongue?¡± Aegis raised an eyebrow towards him.
¡°It¡¯s the druidic language.¡± Yorgi explained. ¡°Any druid player will be able to speak it.¡±
¡°Oh. Hm.¡± Aegis scratched his chin.
¡°Want me to ask for a translator? We¡¯ve got a couple druids in the guild¡¡±
¡°I guess. If it¡¯s not too much trouble¡¡± Aegis shrugged. Yorgi nodded back and opened up his interface, fidgeting around with his finger in front of his face as he opened up his guild menu. Before he¡¯d even opened it, there were messages from Night Hunter druid¡¯s that¡¯d been watching Aegis¡¯ stream already eagerly volunteering.
¡°Uh, they don¡¯t seem to mind¡ Ren really looks like he wants to come. Do you know where a Wildwood tree is?¡± Yorgi asked Aegis.
¡°Yeah, there¡¯s one just outside of Rene.¡±
¡°Okay.¡± Yorgi shrugged. ¡°Then, I can portal us to Rene instead of me trying to fly you back down to the airship. I¡¯ll have Ren meet us there.¡±
¡°Alright. I¡¯ll let Leonard know so he¡¯s not waiting for us.¡± Aegis replied as he opened up his interface to send a message to Leonard, who was waiting below on his airship. Simultaneously, Yorgi sent a few messages and then began casting a portal spell to Rene. After a few moments, the blue portal opened up and both Aegis and Yorgi stepped through, just as the evening sun was beginning to settle over the Shattered World online.
The two stepped down off of the portal altar and stood on the paved streets of Rene just in front of it, waiting patiently in silence as the sounds of the rustle and bustle of Rene filled their ears. It wasn¡¯t long before another portal opened up, and through it stepped Herilon, Trexon, and Ren.
¡°Yo.¡± Herilon waved, while Ren ran through with a big excited smile, his short green hair flapping up and down as he hopped down the steps.
¡°Hi Aegis!¡± Ren cheered excitedly.
¡°Hey. You¡¯re here as well?¡± Aegis turned to Trexon.
¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve finished my research. At least, I¡¯ve gathered all the information possible and learned a great deal about the¡¡± Trexon stopped himself and motioned to Aegis¡¯ live streaming icon. Aegis nodded back and quickly muted his broadcast so that Trexon would continue.
¡°Hatred was hunting down the Silver Dragons after the battle of Hrath¡¯mir. The Silver Dragons turned to the wildlings for help, and they forged a weapon that was able to contain hatred''s power, and gave it to a holy champion. The holy champion fought hatred, defeated him, sealing him inside his own sword. But, in the process, the weapon was destroyed, and the holy champion slain. The wildlings took the broken pieces of the weapon and hid it away, to keep its power from falling into the wrong hands.¡±
¡°So, the same guys I need to talk to for my quest are the ones who might hold the key to standing up to that artifact weapon Seraxus is swinging around?¡± Aegis asked Trexon, and he nodded back.
¡°Exactly.¡± Trexon turned to Yorgi. ¡°I¡¯ll be staying with Aegis for the remainder of his quest, so you are free to continue studying and leveling.¡±
¡°Alright, cool.¡± Yorgi smiled. ¡°Good luck with everything.¡± Yorgi waved before walking off down the streets away from the other four.
¡°I¡¯m tagging along just in case. If anyone figures out what we¡¯re up to, they¡¯ll likely want to stop you.¡± Herilon added, as all eyes fell onto him.
¡°He was just bored and is hoping to get some PvP action.¡± Ren smirked. ¡°So, which way is it to the tree?¡±
¡°Uh¡¡± Aegis eyed Ren as he continued to hop around excitedly, unable to stay still while Trexon and Herilon stood behind him shaking their heads. ¡°It¡¯s this way.¡± Aegis motioned in the general direction of where he¡¯d remembered the Wildwood tree to be.
¡°Okay, let¡¯s go! I¡¯m so excited! An adventure with Aegis!¡± Ren cheered. ¡°Something crazy always happens. I wonder what¡¯ll be this time? Maybe we¡¯ll discover a new race of bug people?!¡± Ren began talking to himself as his voice got further away from the group - he didn¡¯t wait for them and started rushing away excitedly in the direction Aegis had pointed, forcing the other three to speed walk in order to keep up with him.
¡°Would be funny if the quest ends after just a few lines of dialogue.¡± Trexon chuckled to himself.
¡°You mean there might not be any PvP?¡± Herilon replied in a dejected tone. Hearing both Herilon and Ren¡¯s motivations for tagging along, Aegis couldn¡¯t help but chuckle to himself as he unmuted his stream.
As the group of four headed out of the eastern gate of Rene and followed along the river, Aegis sent party invitations to the others to form up a proper party just in case. It wasn¡¯t far from the walls of the city that they arrived at the dense grove of trees surrounding the giant, old, wildwood tree. It was easy to spot out due to the lush and vibrant vegetation that grew all around the base of the trees.
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It¡¯d been awhile since Aegis had last seen it, he¡¯d forgotten just how wild and surreal some of the plants were that cropped up around the large tangling roots of the tree as they protruded out of the dirt at various spots surrounding the trunk. Flowers with petals that spun like a windmill, others that repeatedly coiled and uncoiled their snake-like stems that slithered amongst the other plants. Some flowers were shaped like bells, and made soft ringing sounds as the wind blew against them.
The group of four stopped at the very edge of where the growth of influence from the tree ended, and they all looked up upon the giant, old tree. Its bark was a lighter brown than the surrounding trees, and it was very thick with countless tangling branches extending outward to hold up its bright green healthy leaves.
¡°Have you ever talked to these guys before?¡± Aegis whispered awkwardly to Ren as they stood shoulder to shoulder.
¡°Nope. Kayliera has, we need to talk to them for the druid advanced quests. I¡¯m not advanced yet though.¡± Ren shrugged while motioning to his level of 136.
¡°Shoulda brought Kayliera.¡± Herilon grumbled. Ren threw him a pouting look as a response to this.
¡°It¡¯ll be fine, I¡¯m good at talking. Don¡¯t worry!¡±
¡°Let Aegis do the talking, and you just do the translating.¡± Trexon rolled his eyes.
¡°Oh. Right. Okay.¡± Ren nodded, turning to look up at Aegis. ¡°What should I say?¡± Aegis looked down at Ren, then back to the tree. He eyed the dark shadows cast on the branches, where he recalled seeing the pair of yellow eyes many months back when he¡¯d last visited this tree alongside Amlie.
¡°Announce us, tell them we come on behalf of the Silver Dragon Ysil¡¯mareina, and the Goddess Eirene. We¡¯re seeking their aid.¡± Aegis whispered to Ren, and he nodded back enthusiastically. Following his nod, he began making strange noises with his mouth that caught the others off guard.
The sounds coming from his throat closely resembled that of branches swaying in the wind, old creaking wood and snapping bark sounds, mixed in with the sounds of shaking leaves. Aegis exchanged looks with Herilon who looked equally shocked, but Trexon gave off the impression that he¡¯d heard this druidic language spoken before.
Once Ren stopped making noise, it fell silent save for the sound of actual wind blowing through the trees - at least, that is what Aegis, Trexon, and Herilon thought. Ren, on the other hand, was listening intently to the natural sounds coming from the wildwood tree and its surrounding plants, then turned to look up at Aegis.
¡°She wants to know how you expect her to aid you.¡± Ren said to him.
¡°Huh?¡± Aegis looked at him confused. ¡°She spoke to you? You know it¡¯s a she?¡±
¡°Yup.¡± Ren nodded back with a big smile.
¡°Right. Uhm¡¡± Aegis pondered awkwardly for a moment. ¡°We would like to know of a way to return the world to its former state.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t forget, the weapon to defeat hatred as well.¡± Trexon butted in.
¡°Yes, that too. Ask her about that, too.¡± Aegis nodded along. Following this, Ren began speaking once more in the strange natural language. Once he¡¯d finished, there was a heavy breeze of wind that blew through the wildwood tree, and this time, Aegis was able to pick up on the sounds of the creaking wood that acted as the Wildlings voice. Simultaneously, he spotted the pair of yellow eyes opening from within the shadows of the tree branches, staring down at them.
¡°She says she cannot give out such information. You must ask the Great Old One. He will decide if you are worthy of our knowledge.¡± Ren replied.
¡°Great. And where is this Great Old One?¡± Aegis asked. Ren repeated the words, then translated the response, all the while the Yellow eyes remained locked onto Aegis. Following her response, a bright yellow light suddenly lit up from under the dark branches of the tree and flew out towards them.
¡°She says the old one is hidden at the edge of the world. She will guide you to it, but only those pure of heart will be able to reach its location.¡± Ren explained as all eyes followed the yellow light.
It wasn¡¯t until it got close that they spotted what the light actually was - a tiny female humanoid with yellow butterfly wings wearing a simple white dress. She had long yellow hair and yellow eyes, and the glow was illuminating from her wings as they flapped. She gently landed atop Aegis shoulder as he turned his head to look at her.
¡°In this form, I can speak your tongue.¡± She said, her voice soft and high pitched. It startled Trexon and Herilon, and all eyes fell onto her.
¡°You¡¯re the wildling?¡± Aegis confirmed, motioning with his head from the tiny fairy, back towards the pair of eyes still sitting on the upper branches of the tree.
¡°Yes. We are able to take many forms. You may call me Bihi.¡± She curtsied as she introduced herself, and once she had, Aegis saw [Bihi(Elite) - Level 128] appear above her head.
¡°Well¡ nice to meet you. Thank you for helping us, and being willing to show us the way¡¡± Aegis smiled awkwardly.
¡°Do not thank me yet. The path to the Great Old One is treacherous. I am at no risk, for my true body will not be accompanying you¡¡± She motioned towards the eyes in the tree. ¡°But you will be in mortal peril. Necessary precautions have been taken to keep the Great Old One safe from all threats, be it otherworldly, darkness, or void.¡±
¡°Right.¡± Aegis nodded, taking a deep breath as he briefly glanced at the others and saw a big excited grin growing on Ren and Herilon¡¯s faces. ¡°I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s not on Kalmoore, is it?¡±
¡°No. It is not.¡± She replied promptly.
¡°Guess I gotta message Leonard again. Hope he doesn¡¯t mind.¡± Aegis opened up his friends list interface.
¡°Are you kidding? He lives for adventures like this.¡±
¡°If the Wildlings truly hold all this knowledge, there¡¯s a good chance they¡¯ll know about the Airship pilot intermediate quest¡¡± Trexon pondered out loud. ¡°You should lead with that.¡±
¡°Good idea.¡± Aegis nodded, sending a message out. Before he¡¯d even finished he got several responses back from Leonard. ¡°He says he¡¯s in, he¡¯s already on his way here to pick us up from Kiepalt forest.¡±
¡°Perfect.¡± Trexon smiled.
¡°Hell yeah! We¡¯re going on an adventure! I knew it! A new unexplored part of the Shattered World!¡± Ren cheered with giddy excitement.
¡°I knew tagging along would be fun.¡± Herilon smirked. Trexon and Aegis both exchanged hesitant looks as both Herilon and Ren began hopping around each other excited.
¡°I feel like I¡¯m being used, but at the same time benefiting from it.¡± Aegis mumbled to Trexon.
¡°Yeah¡ yeah¡.¡± Trexon nodded back sympathetically, patting Aegis on his left shoulder as Bihi watched them curiously from atop his right shoulder. The group made their way away from the tree and back towards Rene, stepping through the eastern gate back into the well lit city streets as night took over the world around them.
¡°Gather up any supplies you guys might need, I guess. No telling how long this¡¯ll take. Are you sure you all want to tag along?¡± Aegis confirmed with them.
¡°Of course! I¡¯ll see if I can find any elixirs. Or tasty snacks!¡± Ren ran off following these words.
¡°Same.¡± Herilon did the same, a skip in his step - the childlike behavior he was exhibiting was extremely mismatched to his imposing figure and the giant mithral greatsword strapped onto his back.
¡°I¡¯ll stock up on reagents as well.¡± Trexon shrugged, leaving Aegis by himself.
¡°Do you need anything? A special type of food or something?¡±
¡°I feast on the sunlight.¡± Bihi replied with a yawn, stretching her arms up and looking around Aegis¡¯ shoulder as if trying to find a place to lie down. Seeing it, though, he had an idea pop up into his head. ¡°How about I craft you something a bit more comfortable, so you don¡¯t have to hang out on my shoulder?¡± Aegis asked her, and she shrugged with a raised eyebrow at him.
Aegis got to work quickly, making use of the various crafting stations within Rene. With the intention of impressing the Wildling and winning her over through a display of his craftsmanship, he carefully created a pouch with a wooden interior, with a miniature bed suited to her size. He reinforced the interior of the bag with a single spare mithral ingot to make sure its shape wouldn¡¯t warp and be at risk of crushing the occupant.
Once the bag¡¯s shape was safe, he added into the small room tiny accommodations such as a shelf and a table and chair, all secured so that they wouldn¡¯t move around even if Aegis was running. He then created multiple flaps to allow sunlight in, now knowing that Bihi lived off of it. Then, as a finishing touch, he created a strap atop the leather pouch so that he could secure it to his belt.
Once it was complete, he placed the pouch on a table with the flaps open, so that Bihi could easily fly in and out of it, and motioned her inside.
¡°This should make your trip with us more enjoyable. You can stay safe here and rest during the night, or while we are traveling through the dangerous and treacherous areas you described.¡± Aegis explained as he watched her flutter from his shoulder into the pouch. Once she landed on the wooden interior floor, she eyed the amenities - particularly the bed, and walked over to it.
¡°It is very accommodating¡¡± She commented as she pressed down on the miniature mattress Aegis had made using Lagnok wool. ¡°Thank you very much. She turned to smile at him, before curling up her wings and laying on the bed. Once she had, Aegis picked up the pouch and strapped it securely to his belt, heading out of the leatherworking crafting hall that he was currently in. He had quite a few onlookers staring at him, mainly due to his livestreamer status, but he had learned to ignore the points and whispers.
Once back out on the streets of Rene, he spotted off in the distant skies the Sky Darling, approaching them with its sails unfurled. Not but a few moments after he spotted it, he saw Ren, Herilon, and Trexon all approaching him as well.
¡°Nice idea.¡± Trexon motioned to the pouch on Aegis¡¯ belt.
¡°Do you think I could go in there too? If I beastshift into a mouse?¡± Ren asked excitedly.
¡°No.¡± Aegis shook his head at him.
¡°C¡¯mon. Let¡¯s not keep Leonard waiting.¡± Herilon motioned towards the ship, and the others nodded. The party of four then made their way out of Rene to meet the airship, with all preparations completed.
By the time the four of them had stepped out of the eastern gate, the Sky Darling had come to a stop above the fields just outside the walls of Rene, and Greg threw down a long rope ladder for them to climb aboard.
¡°Hello, my dears!¡± Leonard called out excitedly. ¡°Come on board, let¡¯s get this adventure started!¡±
¡°Yeah!¡± Ren cheered, being the first to jump onto the rope ladder and begin climbing. Herilon went next, then Trexon, and finally Aegis. The Airship hovered several meters above the ground, so that by the time Aegis got near the top of the ladder he could see across all of Rene and its entirety, including the great castle that¡¯d been recently constructed. Within the walls, there were numerous groupings of NPCs and players staring up at the airship, ogling it.
Some players, Aegis recognized. He spotted Erikson and Josephine standing beside Amlie in front of their tavern, looking up at Aegis and waving at him. He finished climbing to the top of the deck before waving back at them, but as he did, many more NPCs and players started waving.
¡°Quite the send off!¡± Leonard cheered playfully, joining in with the waving down at the citizens of Rene. After a few moments though, he stopped and clapped his hands together loudly. ¡°Well then.¡± He turned to them, whilst rubbing his hands together. All but Gregory had looks of enthusiasm on their faces. ¡°Ready to set sail!?¡±
Chapter 234: Edge of the World
Chapter 234: Edge of the World
¡°You¡¯re sure this is the right direction?¡± Leonard confirmed as he stood behind the stern of his Airship. The tiny fairy Bihi stood on his shoulder, with Trexon standing behind him with an unrolled map in his hands, eying it curiously.
¡°Yes.¡± Bihi nodded back at Leonard before fluttering her wings down off of Leonard¡¯s shoulder towards Ren, who was holding her crafted pouch as he sat on the banister of the upper deck, swinging his legs back and forth and looking down over the lower portions of the deck in front of him, where Aegis and Herilon were engaged in a duel.
The sound of Herilon¡¯s mithral greatsword clashing against Aegis¡¯ mithral shield was loud and rang out repeatedly. Despite this, though, Leonard and Trexon paid it no mind.
Trexon glanced backwards to see the fading island of Kalmoore as it disappeared behind them, then reconfirmed their location on the map and held it out for Leonard to see.
¡°We¡¯re sailing west, away from Kalmoore. The thing is¡¡± Trexon began,
¡°There¡¯s nothing on the world map west of Kalmoore.¡± Leonard finished for him, and Trexon nodded.
¡°Well, she did say we were going to the edge of the world, right?¡± Ren turned back to look at them with a shrug, which caused Leonard and Trexon to exchange nervous looks. It was only momentary, before they turned their attention onto the duel on the lower deck.
Despite Aegis having his shield up, Herilon repeatedly struck the shield with relentless heavy strikes, forcing Aegis back as he braced the hits and not giving him time to retaliate. Aegis made several attempts to cast heals on himself, but despite the short healing cast times, Herilon wove in strange blue attacks that interrupted his casts and prevented him from getting any heals off until eventually Aegis¡¯ health hit 0, and he lost the duel.
¡°Damn.¡± Aegis shouted in frustration, dropping to his knees as Herilon backed off, the two heavily out of breath. ¡°I can¡¯t even get a single spell off.¡± He grumbled at himself.
¡°Don¡¯t feel bad, I¡¯ve got a lot more experience than you in PvP in games like these. This is your first MMORPG, right?¡± Herilon confirmed while extending a hand out to help Aegis back to his feet, which Aegos took while nodding back.
¡°Yeah¡ but, well.¡± He looked down at the floor of the deck as he pondered. ¡°I can keep up with fast attacks. Just not the heavy strikes, like yours. It¡¯s like your sword is following me when I try to dodge it.¡±
¡°Heh.¡± Herilon shook his head. ¡°Just like you are predicting where rogue players will strike from, I have to predict how you will try to dodge or block my strikes. Strength-based classes, like battlemasters, generally fight like this. My goal is to overpower you and not let you freely cast.¡±
¡°So, it¡¯s a strong counter to defensive glasses like my own?¡± Aegis asked as he raised his head.
¡°Kind of, but I wouldn¡¯t look at it like that.¡± Herilon shrugged.
¡°How would you look at it?¡±
¡°Hm.¡± Herilon scratched his chin and began pacing. ¡°Well, you¡¯ve seen me fight a few times against battlemasters, right?¡± Herilon asked and Aegis nodded back. ¡°Most of them, I could overpower pretty easily. But when it came to Joltblade and Seraxus, I didn¡¯t stand a chance. It¡¯s the same reason why even though you beat Emerill, Lina won against Cheryl. It¡¯s not always as simple as rock paper scissors in an MMORPG.¡± Herilon explained as Aegis listened intently.
¡°When I beat Garrick and the black lion battlemasters, I did so by skill checking them. Even if their class beats mine on paper, that only matters at an equal skill level. I can force them to prove that they counter me by challenging their skill. Hell, even at equal skill levels, you are forcing them to execute their combat capabilities anytime you challenge them, despite disparities in your character class choices. If you play perfectly, and they can¡¯t consistently answer, they will lose regardless of which class counters which.¡± Herilon put his hands on his waist after sheathing his sword.
¡°But in the case of you, or Seraxus, I can¡¯t exactly count on you guys to make mistakes, right?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Right, but in the rock paper scissors analogy, we¡¯re both rocks.¡± Herilon shrugged. ¡°Strength-based are favored against agility, agility favored against intelligence based, and intelligence based classes are what generally counter us. Tank type players generally fall into the same category as strength based, even with healing.¡±
¡°But I can¡¯t even get a cast off when you come at me in full force.¡± Aegis sighed in frustration.
¡°Yep. Because if I let you cast, I¡¯ll lose. My class lacks sustain, while yours does not. It¡¯s important to identify your win condition in each match up.¡± Herilon shrugged. ¡°For a berserker, it¡¯s easy. Kill the enemy before he kills you. I picked it for its simplicity, after getting tired of overly complicated classes in previous games.¡± Herilon smirked.
¡°So what would you say mine is?¡± Aegis raised an eyebrow.
¡°Well¡¡± Herilon looked up towards the sky as he pondered for a moment. ¡°I could tell you what cleric players generally do - minor damage in between sustaining themselves to slowly whittle down their foes. But¡¡± He looked towards Aegis¡¯ open right hand and pointed at it. ¡°You¡¯re not a cleric. You¡¯re not using a scepter for its added sustain and healing stats. Sure, you do use mainly cleric skills, but your playstyle has been so out there in how you incorporate other skills, it¡¯s visibly thrown your opponents off such as your fight with Finley. I mean¡ drinking your own poison¡¡± Herilon chuckled, which caused Aegis to grin slightly.
¡°My point is, I think you¡¯re beyond the point of copying clerics and using them as an example in PvP. First, identify your opponents'' win conditions and their weaknesses, then, discover what your own are. You¡¯re the only Shattered Healer PvPing in this game, and you¡¯re using unarmed claw weapons combined with crafted items from all professions. You¡¯re also currently the only advanced shield mastery player.¡± Herilon said.
¡°Right¡¡± Aegis stood up straight and pondered a moment himself, looking down at his shield, then at his claw weapon in his hands. ¡°What about battlemasters, what are their weaknesses?¡±
¡°Self-sustain, like mine, but their floating weapons make them more versatile defensively and offensively. And, with Seraxus¡¯ lifestealing weapon, he has no weakness.¡± Herilon pursed his lips to the side.
¡°Of course he doesn¡¯t.¡± Aegis shook his head to himself.
¡°Good. I find the best way to figure things out is through practice, though. Theory crafting can only get you so far when it comes to PvP.¡± Herilon sent another duel challenge to Aegis which popped up in front of his eyes in his interface. ¡°The more you get used to fighting, the easier it¡¯ll be for you to react on the fly.¡±
¡°Right.¡± Aegis nodded as he hit accept and lifted his shield, preparing for another match as the others watched and listened intently from the upper deck, including Bihi who was now sitting on Ren¡¯s shoulder.
A full day went by consisting of nothing but duels between Aegis and Herilon on the deck of the Sky Darling. Despite breakfast and lunch being served by Gregory, the pair opted to skip it in favor of their continued practice. Aegis tried multiple fighting styles that incorporated his skills into the mix, while Herilon remained consistent in his unrelenting aggressive attacking style. Slowly, Aegis was learning on how to manage the hits and get a few heals onto himself, but his damage output was still lacking and the heals served only to delay the inevitable losses.
Eventually, Herilon opted to take a break that evening and the pair went down to the dining hall of the ship to eat leftovers. Herilon had a satisfied look on his face as he munched down on Gregory''s prepared meals, while Aegis was deep in thought as he reconstructed their duels in his head and tried to think of fighting styles he could incorporate.
After not managing to do much himself, he opted to open up his livestream viewer and peruse through streams of various popular PvPers, focusing mainly on battlemasters, clerics, and monks who utilized unarmed strikes very often. Despite watching for hours, nothing was jumping out at him as being effective enough to take on things like battlemasters, and he began to get frustrated with the prospects of what his class was capable of.
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Having no role model to copy in the game was tough, but not an insurmountable challenge. He reminded himself that he had no one to follow when he¡¯d found mithral and voidsilk, or discovered his class - but the daunting concept of trying to insert himself into a well established combative PvP scene was coming up in his mind as much more challenging than anything he¡¯d attempted so far.
Long after Herilon had abandoned the dining hall and left Aegis on his own, he took out several blank parchments and began sketching out ideas with an ink quill, brainstorming styles of fighting that might work to free up casting to sustain himself, while simultaneously allowing him to put intense pressure on his opponents. It wasn¡¯t until a loud yell from above deck reached his ears that he was taken out of focus.
¡°ALL HANDS ON DECK!¡± Leonard¡¯s voice echoed through the ship, forcing Aegis to look up from his parchments. He quickly gathered up his parchment and rushed up out of the dining hall and climbed the stairs out onto the deck alongside Trexon who was holding a book in his hands.
When Aegis and Trexon got a view of the night sky around them, they too saw Ren and Herilon looking curiously over the side of the ship near its front, and turned back behind them to see Leonard and Gregory staring forward from behind the stern, looking nervous.
¡°What is it?¡± Trexon asked.
¡°There, on the horizon. Do you see it?¡± Leonard pointed forward anxiously. This prompted Trexon and Aegis to walk forward to the front of the ship where Ren and Herilon were standing, and squinted their eyes.
¡°I don¡¯t see anything, but he said something about Bihi¡¯s version of the end of the world being a bad joke.¡± Herilon explained as the four looked forward curiously. It took awhile for Aegis to spot it as well, as initially all he saw was an open sea of black mist before them. His viewership began to spike as his eyes went wide with disbelief.
He then glanced backwards to look at the mast and saw it more clearly now - the mast was at an angle.
¡°We¡¯re descending, because the black mist is ending.¡± Aegis declared so that everyone was on the same page.
¡°Precisely.¡± Leonard called out in response.
¡°What? Why? The end of the abyss? How is that possible?¡± Ren exclaimed.
¡°Does the game world really have an end?¡± Trexon pondered out loud as tensions rose.
¡°Why¡¯re we descending, exactly?¡± Herilon asked.
¡°The airships rely on the island stones crafted into the hull to float. The island stones float by rejecting the darkness of the abyss, generally, but also hover above land a certain distance. Meaning, when the mist goes down, so do we.¡± Leonard explained.
¡°But, that means, if the world ends, we¡¯re just gonna fall off?¡± Ren asked with an anxious stare at the others.
¡°That¡¯s what it¡¯d mean, but, that¡¯s not exactly what''s happening¡¡± Aegis mumbled back as he looked forward once more and squinted through the dark night sky to try to get a better view of the way in front of them. All the while, Bihi curiously woke up from her slumber within Aegis¡¯ pouch house that Ren was carrying for him, and fluttered onto Aegis¡¯ shoulder.
¡°What is it, what do you see?¡± Leonard asked him curiously as all eyes turned to Aegis. Aegis took a deep anxious breath, unable to confirm his theory using his eyes.
¡°Back in Arallia, the abysslings and reapers wouldn¡¯t chase me into the river¡¡± Aegis mumbled out quietly, prompting a tense silence amongst the group.
¡°Only the continent of Ramleia has succumbed to the darkness of the abyss. Thankfully the vast oceans of Lupei and Salmiyar, and their lack of intelligent life, have prevented its spread.¡± Bihi explained nonchalantly.
¡°Ho boy.¡± Herilon shook his head.
¡°I hope this airship can also be a ship ship.¡± Trexon called out.
¡°Can it? Can the sky darling be a ship ship?¡± Ren asked Leonard anxiously.
¡°How the hell should I know?!¡± Leonard shouted back nervously.
¡°Oh dear.¡± Gregory sighed.
¡°There it is, I see it!¡± Herilon declared excitedly, pointing forward at a reflective surface far off in the distance, well beyond the black misty abyss in front of them. Sure enough, the others squinted to see the light of the moon reflecting off of moving waves, as they crashed into the edge of the descending cloud of black mist.
¡°What do we do?¡± Trexon asked Leonard anxiously.
¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Leonard replied in a panic.
¡°Will the airship continue to hover above water, or does it only hover above solid land?!¡± Aegis asked him.
¡°I DON¡¯T KNOW!¡± Leonard shouted back frantically. All the while, Bihi remained very calm atop Aegis¡¯ shoulder, and even looked somewhat amused. The smile disappeared from her face rather quickly though when the sight of thousands of black wings shot up from the edge of the mist and began blackening out the light of the stairs in front of them.
¡°Reapers!¡± Aegis called it out as their swarms began to take over the skies all around them.
¡°Of course.¡± Trexon rolled his eyes while Herilon drew out his greatsword.
¡°Leonard, get us to the water. Trexon, use your magic to soften our landing in the ocean if needed. Everyone else, keep the reapers off of the sails.¡± Aegis gave out the orders quickly, and got several nods of understanding. The anxiety that Ren was displaying quickly turned to excitement as the swarms closed in on the ship. Aegis readied his claws and shield, and within seconds, the swarm was upon them.
Like in the past, the reappears were mainly of lower levels, ranging from 30 to 40. This meant that any attacks from his claws, Ren¡¯s beastshifts, or Herilon¡¯s sword would end in instant defeat for the reapers. The problem was their numbers, but the Reapers were not trying to attack the ship but seemed to be fleeing past them, swarming in the direction that the Sky Darling was flying from.
Aegis¡¯ party focused only on ensuring that none of the reapers crashed through the sails of the airship as they fled, and it didn¡¯t take long for Aegis and the others to pick up on this strange behavior.
¡°What¡¯re they running from?¡± Leonard shouted out anxiously.
¡°Just focus on not letting us crash!¡± Aegis called out back to him. In between cutting down reapers and protecting the sails with shield projections, he did his best to look forward through the swarm at the ocean beyond the edge of the abyss.
¡°We¡¯re getting closer to the water¡¡± Trexon announced anxiously.
¡°See anything?¡± Herilon asked Aegis as he spotted him looking through the swarm in between his sword swings - waves of blue light shot off of Herilon¡¯s greatsword and cut through the reapers with ease.
¡°Not yet¡¡± Aegis mumbled back, scanning the surface of the vast ocean ahead of them as carefully and quickly as he could - it was difficult to notice anything out of the ordinary though due to the darkness of the night.
The descent of the Sky Darling hastened, now flying at a 30 degree angle downward as the black mist tapered off and ran up against the waves of the ocean that moved in and out towards the landmass that the mist was resting on. Eventually, the swarm broke and made it beyond their ship, clearing up their visibly so that all of them saw the gigantic ocean ahead of them.
¡°We¡¯re nearing the edge!¡± Ren called out as he shifted back into his elven form and ran to the front of the ship. The others followed suit, including Gregory, and the group watched anxiously as the black mist beneath the airship transitioned into slow flowing waves of water. They all held their breath, but with ease, the ship continued to sail in the sky above the water.
¡°Of course, there¡¯s still ground underneath the waves. As long as the ground continues at a steady decline, so should our descent continue slowly. Nothing to worry about.¡± Trexon explained logically, getting a sigh of relief from Gregory, Ren, and Herilon.
¡°As long as the ship is waterproof.¡± Aegis added.
¡°It should be. Right? I mean, aren¡¯t airships air tight?¡± Trexon asked with a hint of nervousness, exchanging uncomfortable glances with Aegis, and then Leonard who shrugged back at them.
¡°What happens if the ground underneath the waves doesn¡¯t decline steadily, and just suddenly drops off an underwater cliff?¡± Herilon asked.
¡°Well, then it¡¯d be the same as if FU-¡± Trexon was interrupted as the airship suddenly went into a freefall, plummeting out of the sky several dozen meters until crashing into the ocean below, sending violent waves up all around them and jerking the ship around, knocking them all off of their feet and flinging both Aegis and Herilon overboard whilst Bihi fluttered up off of his shoulder as to not fall in.
Aegis tasted the salt water in his mouth as he desperately held his breath upon falling in, swimming against the waves created by the falling sky darling to reach the surface. It wasn¡¯t hard, and within seconds both he and Herilon got back to the surface and grabbed onto the lower underside of the ship.
¡°PULL US UP! NOW!¡± Aegis shouted frantically.
¡°NOW, RIGHT NOW!¡± Herilon joined in, to which Gregory quickly complied. After regaining his footing, Gregory grabbed a rope ladder and threw it down off the side of the ship as it began to settle on the waves. Aegis desperately climbed up the ladder, followed by Herilon, and the two plopped down on the deck soaking wet as all but Leonard walked over to check on them.
¡°Good news, we aren¡¯t sinking!¡± Leonard declared, his voice lacking confidence.
¡°You guys alright? Why are you panicking?¡± Ren asked as Aegis and Herilon exchanged looks of terror.
¡°Because¡ we saw under the waves what the reapers were fleeing from.¡± Aegis caught his breath quickly, standing upright.
¡°What difficulty did you say this quest was? Extreme II?!¡± Herilon exclaimed with wide eyes of disbelief as they both looked forward over the front of the ship, and the others followed their eyes. A gigantic, spike-covered tentacle protruded out of the surface of the ocean in front of their ship briefly before disappearing beneath the waves, the tentacle easily the size of the entire ship on its own.
¡°Not exactly¡¡± Aegis smiled innocently.
Chapter 235: Old World Problems
Chapter 235: Old World Problems
¡°How big are we talking?¡± Trexon asked as all eyes atop the deck fell upon Aegis and Herilon.
¡°What was it exactly?¡± Leonard asked.
¡°Maybe I can beastshift into it!¡± Ren replied excitedly.
¡°It¡¯s definitely too big for beastshifting.¡± Herilon quickly replied.
¡°There were question marks above its head, both for the name and the level. There¡¯s a chance it didn¡¯t notice us yet, considering our size. Can you do anything to hide our presence?¡± Aegis turned to Trexon.
¡°I¡¯ll try¡¡± Trexon pulled his staff off of his back and waved it, creating a glow of gray magical energy on the tip of the staff. A moment after he¡¯d begun casting, there was a faint magical light that began to outline the Sky Darling.
¡°Keep sailing forward as quickly and quietly as possible.¡± Aegis then ordered Leonard.
¡°Well, I¡¯m not exactly skilled in sailing on the water¡¡± Leonard replied hesitantly.
¡°Sailing is sailing, isn¡¯t it? How different can it be from sailing the skies?¡± Herilon replied impatiently.
¡°A lot different!¡± Leonard snapped back in annoyance, showing his anxiousness on his face as he started wiggling his fingers to cast several skills. After he had, the ship began moving forward as a wind was brushing up into the mainsail of the ship, forcing it forward out into the open ocean.
Once the movement began, everyone fell silent and all but Leonard inched forward to the edge of the deck to peer over the side into the dark water below. The night didn¡¯t allow them to see much beyond the surface of the calm waves - they were relying completely on the light of the moon and stars shining down thanks to the clear skies, and no one was feeling brave enough to cast or utilize any other sources of light to improve their vision.
Bihi watched intently from Aegis shoulder, just as silent as the others as soon the only sounds they could hear were that of the waves splashing gently against the ship, and the creaking of wood and the flapping of sails.
¡°Lupein Squids have a unique hunting method. When they sense activity on the surface, they will position themselves in the path of their prey and wait patiently for them to move in a favorable position.¡± Bihi explained nonchalantly, causing everyone to nervously glance at one another.
¡°What?¡± Herilon glared at the tiny fairy.
¡°That sort of information is more useful before we start moving forward.¡± Aegis sighed in frustration, but didn¡¯t have time to contemplate her words as he noticed suddenly the movement of the waves began to shift, and the forward trajectory of the ship began to tilt to the side. ¡°Any other useful tidbits you got, before it¡¯s too late?¡± Aegis grumbled at her as the others grabbed the railings to hold on, their balance faltering due to the shifting trajectory.
¡°They have a unique body that allows them to suck in massive volumes of water and expel it out of their backside simultaneously. Once a prey as moved into an optimal position, they begin exhaling the water in the area until it pulls the prey into their mouth, and they close their backside to trap the prey within their stomach. During this process they utilize their tentacles defensively to ensure their prey cannot escape.¡± Bihi explained calmly.
¡°Translation?¡± Herilon turned to Aegis and Trexon, and saw Aegis take a deep nervous breath.
¡°It¡¯s creating a whirlpool beneath us to suck us in.¡± Aegis replied, and Trexon nodded. Within seconds, the speed at which the Sky Darling began to tilt and follow the movement of the waves hasted greatly, ignoring the use of skills that Leonard was doing on the sails.
¡°Leonard, you gotta airburst us outta here, NOW!¡± Trexon shouted, giving up on channeling his spell.
¡°Right,¡± Leonard nodded, lifting his hands and preparing to cast, but before he could, the ship violently jerked sideways and began swirling at an angle, knocking Leonard off of his feet.
¡°It happens rather quickly. The time from you being on calm waters, to being inside the creature''s mouth, that is.¡± Bihi said as Aegis desperately grabbed onto the railings and saw over the side of the angled ship what she meant.
The whirlpool had finished forming, and the water was spiraling rapidly towards the center over a large area. To match the size of the creature, the whirlpool was gigantic in comparison to their tiny ship, which gave them some time before reaching the center, but the depth of the center grew quickly.
¡°Aura of light!¡± Aegis shouted, abandoning all sense of stealth to erupt in a dome of light that expanded out around the ship and below the waves, far enough to reveal the creature. This was something Aegis regretted doing, as the sheer size and horrifying visage of the creature becoming visible served only to terrify everyone on the ship.
A giant gaping maw of black flesh and curved fangs was waiting for them below the waves at the center of the whirlpool, water being pulled into the maw and drawing the ship in closer and closer. The maw was complimented by 10 gigantic black tentacles that were wriggling out in the ocean all around them, creating a deadly net that covered a large distance beyond the whirlpool.
¡°What kind of sick game developer creates something like that?¡± Gregory scoffed at it with wide eyes, his normally calm demeanor completely absent. Every second that went by, the speed at which the ship began to tilt and swirl towards the center hastened, and it was only a few moments before the depth of the whirlpool at its center reached the maw of the creature, leaving nothing to the imagination as the moonlight reflected off of its slimy skin.
¡°AIRBURST US NOW!¡± Herilon shouted as Leonard desperately climbed back to the stern and grabbed it.
¡°If I airburst now, we¡¯ll just smash into the water and break apart!¡± Leonard shouted back hysterically.
¡°He¡¯s right!¡± Trexon added in agreement.
¡°Then fly us out of here!¡± Herilon shouted in frustration, also showing signs of panic that Aegis wasn¡¯t used to seeing with him.
¡°HOW!? I need something to propel against!¡± Leonard yelled back, but this put an idea into Aegis¡¯ mind.
¡°Druids have earth magic, don¡¯t they?¡± Aegis turned to Ren.
¡°Yeah, but I¡¯m a shifting druid, so my earth skills are pretty weak¡¡± Ren replied with a weak nod.
¡°That¡¯s fine. Trexon, create a flat shell out in the air in the middle of the whirlpool! Ren, start casting earth magic so that it gets caught on the shell!¡± Aegis ordered. Trexon nodded and waved his staff with one hand, while holding on to the mast with his other as the ship was now tilted inward towards the center of the airship at a 25 degree angle.
Once the shell had formed in the open space above the center of the whirlpool, Ren began rapidly casting earth bolts, shooting chunks of earth out of his hands and crashing them into the bottom of the shell. Each attack that the shell absorbed drained a bit of Trexon¡¯s mana, but thanks to Ren¡¯s earth bolt skill being underleveled, it wasn¡¯t significant. The downside of course was that the bolts were so small, the earth was building up slowly.
¡°Whatever you are doing, do it faster!¡± Herilon shouted at Ren.
¡°This is the best I can do!¡± Ren replied back in annoyance as he rapidly shot out bolts. The ship got closer and closer to the whirlpool''s center, but the amount of earth built up overtime.
¡°Alright, that¡¯s gotta be enough. If we don¡¯t act now we don¡¯t stand a chance.¡± Aegis stopped him.
¡°It¡¯s good that there¡¯s something for the airship¡¯s hull to float against IN THE AIR ABOVE THE GIANT SQUID MONSTER!¡± Leonard shouted at Aegis hysterically.
¡°How are you planning to escape the water to get to it?¡± Trexon asked Aegis.
¡°It¡¯s a little crazy, so you gotta trust me, Ren.¡± Aegis turned to him, and a gigantic grin grew over Ren¡¯s face. ¡°I¡¯ll provide footing in front of the ship using two shield projections, you jump on them, then use that big gorilla form and fling the ship with all your might towards the earth. Herilon, tie a rope to him and pull him back to the ship after he¡¯s flung us so he doesn¡¯t get left behind.¡± Aegis instructed him. ¡°Trexon, maintain the shell holding the earth, shift the earth using angled shells if we miss.¡± Trexon nodded.
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¡°Leonard, the moment we¡¯re hovering past the earth and get ourselves angled out of the whirlpool using the island stones floating mechanisms, use Airburst to launch us out of here.¡± Aegis gave the final instructions, and Leonard nodded back anxiously whilst Aegis¡¯ viewership shot up to 2 million.
¡°YOU¡¯RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!¡± Gregory shouted frantically, pointing down at the maw of the creature of which they were swirling dangerously close to. Aegis and Ren moved to the front of the ship, Herilon pulling a rope out of his inventory behind them and quickly wrapping it around Ren. Aegis then focused intently on the dark water in front of them.
¡°Jump and shift, I¡¯ll catch you.¡± Aegis said, and Ren nodded. With all his might, Ren launched himself forward off of the front of the ship.
¡°BEAST SHIFT: KALMOORIAN APE!¡± Ren shouted mid air, erupting in a buff of green mist. As his new gigantic ape form appeared out of the mist, Aegis carefully held his hands out and utilized his new double shield projection guard to create shields under exactly where Ren¡¯s gigantic ape feet were landing whilst Ren spun around mid-air to face the hull of the ship as he landed.
The ship was moving incredibly fast, Ren had little time to react as the ship crashed into his form. Ren reached out his ape arms and grabbed the hull and flung it out towards the center of the whirlpool - it was heavier than he was imagining given the amount of strength the ape form granted him. He was able to lift it up and angle it out of the whirlpool, utilizing the forward momentum to launch it out of the swirling water, but not directly towards the center of the whirlpool where the earth and shell was waiting.
Trexon saw it, quickly angling the shell into a slant to shift the earth in the path of the soaring airship as Ren shifted back into his elven form and Herilon yanked on the rope around his waist to pull him up off of Aegis¡¯ shield projections, so that he flew through the air behind the ship.
The moment the earth resting on the shell was under the hull of the ship, it evened out, but only briefly as the forward momentum was quickly carrying the ship through the air beyond the shell and towards the opposite side of the whirlpool.
¡°NOW!¡± Aegis shouted at Leonard.
¡°AIRBURST!¡± Leonard shouted frantically, creating a violent burst of wind in the sails of the airship and launching it forward. It had barely cleared the top of the whirlpool, the hull of the ship skipping off the edge of the swirling water and bumping everyone off of their feet momentarily due to the impact with it, but luckily everyone was already holding onto something to prevent them from being launched off, including Bihi who clutched onto Aegis¡¯ shoulder armor tightly.
Beyond the top of the whirlpool, the ship soared through the air a great distance, clearing far away from the monster, its tentacles, and the whirlpool before it lost its aerial momentum and began to descend back towards the ocean.
¡°GRAND SHELL!¡± Trexon quickly cast around the ship just as it impacted the water, protecting the ship from breaking apart upon impact. Once the momentum of the ship slowed down due to the shell skidding along the water a few dozen meters, Trexon released the shell and allowed the ship to properly plop down onto the ocean surface. It took another few moments for the waves to settle and the deck of the ship to become steady. At this time, no one spoke, but all breathed heavily and glanced at each other.
Herilon began pulling the rope up quickly that had Ren on the other end, until he finally made it back onto the deck soaking wet. The moment he did, Ren burst out laughing excitedly.
¡°AEGIS ADVENTURES ARE THE BEST!¡± Ren cheered with his arms in the air. This prompted the others to begin smirking and laughing.
¡°You should¡¯ve seen the look on your face.¡± Herilon smirked at Gregory.
¡°You¡¯re one to talk.¡± Gregory scoffed at him.
¡°Why is it that every time I let you on my airship, I feel at risk of losing it?!¡± Leonard yelled at Aegis from behind his stern, and Aegis shrugged back at him innocently. ¡°I need a drink.¡± Leonard sighed.
¡°That was some quick thinking. As a raid leader, you could give Quinn a run for her money.¡± Trexon patted Aegis on the shoulder, smiling with his Lizardfolk teeth at him.
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis smiled back before turning to Bihi. ¡°Which direction is the Great Old One?¡± Aegis asked her.
¡°If we stay the course, we should reach him in the morning.¡± Bihi replied.
¡°Good, hear that?¡± Aegis asked Leonard, and he nodded back.
¡°Yep.¡± Leonard replied.
¡°Let¡¯s recover our mana and be ready for whatever this ocean is going to throw at us.¡± Aegis turned to the others and got a few nods.
Despite nothing else eventful happening for the rest of the evening, the group had a hard time settling down after their encounter with the huge squid monster. Herilon kept watch on the rear of the ship to make sure it wasn¡¯t pursuing them, while Aegis stayed near the front and Ren climbed his way up into the bird''s nest. Trexon had his copy of the world map out and was modifying it as they sailed, repeatedly looking out in various directions around the ship, but there were no signs of any land in any direction.
Leonard was slowly getting the hang of sailing on the ocean, which meant that they began to speed up as the sun began to rise over the horizon. It was a beautiful sight to behold within the game world, being the first time any of them had seen the sun rise over water rather than the black mist of the abyss, but the prestige wore off when Ren spotted something else on the horizon and pointed it out to the group.
¡°There¡¯s something ahead of us, I see it!¡± Ren shouted down to the others, prompting everyone to excitedly move to the front of the ship.
¡°What is it, an island?¡± Aegis asked him.
¡°I¡¯m not sure. I don¡¯t think so¡¡±
¡°Another monster?¡± Herilon asked anxiously.
¡°Dunno, it¡¯s not moving¡¡± Ren replied.
¡°What¡¯s with you? Normally you sound more excited to fight big monsters.¡± Trexon looked at Herilon confused, seeing hints of fear on his face.
¡°Yeah. Normally. My favorite part about this game was that it didn¡¯t have oceans, though. At least, I thought it didn¡¯t. I have a fear of deep water.¡± Herilon admitted.
¡°That¡¯s quite unfortunate, given where we are.¡± Gregory smirked, to which Herilon threw him a nasty glare.
¡°It looks like¡¡± Ren squirted and put his hands over his eyes to shield them from the light, allowing him to see the object on the horizon more clearly. ¡°I think it¡¯s a tree.¡±
¡°A tree?¡± Aegis tried to confirm.
¡°Yup. A really, really big tree. A giant wildwood tree.¡± Ren replied, becoming more confident with each statement.
¡°It is him.¡± Bihi smiled excitedly from atop Aegis¡¯ shoulder. Hearing her words, Herilon sighed with relief.
¡°Good, we¡¯re almost there.¡± Herilon replied.
¡°There¡¯s nothing else waiting for us around it, is there?¡± Trexon asked Bihi, and the shrugged.
¡°Not that I recall. But it has been many years since I have been here. I was merely a seedling when the winds carried me away.¡± Bihi replied.
¡°That¡¯s comforting.¡± Gregory replied smugly, eying Herilon for a reaction but he got none.
¡°Steady she goes, my dears.¡± Leonard called out, holding the course as she ship continued to sail towards the object.
As the Sky Darling closed in on the tree, its sheer size began to overwhelm the others. At a distance, it looked small, but as they got closer they quickly realized just how gigantic the tree was.
It was a mangrove, with its roots and the base of its trunk visible above the waves. The roots themselves were in the hundreds, and many of them gigantic, easily the size of buildings. Atop the roots were a great many forms of beautiful vegetation, not unlike the vibrant flowers that they¡¯d seen growing around the Wildwood tree back in Kalmoore.
In addition, there were humanoid creatures moving about the top of the roots, with small structures built atop them. Aegis could make out primarily demi-humans and Lizardfolk, but there were a few Plashrim, elves, humans, and another race he didn¡¯t quite recognize that looked fish-like.
Just as they were surprised to see them, the creatures looked curiously down at their approaching ship from atop the roots.
¡°There¡¯s people living on the tree?¡± Aegis asked Bihi.
¡°Yes, refugees who fled from the continent of Ramleia were granted safe haven on the roots of the Great Old one.¡± Bihi nodded.
¡°So the tree itself is who we need to talk to?¡± Aegis confirmed with her.
¡°Yes. To commune with him, it is best we travel to the center, under the roots. Navigating them can be difficult, though. Do not fret the smaller roots, however. I shall clear the way.¡± Bihi smiled, motioning to a path between two large roots that was covered with an overhang of smaller roots, but with a wave of her hands, the small roots shifted and moved out of the way to allow space for the ship to sail forward beyond them.
¡°You got this?¡± Trexon asked as all eyes turned to Leonard.
¡°Not much choice, huh? Use your shells to help me out, will you dear?¡± Leonard replied nervously, and Trexon nodded back. With that, Leonard waved his fingers to pull in the side sails so that he could more easily sail between the roots, all the while Ren and Herilon curiously looked up at the humanoid NPCs staring down at them from atop the roots, many of the onlookers children. Aegis found himself staring up at the canopy of the tree instead, as its size was unimaginable. It covered the entirety of the ocean all around the tree, allowing few rays of sunlight through its lush green leaves to shine down on the gardens and houses built atop the roots.
¡°Incredible¡¡± He mumbled to himself with wide eyes of amazement, which did not go unnoticed by Bihi who remained on his shoulder.
The navigation through the gigantic roots proved more troublesome than Leonard had anticipated, but Trexon¡¯s use of shells prevented any damage to the ship or the tree as he used it to prevent multiple bumps and crashes as Leonard got his bearings. Despite being below the roots and the canopy, the morning sun reflecting off of the ocean water gave them plenty of light. In addition, there were many small glowing mushrooms and flowers that were giving off light, growing on the underside of the roots amidst moss and algae.
The varying colors of the bioluminescent plants reminded Aegis of Reltrak forest, but the variety in colors far surpassed that of the forest as there were violets, blues, greens, reds and yellows of all shades, granting them a beautiful view. It wasn¡¯t long before the ship began to approach the central section of the tree though, and once they¡¯d passed beyond two particularly thick roots, they found themselves sailing out into an open space below the tree where the waves were calm.
At the very center of the trunk, a small opening could be seen with a bright yellow light being emitted from it.
¡°He is waiting for us.¡± Bihi motioned towards the light. Aegis turned to Leonard after she said this, and he nodded. He then glanced at the others and got nods from Trexon, Herilon, and Ren, before he turned back towards the light and took a deep breath.
¡°Let¡¯s hope he likes us.¡± Aegis mumbled to himself as he moved to the front of the very front of the ship in anticipation.
Chapter 236: The Great Old One
Chapter 236: The Great Old One
The players aboard the Sky Darling became quieter and quieter as the ship neared its destination. All of their necks were craned upwards to face the bright glow emanating out of the bottom of the tree. Somehow, as they got closer, the light of its yellow glow seemed to dim as if not to hurt their eyes for staring directly at it - at least that is what it felt like to Aegis.
¡°He is waiting.¡± Bihi said proudly as the light fell upon them. Hearing her words, Leonard made a few waves of his fingers to cast spells that rose up the mainsail and folded in the side wing sails, slowing the ships movement. It wasn¡¯t until they were fully radiating in the light of the tree that they came to a complete stop, however, as some sort of magic began to hold them in place.
There were a few long moments of silence after that, as everyone looked up at the light expectantly, but nothing happened. It was clear there was a hole at the center of this massive mangrove¡¯s drunk, but they couldn¡¯t see very far into it due to the glow.
¡°Should we ask it something?¡± Herilon broke the silence with this suggestion.
¡°Like what?¡± Ren replied curiously.
¡°I dunno.¡± Herilon shrugged.
¡°Maybe start with saying hello.¡± Trexon suggested eagerly to Aegis. Aegis nodded back and opened his mouth as if preparing to call up to the light, but stopped before a sound came out.
¡°Wait.¡± He turned to Ren. ¡°You should talk. In druidic, right? I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll understand me.¡± Aegis whispered. Ren nodded affirmatively before turning his head and opening his mouth to speak to the light instead. Before a word could leave his mouth, though, he was interrupted.
¡°I am able to utilize and comprehend the tongues of mortals.¡± A deep, warm voice rang out through their ears, coming from somewhere within the light. The voice seemed impossibly loud, yet at the same time not so loud that it traveled very far beyond their ship. Hearing it caused Ren to freeze and eye Aegis awkwardly, who took a deep breath and caught a few glances from the others. He psyched himself up before preparing his own words.
¡°Hello. Are you the Great Old One?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°If you must ask, perhaps granting this audience was a mistake.¡± It replied quickly.
¡°Right.¡± Aegis shook his head to himself. ¡°I¡¯ve come on behalf of Ysil¡¯mareina, the silver dragon¡ And¡.¡± Aegis tried to make it sound more important, ¡°the Goddess, Eirene.¡± He paused, but got no response. ¡°We are looking for a way to push back the darkness of the abyss, and reclaim the land beneath the shattered island.¡±
¡°I understand. Bihi has explained much of who you are, and what your purpose is.¡± The voice replied.
¡°You already spoke with her?¡± Aegis raised his eyebrows curiously, glancing from the fairy on his shoulder to up at the light.
¡°The roots of this world grow deep, and our voices travel far. Us wildlings can communicate a great distance. I have known about who you are and what your purpose is from the moment you approached Bihi¡¯s grove.¡±
¡°What was the point of us sailing all the way out here, then?¡± Herilon huffed in a whisper to the others, thinking the voice wouldn¡¯t hear it, but it did.
¡°It was her request. After imbuing her essence into a mobile form, she wished to see how you could care for her, if put under the impression that you were merely carrying a copy of her. She believed she could understand your true nature the best by doing this.¡± The voice explained, as they turned towards the fairy. She settled down onto Aegis¡¯ shoulder with her legs crossed and closed her eyes innocently. While the other players looked somewhat surprised, Aegis looked on at her as if he¡¯d somewhat anticipated something along these lines.
¡°So all that stuff about you just being a copy isn¡¯t true? If that giant squid whirlpool sucked us in, you would¡¯ve died?¡± Ren asked her.
¡°Yes. But luckily, we survived.¡±
¡°I guess that explains why she began giving us tips when we weren¡¯t reacting. Does that mean we didn¡¯t perform well on your test?¡± Trexon asked.
¡°On the contrary.¡± Bihi replied. ¡°You far surpassed my expectations. Admittedly, they weren¡¯t very high given that you are other-worlders, though. I have decided, I will assist Aegis in his task.¡± Bihi spoke, her final words being directed at the glowing light above the ship.
¡°Are you sure about this, Bihi? There is no turning back.¡± The glowing light responded to her words.
¡°Yes.¡± She answered confidently.
¡°What¡¯s she mean? What¡¯s going on?¡± Aegis interrupted them out of curiosity.
¡°Allow me to explain.¡± The voice answered promptly. ¡°You wish you could reclaim land that is shrouded in a great deal of darkness. To do so is possible, but you will require a wildling infused with a great deal of divine light. Such a transformation for an already sprouted wildling would destroy them, it can only be done while they are in a seedling form. Thus, it would only have ever been possible for you to accomplish your task by convincing one of our kind to willingly be reborn as a seed of light.¡± The voice explained.
¡°Bihi traveled with you after informing me of her intent, to discover if you were worthy of such a meaningful and generous act. She has found you as such. I will now use my power to revert her into her seedling form. After I have, you must take great care of her as you return her to your great prophet, where you will be able to infuse her with the light of your goddess. Once infused, it will be up to you to plant her in fertile ground upon the surface of your shattered world, and see to it that she may grow quickly, and safely. For her leaves may grow tall and bright, reaching up out of the abyss and pushing back the darkness. From her trunk, you shall create a sanctuary in your darkened world so long as you can keep her safe.¡±
As he spoke, the others looked among one another with glimmers of excitement in their eyes, for what the Great Old One was describing was a quest that truly did involve reclaiming the surface of the shattered world - a quest of the likes that no other player had ever received in the game world this far.
Before Aegis even got a chance to completely wave the message away, the yellow glow from the tree got brighter and Bihi began to hover off of his shoulder due to it, and not the flapping of her own wings. Aegis turned to look at her and saw that the glow was engulfing her, and her eyes remained closed. Within seconds the glow became too bright for Aegis to stare at, but instead he heard a warm voice from within - the sound of Bihi¡¯s final words.
¡°Please take care of me. We¡¯ll speak again once my growth has begun.¡± Bihi replied in a soft voice.
¡°Hold out your hands.¡± The deeper voice from the tree above commanded him. Aegis did exactly that, as Bihi¡¯s glowing body was lowered down into his cupped and open, upward facing palms. He felt the warmth of the glow settle down onto them as the others excitedly watched. Slowly, the glowing light faded, and what was once Bihi was now a large white seed that barely fit into his hands.
Before Aegis could finish looking at the rather plain itemcard of the seed and see its description of Bihi, another prompt flew up into his face sent by the Great Old One itself.
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Quest[6/6]: Deliver Bihi¡¯s seedling to the Great Prophet of Eirene on the island of Kalmoore, within the town of Rene.
Objective: 0/1 Bihi Delivered
Quest Giver: The Great Old One, Lupei Ocean
Reward: Advanced Class: (Unknown)
Difficulty: Extreme(III)
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Seeing it, Aegis hit accept and let out a sigh of relief.
¡°It¡¯s done. It¡¯s the final step for my advanced class. We just need to return to Kalmoore.¡± Aegis explained to the others aboard the ship, and saw a few excited smiling faces staring back at him before he quickly turned to face the glowing light of the tree above them once more. ¡°I¡¯ll take great care of her, I promise.¡± Aegis said before adding the seedling to his inventory.
¡°I trust you will. If you fail, you will be hard pressed to find another of our kind willing to sacrifice themselves for your cause. We do not often meddle in the war of the light and the dark.¡± The voice replied.
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¡°Don¡¯t forget the other reason we ca-¡± Trexon whispered to Aegis eagerly, but was interrupted as Leonard stomped across the deck of his ship hastily, towards the front where the others were.
¡°Wait. Before we finish here, I also have a question.¡± Leonard called up towards the light. After he had spoken, he got no response while the other players looked at him curiously. ¡°Many Airship pilots like myself have been seeking out someone who could teach us how to improve our skills, but it seems impossible. We have looked everywhere, endlessly, for a long time, yet no one such person has been found.¡± Leonard¡¯s manner of speaking changed greatly, as if to match that of the Great Old One itself. ¡°Tell me, in your infinite wisdom, do you possess the knowledge of how one might advance their skills in sailing the skies?¡±
¡°Curious¡¡± The voice replied, as suddenly something dark began to descend from the center of the tree towards them, absorbing the glowing light until the glow had completely faded. In its place, a fairy, much larger than Bihi, fluttered down a pair of huge yellow butterfly wings before landing on the deck, while the others stepped back away to give him space. [?(ELITE) - ??] hovered above its head, and he was wearing simple white robes as his feet touched down. He was no taller than a young 6 year old child, yet with a wise and old face covered in wrinkles under a set of short messy yellow hair.
It was clear that it was a manifestation of the tree that had set foot on the ship, but no one understood why. The large fairy didn¡¯t seem interested in them, but rather the ship itself, and he walked around curiously as if testing the wood.
¡°Your vessel flies and floats, but you are relying heavily on the fragments of Eirene¡¯s star. It is no wonder you have not been able to progress.¡± The Great Old one spoke finally, after finishing his inspection and looking up at Leonard.
¡°There¡¯s another way to make an Airship fly?¡± Leonard asked curiously.
¡°Yes, of course. How do you think the Airships flew before the star was shattered and rained down upon your lands?¡± The Great Old one raised his eyebrow curiously at Leonard, but simultaneously Leonard, Aegis and Trexon¡¯s mouths went wide with disbelief at this revelation. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, you managed to sail all the way out here on this vessel atop the waves? That would be incredibly dangerous, with the many Lupein Squid swimming around outside our waters.¡± The Great Old One asked them curiously, causing the players to awkwardly smile at him. He picked up on this quickly. ¡°I suppose that explains how you impressed Bihi.¡± The fairy shrugged.
¡°If not the island stones, how?¡± Leonard asked eagerly.
¡°I think it best that you have it explained to you properly, by those with more in depth knowledge of such things.¡± The Great Old one replied. ¡°It just so happens that a family of Greenscale''s reside within my canopy.¡± He said while waving his hands up towards the large hole in the trunk above them, which was no longer glowing.
After he had waved his hands, several thick strands of roots began to rapidly grow down towards them, winding around another and forming a spiral staircase that thickened and expanded as it lowered until its base reached the deck of the ship beside the fairy form of the Great Old one.
¡°I will inform them you are coming to speak with them.¡± He politely bowed as Leonard¡¯s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide.
¡°I¡ the quest¡¡± Leonard squeaked out excitedly.
¡°He just gave you the intermediate airship pilot quest?¡± Trexon asked Leonard.
¡°Yes!¡± Leonard managed to get the word out between several heavily, gleeful breaths.
¡°Congratulations, sir.¡± Gregory said while displaying one of his incredibly rare Gregory smiles.
¡°You said Greenscales? Do you mean, like, Silverscales? Green Dragons?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Precisely.¡± The fairy nodded.
¡°They¡¯re friendly too?¡±
¡°All of the world¡¯s children are friendly to you, so long as you are friendly to her.¡± The fairy smiled back.
¡°Do you mind if we hang out here a bit, dears? It appears I¡¯ve been granted an audience with some green dragons.¡± Leonard squealed with joy.
¡°It¡¯s fine with me.¡± Herilon shrugged.
¡°No problem.¡± Aegis gave him a thumbs up, seeing him overjoyed.
¡°Can I come too? I want to see green dragons!¡± Ren asked excitedly as Leonard hastily stepped onto the lowest steps of the root-based spiral staircase, climbing up it quickly.
¡°Hang on¡¡± Trexon held Ren back, then gave a knowing nod towards Aegis, and Aegis nodded back.
¡°We also were curious about¡¡± Aegis began to speak, but the fairy closed his eyes and nodded back.
¡°Bihi has told me of your desire to confront the Avatar of Hatred. I felt his presence the moment his sword was unsealed, and had a feeling we may be once again approached to confront that mass of darkness. But, as I previously said, we do not often step into the war between the light and the dark. It does not concern us, and doing so only serves to draw the eyes of either side upon us. Attention we do not seek.¡± The fairy replied.
¡°But, you helped in the past, didn¡¯t you?¡± Aegis asked eagerly.
¡°Yes. We did. I suppose it would seem unreasonable to turn you down without properly explaining.¡± The fairy opened his eyes and looked upon them, whilst Leonard could be seen quickly ascending the stairs above them, disappearing into the darkness of the hole in the trunk above the Airship.
¡°Those who claim themselves gods of light, they fight for the good within the hearts of the mortal races of this world. They seek to draw out this power to keep their followers safe, and make use of their divine light. The gods of darkness do the same, but by drawing out the darkness within their hearts. Similar methods, but very opposite in their views. They clash, constantly fighting over who will lead the will of the people. Wildlings do not typically concern themselves with this.¡± The fairy began pacing around on the front of the ship.
¡°We, instead, consider ourselves caretakers of the world itself. And there are many ancient, much more sinister forces that threaten its existence. The greatest of which is the void, who constantly seeks to rip apart reality and encroach on this world, for the sole purpose of destroying it and consuming it. Mindless, pointless destruction that cannot be reasoned with. It is our duty to work with this world''s guardians to hold it back.¡± He stopped pacing to meet Aegis¡¯ eyes briefly.
¡°Luckily, the world has formed a great mighty arsenal of guardians utilizing its many wrathful elements. Each morphing itself into a powerful form of life to serve as this world''s defenders.¡± He cleared his throat and motioned up the stairs. ¡°Empowered by the winds, the Green Dragons protect the skies. From the fiery molten lava, came the violent and short tempered Red Dragons. From the earth rose the brown dragons. The ocean, the Blue Dragons, and so on and so forth. Each dragon, colored based off of the natural element that they were conjured from. Each with the purpose of defending this realm.¡±
¡°What do the Silver dragons represent, then?¡± Aegis asked him.
¡°The correct question.¡± The fairy nodded. ¡°They were born out of the light. Just as the black dragons are born out of darkness. Tasked with watching over the world, though, they actively avoided the conflict of mortals. It wasn¡¯t until the darkness threatened the entire continent, that the Silver Dragons agreed to intervene and assist your kind. They were warned not to interfere, but did so anyway.
Your lands fell to the darkness, despite their aid. And as a result, exactly as they had been warned, the wrath of the dark gods fell upon them. The Avatar of Hatred began hunting down the Silver Dragons, to near extinction. That is when the wildlings felt compelled to intervene. Not in the interest of stepping into the war of the light and dark, but rather to protect the life of our world''s guardians of light. That is why we assisted in the creation of a weapon that could stand up to the Avatar of Hatred. And that is exactly why I will refuse to do so again, now.¡± The Great Old one explained, his final words falling cold.
Hearing this, Trexon¡¯s expression became dejected, but simultaneously fascinated by the words he¡¯d just heard.
¡°So there¡¯s really nothing you¡¯ll do to help? That sword he¡¯s got is killing everything it touches.¡± Ren pleaded. The fairy eyed Ren, then looked back at Aegis who locked eyes with him.
¡°We will not forge you a new weapon, no. But¡ should you find skilled craftsmen, you may be able to make use of the original. It was in poor shape, last I saw it, but its essence remains intact.¡± The fairy spoke reluctantly, but his words lit up a fire in Aegis, Ren, Trexon and Herilon¡¯s eyes.
¡°That¡¯d be enough.¡± Aegis nodded. ¡°Where is it?¡±
¡°It was sealed away in a safe place, under my care. Somewhere that no mortal could easily reach. A place where both the forces of Darkness, and Light, cannot easily penetrate.¡± He explained while slowly motioning his head and eyes downwards off of the side of the ship, towards the calm waves brushing up against the hull. The others followed his eyes and moved to the side of the ship, watching as the fairy waved his hands downward with a yellow glow on his fingertips.. Moments later, deep below the waves, a faint yellow glow could be seen.
¡°It¡¯s sealed at the bottom of the ocean?¡± Aegis asked to confirm, and the fairy nodded.
¡°With a great many defenses. It would be quite the ordeal to acquire it, and it is beyond my ability to aid you, apart from granting you safe passage to the depths¡ should you choose to seek it out. I should warn you, though, it is not for the faint of heart. The fragment of the old weapon was sealed behind great magic that was designed to kill any and all creatures who attempted to claim it.¡±
¡°Why go through all that trouble?¡± Herilon sighed nervously as he eyed the glowing light far below the surface. ¡°Why not destroy it if you don''t want anyone to have it?¡±
¡°Because the essence of what we had created to stand up to that ancient evil sword was simply indestructible.¡± The fairy explained, causing an eager grin to grow on Aegis¡¯ face.
¡°Leonard¡¯s gonna be busy for a bit anyway, so¡¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°I can beastshift into a shark and get us down there fast.¡± Ren volunteered excitedly, stepping up onto the railing of the ship.
¡°I never thought I¡¯d need it, but I do have underwater breathing spells.¡± Trexon joined in, also stepping up to the railing as if preparing to jump in.
¡°Perfect. Are you coming too?¡± Aegis asked Herilon as all eyes fell on him, and a demonic smirk grew across Gregory¡¯s face as he spotted the fear in Herilon¡¯s eyes.
¡°That glow¡ how far down in the ocean are we talking?¡± Herilon turned to the fairy.
¡°Very far. Don¡¯t worry, my roots travel deep as well, forming a protective barrier around these waters.¡± The fairy motioned to the ocean around them. ¡°Your ship, and your persons, will be safe from any of the larger oceanic threats so long as you remain under my shade.¡± The fairy assured him.
¡°I¡¯d understand if you¡¯re too afraid. You could stay on the ship with me as I watch over it in my master''s absence.¡± Gregory said. Herilon let out a frustrated sigh to himself.
¡°Why the hell¡¯d it have to be at the bottom of the ocean.¡± He grumbled. ¡°Alright. Come on, let''s go then. No way I¡¯m going to stay up here with this guy, I¡¯d never hear the end of it from Sapphire.¡± Herilon relented. Hearing this, the others smiled.
¡°Very well. Good luck.¡± The fairy waved, before his body disintegrated into a bright yellow light, and the light began to lift up back towards the tree.
¡°Let¡¯s do this.¡± Aegis rubbed his hands together.
Chapter 237: Blue Abyss
Chapter 237: Blue Abyss
Aegis dove into the ocean water ahead of him, with terrible form. Nonetheless, he felt excited to do it - the prospect of an underwater challenge waiting below excited him. Herilon, not so much. After Ren followed Aegis, Trexon did shortly after whilst casting a multi-cast water breathing spell on all of them. But Herilon hesitated, watching the water splash up towards him and send out ripples as his party members disappeared beneath the surface.
It wasn¡¯t until Herilon looked away to see a devious grin on Gregory¡¯s face that he decided to suck it up. He took a deep inhale of hair and shook his head to himself.
¡°Here goes nothing¡¡± he mumbled reluctantly before jumping off the side of the ship into the water.
Aegis had already activated his aura of light to illuminate their surroundings, looking down at the fading yellow glow below. It seemed closer when they were on the deck of the ship, but looking down below now he could see just how deep it was, and it sent a tingle down his spine.
Weirder, was the sensation of breathing in water. He felt the constant urge to try and hold his breath as he began waving his hands around, shield fastened on his back. He swam downwards, but didn¡¯t get far due to his own buoyancy. He was descending, but extremely slowly, all the while making weird gulping breaths intermittently as he slowly got accustomed to being able to breath in water.
Glancing to his side, Aegis saw Trexon was having similar difficulties, despite him being the caster of the underwater spell. He¡¯d processed in that moment that most likely, he¡¯d never had a reason to use it up until now. The pair were faring much better than Herilon, as he flailed about wildly and barely got below the surface.
After a few awkward moments of struggling to swim downward from the three of them, Ren came into view from below in the form of a beast-shifted giant shark, with a big smile on his face if sharks could smile.
It didn¡¯t appear as a normal shark would, as he had two sets of fins on his sides rather than a single pair, and many small bony white spikes protruding out of its dark gray body down its back and sides. Its eyes were emerald green, resembling the color of Ren¡¯s hair.
With all three of their eyes locked on Ren, the shark druid did a strange nodding motion with his head as if to signal them to hop on. Aegis understood it quickly, swimming down to meet Ren as Ren spun his aquatic body around so that his tail was facing the trio. Once Aegis reached Ren, he grabbed the side of his tail with one hand and motioned to the other two to do the same.
Trexon swam down and grabbed Ren¡¯s large shark tail across from Aegis, and eventually Herilon got down below the waves deep enough to grab onto the tail from the top. Once everyone had a secure grip, Aegis gave two pats on Ren¡¯s back with his free hand to let him know they were ready.
In an instant, Ren took off into the depths, with his fins flapping and his tail swaying back and forth quickly. It wasn¡¯t easy to keep hold of his tail as he moved with little regard to his ¡®passengers¡¯, but the three managed, and slowly the light shining down on them from the skies above began to fade.
With each passing moment, the waters around them darkened. After a good long minute of swimming downward, Aegis could turn back to look up towards the surface and no longer see it. The light from his aura went far out, but beyond it there was nothing but pitch black ocean.
He¡¯d never felt fear from the dark, or deep water before, but in that moment he felt a great deal of sympathy for Herilon and his fears of it. With this in mind, he decided to focus on the yellow glow below them as it got closer and closer, while simultaneously dimmer and dimmer. The magic that the fairy had used to illuminate it was only temporary, and fading fast. Luckily it lasted long enough for them to reach their destination, though.
In the final dozens of meters, the yellow glow from the spell had completely faded, but was replaced by dull glowing lights scattered across the ocean floor below them. Pink, yellow, green, blue, red, and many other colors were present. With no means to communicate underwater, each of the four players were left to their imagination on what the lights were for the last few moments they swam towards them.
Once they got close enough, though, the question was answered. There was a large mixture of plants and creatures moving about atop an angled, algae-covered surface that was jutting out from the ocean floor. In addition, the floor around the surface was covered as well.
The first creature that stood out to Aegis was a [Saltrock Snail - Level 126]. If not for the changes in color on the shell, and the patterns on them, Aegis could¡¯ve sworn the snails were exact replicas of the snails he¡¯d encountered in Reltrak forest. They were slowly moving along the floor amidst tangling beds of seaweed and colorful corals.
Swimming amidst them were a large variety of strange looking fish. Some long, some thin, and some looking like several basketballs glued together. The group got so caught up in taking in the ocean life along the floor that they swam closer to it, beyond the flat algae covered surface. Soon enough, though, Aegis turned his attention to it and viewed it from the side.
A magnificent stone structure stood protruding out of the ocean floor, overtaken by plant life and crustaceans of various colors, shapes and sizes. There were two statues flanking a large doorway leading into the structure, with a stairwell visible beyond the door thanks to Aegis¡¯ aura and the glowing coral that was growing within.
The statues themselves lacked any discernible features - time had taken its toll on them. In addition, they were only partially visible to begin with - the statue¡¯s humanoid forms had their waists and below overtaken by the ocean floor itself, as if slowly over time the structure had slowly sunk deeper into the earth. There were many cracks in its walls, but it held strong despite its conditions.
Once Aegis had finished taking it in, he looked to the others to see that they too were eying the entrance to the structure, and from there, Aegis gave Ren another instructional pat on his tail to signal him forward. Ren understood it and began swimming towards the structure.
Once he passed through the doorway, he followed the descending stairwell to the lower depths of the structure below the ocean floor. The stairs remained illuminated by a variety of glowing plants for quite some time until finally the stairwell came to its bottom and opened up into a wide rectangular chamber, with a staircase immediately in front of them that led up into a pocket of air.
Herilon was the first to release Ren and frantically swim up to reach the surface, followed by Aegis and Trexon. The light from the coral below was bright enough to illuminate the chamber, creating beautiful multi-colored patterns on the stonework around them. Ren shifted out of his shark form and climbed up the stairs alongside the other, leaving a pool of still water behind them in the chamber.
Ahead of them, two pairs of pillars leading up towards another doorway, with no statues or markings carved into the walls despite the condition of the stonework in the room to be relatively in-tact. There were a few cracks in the white stones, but nothing major. A few patches of plant life made its way up out of the water and into some of the corners of the room, but for the most part, it looked clean. The only issue Aegis found with it was the stale, musty air that felt unpleasant to breathe, but he expected as much. His mind momentarily got hung up on the science behind water pressure in the game world, but he forced himself to shake it off as he began stepping forward towards the door.
¡°That wasn¡¯t so bad, was it?¡± Trexon turned to Herilon. Herilon¡¯s eyes were wide as he glared back at Trexon, but didn¡¯t reply verbally which prompted Trexon to laugh awkwardly.
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¡°This place is awesome.¡± Ren grinned excitedly while following closely behind Aegis and his aura of light. The other two quickly followed, to not be left behind in darkness. The doorway led into a hallway with faded murals carved into the stonework on the walls. Trexon eyed them carefully and traced his finger over several of the etching while the others eyed them curiously. None were stopping to look at them, but they slowed their walking speed to take it all in.
¡°Looks like it depicts the forging of the weapon, and the battle that followed. A great battle to seal away the blade of hatred.¡± Trexon concluded out loud as they neared the end of the hallway.
It opened up into a large dome chamber with plain dull gray walls and three doors leading out of it. One left, one right, and one directly ahead of them. The door straight ahead had two pedestals flanking it, with hands carved into the stonework to look as though they were reaching out of the ground, the pedestals their arms and the tops, a partially clasped fist. One pedestal was made from pure white stone, the other a pitch black.
Above the pedestals, and around the rim of the dome room just above the tops of all three doorways were rune carvings. Aegis had seen it enough times to know it was ancient, despite not being able to read it. Before a single word was read, though, Herilon quickly stepped forward and yanked them all back.
¡°Stop!¡± Herilon shouted in whispers at them, and the three glanced back at him in confusion.
¡°What?¡± Ren asked. ¡°I was just going to check those strange hand pedestal thingies.¡± Ren pointed at them innocently.
¡°C¡¯mon, this isn¡¯t your first dungeon delve.¡± Herilon rolled his eyes at him before gesturing towards the floor at the center of the room. ¡°Always, ALWAYS, look for traps first.¡± Herilon commanded.
The three turned their attention to where Herilon was pointing and spotted it, a small circular crease in the center of the room just barely visible to the naked eye.
¡°Some sort of pressure plate?¡± Aegis asked in a whisper, for no reason other than to match Herilon¡¯s whisper.
¡°Looks like it. Good catch.¡± Trexon joined in on the whispering.
¡°Oh, phew. I almost stepped on it!¡± Ren said with enthusiasm, prompting Herilon to shake his head disapprovingly. ¡°What do you think would¡¯ve happened if I stepped on it?¡±
¡°Spinning blades. Flame traps, poison arrows, pitfalls¡¡± Herilon began listing off the traps that came to his mind.
¡°Which one though?¡± Ren maintained his enthusiasm, eying the crease now with curiously rather than caution.
¡°We¡¯re not going to find out, because we¡¯re not going to trigger it.¡± Trexon replied.
¡°Yeah, we need to be careful. If the traps are rigged to collapse this place, we¡¯ll lose our chance to get what we came for.¡± Aegis agreed. ¡°Watch your step.¡± Aegis ordered, and got three nods. ¡°Can you read what the ancient writing says?¡± He turned to Trexon.
¡°Yes.¡± Trexon cleared his throat and motioned to the left door. ¡°That reads, ¡®Trial of Light¡¯, and the door opposite reads, ¡®Trial of Dark¡¯. The writing everywhere else states that we must complete both trials and retrieve the orbs, then place them within the hand pedestals to gain access to the temple. We¡¯re not truly inside, yet.¡± Trexon explained.
¡°I see¡¡± Aegis scratched his chin curiously, making sense of the colored pedestals now. ¡°The Great Old One said this place was designed to protect it from light and dark. So by making the first trial require you to have both, they¡¯re right in assuming that light and dark would never willingly come here together.¡±
¡°Meaning?¡± Herilon looked at Aegis curiously.
¡°Most likely¡ Just a guess, but I doubt either trial will require light or dark. Both of them need to be solved without either. It¡¯s a trial of neutrality. The wildlings don¡¯t want someone of a light god, or a dark god, to get inside.¡±
¡°Hm. Makes sense.¡± Trexon nodded along.
¡°So, which one first?¡± Ren asked excitedly.
¡°I guess, light.¡± Aegis shrugged as he began carefully walking around the outside of the room, his eyes darting around quickly to ensure he didn¡¯t step on any traps mistakenly. The other three followed in his footsteps until they arrived at the stone door with ¡®Trial of Light¡¯ written in ancient script above it. Aegis pushed on the door slowly, hearing the stone grinding against the floor as it opened - echoing off the walls around them.
Once the door was fully opened, the room ahead of them came into view. Through the doorway they stood on a short walkway that ended abruptly over a seemingly bottomless pit below. The walls to their left and right were not visible - the size of the room extended well beyond the light of Aegis¡¯ aura of light spell. At the edge of Aegis aura, in all directions, was a dark mist. The mist pushed up against it but was held back by his light.
¡°Nothing in all directions but darkness, and light. How is this a trial of light exactly?¡± Ren asked curiously, looking to his elders for answers. All three, however, had confused expressions as their brains went hard at work to solve it. The first to act was Herilon, who found a small loose stone on the ground and chucked it off the side into the bottomless pit below. Once he had, they all listened intently for the sound of the stone to impact something, but the sound never came.
¡°We definitely don¡¯t want to fall down there.¡± Herilon said with an uncomfortable tone, and the others nodded in agreement. ¡°But, where are we even trying to go?¡±
¡°The other side, I suppose. There must be some way to cross this bottomless pit.¡± Trexon replied.
¡°I can climb along the walls, or the roof. As a spider or something. Should I?¡± Ren asked eagerly. Before he got an answer, he began reaching his hands out towards the walls adjacent to the balcony, but Aegis quickly grabbed his wrist and yanked it back before he could touch it.
¡°Nope, don¡¯t touch. Trapped.¡± Aegis motioned to etchings and small holes that covered the visible walls nearby.
¡°Oh, right.¡± Ren laughed awkwardly as he pulled his arm away.
¡°You should refrain from shifting or casting magic unless absolutely necessary. These runes are all marked as druidic, arcane, and demonic. It seems some sort of effect will trigger if any spell caster uses magic here outside of divine magic¡¡± Trexon spoke as he read over the rune markings on the walls around them.
¡°A solution that requires no light, or dark¡ And nothing outside of divine magic¡¡± Aegis mumbled to himself for a second, before snapping his fingers and canceling his aura of light spell. The moment he had, the group was left in complete darkness.
¡°Uh¡ Aegis?¡± Herilon spoke.
¡°Try throwing another rock forward.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°I would if I could see.¡± Herilon grumbled back.
¡°Then chuck something else.¡±
¡°Here, a gold coin.¡± Trexon answered, taking one from his inventory. A second after Trexon flicked it, the sound of the coin rang out off of a surface it had impacted directly in front of them, where they once saw a bottomless pit.
¡°In the darkness, there¡¯s a way.¡± Aegis declared. ¡°Ren, take my hand and come. The others stay back. If we start falling, beastshift into a gryphon and fly us back up okay?¡± Aegis said, speaking into the darkness with no exact sense for where the others were. He began reaching his hands out until he felt Ren and took his hand.
¡°Got it.¡± Ren acknowledged.
¡°Good luck.¡± Herilon said with a tone of apprehension. With that, Aegis took a deep breath, then lifted his right foot and swung it forward into the pitch black darkness, off the size of the balcony as far as he knew. He then slowly, and very hesitantly lowered his foot down. His anxiety rose the closer his foot got to the level of ground his other foot stood on, until he finally pressed some weight down and felt a solid surface beneath his foot.
He released a huge sigh of relief before taking another slow step forward. Again, without any issues. Another step, and he was pulling Ren along behind him by the hand.
¡°Whoa, it¡¯s working!¡± Ren cheered with excitement. The two sped up after long, and eventually found themselves at the end of the bridge of Darkness. There, waiting for them atop a plain altar, sat a dark black orb of glowing purple energy.
¡°That¡¯s it, that¡¯s the first one.¡± Aegis declared, reaching out to grab it. Once his hands were on the orb, though, Ren stopped him from lifting it.
¡°Wait. Did you check for traps yet?¡±
¡°Well¡¡± Aegis laughed awkwardly. ¡°It should be fine, right?¡±
¡°Yeah, probably. It¡¯s not like we can see anything anyway.¡± Ren replied.
¡°Right.¡± Aegis nodded to no one in particular. He then lifted up the orb and heard an ominous clicking sound coming from the altar, as a plate of stone that had been held down by the orb lifted up. Following this, several loud clunks could be heard in the darkness all around them.
¡°Oh c¡¯mon, seriously?¡± Aegis groaned in frustration.
Chapter 238: Unwelcome Guest
Chapter 238: Unwelcome Guest
Aegis and Ren turned to face back towards the direction they¡¯d come from, but had difficulty orienting themselves due to the darkness. Thankfully, because they were in a party with Herilon and Trexon who were standing in the doorway of the chamber, they could utilize their party interface to see where they needed to go.
Aegis looked up to see the indicators above Trexon and Herilon¡¯s heads and saw them shifting and moving about, however.
¡°The dark walkway we¡¯re standing on, it¡¯s rearranging itself. Stick with me and walk steady and slow, so we don¡¯t get confused. I think the room is trying to tempt us to use light magic.¡± Aegis said calmly to Ren.
¡°Ok, got it.¡± Ren replied obediently. Without his vision to rely on, Aegis couldn¡¯t confirm his theory. He was beginning to get disoriented despite the aid of the party indicators, due to them swirling around in his peripheral vision as Aegis did nothing but simply walk forward. He was forced to constantly turn and change the forward direction that he was walking in as the pitch dark ground he was walking on continued to shift and rotate without any sense of motion reaching his eardrums.
Eventually, he managed to arrive at the doorway and saw Herilon eagerly holding his hands out to grab them and pull them out of the darkness.
¡°You got it?¡± Trexon asked as both Aegis and Ren stepped out through the doorway and back into the round chamber.
¡°Yeah.¡± Aegis nodded.
¡°Easy peasy!¡± Ren cheered.
¡°Kinda feels like we cheated, though¡¡± Aegis added hesitantly.
¡°Whatever, as long as it¡¯s done.¡± Herilon shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s gonna be the same thing for the other side, right?¡±
¡°Yeah¡¡± Aegis looked at the door across the way, still holding the orb in his hands. ¡°I think so.¡± He shrugged as he handed the orb over to Trexon. He then walked across the room and opened the door, and sure enough saw a room illuminated by extremely blinding white light. ¡°Just stand in the doorway for me this time, I¡¯ll do the same thing and hope it works out.¡± Aegis shrugged back at the others, and got nods in return.
Sure enough, upon entering the room of pure light and walking blindly forward, he managed to reach the second orb and retrieve it. A clinking mechanism activated upon him lifting the orb off of its resting place which began to disorient him, but he was able to use the same method to navigate the blinding light chamber with his eyes held securely shut. After a short few moments, he emerged with the second orb.
¡°Nice.¡± Herilon smiled as he watched Aegis emerge.
¡°That was easy. You think that the essence will be behind this first door?¡± Ren asked excitedly as Aegis and Trexon made their way towards the hand-shaped pedestals flanking the door.
¡°I doubt it.¡± Trexon replied. ¡°Let''s put the orbs into the stone hands at the same time.¡±
¡°Right.¡± Aegis nodded. ¡°On 3.¡± He held the orb directly above the palm of the pedestal¡¯s hand grip, locking eyes with Trexon who did the same. ¡°1. 2. 3.¡± Aegis called out, and on three they both dropped their respective orbs into the stone hands. The moment the orbs fell, the stone hands came to life and tightly gripped the orbs, crushing them with a loud crunching, grinding sound.
A second later, new ancient runes began to glow atop the door between the pedestals that Trexon read out.
¡°There is no light and dark. Only life.¡± He read ominously. Before any others could react, the doors began to grind open, the stone scratching along the floor as it moved by itself, revealing a hallway forward lit by old, rusting torches that were bolted to the walls and enchanted with magic.
¡°What do you suppose that means?¡± Herilon asked.
¡°We¡¯ll find out.¡± Aegis shrugged, taking the lead as the first to walk forward into the hallway. The other three followed behind him, the sound of their boots tapping on the cracked stone floors echoing off of the narrow hallway ahead of them.
¡°Remember¡ eyes open for traps.¡± Herilon whispered anxiously from behind Aegis, who kept his eyes peeled on the walls and floors for any abnormal creases or markings that would indicate a trap. There were none, and eventually the hall opened up into a large circular chamber.
A small staircase led from the entrance they stood at down to a lower floor below them. The floor below was covered in tangling, gnarled roots that grew into and out of the dirt floor of the chamber. The roots belonged to a large tree in the center of the chamber that grew up to the dome-shaped roof and had its canopy spread above them, with a small stream of water traveling from the left side of the chamber to the right.
The leaves of the tree were gray, and many had fallen and littered the floor of the chamber, sitting in piles amongst the dirt and roots. Despite the tree¡¯s smaller size, the worn dark brown bark made it seem as if it was older than the Great Old One, and it was simply cramped and squished inside this tiny chamber despite the chamber being extremely large in and of itself.
All of this was visible to them not due to torches lighting the chamber, but ancient glowing gray runes that were carved into the walls of the chamber on all sides intermittently.
Aegis stopped at the top of the stairs and held his arm back to the others, turning to look at Ren.
¡°Can you try talking to it?¡±
¡°Sure¡¡± Ren nodded, stepping forward to stand beside Aegis. Following this, he made a few strange wooden creaking noises with his mouth, and the others eagerly looked to the tree and waited for a response. They heard nothing, but expected as much.
¡°What¡¯d he say?¡± Aegis asked Ren after a few seconds of silence.
¡°Nothing¡¡± Ren replied hesitantly.
¡°Well, what¡¯d you say?¡± Herilon asked.
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¡°I said hello, we mean you no harm.¡± Ren said.
¡°Ask if it¡¯s awake, or if it can hear you?¡± Trexon suggested. Ren nodded, then again spoke in his druidic language. Again, after a long few moments, there was no response.
¡°It might not be a wildling at all.¡± Aegis concluded, and the others shrugged. ¡°Still, let¡¯s be careful not to hurt it. Cross the room without stepping on the tree''s roots in any way.¡± Aegis said, then took a deep breath and looked carefully at the ground in front of him covered in the gnarled roots.
¡°Easier said than done¡¡± Herilon sighed.
¡°The runes on the walls are once again blocking all magic, save for divine.¡± Trexon motioned to them. ¡°No flying or beast shifting.¡± He added with a disappointed shrug.
¡°Just nimble footwork! No problem!¡± Ren replied excitedly, leaping ahead of Aegis into an open spot on the ground.
¡°Be careful.¡± Trexon groaned at him, but Ren ignored him and made a few more hops over the roots, finding small spots of dirt free to stand on amongst the tangling roots. Aegis had been looking for his own path through the roots, but saw how quickly Ren was navigating the room and decided to follow behind him. Herilon and Trexon did the same shortly after, and it wasn¡¯t long before the group had made it beyond the tree in the center and to the staircase on the opposite side, leading to the hallway further beyond. First Ren, then Aegis, then Trexon, and finally Herilon touched down on the stairs and ascended them, heading out of the chamber.
Just as they were about to leave, though, there was a loud creaking sound that echoed from the branches of the tree now at their backs that gave Ren pause. He quickly turned back to the tree and began making his own sounds in response. From there, the tree and Ren exchanged words while the others watched in confusion.
¡°He says he¡¯s surprised to see living creatures with such care for life, stepping on his roots would¡¯ve caused immense pain for him. He warns us that the final chamber¡¯s defense has already been disabled, and the essence claimed.¡±
¡°What? What does he mean the essence is claimed?¡±
¡°That¡¯s what I asked.¡± Ren nodded back. ¡°He said a creature was attracted to the essences power and burrowed into this place, destroying the guardian of the final chamber and eating the essence. It has since made the chamber its home.¡± Ren explained.
¡°Did he say what sort of creature it was?¡± Trexon asked.
¡°He doesn¡¯t know.¡± Ren shrugged.
¡°Great.¡± Aegis sighed, looking at the others. ¡°Aura of beauty. Bless.¡± Aegis quickly cast, spreading buffs out to the others. ¡°If it¡¯s strong enough to destroy a wildling guardian, it¡¯s probably going to be tough.¡±
His words caused a big smile to grow on Herilon and Ren¡¯s faces. Aegis took the lead once more, fastening his mithral shield to his arm as Herilon readied his mithral greatsword, and the four marched down the final hallway of the shrine.
There was a tension in the air between the group much thicker than that of the previous hallway, all walking on with anticipation for the creature waiting for them in the final chamber.
Before it came into view, they heard it. A loud snorting sound that matched the rhythm of breathing was carried along to their ears, bouncing off the walls of the narrow stone hallway. Once they heard it, they slowed their step and walked as quietly as possible until reaching the end of the hallway and laying eyes on the final chamber.
Like the previous chambers, it was a large dome shape, but the entire left side had been destroyed and carved into via a crudely created tunnel. Just as the tree had described, something had burrowed from the earth into the shrine and created a great amount of destruction, with rocks and debris scattered about. Due to this, the left side of the chamber contrasted heavily with the rather pristine right side of the chamber which was still intact - save for the ancient runes on the walls that had large claw marks in them.
On the opposite side of the chamber from which Aegis and his party had entered sat an elevated platform with an altar on it, of which Aegis imagined the essence had once stood but was no longer present. In front of the platform, strewn about across the floor were fragments of a once humanoid-shaped statue. Its form was discernable due to a few pieces still intact, though just barely. Aegis could only conclude that this was the remains of the previous guardian of this chamber.
Then, finally, snuggled against the back wall as far from them as possible, behind the altar and the elevated platform, was the culprit responsible for all the chaos within this chamber. [Yallow Nux(Elite) - Level 163] Was visible floating above its head. Its chest was visibly contracting with each snoring breath, but its eyes remained closed and unaware of their presence.
Aegis was not familiar with a monster with this name, so his first act was to turn to Trexon for possible information. Unfortunately, the look of confusion on Trexon¡¯s face and the shrug he gave back to him told Aegis that Trexon had never seen or heard of a Yallow Nux before either. Thus, Aegis turned to analyzing its physical appearance to get as much information as he possibly could before they engaged it.
The first, most glaringly obvious detail of the creature was that it was emanating a bright glowing white light from within its exo-skeletal body. The light was so bright it almost appeared to make the creature itself transparent, despite it otherwise being not see-through. The essence that it had eaten could be seen swirling around inside the creatures body as a blob of wavey liquid light, clearly the source of the creatures glowing.
Otherwise, it resembled an elongated crocodile, with a short flat snout rather than an elongated one, and 12 limbs rather than four. It had three pairs of legs on the underside of its stomach, but a matching three sets of short arms on its back. Additionally, its tail, which was curled up around its body in its sleeping position, was three pronged with sharp boney white spikes sticking out.
The skin around its face was rough and covered in strange spiky tendrils as well, making its mouth crease and eyelids barely visible. It¡¯s skin was primarily brown with spots of black and dark orange, beyond the glowing white central part of its body due to the essence.
¡°It¡¯s not a beast, I¡¯m not gaining any new beast shifting forms from seeing it.¡± Ren messaged through the party interface in order to keep quiet.
¡°Well, let¡¯s take advantage of it being asleep and sneak up on it.¡± Aegis messaged back, and the others nodded. From there, they all slowly approached the creature, carefully navigating through the room without disturbing any loose stones or making too much noise. The closer they got, the louder the snoring got, but they all managed to close in enough to ready strikes against the creature.
Ren shifted his left and right hands into gigantic beast claws, Herilon held his greatsword above it, Aegis took out his claws, and Trexon readied a fire spell in his palms. The group lined up atop the back of the raised platform, now standing behind the altar and had nothing but the creature and the back wall of the chamber in front of them.
Aegis looked to the others and saw them all ready to strike, and began counting down silently with his fingers from three. The others nodded, and he lowered one finger down to two. Then one. Then, none, and in unison all four players struck out at the sleeping beast with all of their might.
Except, in unison, all of their strikes through up the same message
| You deal 0 damage. (Target is indestructible). |
The sound of metal and magic clanking against the hardened scales of the creature rang out through the chamber, causing it to open its large, glowing white eyes. It began to stand up with a low growl as the group anxiously stumbled backwards away from the creature, now awake but unharmed.
¡°Uh¡ Aegis?¡± Herilon mumbled worriedly.
¡°It¡¯s gotta be because of the essence it ate.¡± Aegis concluded, his voice sounding anxious as the creature extended its lower legs as a show of dominance, unwrapping its tail and standing tall to show off its large form in an attempt to intimidate the four.
¡°So how do we kill it?!¡± Ren asked, excited rather than afraid though.
¡°No idea.¡± Aegis replied back before the creature let out a loud, deafening roar that shook the chamber around them.
Chapter 239: Indestructible
Chapter 239: Indestructible
The Yallow Nux reared its head back after roaring before snapping it forward quickly, like a lunging cobra. Herilon, Trexon and Ren cleared out by leaping back over the altar or to the sides, while Aegis lifted his mithral shield and braced the strike.
| You take 13,481 Slashing damage. |
¡°It¡¯s manageable.¡± Aegis called out as the impact of the strike on his shield sent out enough force to cause nearby loose rubble and stone to fly outward away from him and create a loud clanging sound that echoed off the walls of the chamber. Despite bracing, and bending his knees to receive the blow, he was still pushed backwards a few steps until his waist bumped into the altar behind him. ¡°Find a weak spot. I¡¯ll keep it busy. CHALLENGING ROAR!¡± Aegis shouted, drawing the attention of the beast unto himself.
He could tell he had the monsters full, undivided attention through the glint in his glowing white eyes as it reared its head back and prepared to strike out at him again. In this time he quickly wiggled the fingers on his right hand and cast healing wind on himself.
Trexon released a barrage of small fire bolts that flared out in the room like an exploding firework, then swirled around Aegis and the creature and began impacting it in various spots on its body. Herilon dashed back in towards the beast with his sword out and began slashing at various limbs and the creatures underbelly. Ren, however, left the striking to the others and took a step further back, trying to take in the creature and the room around him, studying it.
In this time, Aegis blocked another lunging strike which was then paired with two claw attacks from the arms on the Yallow Nux¡¯s back closest to its head. He was able to brace the relatively slow and predictable strikes, using the altar at his back to prevent him from being pushed away further. After absorbing the blows he then healed himself up.
¡°Take your time, I can heal through this damage for a long while.¡± Aegis tried to reassure them as he saw Herilon swinging his sword furiously at the creature, and only seeing repeated 0¡¯s come up for the damage dealt.
¡°You can give us all the time in the world, I don¡¯t think this thing has any weak spots.¡± Herilon replied after several more swings.
¡°Try different elements.¡± Ren suggested to Trexon, who nodded in response after his barrage of bolts hit the body of the creature in various spots, to no effect. He swapped to wind, lightning, acid and wind magic to no effect.
¡°Nothing, no change.¡± Trexon said to Aegis after he¡¯d blocked a few more hits.
¡°How are we going to kill something that doesn¡¯t take damage?¡± Ren asked, prompting Aegis to ponder in between blocked strikes. Despite the creature being elite, its mind was that of a simple monster making it easy for Aegis to manage. It didn¡¯t consistently use the same attack patterns with its claws and fangs, but nonetheless was quite predictable.
¡°Well¡¡± Aegis thought out loud for a moment as he turned back towards Ren. ¡°Got any beast shift forms that are good at tunneling or burrowing through rock?¡±
¡°Yup.¡± Ren nodded with enthusiasm. Once hearing it, he turned to Herilon.
¡°Wrangle the creature with as much rope as you can, and get ready to challenge its strength stat. Can you increase Herilon¡¯s strength?¡± Aegis turned to Trexon who nodded back.
¡°Giant¡¯s Grip!¡± Trexon cast a sage spell on Herilon which caused his body to grow slightly larger. Herilon looked at himself with a satisfied smirk for a moment before sheathing his mithral greatsword and drawing out plenty of rope from his backpack.
¡°Glad I always bring a lot of rope with me.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t go on an adventure without rope.¡± Ren nodded in agreement with Herilon, causing Aegis to give them both a look as he was reminded of Lina¡¯s approach to rope.
¡°Destroy the creature''s tunnel that it used to get inside the chamber.¡± Aegis told Ren, and Ren nodded back before exploding into a puff of green mist. Once the mist dissipated, he came out of it as a gigantic armadillo-like creature with huge extended claws on its front. Once he¡¯d shifted, he waddled ever so slowly to the hole in the chamber and quickly carved into the roof, collapsing it in after a bit of effort.
The beast struck out at Aegis a few more times but took note of the fact that its tunnel had collapsed, then let out a roar of frustration as Herilon ran around its torso, rapping as much rope around it as he could without losing grip of the ends.
¡°When you¡¯re done, tie some around Ren¡¯s beast form.¡± Aegis yelled to Herilon, and he nodded back hesitantly.
¡°Just what exactly are you planning to do?¡± Herilon asked.
¡°Trexon, can you cast underwater breathing on all of us?¡± Aegis ignored Herilon¡¯s question, but this next statement made him visibly concerned.
¡°Aegis? What are you planning?¡± Herilon¡¯s eyes now wide as everyone was cluing in to the plan.
¡°If we can¡¯t kill it with damage, we have to drain its stamina. The creature burrowed into this temple, it didn¡¯t swim. I don¡¯t see any gills.¡± Aegis shrugged apologetically to Herilon.
¡°Oh hells¡¡± Herilon whimpered as Aegis turned his attention back to Ren.
¡°Collapse the tunnel leading back to the wildling so it doesn¡¯t drown, then burrow a tunnel up through the roof out of the ocean floor. Herilon, make sure the creature can¡¯t burrow away, you gotta hold it in place.¡± Aegis gave his final instructions.
¡°I thought going on an adventure with you was going to be fun.¡± Herilon groaned as Trexon quickly cast the underwater breathing spell, then began looking around for something to hold onto. Ren wildly slashed out at the doorway they had used to enter the chamber from, trapping them completely inside. It was momentarily claustrophobic inducing to be trapped in a chamber under the ocean, but that was quickly alleviated when Ren used his beast shifted claws to start burrowing upwards out of the chamber at an angle.
The moment Ren began digging, the Yallow Nux ceased its attacks on Aegis to observe what was happening, watching curiously as Ren disappeared into the wall. It wasn¡¯t long before there was a loud, ominous rumbling sound though. They were not very far below the ocean floor, and all it took was a little scratch to the ocean¡¯s surface to cause the weight of the water to come flooding in, knocking Ren back with a violent force.
The moment the forces of nature pushed the water in through the tunnel that Ren had dug, all players were knocked off of their feat and thrown about by the waves, taking repeated bouts of high bludgeoning damage. Aegis quickly waved his hands around to help everyone heal up from the damage and withstand it, while the Yallow Nux reacted in a panic just as he¡¯d predicted, and began desperately attempting to burrow out of the chamber away from the water.
¡°Don¡¯t let it out of the water!¡± Aegis shouted, his voice somewhat gargled by the waves he was caught up in. Ren quickly dug his claws into one of the walls of the chamber to hold on, using the ropes Herilon had swung around him and the beast respectively. It was initially enough to halt the creature from digging very far out of the chamber, but soon the creature became much more desperate and frantic. Herilon managed to find a large section of stone jutting out from the wall to grab onto, using it to hold himself steady against the waves and simultaneously assist Ren in holding the creature in the chamber.
Within 20 seconds, the chamber was completely submerged, and the only light they had was glowing brightly off of the essence still visibly swirling inside the panicking creature''s body.
Once the chamber had been fully submerged it became much easier to move around, and take in what was happening. Trexon had just barely kept himself steady off to the side near the collapsed doorway, while Herilon and Ren held onto the chamber walls with all their might, preventing the creature from burrowing out of the room. He saw the veins popping out of Herilon¡¯s enlarged body as he mustered all of his might to hold it back, but it was working.
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After another few long moments of struggling, the creature seemed to realize it wouldn¡¯t escape like this, and turned to face them once more. This time, it eyed not Aegis, but the multiple thick strands of rope that had it bound to Herilon and Ren, and it quickly began slashing out towards the ropes with its claws and fangs.
This is where Aegis stepped in, utilizing his guards and his shield to protect the ropes from being cut by the creature''s fury.
If it was anything more than a terrifying looking creature in a virtual game world, Aegis might¡¯ve felt bad for doing this to the creature, but as it was he saw no other possible solution to obtaining the essence he needed to stop Seraxus.
Very quickly, due to the creature''s large body, its stamina began to drain. Unable to land a single blow on any of the ropes binding it in place due to Aegis¡¯ defense, eventually it succumbed to the water.
| You have defeated [Yallow Nux(Elite)]! |
There was no experience reward, due to Aegis still sitting at level 150. Instead, they were rewarded by a white glowing item orb rolling out of the creature¡¯s mouth into the waters around them. It continued to emit a blindingly bright white light.
¡°Grab it and let¡¯s get out of here before this whole chamber collapses.¡± Trexon said through the party interface. Aegis nodded back at him and grabbed the orb, adding it to his inventory and briefly looking at the name only to confirm he had what they¡¯d come for.
| You receive [Essence of Indestructible Light]. |
¡°Do you think I have time to harvest it?¡± Aegis asked as he found himself staring longingly now at the numerous claws and fangs visible on the creature.
¡°NOW!¡± Herilon growled at him impatiently, with a look of terror on his face.
¡°Right, right. Ren, shark it up and swim us to the surface!¡± Aegis said through the interface, causing Ren to nod back and shift out of his burrowing form and back into his sharp form. Once he had, both Aegis and Trexon cut the ropes free from the creature and they all grabbed onto the shark, who quickly swam up out through the tunnel back to the ocean floor.
Aegis activated his aura of light to illuminate the dark ocean surrounding them as they ascended up back to the surface. He glanced back down at the ocean floor below them and watched as the glowing, multicolored coral slowly faded from his view below. Not long after that, though, the light from the setting sun above them became visible as it pierced through the surface of the water to reach them.
Despite not being out of breath at all due to Trexon¡¯s spell, when they breached the surface, they all collectively let out gasps of air, sucking in the virtual oxygen from the surface. It took a few seconds of glancing around for Herilon to spot the nearby floating Sky Darling, and desperately flailed his arms around like a drowning child to get back towards it.
The others followed suit, with Ren shifting back into his elven form.
¡°GREGORY! Lower the damn ladder!¡± Herilon shouted up towards the boat. This prompted Gregory to appear over the side of the deck railings closest to them, looking curiously.
¡°Finished your underwater adventure already?¡± Gregory asked with a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.
¡°Yeah, lower it!¡± Herilon shouted back.
¡°Very well.¡± Gregory sighed as he disappeared for a moment before returning with a rope ladder which he threw over the side for them. Herilon was the first to climb, followed by the other three. Their clothes and armor drenched, they left large puddles of water all around them on the deck as they each plopped down on their bottoms.
¡°I presume you got what you were after?¡± Gregory asked as he began pulling up the rope.
¡°Yup. We got it.¡± Ren smiled.
¡°Would you mind if we looked at it? I¡¯m quite curious about its power.¡± Trexon asked.
¡°Sure.¡± Aegis shrugged, eying his livestream viewership count to see it was still holding steadily high at 2 million. Herilon caught him doing this, though.
¡°Your UI is still hidden from your viewership, right? They won¡¯t be able to see what it does? It¡¯d be bad if they know what it''s capable of.¡± Herilon asked Aegis.
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s hidden. Just don¡¯t read it out loud.¡± Aegis explained, and got nods from Trexon and Ren as they leaned in, staring at Aegis¡¯ hand eagerly as he opened up his inventory interface and took the essence out.
|
Name: Essence of Indestructible Light
Type: Crafting Material
Quality: 100%
Option 1: Item becomes indestructible, with no need to ever be repaired. Its shape cannot be damaged or altered in any way once crafting is completed.
Option 2: Significantly increases resistance to Shadow Damage
Option 3: Negates any damage dealt by soul-infused artifacts.
Description: An essence of pure light, formed and solidified by the powerful wildlings in order to protect the guardians of their world.
|
¡°Heh. Option 3 is a little bit on the nose, don¡¯t you think?¡± Herilon smirked as the group collectively read it with smiles on their faces.
¡°Well, they did specifically make it for that purpose, so it makes sense.¡± Trexon shrugged.
¡°Still. For all the trouble we went through, I thought it¡¯d be a bit more overpowered.¡± Ren replied with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
¡°It¡¯s just as powerful as it needs to be.¡± Aegis smiled back at him, taking the essence and putting it back into his inventory. ¡°Once we get back to Kalmoore, I¡¯ll work with Yuki and Tullan to craft it into something magnificent. All we need to do now is wait for Leonard to finish his quest.¡± Aegis said as he glanced back up towards the tree above them.
¡°Oh, Leonard? He¡¯s already back. He¡¯s a bit busy, below deck. Would you like me to fetch him?¡± Gregory asked, causing all of them to turn and look at Gregory with surprise.
¡°He finished his intermediate airship pilot quest already?¡± Trexon asked
¡°In a manner of speaking¡¡± Gregory looked off to the side awkwardly.
¡°Well go get him then.¡± Herilon shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s get back home right away.¡± The others nodded in agreement with this.
¡°Very well.¡± Gregory spoke reluctantly before disappearing below the deck of the ship. He hadn¡¯t been gone long before a notification popped up in front of all of their faces.
|
[World Notification]
The Player [Leonard - 30] has become the first player in the world to unlock the intermediate class [Airship Captain].
|
They waved the notification away, but this only confused them more.
¡°How¡¯d he complete the quest just now, while below deck?¡± Ren asked.
¡°And seemingly on command¡?¡± Trexon asked, while Herilon and Aegis exchanged curious stares before turning their attention to the sounds of footsteps approaching from below deck.
First, Gregory stepped back up onto the deck with his head shamefully down. Followed by Leonard, who was wearing nothing but an open white bathroom with visible, bright pink underwear underneath. Then, lastly, following behind him was a partially green-scaled elven humanoid female, wearing very little, and holding a big smile on her face as she looked over the others on the ship.
They all quickly stood up from the deck, Ren and Aegis embarrassedly looking down at their feet.
¡°You will undoubtedly become a great conqueror of the skies, Leonard. I look forward to seeing you again.¡± The greenscale humanoid spoke seductively to Leonard. Aegis had barely time to glimpse the NPC name above her head, [Pareie¡¯lassa(Elite) - Level 193].
¡°I¡¯ll be sure to come and visit you again once I have.¡± Leonard replied in an equally playful tone. Following this exchange, the humanoid jumped off of the side of the airship, and before touching down on the ocean below, her body warped and morphed into that of a large green dragon, and she soared away from the ship until disappearing through a gap in the mangrove roots, flying upwards higher into the sky above them.
Once she was gone, there was a long awkward silence amongst the players aboard the ship.
¡°Did you sleep with your intermediate class quest giver?¡±
¡°Yes. I find that the more the NPCs like you, the quicker the quests move along.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t even know that was an option¡¡± Trexon shook his head to himself in disbelief.
¡°My advanced class giver was a big, male, muscly half giant, so¡ I don¡¯t think it ever was for me anyway.¡± Herilon mumbled.
¡°Right.¡± Leonard clapped excitedly. ¡°Either way, I now know how to fly this ship out of here. Not only that, but I think I know a way for us to craft more airships, without the island stones.¡± Leonard smiled to himself excitedly. ¡°Ready to head home?¡±
Chapter 240: Encounter
Chapter 240: Encounter
After properly switching out of his robes and into his standard sailing attire, Captain Leonard made his way up to the stern and dramatically placed his hands on the wheel of the Sky Darling. The others followed him with their eyes cautiously, and saw a big awkward grin grow across his face.
¡°So¡¡± He spoke as he released the wheel and began fidgeting with his interface floating in front of him, though to others it appeared as if he was poking at the air. ¡°Got a few new skills here. Might be a bit shaky but, I think I can manage.¡±
¡°You think?¡± Herilon raised his eyebrows at him.
¡°Well, you know¡ never manually levitated an airship before. Up until now, the island stone in the hull has been doing all the work. So, it might be a bit shaky.¡± He shrugged back innocently.
¡°We should probably hold onto something.¡± Gregory told the others in monotone, and Aegis, Ren and Trexon quickly nodded back to acknowledge this suggestion. They all promptly found parts of the ship that were nailed down to grab onto.
¡°First, let¡¯s get out from under this big tree.¡± Leonard continued, pretending to not see how the rest of them were reacting. With a few simple waves of his glowing yellow fingers, the wing sails opened up along with the mainsail, catching a light breeze as Leonard carefully managed the rudder to start rotating the ship. Once it was facing back towards the direction that they¡¯d arrived from, the speed began to pick up.
The Sky Darling smoothly sailed along the surface of the calm waves slowly. Aegis had grabbed onto the railing near the front to make sure he had a good view of the deep ocean water in front of them, just to keep an eye out for any suspicious aquatic creatures that might take interest in them. It wasn¡¯t long before the Sky Darling made its way out from under the large roots of the tree, narrowly maneuvering around the smaller roots.
It looked initially impossible to get through without having to cut through them, but as the ship approached any tangled mess of mid to small sized roots, they parted ways to give their ship a clear path outward. Aegis wasn¡¯t sure himself if this was just a game mechanic of the tree, or if the AI Wildling tree was actively watching them and letting them pass. This is what sat on his mind during the last moments they spent in the shade of the Great Old One, until finally pulling out into the open ocean, with nothing but a clear, dim dark blue dawn sky above them.
Leonard waited until the Sky Darling was a decent distance away from the tree and its tall canopy before clapping his hands together loudly, then rubbing them together afterwards and licking his lips.
¡°Alright.¡± He let go of the wheel again to double check his new class skills in his interface. There was a long, uncomfortable silence from the others as they once again turned to look at him, watching his troubling expressions as they appeared on his face as he stared at his skill descriptions. ¡°Simple.¡± He finally broke the silence.
After hearing this, Herilon, Ren, Trexon, Aegis and Gregory all exchanged looks of doubt before tightening their grip on the ship and staring back up at Leonard.
¡°I just need to start with this skill. That should keep us in the air.¡± Leonard announced, though, despite this, he didn¡¯t actually use the skill. He took a horse stance, bending his knees as if preparing some great physical maneuver, but it became clear to Aegis that he was just trying to psych himself up. He took multiple deep breaths, then cleared his throat and straightened his back.
¡°Aerilogus.¡± He spoke with a shaky voice. Immediately upon speaking, a great yellow magic light began to emit from his hands, and the hull of the ship below them. It illuminated the surrounding waters greatly, for a brief moment, before the ship itself began to separate from the surface of the ocean. The wooden planks of the ship creaked ominously, as if they were stretching out after a long time of not being used. The last sounds of water gently brushing up against the hull were heard, and within seconds they were levitating up above the ocean water.
They didn¡¯t stop there, though - they continued to get higher and higher. The ship held steady, much to the others relief, and they all found time to look over the railings to see the ocean getting further and further away.
¡°It¡¯s working¡¡± Trexon spoke, with a hint of disbelief in his voice.
¡°Awesome!¡± Ren cheered excitedly. ¡°We won¡¯t need to worry about any evil squids on our way back, right?¡±
¡°Seems like.¡± Aegis smiled back at his enthusiasm.
¡°See? I told you all. Never doubt my skills as an Airship Captain.¡± Leonard declared proudly.
¡°Right¡¡± Gregory said while cautiously looking down to see them still rising. ¡°How high are you planning on going, sir?¡±
¡°Huh. I guess this should be high enough. Now I just need to stabilize our altitude¡¡± He mumbled to himself while taking one hand off the stern and going back into his interface to read his skills again. ¡°Like this!¡± He shouted triumphantly, waving his hands to the side. Once he had, the ship stopped rising, but awkwardly teetered to one side briefly, causing everyone aboard the ship to suddenly jerk their hands back towards the parts of the ship they¡¯d been holding onto, and holding on for dear life.
¡°Guys¡¡± Leonard smirked at them, ¡°Relax! You really think I¡¯d let my passengers fall off of my ship?¡± He tried to reassure them, speaking with confidence in his voice that the expression on his face did not share. ¡°Now, let¡¯s start our journey back!¡± He paused to clear his throat once more, preparing to cast another skill. ¡°Momenious!¡±
The moment the words left his mouth, there was a forward jutting motion - magic from his hands had hit the sails, but at an awkward angle. Immediately, the ship began to point downward in the front and sail 45 degrees back towards the ocean for a few seconds, accelerating rather quickly.
¡°Uh, Leonard?¡± Trexon asked him anxiously, speaking on behalf of the others as they were all jerked forward towards the front of the ship - luckily they were all still hanging on for dear life and no one lost their footing.
¡°Right, of course, I need to keep control of the Aerilogus spell and have it offset the forward momentum to keep us balanced out. No problem.¡± Leonard said quickly before waving his hands, but whatever he did was not what he needed to do. Immediately, the ship began to bank left and curve at an angle, now flying nearly sideways towards the ground.
¡°Oopsie doodle.¡± Leonard declared as he waved his hands again, this time overcorrecting and jerking them into a sharp turn in the opposite direction, so much so that the ship was, within seconds, partially upside down flying downwards towards the ocean, and picking up speed.
¡°LEONARD?!¡± Herilon shouted as he and the others were now dangling from the ship, their feet swinging down into the open air as they held tightly onto the railings and mast. Leonard himself was tightly gripping the stern and struggling to hold on.
¡°No problem, don¡¯t worry! I can fix it!¡± Leonard shouted anxiously, casting several more skills. The result of his next few casts were that the ship completed an awkwardly slow barrel roll, while still continuing its 45 degree dive towards the ocean.
¡°I think I¡¯m going to be sick¡¡± Gregory groaned as the ship eventually leveled out once more with the mast facing upwards.
¡°My apologies, that spell must be for controlling the direction.¡± Leonard laughed uncomfortably.
¡°We¡¯re still about to crash into the ocean!¡± Aegis shouted at him as he had a front row seat to the approaching water¡¯s surface.
¡°Right, right!¡± Leonard quickly waved his hands to cast several more skills, causing the ship to veer upwards and correct itself. It leveled out just meters away from the surface of the water briefly, before quickly angling upwards. Within seconds it went from flying leveled to at nearly 90 degrees, forcing everyone to tightly grab on once more.
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¡°LEONARD I¡¯M GOING TO KILL YOU!¡± Herilon shouted at him angrily, as he and everyone else¡¯s feet dangled downward.
¡°It¡¯s like a rollercoaster!¡± Ren cheered with enthusiasm in between a loud bout of laughter.
¡°It¡¯s not like it came with an instruction manual!¡± Leonard shouted back at Herilon in frustration as he struggled to pull himself closer to the stern, his hands tightly gripping it.
¡°I¡¯m glad you can disable vomiting in this game.¡± Gregory groaned, a strange gurgling sound coming from his stomach that mixed in with the sound of the winds pressing into the sails of the Sky Darling.
Aegis was being as patient as possible, leaning more towards Ren¡¯s reaction than Herilon¡¯s, but as the ship continued to get higher and higher, he became increasingly concerned. Eventually, though, Leonard got a decent grip and recast several skills, causing the ship to level out.
They were high above the ocean when it happened, even higher than the canopy of the Great Old One still visible in the skies behind them. The sound of their feet clunking down onto the deck of the ship was followed by nervous, heavy breathing.
¡°You good now?¡± Herilon asked Leonard aggressively.
¡°Yes. I¡¯ve got it. We¡¯re moving along at a brisk pace, with a nice and steady altitude. No problems.¡± Leonard replied, his face pale and his eyes wide.
¡°Never doubted you for a moment, sir.¡± Gregory coughed. The others let out a sigh of relief, but no one was willing to let go of the railings and mast they were holding onto tightly for a good long while. Leonard as well was sure to always move with his hands holding onto something.
¡°You¡¯re sure we¡¯re flying in the right direction?¡± Trexon asked him.
¡°Absolutely. Have faith, we¡¯ll be back in Kalmoore before you know it, dears.¡± Leonard smiled. The ship continued forward from here without incident, sailing high above the vast ocean of the virtual world.
Aegis and Ren spent most of the time looking off of the side of the ship down at the water below. Around midday, when the sun was highest, the edge of the black mist came into view on the horizon, signaling that they were approaching land once more. As it did, though, Ren excitedly pointed out the large squid-like creature visible below the waves.
Despite being so high in the air above the ocean, and the creature being so deep, it was still easy to spot out. It looked even larger from above than it had while they were on the surface, and they saw several of its large tentacles wriggling to the surface and poking out above it.
¡°That thing is massive.¡± Aegis commented.
¡°Would be so cool if I could shift into one. Maybe when I have my advanced class?¡± Ren asked.
¡°Maybe. Wouldn¡¯t that be a bit overpowered, though?¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Hehe, yeah¡¡± Ren said with a devilish grin.
¡°Heads up!¡± Herilon shouted suddenly, getting the attention of everyone on board. He was keeping watch of the skies in front of them, and quickly paced to the front near Ren and Aegis, pointing out toward the air above the approaching black mist.
¡°What is it?¡± Leonard asked as everyone began to squint, looking in the direction Herilon was pointing.
¡°We¡¯ve got fans of yours.¡± Herilon motioned to Aegis¡¯ livestream which continued to hold steady around 2 million viewers.
¡°Stream snipers?¡± Ren asked.
¡°Looks like it.¡± Herilon nodded. It was during this time that Aegis was able to see what Herilon was pointing at. There were 4 airships hovering above the edge of the black mist, not far from where the mist transitioned into the ocean water - the waves clashing with one another. Each ship looked similar to the sky darling in its basic form, but had distinguishable differences in its style. Two were distinctly much larger, and each mainsail was decorated with matching symbols - that of a skull and crossbones with a star tattoo on the forehead.
¡°Do you recognize that mark?¡± Trexon asked him.
¡°Yeah, a mercenary PvP guild based out of Savringard. They specialize in raiding transport ships without sinking the ship they¡¯re attacking, but they¡¯re also for-hire. They call themselves the Shattered Pirates.¡± Herilon explained.
¡°You think they¡¯re here of their own accord, or did someone hire them?¡± Leonard asked. Herilon didn¡¯t need to answer, he instead exchanged looks with Aegis, who took a big deep nervous breath. His silence was all that the rest of them needed to hear.
¡°They¡¯re most likely after the essence. They could have just as likely been hired by Seraxus, or Makaroth.¡± Trexon explained.
¡°Or, they just want it for themselves.¡± Ren suggested.
¡°Sorry. This is my fault, because I¡¯ve been streaming.¡±
¡°Are you kidding?¡± Herilon smirked. ¡°This was the whole reason I tagged along. Finally some action.¡± He said while drawing out his greatsword.
¡°Turning off your stream would¡¯ve shown weakness and fear. I haven¡¯t known you to be weak, or afraid, and nor am I.¡± Leonard replied proudly. ¡°Don¡¯t fret. With my new sailing skills, they shouldn¡¯t be able to touch us.¡± Leonard declared.
¡°Rise us up as high as you can into the sky. They¡¯re still relying on their island stone hulls to keep their ships afloat, meaning they can¡¯t go that high above the black mist.¡± Aegis said to him, and Leonard nodded back.
¡°Right you are.¡± Leonard replied, waving his hands to cast a few skills and cause them to increase in altitude, nearing the few misty white clouds hovering in the sky above. As he did this, Aegis quickly cast bless on everyone and fastened his mithral shield onto his arm, while Trexon drew out his staff and Ren leaned over the railings to get a better view.
It wasn¡¯t long before the Sky Darling was soaring overtop of them, high above the ships and the black mist by at least a kilometer. In the few tense moments that they sailed beyond, the group looked down over the railings at the 4 airships below.
¡°Maybe they didn¡¯t even see us?¡± Ren suggested, but this was quickly proven false as all four ships turned and began pursuing them in the same direction. They were keeping up in speed, but were too great a distance below to do anything impactful to them.
¡°Typically, they like to board and barter. They have a code to not sink ships, given the rarity of them. Maybe if they¡¯re unable to board us, they¡¯ll just leave us alone.¡± Herilon suggested. Hearing this, there was a hint of calm spreading amongst the players on the deck of the ship. It was short lived, however, as several ominous loud blasts suddenly erupted from the four ships below - one each.
Seconds later, bolts of red and blue magic flew up into the sky all around them, one soaring so close to the ship that Aegis felt a heavy wave of heat as it soared up past him and exploded in the sky above the ship.
¡°Taking evasive maneuvers.¡± Leonard declared.
¡°Grand shell.¡± Trexon cast, creating a dome around the ship. Seconds later, several more shots were fired up at them from below, impacting the shell surrounding the ship. Aegis saw through his party interface that the attacks were dealing a lot of damage, but appeared manageable. That was, until a white bullet was shot up from below and crashed into the shell, casting it to shatter like glass before disintegrating.
¡°Anti-magic shots!¡± Trexon shouted anxiously, while at the same time a bolt of ice had been fired to trail behind the anti-magic shot. It looked as though it¡¯d hit the hull of the Sky Darling, but Aegis quickly projected his shield to block it, causing the projectile to explode below the hull of the ship outwards into dozens of large icy shards. Luckily, none hit the ship.
| You take 3,348 Cold damage. |
¡°I¡¯ll block them, it¡¯s not much damage.¡± Aegis said to Trexon, who nodded back. Aegis tapped his own shoulder to cast healing wind on himself. ¡°Can you turn into a gryphon and fly me around? It¡¯s hard to see the shots that are coming while I¡¯m on the deck.¡± Aegis said to Ren, who quickly complied by releasing a puff of green mist around himself and transforming into a green-feathered gryphon. Aegis then hopped onto his back and he took off into the skies, soaring around the Sky Darling.
Several more shots of ice and fire flew up towards the ship, the aim of the 4 airships below improving rapidly, but Aegis was able to project his shield around to block all four shots, then heal through the damage.
The Sky darling continued to soar forward under Aegis and Ren¡¯s protection, but after several dozen more shots and attempts to take the ship down from below, the firing stopped.
¡°Looks like they¡¯re giving up.¡± Trexon called down to Aegis and Ren while they continued to circle the space around the Sky Darling.
¡°No, not exactly.¡± Herilon said while once again pointing down towards the ships below. ¡°They¡¯re just changing tactics.¡±
Looking down, Aegis saw what he meant. From the decks of the four ships, dozens of winged creatures took off into the skies, quickly flying up towards them. Mounted atop each of the flying beasts was a player, their levels varying but primarily 150 or above. Of the creatures present, Aegis only recognized the gryphons, but he could make out the names of two other types - wyverns and hippogryphs.
¡°Prepare to be boarded.¡± Leonard declared with an anxious tone.
Chapter 241: Sky Captain Leonard
Chapter 241: Sky Captain Leonard
Ren maneuvered his way back onto the deck of the Sky Darling with Aegis on his back, as Aegis eyed the approaching mounted players and their winged beasts, counting exactly 12 approaching before losing sight of them due to landing on their airship. The moment he could, he safely hopped off the back of Ren and walked to the railings, his mind working overtime on a plan to deal with these opponents.
Before a plan came to him, four riders soared up past the Sky Darling and into the air above, a good distance away from the ship itself so as to not be attackable by Aegis and the rest of the crew. Then, a fifth who flew atop a large scaly beast broke above the threshold of the upper deck and began flying at eye level with them.
The creature on which he was mounted, named [Wyvie(Elite) - Level 162] had dark brown scales over most of its body, a long pointed lizard-like tail and neck, with an extremely exaggerated snout covered in oversized fangs that protruded out of its mouth despite it being closed. It had long thin leathery wings that flapped cooly in the wind as it held pace with the ship.
The rider, a large muscular orc wearing stylized padded leather armor, had no visible weapons equipped and no helmet on making it easy to see his face. He had short spiky red hair and multiple scars across his face that Aegis knew from Darkshot had to be placed during character creation and not actually earned. [Trellin - Level 150] sat comfortably above his head, and he had a big dumb grin on his face as he turned his head to look over Aegis and the others. His eyes eventually landed on Herilon, and he gave a knowing nod to
Him.
¡°There you are, Herilon! I was worried you weren¡¯t going to play this MMORPG!¡± Trellin shouted to him in a familiar tone.
¡°Are you kidding? This one¡¯s way better than the rest. Why would I skip it?¡± Herilon replied in an equally friendly tone, surprising the others.
¡°What¡¯re you doing all the way out in Kalmoore?¡±
¡°Decided to take it easy this time around. Enjoy the quieter side of gaming.¡± Herilon shrugged.
¡°You and I both know that doesn¡¯t suit you. You¡¯re out here on this ship for the PvP, aren¡¯t ya?¡± Trellin smirked.
¡°Eh, I guess.¡±
¡°You should join my crew. It¡¯d be like the old days. The amount of booty we¡¯re plunderin¡¯ ain''t nothin to shake your nose at, lemme tell you.¡± Trellin chuckled.
¡°I believe it. But nah, no thanks. I¡¯m doing fine with my new guild. I like them.¡± Herilon answered.
¡°And the spiteful healer?¡± Trellin motioned to Aegis as if he wasn¡¯t there.
¡°Him too. He¡¯s a fun kid to be around.¡±
¡°Ah. Pity. You know we¡¯ve gotta take that essence from him, right?¡± Trellin¡¯s voice went heavy as he began to aggressively glare at Herilon.
¡°You can try.¡± Herilon replied in kind.
¡°No hard feelings if I sink your ship, right?¡±
¡°No hard feelings if I kill all you and your friends, and their sky chickens?¡±
¡°Good ol¡¯ Herilon.¡± Trellin shook his head before pulling the reins of his wyvern back to break off from the Sky Darling, giving them a brief moment with no enemies nearby.
¡°You know these guys?¡± Trexon asked Herilon.
¡°Yeah, I used to play with them.¡± Herilon answered.
¡°How good are they at playing games?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°They¡¯re no pushovers when it comes to PvP. They make a living from it.¡± Herilon answered, and got a nod back from Aegis.
¡°Any useful insight you can provide us?¡± Leonard asked in an annoyed tone.
¡°Well, like I said¡ If they¡¯re here on their own accord, they¡¯ll backoff once its no longer financially viable to keep attacking us. Do a bit of damage, and they¡¯ll give up. But¡¡± Herilon paused as he watched the rest of the 12 riders soaring up at them now from below the ship, the other four ships still soaring along above the black mist far below them. ¡°If they were hired to attack us, they¡¯ll be relentless. They¡¯ve got a reputation to keep.¡±
¡°Great.¡± Leonard rolled his eyes.
¡°Airburst us out of here, let¡¯s get back to Kalmoore as fast as possible.¡± Aegis instructed Leonard, and he nodded back without hesitation. With a few quick flicks of his fingers, he prepared to cast the spell, but the moment he did Aegis saw multiple grappling shots being fired by the riders, aimed at the hull of the ship. 11 of the shots connected, binding the riders and their mounts to the Sky darling, but Aegis reacted quick enough to project his shield in front of one of the grappling shots, blocking it with the projection as the Sky Darling bursted away at incredible speed, leaving one rider far behind them with no possible means to catch up.
The other 11, however, tightly gripped their grappling shots and were pulled along with the ship due to them fastening the shots to their mount''s saddles. None of the beasts they rode on looked particularly pleased with this, though. And sure enough, a few seconds later, the four airships below them showed up once more, having used airbursts themselves.
¡°Not gonna be that easy to shake us, I¡¯m afraid. This ain''t our first rodeo!¡± Trellin shouted joyfully, followed by a barrage of arrows being fired by multiple ranger class players riding on the mounts nearby.
Herilon, Trexon, Gregory and Ren began dodging, but Aegis looked up to see Leonard focused on controlling the ship and wasn¡¯t able to dodge, so quickly dashed to the upper half of the deck by the stern with his shield out, blocking a few arrows going his way and protecting him from being hit.
Thanks to the lower level of the attackers and Aegis¡¯ mithral shield and high level armor, the damage he took from the shots wasn¡¯t that high. Still, though, it wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d be able to sustain forever in high amounts, and quickly cast healing wind on himself. Following this, four of the mounted riders released their grapples and pulled back up into the air, higher above the rear of the ship. They then nocked arrows in their bows and aimed them down at Leonard and Aegis, while the remaining 7 riders drew out staves, shields, scepters, and Trellin himself revealed his 7 battlemaster weapons as he maneuvered his wyvern closer to the ship.
The wyvern dug its claws into the side of the sky darling, and a second later Trellin hopped off onto the deck where Herilon met him with a glowing blue greatsword swing, pushing him back. The swing was parried, and from there the two engaged one another in earnest, the sounds of their blades clashing echoing loudly across the deck of the ship. Meanwhile, another berserker player riding a gryphon had jumped off the gryphon to land on the deck on the other side, aiming for Trexon.
Instead, though, Ren charged the berserker and head butted him full force to attempt to push him back off the ship. The berserker held up a greatsword in front of his body to block the headbutt from Ren¡¯s gryphon form, preventing it from pushing him back at all and grinning at the beast shifted druid in front of him.
Ren wasn¡¯t going to take this sitting down though, and quickly lunged at the berserker, this time grabbing into his shoulders and lifting him up off the deck by flapping his wings violently. The berserker retaliated by swinging his sword up at the underside of Ren¡¯s belly, dealing massive damage, but Ren ignored the hits in favor of flinging the berserker off the side of the ship, which he did so successfully.
Aegis, Gregory and Trexon watched the berserker as he free fell a few dozen meters off the side of the ship, until suddenly stopping mid-air. Another mounted player with a staff had soared in and cast fly on him, preventing him from falling to his death, and a few seconds later the berserker''s gryphon caught back up to him and picked him up using the saddle on its back.
¡°Knocking them off doesn¡¯t look like it''s going to work.¡± Gregory said matter-of-factly as he drew out a tiny, unimposing rapier. Aegis used this time to heal back up Ren¡¯s gryphon form from the berserker attacks, then threw out a healing wind onto Herilon as he continued to do battle with Trellin. As he did this, though, he spotted a cleric rider that was keeping her distance on her own hippogryph mount, throwing out healing spells to Trellin to keep him at full health.
¡°They¡¯ve also got healers. And a lot of rangers.¡± Aegis eyed the other players still circling the ship, noting they all had crossbows and bows equipped and began firing at the others. As he did, though, he watched five of them take up an odd formation on their mounts, surrounding the air above the backend of the Sky Darling and aiming at him and Leonard.
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Just as they fired their arrows, Aegis prepared his shield and two projections to protect himself and Leonard from the shots, but all of the shots instead suddenly redirected away from his projections to instead hit his shield directly.
¡°AEGIS!¡± Trexon shouted out worriedly as he noticed it before Aegis had - a red ranger mark from all 5 rangers appeared on his shield, making him the homing target for their following attacks.
Just as Aegis tilted his mithral shield towards his face to see the five marks, all five rangers cast their rain of arrows skills, dumping their mana to have thousands of arrows appear out of their bows and home in on him.
¡°There¡¯s no blocking that many arrows, kid.¡± One of the rangers cheered as the sky around the ship was darkened by the insane amount of projectiles flying towards them. Aegis instinctively wanted to run or dodge, but a single step forward had all of the arrows immediately adjust their paths to keep following him.
¡°Mass dispel!¡± Trexon cast quickly, shooting a bolt out at him and removing the marks from Aegis shield, buying him a single second of time to get out of the path of the arrows as they were no longer homing in on him. Aegis then dashed out of the way, grabbing Leonard and pulling him along with him off of the upper deck to the lower, milliseconds before the thousands of arrows plunked into the upper deck, turning it into something that looked akin to a porcupine''s back as the sound of the arrow heads plunking into the wooden planks of the ship was all that could be heard.
¡°Blocking arrows is not the safest idea.¡± Trexon said calmly as he watched Aegis and Leonard get back up to their feet. Aegis looked to see the five ranger players, still flying back, start pulling out elixirs of mana from their inventory and drinking them, but he lost sight of them quickly as suddenly the Airship jerked forward into a downward dive.
¡°Shit, I gotta get back to the helm! I¡¯m still not good at flying this!¡± Leonard yelled as everyone aboard the ship started losing their footing, including Herilon and Trellin. ¡°Ah, no worries, I got it!¡± Leonard tried to comfort everyone, waved his hands, and suddenly flung the ship into a slow-moving barrel roll.
¡°You lot are crazy.¡± Trellin shouted while stumbling, jumping back from Herilon to his wyvern that remained clinging onto the side of the ship. Once he got to the saddle, the wyvern released its claws from the wood and launched itself away, while everyone else grabbed hold of what they could and the other riders flew back to steer clear of the spinning airship.
After a single roll, Leonard was able to stabilize it and get back to the stern by kicking and crunching his way through the arrow shafts sticking out of the upper deck.
¡°Alright.¡± Aegis cleared his throat as the ship leveled out, looking around at his party. Due to the riders having backed off from the spin, they had a brief moment of peace. ¡°We can¡¯t knock them off, they¡¯ve got wizards casting fly. We can¡¯t kill the wizards, they¡¯ve got clerics. And we can¡¯t do much offensively given their ranged combat capabilities.¡± Aegis articulated his thoughts to the others quickly.
¡°Herilon, mount Ren and go after that cleric first. If you have to dismount her, do it. Trexon, use your dispels and shells to prevent the wizards from casting fly on anyone we manage to dismount, so they fall and are taken out of the fight. Once the cleric and wizards are gone, just go about knocking everyone off as fast as you can.¡± Aegis ordered them.
¡°And what about the boarding party?¡± Herilon motioned to the berserker and Trellin who were closing in on the ship once more, weapons ready.
¡°Me and Gregory will keep Leonard safe. Leonard, use evasive maneuvers to make us hard targets to hit, don¡¯t let them get too comfortable on the deck of your ship.¡± Aegis said, and Gregory gave a nod.
¡°Alright then.¡± Leonard rubbed his hands together nervously while Gregory moved up to stand beside Leonard with his rapier out. Herilon then jumped onto the back of Ren, and Ren launched his gryphon form off the ship, soaring directly towards the cleric, who saw them coming and began soaring away with two wizards and a ranger flying in to protect her from Ren and Herilon.
As this happened, both Trellin and the berserker''s winged beasts clawed onto the sides of the lower deck, and both jumped off to touch their feet down on the wood in front of Aegis and Trexon. Trexon gave Aegis a nervous look, and Aegis nodded back at him confidently.
¡°Go, I got this. If I can¡¯t handle him, I won¡¯t stand a chance against Seraxus.¡± Aegis said to Trexon, prompting him to nod back and run to the side of the ship to the side where Ren was flying.
¡°You sure you¡¯ve got time to play with us? You might want to be protecting your captain!¡± Trellin smirked as two rangers at the back of the ship fired several piercing arrows down at Leonard from behind. Instantly though, Aegis projected two shields to block the shots, then cast healing wind and heal on himself to recover the damage.
¡°No worries. I can do both. Avatar of Eirene.¡± Aegis grinned at Trellin as he erupted in a bright glowing light.
¡°I like this kid.¡± The berserker commented as he too began to grin, brandishing his large iron greatsword as it became engulfed in a blue glowing light. The berserker charged first, just as Aegis drew out his claws from his right hand. Aegis deflected the sword of the berserker, but Trellin followed up with a floating crossbow shot, then sent his other floating weapons - primarily swords, at Aegis from all sides. Aegis deflected some with his claws, others his shields and projections, but there were too many attacks coming at him from random directions to block them all.
His armor bonus from the avatar spell allowed him to take the hits, and he quickly healed up from the damage, but the attacks kept coming. Once fully engaged by Trellin and the berserker, the rangers at the back of the ship fired another barrage at Leonard, but true to his word, Aegis projected his shields to block most shots while Gregory deflected some with his rapier.
¡°This damage is a bit too high!¡± Aegis shouted at Leonard.
¡°No problem. I¡¯ll make it harder for them to hit you!¡± Leonard shouted, waving his hands wildly and causing the ship to suddenly fly upward at 75 degrees. As Leonard had hoped, everyone aboard the ship immediately lost their footing and began sliding along the deck, being forced to either grab on, or dig their bladed weapons in to have some sort of holding.
The rangers on their mounts had to work hard to redirect their beasts and keep up with the ships movements, but Trellin was good enough to keep attacking Aegis with his floating weapons during this. Aegis, however, was also keen enough to keep up with the weapons movements and kept blocking most of the strikes.
Eventually they ended up standing on the wall between the lower deck and upper deck, with the doorway leading below deck under their feet. Aegis danced around it whilst blocking strikes from both Trellin and the Berserker who¡¯d landed on the wall behind him, while Trexon landed in front of him and was aiming several long range spells out at the mounted wizards as they flew around Ren and Herilon, who¡¯d managed to catch up to and engage the cleric off in the distance.
Another barrage of arrows was shot at Leonard and the vertical Sky Darling, but Leonard reacted by swirling one hand around in a circle, the other tightly gripping the stern.
¡°Still able to hit us, are you? Well,¡± Leonard gasped as the Airship began quickly rotating in a spiral drill-like motion upwards. ¡°Let me know the power of a world first Sky Captain!¡± Leonard shouted triumphantly. As a result of his rotation, the next barrage of arrows missed him and plunked into the side of the ship instead. He then canceled the rotation with another movement, altering the ship¡¯s trajectory from flying upwards to instead curving down into a dive.
¡°Don¡¯t pretend like you¡¯re doing any of this on purpose, sir.¡± Gregory groaned, looking as though about to vomit as he grabbed the railing nearby.
¡°It¡¯s harder to predict the ships movements when even I don¡¯t know what it''s going to do next.¡± Leonard cackled. Due to the movements, both the berserker and Trellin were forced to abandon attacking Aegis in favor of trying not to fall off the ship. Their mounts, on the other hand, used their claws in the wood to cling to it and maneuver towards Aegis. The wyvern was the first to strike, lashing its fangs out at Aegis with a loud chomping strike which Aegis managed to knock away with his shield, then retaliate with a slash of his claws.
¡°Oi, don¡¯t hurt my baby.¡± Trellin shouted angrily, seeing his strike. Trellin then sent all of his floating swords at Aegis despite Trellin himself falling to the front railing of the ship as it moved into a downward dive. The berserker lost his footing to the point where he was forced to launch himself off the deck, and his mount released the ship to soar after him, catching him in its saddle a few meters beside the diving Sky Darling as it soared downward past them.
The rangers near the back of the ship on their mounts, like the berskerer, attempted to fly after the Sky Darling in its downward motion, but they were unable to keep up. They released another barrage of arrows, but Leonard did another barrel roll to force the arrows into the hull of the ship and protect himself.
¡°I¡¯m starting to get the hang of this.¡± Leonard spoke proudly.
¡°Aegis, We got the cleric!¡± Trexon announced as he clung to the mast, motioning to the battle between Ren, Herilon, and the other mounted players. This prompted Aegis and Trellin to stop their fight and look off the side of the ship and see the cleric free falling into the black mist below, with her mount and the two wizard players trapped inside a grand shell made by Trexon, unable to pursue. One of the wizards quickly dispelled Trexon¡¯s shell so that they could try to save the cleric as she fell, but Trexon quickly and repeatedly recast smaller shells, blocking them long enough for the cleric to fall out of view.
¡°Tch.¡± Trellin groaned in annoyance.
¡°Get back to the ship!¡± Aegis yelled so that Ren and Herilon could hear him.
¡°The hell are you idiots doing? There¡¯s only four combatants!¡± Trellin yelled at the other players as Ren pulled away from the battle on the port side of the ship and just barely managed to claw into the Sky Darling - it continued to plummet at an incredible speed. Slightly faster than the flying beasts, it began to make distance between them, but was getting closer and closer to the four airships sailing along below them.
¡°Four? I think I more than qualify as a fifth!¡± Leonard roared back at him, followed by another jerking motion of the ship that leveled it out.
¡°They¡¯re too far away to grapple shots. Airburst is up now, right?¡± Aegis said to Leonard, and he nodded back with a few quick waves of his hands.
¡°AIR BURST!¡± Leonard yelled, rocketing the Sky Darling through the skies at an incredible speed, leaving the other mounted players in the dust. Herilon then hopped off of Ren¡¯s back, and Trellin found himself alone on the deck of the ship with his wyvern, with Aegis and his party all staring him down.
¡°Bit off more than you could chew this time, eh?¡± Herilon smirked at his old friend. Trellin didn¡¯t reply, but glanced between Aegis, Ren, Herilon and Trexon before quickly running to the saddle of his wyvern. The wyvern then launched itself off the ship and soared downward below their line of sight. Aegis ran to the side of the ship to catch a glimpse of him as he continued to fly down towards the black mist, but continued to keep pace with them.
¡°You said they¡¯d give up if it was just a personal attack, right? They just lost a cleric and all their gear. Would that make ¡®em give up?¡± Trexon asked Herilon as all eyes turned to him.
¡°Yeah¡ normally¡¡± Herilon shrugged as he moved to look over the side of the ship alongside Aegis. But what they saw was anything but giving up - within a few moments, the four pursuing ships appeared below them after having used their own airburst skills. And following this, the sounds of loud cannons being fired from below could be heard - projectiles of ice and fire flying up through the sky around Trellin and his wyvern as they aimed at the Sky Darling from below.
¡°Doesn¡¯t look like they¡¯re giving up, though - and we¡¯ve pissed them off. They¡¯re going to go all out now.¡± Herilon sighed.
Chapter 242: Stalemate
Chapter 242: Stalemate
¡°They can keep firing as much as they want - these artillery attacks don¡¯t do enough damage to players to threaten us.¡± Aegis shouted reassuringly to his party. He¡¯d re-mounted Ren and was flying around the hull of the ship, using his shield and guard skill to protect the Sky Darling from being hit by any attacks.
Their airship was continuing to sail smoothly through the sky in the direction of Kalmoore, with the four pirate ships following them from far below, just above the black myst of the abyss. Trellin, too, was still visibly circling the skies nearby atop his wyvern, but was keeping a safe distance. Both Aegis and Herilon eyed Trellin curiously in between their attacks.
¡°They¡¯re still planning something.¡± Herilon announced. A few moments later, from atop the deck of one of their four ships, a spell was cast from a player. A burst of foggy clouds erupted from the player, shrouding the four airships completely in the gray magical smog. It made it impossible for Aegis and the others to see the ships, but it was still possible for him to react fast enough and block the artillery strikes against the Sky Darling for a few more shots.
Then, suddenly, mixed in with the continuous fire, there was a strange screeching boom that was heard four times, coming from the airships below. Following this, out of the smoke shot four large ballistae-like projectiles with incredible speed.
Ren and Aegis reacted quickly, soaring towards them. Ren was able to position Aegis under the hull of the ship in time to block one shot with his shield, whilst Aegis blocked two others with shield projections, but unfortunately the fourth shot made it through and pierced through the underside of the Sky Darling.
It was after it connected that Aegis saw the shot was trailing a thick iron chain, its links extending down into the fog cloud. The instant it connected, the chain went taut and began retracting, as if attempting to reel in the sky darling.
¡°Not good. Aegis, that¡¯s an anchor shot.¡± Leonard shouted anxiously from the top of the ship. ¡°I¡¯m unable to move further away from the source of the shot, only closer. As long as it''s connected, that is.¡±
¡°Can you break us loose, Herilon and Trexon?¡± Aegis called out to them.
¡°On it.¡± Herilon replied before running to the lower deck to get inside the ship, Trexon following behind him. In the meantime, the four ships below stopped moving forward, which in turn prevented the Sky Darling from moving forward as well, and the fog that shrouded their ships began to clear. The artillery bombardment continued, however, forcing Aegis and Ren to continue maneuvering around the sky to protect the Sky Darling from further damage.
¡°Uh, this thing ain''t budging. Lodged into the hull with hooks.¡± Herilon said through the party interface after a few moments.
¡°They¡¯ve got anti-magic enchantment stones on it. They¡¯re prepared.¡± Trexon added.
Aegis briefly glanced at the chain and the bottom end of the thick projectile shaft protruding out of the hull of the ship, trying to consider his options. He wasn¡¯t given much time, though, as the fog surrounding the ships below suddenly cleared out and were replaced by a gigantic red ball of flame, like a miniature sun that expanded well beyond the size of the four ships, and slowly it began soaring up towards them through the sky.
¡°Uh, what pray tell is that big red glowing light coming from below?¡± Leonard asked anxiously.
¡°Oh shit. Don¡¯t tell me they¡¯ve had an invisible wizard channeling a pyroclasm since the fight started?¡± Trexonn answered, peering through a small hole in the hull left by the anchoring shot.
¡°Pyroclasm¡¡± Aegis mumbled to himself, trying to recall the spell. He knew that it was one Pyri had - and as that thought came to him, the other details of the spell filled themselves out quickly. A fireball spell that gets stronger the longer you channel it, but it¡¯s slow moving and easy to dodge, and damage to the caster interrupts it. ¡°How much damage would a pyroclasm of that size deal?¡±
¡°Let me put it this way. If it hits the Sky Darling? No more sky darling.¡± Trexon explained.
¡°Well, I¡¯m not going anywhere with that anchoring shot.¡± Leonard replied. Aegis let out a long drawn out sigh of frustration, trying to quickly think of a solution. Several came to mind, but none seemed too plausible. At the very least, he was given a reprieve from blocking artillery shots now that there was a giant ball of fire soaring towards them.
¡°We can¡¯t break free, we can¡¯t dodge, we can¡¯t escape, so long as they¡¯re holding us here and attacking us. Even if we break this anchor shot, it¡¯s only a matter of time before they hit us with another one. We''re still too far away from Kalmoore¡¡± Aegis mumbled out loud, his voice traveling to the others through the party interface.
¡°So, what do we do?¡± Trexon asked.
¡°I¡¯m down for one of your signature Aegis strategies.¡± Herilon added.
¡°Do whatever you need to to save my ship.¡± Leonard said.
¡°Alright.¡± Aegis let out a long sigh, ¡°Meet on the deck.¡± Aegis instructed, and Ren gave several giant flaps of his wings to take himself and Aegis onto the deck of the ship. There, Herilon, Trexon, Gregory and Leonard had all moved to stand around the mass, waiting for him.
¡°I estimate based on that pyroclasm¡¯s travel speed, it¡¯ll hit us in about five minutes. So¡¡± Aegis glanced between each of them, briefly meeting their expectant stares before landing on Herilon. ¡°I think we oughta go down there and ask them nicely to let us go.¡± He said with a giant grin growing on his face, one that Herilon matched. Aegis then quickly hit the mute button on his stream, and the moment he did, Shinji edited the view to not show his mouth so that no one would hear or be able to predict what Aegis would say next.
¡°Here, Trexon,¡± Aegis started by opening up a trade window with Trexon. Within the trade, Aegis quickly offered several large, salamander scale sacks filled with unknown items.
¡°What are these?¡± Trexon asked.
¡°Accept the trade and you¡¯ll be able to look at the contents of the bags.¡± Aegis replied hastily. Trexon did exactly that, taking 6 of the bags from Aegis¡¯ inventory. ¡°I brought them just in case, they saved me once before. They might save us here.¡±
Trexon went into his inventory after the trade had gone through, inspecting the bags contents. The moment he saw what was inside, his eyes went wide with disbelief.
¡°How the hell did you get this many?¡±
¡°I needed to level herbalism.¡± Aegis shrugged back. ¡°Can you use fly and invisibility to plant those on their ships?¡±
¡°Yeah, I can manage that¡¡± Trexon said as he pulled out from his inventory a bottle of clear liquid.
¡°Good. We¡¯ll provide a distraction. Go for the caster of this pyroclasm, and the masts of their ships.¡± Aegis turned to Herilon and Ren.
¡°You realize those ships are crewed by a lot more than just a dozen mounted fighters, right? They¡¯ve got not just players, but hireling NPCs aboard. All likely well skilled in this sort of combat.¡± Leonard warned Aegis.
¡°Yep.¡± Aegis unmuted his stream, ¡°We¡¯ll take them all on.¡± he replied as he motioned Herilon to get on Ren¡¯s back.
¡°How are you planning to get down? Jumping?¡± Gregory raised his eyebrows at Aegis, but Aegis smiled back briefly before running to the edge of the ship. Ren did the same with Herilon on his back, followed by Trexon who cast fly on himself, then drank the potion in his hand to turn himself invisible.
¡°Give us a single once you¡¯ve put a bag on each ship, make sure the bag is left open and is hidden.¡± Aegis said.
¡°Got it.¡± Trexon replied.
¡°Let¡¯s show them what happens when you mess with Kalmoore.¡± Aegis said proudly before jumping off the side of the ship. Ren launched himself off with several heavy flaps of his wings, then Trexon flew off in an unknown direction, completely invisible to the others.
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Aegis caught himself with a shield projection, and utilized the advanced guard skill to pre-emptively recast new ones in order to create a strange, wide staircase of shield projections, allowing him to slowly make his way down towards the four ships below, around the giant pyroclasm spell that was slowly soaring up towards them.
Ren flew alongside Aegis, waiting for him to keep up, until finally the three had reached the side of the ball of flames and were able to feel its intense heat as they dropped down below it. The moment they had, the four enemy airships came into view, and several of the players on the decks spotted them out, pointing up and shouting at them.
¡°Hah, really?¡± Trellin shouted from atop his wyvern as he circled the ships below. ¡°You¡¯re going to board us, with an assault crew of three players?¡± He spoke in a mocking town. ¡°C¡¯mon, Herilon, even for you that¡¯s a bit much. There¡¯s got to be a limit to your ego.¡±
Both Herilon and Aegis ignored him, instead Aegis pointing out a lizardfolk spellcaster atop one of the two center ships. He was standing on the upper deck, focused on maintaining his pyroclasm spell with his head tilted up and looking towards it with a strained expression, [Paulo - Level 150] sitting above his head. The moment Aegis pointed it out, Ren went into a dive towards the wizard.
¡°Oh I don¡¯t think so.¡± Trellin saw it and quickly yanked the reins on his wyvern to move it into a quick dash, flying to intercept Ren and Herilon. The wyvern was able to grab onto Ren, but Ren pecked and clawed into its underside and talons as Herilon leapt from the back of Ren with incredible strength, launching himself through the air to land atop the lower deck of the ship with Paulo on it.
Trellin saw this, and he too launched himself off of his mount to land in front of Herilon, standing between him and the wizard. At the same time, Aegis made several large strides on his shield projections to land beside Herilon, and dozens of players and NPCs atop the ships all stopped what they were doing to nock arrows, prepare spells, and draw their blades.
¡°You¡¯ve still got a chance to get out of this unscathed.¡± Trellin smirked as he saw the hesitation on Herilon and Aegis¡¯ faces. ¡°Hand over that essence you got under the ocean, and we¡¯ll let you all go, including your airship.¡± Trellin replied confidently.
¡°You seem to be mistaken.¡± Aegis replied with equal confidence, still brimming with light due to his Avatar of Eirene spell being active. ¡°You¡¯re the one who is being given the last chance here. Let us go, or you¡¯ll lose all of these ships and your entire crew.¡± He said as he held his shield up with his left hand, claw on the right hand at the ready.
¡°Hah. You¡¯re threatening us?¡± Treillin asked, followed by a loud laugh that the other nearby players joined in with. As he laughed, the sky around the airships began to populate by the mounted players that had been left behind during the airburst. Minus the cleric player they¡¯d knocked off, and Trellin, there were still 10 of them. ¡°You must have misspoke. You must have meant to say, ¡®I surrender the essence, thank you for being so merciful¡¯.¡± Trellin smiled playfully.
¡°I don¡¯t think I stuttered.¡± Aegis replied coldly, with a devilish glare. Following this, Herilon broke into a charge, spinning his sword in a wide arc and releasing a huge blast of blue energy that cut across the deck of the Shattered Pirate¡¯s airship. Several players got hit and took massive damage, while others including Trellin were able to dodge the strike.
What followed was nothing short of abrupt chaos - arrows and spells from the decks of all four ships and the mounted players were fired at Aegis and Herilon from all directions. They had high level gear, but they were vastly outnumbered and quickly began to take massive amounts of damage.
Any damage Herilon managed to deal was quickly healed up by the Shattered Pirate healers, of which Herilon had no hopes of reaching. Aegis had no time to join Herilon on the offensive as he was forced into purely defensive actions. He repeatedly used shield projections, guards, heals and healing winds to prevent himself, Herilon, and Ren, from dying to the onslaught of attacks. Ren was doing his best to interrupt the attacks from the mounted players, going after their mounts and drawing their attacks onto himself of which he was managing to dodge many.
Eventually, with Trellin engaged in combat with Herilon, Aegis was forced to eating steaks and drinking whatever elixir consumables he could find in his inventory to just keep them both standing.
¡°You¡¯re holding up well, I¡¯ll give you that, but you can¡¯t do this dance forever.¡± Trellin called out in between his attacks on Herilon. He briefly motioned up towards the giant pyroclasm spell that was still inching closer and closer to towards the Sky Darling above.
¡°I¡¯m done.¡± Trexon called out, before breaking his invisibility spell next to Herilon and Aegis and quickly waving his hands to cast a grand shell around them, giving Aegis a brief reprieve.
¡°Alright. Times up for you pirates.¡± Aegis shouted, using the shells brief protection to pull his final red, salamander leather bag out of his inventory and hold it up into the air. ¡°Release the anchoring shot, cancel the Pyroclasm spell, or I blow up all of your boats.¡± Aegis yelled so that he could be heard over the sound of all of the attacks.
¡°What the hell is in that bag?¡± Trellin asked from the otherside of the shell as it absorbed so many hits that Trexon¡¯s mana supply went nearly empty in seconds. Aegis tilted the bag downwards and opened it, revealing the contents inside to be brightly glowing red flaming blast petals, all stuffed in together tightly.
¡°STOP ATTACKS!¡± STOP ATTACKING RIGHT NOW!¡± Trellin shouted frantically at his crew. They listened, but there were enough projectiles flying through the air at this time already to break Trexon¡¯s grand shell, knocking his mana down to 0. As a result, Trellin was forced to quickly react with his battlemaster skills to deflect the last few arrows and spells to prevent them from hitting Aegis.
Once the ceasefire had settled in, Ren landed calmly beside the others. Suddenly, it became tensely quiet atop the deck of the ship as Trellin nervously glanced around, making sure no other attacks were headed towards the bag in Aegis¡¯ hands.
¡°You realize, if you blow up that bag of petals, you¡¯ll only take out this ship, right? You¡¯ll still lose your sky darling, and your essence.¡± Trellin said as he held his right hand out towards Aegis, palm forward as he attempted to calm Aegis down with his words. ¡°We¡¯ll still get what we want.¡±
¡°Nah. You won¡¯t.¡± Aegis shook his head. ¡°Trexon here just hid a few more of these bags on your other airships, and opened the tops. The explosion from this bag will trigger a chain reaction and blow up all four of your airships.¡± Aegis replied. Trellin took time to eye Aegis carefully, glancing between him and Trexon as if trying to read for a bluff, but he saw none.
¡°You¡¯re serious.¡± Trellin shook his head in disbelief. ¡°You¡¯re really going to blow yourself up with all of our ships? You do that, no one wins. The essence will drop into the abyss below.¡± Trellin said.
¡°Haven¡¯t you heard?¡± Aegis grinned once more. ¡°I¡¯m the spiteful healer. I don¡¯t care if I win. I¡¯m happy as long as anyone who comes after me and my friends suffers for it. Pirates, abysslings, dark harbingers, or fake streamers. I¡¯ll take them all out.¡± Aegis roared back at him as he took a threatening step forward with the bag. With these words, Aegis¡¯ viewership, which had been holding steady, began to climb once more.
¡°I think he¡¯s serious.¡± Paulo said from the upper deck.
¡°No shit he¡¯s serious.¡± Trellin sighed in frustration.
¡°So, what¡¯s it going to be? Are you willing to lose all your ships for this mission? Or are you ready to give up and let us go.¡± Aegis said impatiently, his eyes briefly glancing up at the pyroclasm spell still traveling up towards their ship. During this time, Herilon, Trexon and Ren all anxiously stood off with the weapon-wielding crew members that surrounded them atop the deck of the Shattered Pirate ship.
Trellin didn¡¯t answer instantly, and Aegis could see his pride battling with his logic in his eyes, but eventually, Trellin let out an annoyed sigh.
¡°Cancel the pyroclasm spell. Release the anchor shot.¡± Trellin reluctantly ordered. Within an instant, Paulo ended the spell and the giant ball of red flame that was illuminating the nearby skies in red disappeared. Following that, the anchor shot that was binding the Sky Darling in place was released, and the chain began reeling back into its harness on one of the neighboring airships. ¡°There. You¡¯re free to go. Where¡¯s the bags of blast petals you put on our ships?¡± Trellin turned to Trexon.
¡°Nah. Not like that.¡± Aegis shook his head. ¡°Get all of your buddies¡¡± Aegis motioned to the mounted players still flying around them. ¡°And then airburst away from us, in the opposite direction of Kalmoore. We¡¯ll then airburst towards Kalmoore. Once we¡¯re that nice, snug distance from one another, Herilon will tell you where the blast petal bags are hidden. Got it?¡± Aegis instructed Trellin, and saw further hesitation in his eyes.
¡°Tch.¡± Eventually he sucked his teeth and rolled his head. ¡°Good, go then, get the fuck off my ship.¡± Trellin waved dismissively at Aegis and the others. Aegis then slowly and cautiously tightened the rope at the top of the bag in his hands before adding it back into his inventory, then climbed atop Ren alongside Herilon, whilst Trexon cast fly on himself.
Just as they were lifting off, Aegis saw the mounted pirates landing their winged beasts atop the decks of the four ships.
¡°You know we¡¯re not gonna forget this, right?¡± Trellin called up at them threateningly.
¡°Neither will I.¡± Aegis shouted back. A few moments later, Aegis and the others reached the deck of the Sky Darling. ¡°You good to sail us out of here?¡± Aegis asked Leonard the moment he hopped off of Ren¡¯s back and onto the deck of their ship. As he did, he looked over the side of the Sky Darling¡¯s railing to see the four Shattered Pirate airships airbursting away, just as Aegis had instructed them.
¡°She¡¯s a little banged up, but she¡¯ll be fine.¡±
¡°Good. Airburst us and get us going full speed back to Kalmoore. I¡¯ll try to repair the damage to the ship as we fly.¡± Aegis answered.
¡°Aye.¡± Leonard nodded, rushing back up to the stern and waving his fingers around. After a few moments, the Sky Darling shot forward through the skies away from the pirates at incredible speed. ¡°Okay, tell them where you hid the bags.¡± Aegis motioned to Trexon.
¡°Well, you see, that¡¯s just the thing¡¡± Trexon hesitated for a moment, an awkward toothy lizard grin growing across his face. ¡°They had some anti-magic defenses around their ships, so I couldn¡¯t get below deck without risking being seen. Before I could find a way around it, I saw you all running low on resources¡¡± Trexon spoke slowly.
¡°You still have all of the bags on you?¡± Aegis said with wide-eyed disbelief, to which Trexon shrugged back. Hearing this, Herilon glanced towards Aegis¡¯ live streaming icon, then back to Aegis.
¡°Oh man.¡± Herilon shook his head and began to chuckle. ¡°Not only did you make him fail his mission, you did it by making a fool out of him in front of his crew. He¡¯s really going to be pissed.¡±
¡°Eh¡¡± Aegis shrugged, holding back a smile as Ren shifted back into his humanoid form and began bursting with laughter. ¡°Let¡¯s just airburst on cooldown back to Kalmoore, and they won¡¯t be able to catch up with us.¡±
¡°Way ahead of you on that.¡± Leonard replied with a nod.
Chapter 243: Final Preparations
Chapter 243: Final Preparations
The Sky Darling sailed smoothly amongst the clouds for the remainder of its journey back to Kalmoore. Due to repeated uses of airburst, the journey was rather short, and it took very little time after their battle with the Shattered Pirates for the continent to appear on the horizon.
As they approached, Leonard lowered the ship down to meet the land and eventually allowed the island stone hull to take over the hovering aspect of their flight. It was late into the afternoon when they sailed over the last bit of forests and fields and began to approach the city of Kordas, visible from a significant distance away. Seeing it gave them all a great sense of relief, but none of the players aboard the ship were willing to completely let up and repeatedly looked back over their shoulders, half expecting the other airships to still be in pursuit of them.
¡°Home, sweet home.¡± Leonard called out once they entered the air above the city itself. Still very high up, Aegis found himself looking down over the railings of the ship at the people moving about the busy city streets below. He witnessed a significant number of both NPC and players craning their heads up to stare at their ship, pointing at it excitedly.
Eventually, the ship sailed elegantly up to the Skyport tower of Kordas, nestling its right side up against the same pier it was always at, and Gregory stood at the ready to die the ship down. The others lined up at the railing to look upon the players gathered, waiting for them to arrive. Unlike last time, there were no VGN reporters, or any reporters at all. Aegis wasn¡¯t sure if this was due to Makaroth¡¯s influence, or from them having learned from past experiences.
Instead, only Quinn, Tullan, Sapphire and Yuki were waiting to greet them, standing amongst several guards and onlooking fans of Aegis. They began loudly cheering at the ship as Gregory grumbled and tied off the ship, lowering the boarding plank for them to disembark.
A few of the cheers from Aegis¡¯ fans were commenting on the pirate battle, others shouting words of encouragement for him for his impending battle up against Seraxus, or commenting on their underwater adventure. Aegis himself wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to react, but Herilon put on a smug, cool-guy smile and threw out a few winks, while Ren started jumping and waving his hands around, cheering back at them - prompting an eye roll from Quinn.
¡°Quite the adventure, eh?¡± Tullan cheered to Aegis with a big grin on his face.
¡°Guess so. How¡¯s your crafting coming along?¡± Aegis asked after giving a few awkward waves to his fans. The moment he asked, both Tullan and Yuki paused to give reassuring nods to one another.
¡°We¡¯re ready.¡± Yuki said on their behalf with confidence.
¡°Okay, good¡¡± Aegis smiled, but paused briefly before saying more while looking over the crowd a final time. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the Night Hunter¡¯s crafting hall?¡±
¡°You betcha.¡± Tullan gave him a thumbs up. He turned to lead Aegis and Yuki through the crowds, while Aegis spotted Quin focusing on Ren and Sapphire giving a judgemental stare at Herilon. Meanwhile, Leonard had several of his favorite NPCs rushing up past them to get aboard his ship and welcome him home, to which he greeted with open arms and cheers.
It took a bit of effort to get through the crowds, but once they made it down to the bottom of the tower things became relatively normal. Aegis could feel an aura of excitement emitting from Yuki and Tullan as they hastily made their way back to the Night Hunter¡¯s guild hall, with Trexon trailing behind them.
¡°I¡¯ve gathered up some impressively high quality mithral to work with. Been workin¡¯ on forgin¡¯ all manner of equipment with the weaker stuff to perfect my craft. I¡¯m bettin¡¯ there ain¡¯t and won¡¯t ever be a dwarf in this world better at workin¡¯ the stuff than I am.¡± Tullan spoke proudly.
¡°I- me too. I mean, with the voidsilk. It had a lot more potential than I was using it for initially, but I think I have unlocked it. It¡¯s really great for protection, not just good looking designs.¡± Yuki smiled.
¡°Great. This essence is probably going to be a pain to work with, but if anyone¡¯s going to manage it, it¡¯ll be you two.¡± Aegis replied, causing them both to blush with pride. Once they arrived at the Night Hunter¡¯s guild hall, they quickly stepped through the double doors and beyond the marble-floored foyer, down the hallway on their left, until arriving at the crafting stations of the Night Hunters guild hall.
Just as Aegis had remembered it, the forge across the way was still glowing bright due to the eternal flame nestled inside of it, its heat strong enough to be felt the moment they stepped into the room. There were several other low level crafters at work when they entered, doing laborious tasks such as cutting logs or weaving silk, but they all stopped what they were doing to look up at Yuki, Tullan, Aegis, and Trexon as they entered.
¡°Finish up yer current jobs, then leave us be. We¡¯ll be takin¡¯ over this room for the next while.¡± Tullan instructed them, getting words of acknowledgement. He then made his way over to a large wooden planning table, with many measuring tools, blank parchments, and ink bottles set about messily. Yuki and Aegis followed behind him as he cleared off the table and set down a large blank parchment at the center. From there, the group got to work.
Tullan focused on the logistical sides of the shield, while Yuki added insight into how to execute it, as well as design recommendations to get the base ready.
¡°That oughta be good for a standard shield, and should work fine to hold the essence.¡± Tullan finalized an initial design onto the parchment with a quill in his hand, after a long hour of discussion between the three.
¡°Hm¡¡± Aegis leaned back and began scratching his chin. ¡°It¡¯s perfect for a standard shield.¡± He added while taking out his own shield and eying it carefully, mainly at the straps on its back. The words of Herilon were floating around in his head, in regards to his fighting style. ¡°I can project two shields, and I¡¯m wielding two claws, though¡¡± his voice trailed off into thought as his eyes wandered up to the ceiling, with both Tullan and Yuki watching him intently.
¡°Yeh¡¯ve got a better idea for how to craft it?¡± Tullan asked curiously. Aegis didn¡¯t reply immediately, leaving the room silent for a long few moments.
¡°I¡¯m going to need a way to keep up with multiple weapons at once¡ 7 minimum. I have an idea on how I might more easily utilize a shield, with these claws. It¡¯s a bit unorthodox, though¡¡± Aegis lowered his eyes to meet their stares finally.
¡°Unorthodox is pretty standard with you, aint it?¡± Tullan chuckled.
¡°Whatever you need, we can craft.¡± Yuki replied reassuringly.
¡°Okay¡¡± Aegis turned to his livestream briefly. ¡°Gonna shut you guys out for a bit. Be back soon.¡± He said awkwardly, waving before turning off the livestream that held strong at 2 million viewers. Once it was off, Aegis got to explaining his idea to the two advanced crafting players. It wasn¡¯t an easy explanation, and at multiple points, Tullan gave him a look as if he was crazy, but eventually the three finished off the redesign of the shield, and took a step back to look at it proudly.
The design of the shield took up multiple parchments, but the one on top of the pile ended up being the design for the front of the shield, which looked no different than it had initially. With this in mind, Aegis turned the livestream back on.
¡°Good. All sorted out.¡± Aegis said proudly, as his viewership quickly shot back up to what it was before the radio silence.
¡°We¡¯ll get to craftin¡¯ it right away. You oughta start practicing your fighting - that style isn¡¯t gonna be somethin¡¯ you pick up in a day.¡±
¡°Mhm. But I bet it will be really fun to watch.¡± Yuki added.
¡°Right. You sure you two are okay making it yourselves?¡±
¡°Aye, we¡¯ll be fine. If anythin¡¯, with your low 150 craftin¡¯ skills, yeh¡¯d just lower the quality.¡± Tullan replied in a mocking tone, to which Aegis threw him a brief, judgemental squint.
¡°Okay.¡± Aegis fidgeted into his user interface until finding the essence, then slowly pulled it out of his inventory to present it to them. The moment it materialized in his hands, the bright glow of it took over the room and caused Tullan and Yuki¡¯s eyes to widen in amazement.
¡°It¡¯s beautiful.¡± Yuki said with an open mouth.
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¡°This is gonna be one shiny shield.¡± Tullan mumbled with his jaw agape. They then reached out and took it, Tullan adding it to his inventory. Following this, he began rubbing his hands together excitedly. ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡± He turned to Yuki, who nodded back at him excitedly. The two wasted no time getting to work, while Aegis turned to look back at Trexon who seemed to be distracted by his own interface, fidgeting his fingers around in front of his face.
¡°Do you think Herilon will be available to practice more PvP?¡±
¡°He oughta be. According to our guild chat, though, most of your party members are already practicing themselves.¡± Trexon replied while closing out of his interface to meet Aegis¡¯ eyes.
¡°They¡¯re done with their advanced class quests?¡±
¡°All but Lina, it would seem. They¡¯re at the training hall in Rene, where Clara should be waiting for you. Here¡¡± Trexon began waving his hands around, with a blue glow on his fingertips. Aegis had now seen a portal spell enough times to recognize the hand movements after the first two waves, and a few seconds later, a portal to the Altar of Rene opened up in front of them, floating suspended in the air and surrounded by a blue glowing magical energy.
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis smiled at him.
¡°No problem. I¡¯ll send Herilon over in a bit. Best of luck, Aegis.¡± Trexon bowed politely, to which Aegis reactively bowed back without thinking. He then stepped through the portal and watched it promptly close behind him - suddenly finding himself standing in Rene, far from Kordas and the Night Hunter¡¯s crafting hall.
The familiar sight of the mountain towering over the north side of the city, the walls and castle that he¡¯d painstakingly crafted with everyone¡¯s help, and the many villagers, wagons, and beasts of burden walking about the streets nearby. All of it was a welcoming sight, that made him truly feel like he was home. He took a moment to breathe in the fresh air and let out a relaxed sigh before stepping down off of the portal altar.
Almost right on queue, Chax could be seen rushing towards Aegis from out of the crowds of NPCs and players walking along the road around Aegis.
¡°Walk and talk?¡± Chax asked him, slightly out of breath. Aegis gave him a nod, and the two began heading in the direction of the training hall.
¡°How bad is it?¡± Aegis asked him nervously.
¡°Bad? Quite the opposite, really. We¡¯ve got a pretty big influx of players and NPCs after the incident. We¡¯ve already managed to repair the damage caused from the attack - because they primarily focused their attack on the southern side of Rene, it actually worked in our favor. According to Ruffily, many of those structures were crafted in the early days of Rene, so rebuilding them gave her the opportunity to improve the quality of the buildings using her higher level skills.¡±
¡°Huh.¡± Aegis made an odd shrug as he thought on it. ¡°What about the costs?¡±
¡°The voidsilk farm you built has given us quite an exclusive export. Other islands have managed to replicate it, but not as efficiently as us, so there¡¯ve been multiple traders arriving on airship from other islands, buying up crates of the stuff at high prices. We¡¯ve already paid back all of our debts to the Night Hunters, and have more than enough for anything we might need. Especially with all of those mithral crafts you made while leveling your crafting skills.¡± Chax said with a big smile on his face. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten enough experience that I¡¯m already working on my advanced merchant class.¡± He added proudly.
¡°That¡¯s¡. That¡¯s all great, isn¡¯t it?¡± Aegis turned to him suspiciously.
¡°You keep looking like you¡¯re waiting for bad news, but, I promise, there isn¡¯t any. We just need to know if you want to keep expanding, and if so in what direction.¡± Chax shrugged, motioning to the north, west and east where there were still a decent amount of open fields to be utilized for the land of Rene.
¡°If we expand much more, we¡¯ll upgrade from being a town into a proper city, won¡¯t we?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Yeah, but, well¡¡± Chax replied while motioning to a family of Dark Elves walking through the streets alongside the other citizens. ¡°That was inevitable right? As it is, the allies you made down in the underrealm seem to feel more comfortable relocating here, than Kordas. At least for the time being.¡±
¡°Will the council of Rene be able to handle becoming a city?¡±
¡°Ah, I won¡¯t lie. Our workload might go up¡ but¡ from what I¡¯ve seen, we¡¯ve been all having a blast. Me, Ruffily and Amlie are handling most of it, but it''s been fun. You know, now that there aren''t a bunch of people spreading evil darkness through the streets.¡± Chax added with a chuckle.
¡°Alright¡ I think expanding to the west and north first would be the best.¡± Aegis concluded after thinking on it for a moment, having arrived at the outskirts of the training hall. Looking inside, he saw his party training, oblivious to his presence. Darkshot and Rakkan were desperately striking out at Pyri with everything they had, as she worked hard to prevent them from landing any attacks on her with his cinderbolts.
Two versus one, she was holding her own, but to Aegis¡¯ surprise she looked fairly strained in keeping up with them. Arrows were being redirected at her by Darkshot from her blind spots, as Rakkan controlled his floating weapons in an unpredictable manner. This forced Pyri to not just stand still, but to utilize her legs and move around in tandem with her cinderbolts to avoid all of their attacks.
¡°Perfect. I¡¯ll let the others know. You¡¯re going to be joining in on the training?¡± Chax asked as he stood behind Aegis, watching him as he watched the others.
¡°Uh, not yet. I need to talk to Clara. Do you know where she is?¡±
¡°Up at the Monastery.¡±
¡°Okay, thanks.¡± Aegis gave him a smile and nod before heading off in that direction. Chax waved him off, and he moved with a skip in his step through the northern gate of Rene, following the north road up the mountain trail until reaching the Monastery of the Stars, nestled peacefully up the mountain a modest distance from the city of Rene itself.
There were more priests and priestesses walking through the gardens than Aegis had last remembered, and amongst them he was able to quickly spot out Clara as she was in the midst of giving out a quest to an up-and-coming Eirene priest player.
Aegis patiently waited for Clara to finish, and once she had she turned to smile at Aegis, as did the young level 18 human girl, who awkwardly blushed, waved, and smiled at Aegis before scurrying past him shyly.
¡°Aegis¡¡± Clara spoke softly as she held her hands out towards his. ¡°I am glad you have returned. I¡¯ve been waiting.¡±
¡°I finished the task you gave me. I¡¯ve gathered allies, and have found a method to push back the darkness and retake the surface. Thanks to the silver dragons, and the wildlings.¡±
¡°Yes. Wonderful news¡ but before we discuss that¡¡± Clara wiggled her hands towards him insistently. Aegis'' curiosity got the best of him, and he held his hands out to hers and let her clasp them. Once he had, she closed her eyes as if going into a deep trance.
| Your transgression has been forgiven. 1000 Favor with Eirene has been restored. |
The message popped up in his face, and he took a second to process what was happening.
¡°Eirene feels the pain in your heart, she feels the deep regret that you feel, and she understands that you truly had no other choice.¡± Clara spoke warmly as her eyes slowly opened once more. He heard her words, listening to them intently, but felt no urge to reply. Instead, rather, he felt a surge of guilt and pain in his chest as he remembered the events that Clara was referring to. It reminded him that now, a soulless golem made up of his old petrified friend was waiting, wingless, in the castle of Rene.
¡°Now, let us move forward with Eirene¡¯s grand task. It has been a long time since her light has been able to shine upon the surface of the lands below Kalmoore. She wishes that as you have been instrumental in bringing together the Silver Dragons and the Wildlings, and aligning them with our cause, that you also be the one to lead the charge, utilizing the strongest form of her light that she can grant to a mortal of this realm.
The message flew up through Aegis¡¯ peripheral vision, but he quickly waved it away.
¡°However, such a gift cannot be granted lightly. Eirene is only able to grant this power to one mortal at a time. Like most gods of this realm, it is only possible to have a single representative for themselves. You fought one such representative, named the Harbinger of Darkness. Would you like to take up the role of its counterpart, and represent Eirene? Or would you prefer a role of less importance, so that another may take this position?¡±
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Eirene is offering you the following Advanced classes:
[Harbinger of Light](Unique(?)), [Shattered Knight](?)
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Aegis was quick to click on the question mark next to the unique as the card appeared floating in front of his eyes, in his peripheral interface.
| A unique class can only be held by a single player at any given time. If the conditions required to hold the unique class are at any point no longer met by the player, they will drop down to the non-unique version of this class, allowing another player to obtain it. Unique classes are given access to specialized skills and quests, depending on the class. |
After reading the explanation, he understood it, and a big dumb smile grew across his face. He had no hesitation in his mind as he tapped the option to take on the role of Harbinger of Light.
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[World Notification]
The Player [Aegis - 150] has become the first player in the world to reach the advanced Class [Harbinger of Light]
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Chapter 244: Advance
Chapter 244: Advance
| Congratulations! You have advanced from Shattered Healer to Harbinger of Light(Unique). You may now level up to a maximum of 300. The following skills have changed: |
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[Heal(Intermediate)] -> [Greater Heal(Advanced)]
[Smite(Intermermediate)] -> [Smite(Advanced)]
[Cleanse(Intermermediate)] -> [Cleanse(Advanced)]
[Bless(Intermermediate)] -> [Bless(Advanced)]
[Healing Wind(Intermermediate)] -> [Aura of Healing(Advanced)]
[Light of Eirene] -> [Harbinger of Light]
[Avatar of Eirene(Intermermediate)] -> [Avatar of Eirene(Advanced)]
[Aura of Light(Intermermediate)] -> [Aura of Light(Advanced)]
[Holy Mastery(Intermermediate)] -> [Holy Mastery(Advanced)]
Eligible Path of the Stars skills have been upgraded to their Advanced versions.
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| Congratulations! You have obtained the following new skills with your class [Harbinger of Light(Unique)]: [Resurrect], [True Form(Unique)(Passive)], [Divine Aid(Unique)], [Purifying Light]. |
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Resurrect
Required Deity: Eirene
Call upon the light of the stars to return life into a fallen NPC. This skill does not work on other players. Using this skill requires, and consumes, Souldust. NPCs whose souls have been consumed by an Avatar of Darkness cannot be resurrected until their soul has been freed.
Cast Time: 10 minutes (-1s per level)
Cost: 5000 (-5mp per level)
Consumable Requirements: 1lb Souldust. (-0.01lb per level)
Cooldown: 48 hours
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True Form(Unique)(Passive)
Required Deity: Eirene
While Avatar of Eirene is active, wings of light will appear on the back of the casting player. These wings can be controlled and manipulated in order to allow the Avatar of Eirene to fight with them, defend themselves or their allies, or fly. Wings made of light are vulnerable to extreme darkness.
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Divine Aid(Unique)
Required Deity: Eirene
Call upon the aid of the Goddess of Eirene to assist you under dire circumstances. The nature of her assistance will depend on the situation in which she is called. The use of this skill has a high chance of weakening your connection with the Goddess Eirene and removing you from your role as the Harbinger of Light.
Cooldown: 30 days
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Purifying Light
Required Deity: Eirene
Expend all of your remaining mana and disable all forms of mana recovery for 30 seconds, releasing your mana as light to all nearby allies. Fully restores the health, and partially restores the mana of all allies within 30 meters of you regardless of line of sight. Fully removes all status ailments affecting allied targets, with few exceptions.
Cast Time: 3 seconds
Cost: 100% of current MP
Health Recovered: 100% of Targets HP
Mana Recovered: 20% Of Allied MP
Effects Removed: Bleed, Disease, Poison, Curse, Petrify, Slow, Morph, Burn, Mental, Fear
Cooldown: 1 hour
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Aegis kept silent, patiently reading over the details of each skill. He was able to hold back his excitement solely due to the fact that there were no other players in his immediate vicinity, only Clara staring at him expectantly as if she had something more to say.
He was somewhat relieved to see that despite learning four new skills, none of them were able to be improved upon by leveling them up. With that in mind, though, he shifted his attention to his older skills to see what had changed.
Apart from the numbers going up, nothing much, until he reached the skill that replaced his previous Light of Eirene skill. The same skill that was once pacifism, and gave him so much trouble as he started out in the game world.
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Harbinger of Light(Unique)(Passive)
Required Deity: Eirene
A blessing granted to one who represents Eirene¡¯s ideals and stands in her name upon the surface of the Shattered World, spreading her light to all those who need it.
Effect: Increases Experience Gained by 200% for all non-offensive skills.
Effect 2: Allows the Harbinger to have two auras active at once.
Restriction: This skill is lost if the favor of Eirene is lost. Taking actions that do not align with Eiren¡¯s ideals will reduce your favor with her. It is possible to regain lost favor through penance, should a High Priest or Prophet of Eirene forgive your actions.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
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Once he¡¯d finished reading it over, he gave one final glance to his new healing wind skill - now named Aura of Healing. The skill would now heal all nearby allies so long as the aura was active, at the cost of mana. After reading it, Aegis began scratching his chin and pondering how to combine this aura with either his aura of light, or his aura of beauty. His eyes wandered along the ceiling as he did this, theorycrafting various uses of the abilities, before he eventually began to ponder something else.
¡°Souldust¡¡± He mumbled out loud to himself. ¡°Do you know where to obtain it?¡±
¡°I do not, I have never heard of such a thing.¡± Clara replied with a shrug.
¡°Hm¡¡± Aegis opened up his interface once more and began searching into the database, ignoring the fact that his viewership was spiking up high again. Despite using the search functionality of the database, and checking related topics, he came up with nothing. There was no mention of something called ¡®souldust¡¯ anywhere in the database. ¡°That means no one has ever found it, or figured out how to craft it¡¡± He mumbled out loud to himself again, causing Clara to look at him curiously.
¡°I¡¯m sure all of this new power being granted to you by our goddess must be overwhelming. But when you have a moment, Eirene has a task for you that she is quite eager for me to give.¡± Clara smiled patiently.
¡°Oh. Right. Of course. What is it?¡± Aegis waved away his interface to be more attentive to Clara. She gave a polite bow.
¡°The seed you were given - the wildling Bihi¡¯s lifeforce resides within it. Please, allow me to infuse her with the light of Eirene.¡± Clara held her hands out expectantly with a smile. Aegis nodded in response and accessed his inventory through his interface to draw out the seedling he¡¯d received from the Great Old One, then gently placed it into Clara¡¯s hands. Clara then clasped both her hands tightly around the seed, closed her eyes, and began a quiet chant.
After a few moments, light could be seen escaping the slits of her closed eyelids, as well as shining brightly out of the small spaces between her clasped fingers. The light brightened, overtaking the red glow of nearby lanterns and illuminating the surrounding monastery in purifying white light, until eventually subsiding. Several other acolytes had stopped what they were doing to watch, as well as a couple of curious low level priest players.
Eventually, Clara opened her hands and presented the seedling to Aegis, now giving off a powerful glowing light.
¡°Bihi is now infused with the light of Eirene. Should she grow up from a sapling to a tree, she will emit a light great enough to push back any and all surrounding darkness. From the leaves she bears, we will be able to obtain a foothold in the abyssal lands that lie below Kalmoore, and begin our campaign to retake the land from the clutches of evil. Eirene can trust no one other than you with this duty¡¡± Clara smiled again as a quest appeared in front of Aegis¡¯ eyes.
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Quest[1/10]: Find a suitable location on the land below the Shattered islands, within the abyss, to plant the seedling of Bihi. Use any means necessary to help her grow into a mature tree, and keep her safe from the inevitable onslaught of abyssling creatures that will attempt to destroy her.
Objective: 0/1 Bihi Fully Grown
Quest Giver: Great Prophet Clara, Kalmoore
Reward: Master Class: (Unknown)
Difficulty: Extreme(V)
Restriction: Bihi must survive. You must be a Harbinger of Light to complete this quest.
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As Aegis finished reading over the details, his eyes went anxiously wide at the sight of the difficulty listing, and the quest reward.
¡°As a Harbinger of Light, you stand as a representative of all gods of light who seek to disperse the darkness of the abyss. You have the ability to call upon the other priests of this world to assist you. Should you need their aid, please let me know the details of your request, and I will make sure to share the request with all other Prophets, so that they may call upon the other-worlders that worship other gods to assist you in the name of the light.¡±
¡°So, I can trigger a global quest for all divine class players, regardless of who they worship? Sounds serious¡ I mean, it makes sense. The difficulty does say Extreme five¡¡± Aegis mumbled to himself.
¡°Did he just say extreme five? Is that the world''s first extreme five quest? I think it is¡¡± Hae-won spoke with excitement as Aegis¡¯ chat began to zoom by at extreme speeds, filled with excitement. Hae-won was only just barely able to read out a few of the messages zooming by.
¡°Extreme V? Is that even going to be possible?¡±
¡°AEGIS, ACTIVATE THE WORLD QUEST! ILL HELP!¡±
¡°LETS UNITE WITH AEGIS!¡±
¡°y does the kid w/ daddy issues get all the cool quests?¡±
¡°Maybe he can ask Makaroth for help? They can finally team up!¡±
¡°AEGIS PLZ CRAFT ME MITHRAL SWORDS!!¡±
Hae-won found herself just rolling her eyes at it, opting to pretend she was talking to herself and continued her commentating.
After finishing his conversation, Aegis made his way out of the monastery and back down the road towards Rene. He was barely paying attention to where he was walking, stumbling over various rocks that lined the road several times. He was instead staring at his new abilities, reading over the new values of each of them excitedly. Before he knew it, he was back in Rene.
The players were much more alert and aware of his presence this time around, and as he walked along through the streets he got many cheers of encouragement. Multiple players stopped to shake his hand and congratulate him with smiles on their faces - some completely unfamiliar to him and some he¡¯d seen walking around the city several times now. Ruffily, Amlie, Josephine and Erikson all caught him as he traveled through the townsquare to give their congratulations and cheers, and eventually he¡¯d made his way back to the training hall.
This time, as he peered into the hall, his party members stopped what they were doing. Pyri canceled her cinderbolts, Darkshot pulled his arrows back to his quiver using skillful redirects, and Rakkan canceled his echoes. Lastly, to his surprise, Lina revealed herself by stepping out of the shadows of the walls surrounding the training hall, and all four walked towards him.
¡°Were you hiding here this whole time?¡± Aegis looked at Lina in surprise, glancing from the very light shadows that she¡¯d stepped out from, then up to the bright afternoon sun now shining down on them.
¡°Mhm. I¡¯m much better at manipulating shadows now with my new class.¡± Lina replied with a big proud smile on her face. As she stepped towards him he noticed a faint cloud of dark mist swirling around her wrists. ¡°I¡¯m a Shadow Assassin.¡±
¡°That¡¯s nothing.¡± Darkshot quickly butted in, stepping forward. ¡°I¡¯m a Sharpshooter. Check this out¡¡± He said as he nocked an arrow and aimed it up towards the sky. All eyes fell on him as he waited with a dramatic pause before rapidly shooting out 10 arrows within a second. They disappeared into the bright sky above almost instantly, but with a downward wave of his hands, all 10 arrows shot back down from the sky and landed on the ground around Aegis, forming a perfect circle.
¡°That¡¯s pretty cool. What about you two?¡± Aegis smiled at Darkshot before turning to Pyri and Rakkan.
¡°Ancient Knight. Rune combinations.¡± Rakkan said as he waved his hands to cast Rune:Echo - which Aegis recognized due to the rune shape. But following this, he imprinted his enlarged rune onto the echo, making the copy of himself triple his size. He then added his Frostbrand rune, and the giant echo began to give off a faint blue glow.
¡°Whoa. Any combination?¡±
¡°Any. The more runes we find, the more options I¡¯ll get.¡± Rakkan shrugged.
¡°I¡¯m a magelord.¡± Pyri said proudly.
¡°Magelord? What do they do?¡±
¡°Hm¡¡± Pyri eyed Aegis¡¯ live streaming icon. ¡°You¡¯ll have to wait and see.¡± She smiled deviously.
¡°Fine.¡± Aegis rolled his eyes at her. ¡°I¡¯m just glad everyone was able to complete their class quests.¡±
¡°You too, man. You took the longest. What¡¯d you get?¡± Darkshot asked him excitedly.
¡°Oh, check this out. You¡¯re going to love it.¡± Aegis smirked as he took a step back. ¡°Avatar of Eirene!¡± He shouted loudly, erupting in a burst of light as usual, but as not per usual, two large white glowing wings of light formed on his back.
¡°No way, you got wings?¡± Darkshot asked with his jaw dropped.
¡°It¡¯s so pretty!¡± Lina gasped.
¡°Not bad¡¡± Pyri nodded approvingly, while Rakkan smirked. ¡°Can you control them like that other guy could?¡±
¡°I think so¡¡± Aegis replied, before awkwardly attempting to manipulate the wings. The result was him flailing them around and almost slapping Darkshot, had he not reacted fast and backstepped out of range of the wing. ¡°Sorry¡ gonna need some practice first.¡± Aegis cringed.
¡°We all do. We¡¯ve got a few weeks left before the tournament. Are you guys ready to practice PvPing?¡± Pyri asked.
¡°Someone say PvP?¡± A loud voice called out from behind them, at the entrance to the training grounds. Herilon stood there, walking towards them with a big eager smile on his face, with Sapphire following closely behind him munching on a carrot. ¡°Count me in. Let¡¯s do some PvP.¡± Herilon rubbed his hands together excitedly, prompting Aegis and his party to all smile, eager anticipation in their eyes.
Chapter 245: Training
Chapter 245: Training
¡°So¡¡± Pyri paced along in front of the others slowly, hands held behind her back. Aegis, Darkshot, Rakkan, Lina, Sapphire and Herilon all stood with their hands at their sides, back straight, staring forward attentively. In the distance, across the training grounds behind Pyri, the sound of the new guards of Rene training on the target dummies could be heard as they repeatedly swung their wooden weapons for practice.
¡°You all want to know the secret to high APM, and impressive spell control? It isn¡¯t easy. It takes a very specific mindset, in combination with a lot of discipline and focus. And even then, not everyone can pull it off.¡± Pyri explained as she reached the end of the lined up players, stopped, spun on her heel and then began pacing back. Eventually she stopped in the center and turned to face them.
¡°First thing is first, you need to understand something about your brains. The human brain¡¡± She tapped her forehead. ¡°Is inherently terrible at multitasking. In fact, it can¡¯t really multitask at all. At least, not on its own. If I told you to tap your head with one hand, and rub your belly with the other¡¡± She began to demonstrate this simple combination of actions. ¡°You might think you are multitasking, but in actuality, you are rapidly swapping between two tasks. At no point are you really able to actively focus on two tasks at once. The human brain is incapable of focusing on two things simultaneously. So with that in mind, you must be wondering, how on earth can you manipulate 7 weapons, or 15 cinderbolts, all at the same time, separately?¡± Pyri paused dramatically, as all eyes were focused on her with a hint of eager anticipation behind them.
¡°There are two methods to do it. The first method, you are actually utilizing right now.¡± She pointed at Darkshot¡¯s feet. ¡°When you are born, you don¡¯t know how to walk. You have to actively learn the skill, and engrain it into your memory. Eventually, though, it becomes muscle memory, your body knows how to do it so well, that you can do it without any focus at all. The same thing with breathing. When you drive or ride a bike, your body knows how to do certain tasks on its own without you needing to focus on them. You guys already have a lot of this muscle memory for many of your weapon skills and attacks¡ for example, if I try to send a cinderbolt at you from behind¡¡± She eyed Aegis and waved one of her hands, creating a flash of fire. Aegis very quickly equipped his shield and swung it backwards to block the attack, while the others turned to watch it happen.
¡°You just completed all of the actions necessary through muscle memory to block that strike, you didn¡¯t need to focus on it at all. This is the most important thing when it comes to executing high APM attacks and defenses in an MMORPG. You need to learn all of your primary, basic movements to muscle memory so that you can execute them with little to no active focus. Everyone understands so far?¡± Pyri asked.
¡°How do we do that, though?¡± Darkshot asked curiously.
¡°Practice. Lots and lots of practice and repetition. The more you train the same set of actions with your muscles - be it fingers or body parts - the more easily your body will be able to call on them at will, with little to no focus from yourself.¡± Pyri explained, and Darkshot nodded back.
¡°What¡¯s the second method?¡± Herilon asked curiously.
¡°Good question. Muscle memory really is only the starting point, it works for defensive abilities very well, or very simple or basic attack combinations. But if you only rely on that, your opponent will pick up on your habits and fighting style very quickly, and be able to anticipate how you will move to dodge or attack. So that is why you¡¯ll need to make use of the second to help you be more reactive, and versatile. The second method is combination actions.¡± Pyri paused dramatically once more, then began pacing again in front of them.
¡°When you need to focus on an action, a combination action is when you associate multiple actions together into one, allowing you to focus on a single thing but actually do multiple things at once. For example, If I need to split a cinderbolt into 15 fragments, that would take 15 focused actions¡¡± Pyri waved her hands and formed a large cinderbolt above her head, then individually wiggled her fingers 15 times to split the bolt into smaller burning spheres that levitated in the air around them. She did it slow enough that everyone watching could individually see each finger wiggle she did for each split, until all 15 bolts were formed.
¡°It¡¯s a bit slow if I haven¡¯t developed a combination action, basically associating a set of muscle memory actions with a single decision. But, let¡¯s say, if I think in my mind a method to quickly think ¡®Split this bolt 15 times,¡¯ and my muscles have already been trained to execute all the actions needed to complete this task, I can very quickly execute it from muscle memory and immediately shift my focus towards where I need to send each bolt, allowing me to be more reactive. Like this¡¡± She cast a second cinderbolt, split it into 15 spheres nearly instantaneously, then formed the smaller spheres into a star symbol floating in the air above the group.
¡°It might seem incredibly impressive, like I¡¯m moving and doing stupidly high amounts of things at once, but it¡¯s really no different than what you all do. I¡¯ve only just trained my thoughts and muscles to group up certain actions together so that they take less active focus to execute. Once you can master these two methods, you will free up your mind in combat to focus on reacting to what your opponent is doing more openly, so that you can mix and match for combination actions reactively. That is the trick to having a high APM.¡± Pyri ended with a shrug, canceling her floating cinderbolt spell.
¡°That¡¯s really it?¡± Rakkan asked with a shocked expression on his face.
¡°I get the feeling that explaining it is a lot easier than actually doing it.¡± Aegis crossed his arms.
¡°It takes a lot of practice to develop your own method of training this type of muscle memory. And a lot of repetition. Some people can develop it within a few hours, others take months. In all cases though, repetition is the key.¡± Pyri added. With these words, each and every one of the players standing before her were visibly going deep into thought. Lina looked up to the sky, Aegis looked at his shield, whilst Darkshot began staring at his longbow, and Rakkan his feet. Herilon and Sapphire, on the other hand, were staring curiously at each other.
¡°So. Let¡¯s not waste any more time. Start practicing.¡± She waved at them with her hand sideways.
¡°How should we practice exactly?¡± Aegis raised an eyebrow at her, while others gave her similarly curious looks. Pyri, however, looked back at Aegis as if the answer was obvious. Once she saw that none of them had any idea where to start, though, she rolled her eyes and sighed.
¡°From what I saw of your recent adventure, even if Tullan and Yuki manage to craft a shield using that essence, it¡¯ll only work if you can block every single attack from Seraxus¡¯ sword with that shield, right? Anything that gets through it will still kill you instantly¡¡± Pyri asked, and Aegis nodded back hesitantly. ¡°Then it¡¯s pretty obvious, you need to develop your muscle memory to block every single attack, from all angles, at all times, regardless of the type. And it just so happens, you¡¯ve got a great variety of attackers around you, ready and eager to train and practice their own attack methods.¡± Pyri motioned to Lina, Darkshot, Rakkan and Herilon. ¡°Heck, you even have a backup healer, so that you don¡¯t need to take any breaks.¡± Pyri smiled at Sapphire, who grumpily bit into a carrot and sighed.
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¡°What about you? What are you going to do?¡± Aegis asked her, stopping her from turning away a second before she did.
¡°I¡¯m going to be training my own class skills. Magelord is a bit complicated¡¡±
¡°Are you going to tell us what your class can do?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Yeah. Last time we held back stuff from each other, it ended badly.¡± Darkshot chimed in, with Darkwing cooing excitedly from his shoulder. This gave Pyri pause as her eyes moved from the pigeon, to Darkshot¡¯s eyes, to Aegis¡¯. She then raised one of her arms and wiggled her fingers towards Aegis¡¯ livestreaming icon floating above his head.
¡°Oh. Right¡¡± Aegis nodded back quickly, muting his stream. Once Pyri was sure it was muted, she began speaking.
¡°Magelord can mix and match spells together, altering the element and properties of them. Not all combinations work, so I need to figure out the limits of each spell. So far, I¡¯ve only managed a couple. For example, the freezing ring spell¡¡± Pyri stomped her foot down and released a wave of ice that crept over the floor of the training grounds. ¡°I¡¯ve managed to combine lightning with it,¡± She stomped again, sending out this time a ring of ice that gave off electrified sparks. ¡°And change it completely to fire¡¡± She repeated the stomp, and this time sent out a blast of red flames that quickly melted the ice and scorched the ground.
¡°Once I¡¯ve developed more useful combinations, I¡¯ll let you know what I¡¯m capable of.¡± Pyri smiled.
¡°Okay¡ got it.¡± Aegis pondered for a moment before nodding. ¡°Good luck.¡±
¡°You too.¡± She winked before turning to walk away from the training grounds, in the direction of the mountains north of Rene. Once she was gone, Aegis unmuted his stream and turned to his companions.
¡°So we have to just attack you, over and over again?¡± Lina asked with a hesitant look in her eyes.
¡°Yeah. I need to make sure I can block every single attack from all of you, no matter what. So don¡¯t hold back. I¡¯ll be practicing my wing control as often as my cooldown allows as well.¡±
¡°Alright.¡± Herilon smirked. ¡°No holding back.¡± He tightly gripped the hilt of his mithral greatsword. ¡°Ready?¡± He asked, as the others backed away and watched for a moment. Aegis made sure to tighten the straps of his mithral shield to his left arm, then draw out the claws on his right gloves, and bend his knees in anticipation.
¡°Don¡¯t forget, you still need to earn enough gladiator points to qualify for the tournament.¡± Sapphire commented.
¡°No problem, we¡¯ll figure out this APM stuff in no time.¡± Aegis replied, causing Sapphire to roll her eyes at him.
¡°Sure you will.¡± She mumbled under her breath sarcastically.
¡°Let¡¯s do it.¡± Herilon roared, charging towards Aegis and swinging his sword down on him. Aegis blocked the strike at an angle to let the sword roll off the side, then swiped out at Herilon to force him into dodging rather than allowing him to strike again. They repeated this exchange several times before Aegis jumped back to get some distance.
¡°C¡¯mon. It¡¯s gonna be a five on five, right? If the entire enemy party focuses on me, I need to be ready.¡± Aegis called out to his companions. They were still hesitant - Lina, Darkshot and Rakkan exchanged looks with one another, until finally Darkshot pulled an arrow back and released it, aiming at Aegis¡¯ head.
Aegis easily leaned back and dodged it, allowing it to soar beyond him and land in the floor of the training grounds a few meters away.
¡°C¡¯mon, really? That¡¯s all you¡¯ve got?¡± Aegis shouted mockingly at Darkshot, glancing at him briefly with a big grin on his face before going back to exchanging blows with Herilon.
¡°Heh. Hell no it aint, but I¡¯m just worried if I don¡¯t hold back, you might end up looking like a cactus.¡± Darkshot replied.
¡°With that aim? No chance.¡±
¡°Tch.¡± Darkshot sucked his teeth in annoyance. ¡°Alright, you asked for it. Let me show you what Darkshot is all about. I shoot¡¡±
¡°From the darkness¡¡± Lina smiled before throwing a smoke bomb at Aegis, blinding him from incoming attacks just moments before Darkshot fired his arrows. Aegis was forced to jump backwards quickly to get out of the smoke, where Darkshot was anticipating he¡¯d jump and had fired a multishot barrage of arrows to hit him. Aegis turned with his shield and held it carefully in front of his body to block the arrows that would¡¯ve hit him, allowing others to pass around his body. He took some damage, but was able to activate his new aura of healing spell to begin recovery.
He wasn¡¯t given a chance to cast any actual spells, though, as Lina suddenly appeared from out of the black smoke behind him, swinging her mithral daggers at him while simultaneously shooting five daggers made of shadows out of the smoke. Aegis quickly formed two guards to block both the shadow daggers, and Lina¡¯s daggers, and following this he was forced to roll to the side and avoid a downward swing from Herilon¡¯s greatsword as he charged through the smoke after Aegis.
¡°No matter how many attacks are coming at you, you can¡¯t let that sword hit you no matter what.¡± Rakkan yelled as he charged in as well, forming his three echoes of himself and arming them.
¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡± Aegis grinned, awaiting the onslaught attacks coming at him from all sides.
¡°I get the feeling this is going to take a lot of mana.¡± Sapphire commented as she drew out her scepter and prepared to start healing Aegis.
In a distant training grounds, on the island of Savringuard, another group of players were training intensely as well for the upcoming PvP tournament. Synopse, alongside four other members of the Sages of Destiny guild, were battling a group of 15 high level players. The training ground was vast, with much more advanced training devices spread out around the outskirts of the open grounds.
Synopse was wielding a magnificent blue staff, with an orb of lighting at its head that repeatedly gave off sparks of lightning. At his side stood a heavily armored cleric, a berserker class player, a druid class player, and a guardian class player wielding a halberd. Synopse was giving out orders to his party, forming strategies to utilize against the 15 players coming at them, and was doing so with great success.
Seated nearby, watching the training unfold, was Makaroth and several other high level members of the sages of Destiny guild. Currently, Makaroth¡¯s livestream was off, and he was fidgeting around with his interface.
¡°Looks like they¡¯re seriously going to try to enter the tournament¡¡± Makaroth¡¯s wife, Liyla, commented as her eyes glazed over from her livestream viewer - she was watching Aegis¡¯ live stream as he began training with his party.
¡°I¡¯m more worried about Synopse¡¡± Calikgos, another high level member of the guild said as he motioned to the training taking place in front of him. ¡°Even though we found that artifact lightning staff, I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s going to be able to match up against Seraxus¡¯ sword.¡±
¡°Synopse is our best PvP player.¡± Makaroth spoke proudly as he closed out of his interface. ¡°With that staff, Seraxus won¡¯t stand a chance.¡±
¡°What if he doesn¡¯t get put up against Seraxus?¡± Lilya asked curiously, closing out of her livestream viewer. ¡°What if he gets matched against Feng¡¯s group first? Or Aegis?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not worried about either of them. Feng¡¯s guild is made up primarily of fighter class players. That¡¯s what that staff specializes in dealing with.¡± Makaroth shrugged.
¡°And Aegis?¡± Calikgos asked him curiously.
¡°Aegis won''t be attending.¡± Makaroth leaned back in his chair and took in the view of Synopse as he and his party finished off the last few members of the 15-man strong attacking party.
¡°What do you mean?¡± Calikgos looked at him with raised brows.
¡°Let¡¯s just say he¡¯s going to have a very hard time earning gladiator points to qualify for the tournament.¡± A devilish grin grew across Makaroth¡¯s face.
Chapter 246: Forced Forfeiture
Chapter 246: Forced Forfeiture
Two weeks went by quickly. There was little to no small talk between Aegis and his companions as they trained rigorously in the Rene training grounds. Scarcely could they be found taking breaks, each eager to test out their new abilities and master them.
Rather than be physically exhausting, though, the training was mentally straining. The virtual world relied solely on the players thoughts to execute actions, and the actions and focus required to execute their intense training gameplay was enormous. Aegis found himself desiring sleep much more often than usual, alternating from sleeping in-game and out of game as did the others.
Lina showed enthusiasm to train with Aegis, but held back any reservations about hurting him in favor of improving herself and guaranteeing their victory in the upcoming tournament. Darkshot, who initially found himself lacking and completely unable to land a single arrow on Aegis, stopped with any jokes and sarcastic remarks and instead focused on improving himself and his aim. After a great amount of effort, and altering his shooting style several times, he managed to find a strategy that allowed arrows to hit Aegis without him properly anticipating them, forcing Aegis to alter his own defensive strategy.
Herilon¡¯s relentless attacks seemed mindless, but the power behind them helped Aegis learn how to brace heavy attacks and minimize the impact they had on his stance. The greatsword wielder didn¡¯t lean too heavily into finesse and relied solely on brute force, which eventually made Aegis capable of reading the attacks and dealing with them. After that, Herilon seemed to just enjoy wailing on Aegis like he was a new toy punching bag he had to play with, much to Sapphire¡¯s dismay as she was forced to heal through his damage.
Rakkan, on the other hand, was proving to be Aegis¡¯ biggest issue. While others took breaks more often, Rakkan was determined to go beyond the hours the others were willing to put in, forcing Aegis to entertain him long past exhaustion. Rakkan¡¯s echo control started off somewhat predictable for Aegis, due to him having seen him fight with the echos so many times before. But very quickly, Rakkan adapted to Aegis¡¯ style and started taking Pyri¡¯s words to heart, mentally batching certain attack patterns together with each of his echoes, then mix and matching the combinations in various ways to throw Aegis off.
After the first week, it became somewhat impossible for Aegis to predict what Rakkan would do to break through his defenses and he was forced to instead play much more reactively to contend with the relentless assault of his echoes and his main body. Due to this, though, in the second week the players stopped all coming at Aegis at once, and lowered it down to one or two at a time, sparring with each other instead.
As for Lina, catching her no longer seemed possible given her new skills. Aegis couldn¡¯t rely on shadow positions to foresee where Lina might shadowstep to, as Lina¡¯s new advanced class was allowing her to throw shadows around and hide within them. The only true countermeasure he had was activating aura of light, but even then she found ways to get close to him, often using the shadows of other attacking players as they charged at Aegis. Her favorite move quickly became shadow stepping out from under Herilon¡¯s cloak as he charged Aegis, then dashing around to get at Aegis from behind.
In the breaks between their training, Amlie often came with fresh produce picked from her farm fields. Aegis took the time to cook them utilizing his best known recipes, and the group then sat around the training grounds eating, mostly in silence. Their eyes said everything for them, though, as they spent most of the time staring at their weapons and pondering new methods of attacks they could get out of their classes skills.
Aegis, above all others, had adjusted his style of combat the most, however. Initially, his reliance on the shield on his left arm to block attacks was a staple of his fighting style, but slowly, he stopped trying to use it in favor of making use of his shield projections. Once he was able to continuously dodge and block attacks without the use of his actual shield, he adapted his style to place his shield on his back and free up both of his clawed hands, using them to parry or become offensive while simultaneously blocking strikes with shield projections.
Still, he found his offensive style lacking due to the nature of how the claws were used. He repeatedly felt the urge to swing his fists around as if he was punching, but that didn¡¯t work with the sharp claws extending out of the tips of his fingers. This brought him along the idea of modifying the gloves using his crafting skills, so that the claws didn¡¯t protrude out of the ends of his fingers, but rather his knuckles.
In a long downtime session between the first and second weeks, he did exactly that, making careful use of his artistry skill along with his other crafting skills to modify the weapon without damaging their usefulness.
After he¡¯d made the change he felt a lot more comfortable utilizing the claws and swinging his fists around. He was able to parry attacks by waving his empty hands out at them, though tried to avoid doing so as parrying didn¡¯t negate damage nearly as well as his shield projections did.
The wings are what caused him the most difficulty, though. He had very limited time to practice with them, given the nature of the cooldown and the short duration that they could be active each day. It took him the entire first week to figure out how to just use them to fly around, and even then he wasn¡¯t really good at it. Twice he flew up far too high and then lost control, nearly plummeting to his death if not for the intervention of Rakkan, Darkshot and Lina.
Due to the monotonous nature of Aegis¡¯ streams, his viewership had dipped down quite a lot over their training weeks. The excitement around the tournament continued to build up, however, and his viewership would randomly spike anytime his name was mentioned by other combatants. Feng, Makaroth and Seraxus however all made a point of not mentioning anything about Aegis¡¯ participation in the tournament, as if all of them were certain he wasn¡¯t going to be there.
On the evening of the 15th day of training was when Pyri finally returned to Rene, looking just as exhausted as the others due to purple rings having formed under her in-game character''s eyes.
¡°How¡¯s everyone doing?¡± Pyri called out to them, announcing her presence as the others were in the midst of clashing their mithral. Her voice prompted everyone to give it a rest and look towards her as she walked across the grounds with a smile on her face.
¡°Good. We¡¯ve¡¡± Aegis looked at Pyri, then paused to look over his tired companions - Darkshot grabbing his knees and breathing heavily due to low stamina. ¡°We¡¯ve all improved a lot, thanks to the tips you¡¯ve given us.¡±
¡°I¡¯m glad to hear. I¡¯ve got some very powerful spell combinations, but¡¡± Pyri stretched her arms up. ¡°No time to show them off. We still haven¡¯t qualified for the tournament, and we¡¯ve only got a week left. Think it¡¯s about time we get on that?¡±
¡°Uh¡¡± Aegis looked to the others, unsure.
¡°Probably a good idea¡¡± Herilon sighed and yawned, sheathing his greatsword on his back.
¡°Do you know how to qualify?¡± Sapphire raised a curious eyebrow at Aegis, detecting his uncertainty.
¡°We probably just need to do some preliminary matches, right?¡± Aegis replied, which caused Sapphire to roll her eyes at him.
¡°We need to earn gladiator points. Each participating party member needs to have a minimum of 100 points to enter the tournament. The easiest way for us to get those would be to just sign up for one of the open 5v5 tournaments. They¡¯re hosted every 6 in-game hours. First place in one of those tournaments is 50 points.¡±
¡°Oh, so, we¡¯d just need to win two within the next 7 days, right?¡± Aegis shrugged. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound that bad.¡±
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¡°Nope, shouldn¡¯t be.¡± Pyri smiled.
¡°Where do we sign up?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Kordas.¡± Sapphire replied.
¡°Okay.¡± Aegis gave a nod, then looked over his tired companions. ¡°You guys wanna head there now and check it out?¡±
¡°Sure.¡± Lina smiled.
¡°Let''s do it.¡¯ Darkshot shrugged.
¡°Yeah.¡± Rakkan nodded.
¡°Okie dokie. One Kordas portal coming right up!¡± Pyri cheered while waving her hands around. The familiar blue glow erupted from her fingertips, and moments later the floating magical doorway leading to Kordas opened up, allowing them to all step through it and appear on the altar of Kordas.
Despite it being late in the evening, the loud and ever bustling city of Kordas filled their ears with noisy chatter coming from the crowded paved streets laid out before them.
As they appeared, numerous players stopped to point and wave excitedly at Aegis, but he paid them no mind aside from polite smiles and returned waves.
¡°The Odin arena should have an NPC that allows us to sign up. That¡¯s also where the gateway will appear to enter our matches.¡± Herilon explained as he took the lead, walking ahead of the others and moving into the busy streets. His large form had the nearby players and NPCs clearing a path for him as he gave no mind to what stood in front of him, walking forward with confidence. The others quickly followed behind him, as if using him as a bulldozer to clear a path through the streets.
¡°Once we¡¯re qualified, I¡¯ll use the rest of the time to try and raise up my unarmed skill through intermediate.¡± Aegis thought out loud to himself as they walked.
¡°Oho, so confident that you¡¯ll qualify?¡± Sapphire responded.
¡°I think so¡ I mean, we¡¯re pretty strong, aren¡¯t we?¡±
¡°I guess¡¡± She bit into a carrot loudly as she moved to walk beside Aegis. ¡°You know the rules for the matches, right?¡±
¡°Is it the same as duels?¡±
¡°Yup. That means after 10 minutes, no more healing. So if you end up relying too much on your healing, you¡¯ll quickly find that your opponents will start intentionally waiting out the clock.¡± Sapphire replied.
¡°They can try¡¡± Pyri replied smugly, causing the others to grin at her. It wasn¡¯t long before the group of 7 players arrived at the grand Odin coliseum of Kordas. It''s been a long while since Aegis had last laid his eyes upon it, but it was just as he remembered it. Large stone statues of great warriors carved out front, standing tall to flank the entrance to the large building. Many players and NPCs were walking about, chatting excitedly with one another.
Some were arguing about who was stronger, others were looking for companions to enter tournaments together. Their levels varied greatly, but it served to remind Aegis just how many players were participating in the game world - from PvPers to crafters, all enjoying it in their own way.
Once they stepped under the archway leading into the building itself, Aegis could see at the end of the long, wide hallway the large arena sitting out on the other side. That is not where Herilon led them, though. Instead, he turned off to the left down through a set of double doors and into another large chamber, with several booths built into the walls on the far side. Behind each booth was an NPC, and several of the booth NPCs were already in conversation with other players.
¡°There, that one is open. You guys should be able to register your party for one of the upcoming 5v5 tournaments there.¡± Herilon pointed towards one booth with an idle NPC, staring blankly forward and waiting patiently for his next customer.
¡°Right. Let¡¯s do it.¡± Aegis smiled and rubbed his hands together excitedly, then lead the others forward towards the NPC. The moment Aegis came into his peripheral vision, the young human male NPC locked eyes with Aegis and began speaking in a chipper voice.
¡°Welcome. How may I help you today? Are you looking to register for a competitive PvP match?¡± The NPC asked.
¡°Yes. We¡¯d like to sign up for the next 5v5 tournament, as a team of five.¡± Aegis motioned to Lina, Rakkan, Darkshot and Pyri who stood eagerly behind him.
¡°The next tournament will have its first round of matches in 1 hour. Unfortunately, all slots have already been filled.¡± The NPC replied politely.
¡°Oh. Okay¡ how about the one after that, then?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°The following tournament will begin its first round of matches in 7 hours. Unfortunately, all available slots have been filled.¡±
¡°Hm.¡± Aegis pursed his lips to the side. ¡°And the next one?¡±
¡°The following tournament will begin in 13 hours. Unfortunately, all slots have already been filled.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a bit odd, those tournaments usually have a lot of slots. I mean, they¡¯re cross-island, but still¡¡± Herilon looked on suspiciously.
¡°When are the next available slots open?¡± Aegis asked the NPC curiously.
¡°The next tournament with open slots to be filled will occur in approximately 9 days.¡± The NPC answered nonchalantly.
¡°What?¡± Herilon blurted out loudly in disbelief. Aegis let out a long drawn out sigh and rolled his eyes as frustration waved over the others. ¡°That¡¯s impossible. There¡¯s no way every single tournament is slotted full? That¡¯d take thousands of qualified players? Minimum level to join is 31, isn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°The minimum level required to register for a tournament is 31. You are correct.¡± The NPC replied robotically.
¡°You gotta be kidding me. We did all that training for nothing?¡± Darkshot groaned.
¡°I don¡¯t get it. How are they all full? PvP has never been this popular. Even with the hype building up for it by VGN¡¡± Rakkan asked no one in particular. Aegis didn¡¯t answer him, but rather turned his attention back to Sapphire after exchanging a knowing look with Pyri.
¡°What other ways are there to earn points?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Uh, I guess if you guys split up into the 3v3 and 2v2 brackets, you guys could earn enough points that way, then qualify for the monthly tournament.¡± Sapphire shrugged. Immediately upon hearing this, Aegis turned back to the NPC.
¡°Are there any slots available for 2v2 and 3v3 tournament brackets?¡±
¡°The next available slots for registration in a 3v3 tournament is in¡ 9 days. The next available slots available for a 2v2 tournament is in¡ 9 days.¡± The NPC replied robotically.
¡°No fucking way, how is that possible?¡± Herilon asked in disbelief.
¡°You really gotta ask?¡± Sapphire replied.
¡°If I¡¯m spiteful, he¡¯s petty.¡± Aegis grumbled to himself.
¡°Unbelievable.¡± Pyri shook her head to herself.
¡°They¡¯re really that scared of us that they are resorting to such tactics?¡± Lina was also expressing disbelief. ¡°They¡¯d have to hire thousands and thousands of players and pay them to register, to get this sort of outcome¡¡± Her voice trailed off, and following this, the others went silently into thought.
¡°So that¡¯s it? All the training was for nothing, huh?¡± Darkshot asked.
¡°If we can¡¯t get into any of those tournaments, there¡¯s no way for us to earn the points needed to qualify for the monthly tournament.¡± Rakkan shrugged.
¡°We waited too long to register?¡± Darkshot groaned.
¡°Nah. Even if we came earlier, this likely would¡¯ve been the outcome.¡± Aegis shook his head.
¡°What should we do, then?¡± Lina asked, as all eyes fell on Aegis. Aegis looked towards Sapphire, hoping her knowledge might provide an alternative solution, but as he locked eyes with her, she shrugged back sympathetically. Eventually, after pondering it, Aegis decidedly shut his stream off completely.
¡°That¡¯s not going to help, the damage is already done.¡± Herilon commented. ¡°Without any slots available in any structured tournament, you guys can¡¯t qualify.¡±
¡°As far as we know¡¡± Aegis said to himself, allowing the others to listen to his thoughts. ¡°But, there might be another way to qualify that we don¡¯t know about.¡±
¡°Heh?¡± Sapphire raised her eyebrows at him.
¡°If we don¡¯t know about it, it doesn¡¯t really help us, does it?¡± Pyri shook her head at him.
¡°Yeah, it does. Because we know someone who knows all about the underworkings of the game, and the shady ways to get things done.¡± Aegis looked up and began walking forward, leading the others out of the coliseum as they quickly followed closely behind him. ¡°Can you let Quinn know? We¡¯re going to be paying a visit to the Kordas Prison.¡±
Chapter 247: Uneasy Alliance
Chapter 247: Uneasy Alliance
Aegis and Herilon walked side by side down the narrow, dark stone hallways of the Kordas Prison. Behind them followed Pyri, Lina, Rakkan, Darkshot, and Sapphire who was no longer wielding a carrot, but instead holding a disgusted look on her face as she glared at the back of Aegis¡¯ head.
¡°Ahem. Wait.¡± Sapphire finally blurted out, unable to follow along silently any longer. Aegis and Herilon both stopped to look back at her, alongside the others. ¡°You¡¯re really going to talk to those guys? They killed our entire guild and nearly sank this island.¡± Sapphire raised her eyebrows. Hearing this, Herilon looked to Aegis as well, expectantly waiting for his answer.
Aegis didn¡¯t immediately reply, but quickly glanced between the others, meeting their eyes as the flickering flames of the torches lining the prison walls were reflected in them.
¡°She¡¯s kinda got a point. You really think these guys are gonna help us?¡± Darkshot asked.
¡°Even if they do, we can¡¯t really trust them¡ I think¡¡± Lina added timidly, avoiding Aegis¡¯ eyes for a moment.
¡°When we spoke before, he made it clear it wasn¡¯t personal. These dark network gamers, they just seem to care about money, not about picking sides.¡± Aegis paused to see that despite his logical reasoning, he hadn¡¯t swayed any of his companions to his side.
¡°I think talking to them for a solution to our current predicament is the right call.¡± Pyri spoke up loudly, causing all eyes to turn to her. ¡°Makaroth and VGN will be knowledgeable on all of the standard methods to qualify us for the tournament, and will block them off. They seem determined to shut us out, so the only chance we¡¯ll have in participating is by asking for the help from these guys.¡± Pyri landed her eyes on Aegis, and waited until she had his full attention. ¡°However¡ You¡¯re a bit too naive.¡± She smirkd, ruffling Aegis¡¯ hair for a brief moment.
¡°What do you mean?¡± He winced briefly.
¡°The first thing those guys did when we talked to them last time was to try to let us know how much they hated streamers. What a great way to appeal to our group¡¡± Pyri pointed at Aegis and Rakkan. ¡°They¡¯ve done their research, they¡¯re always going to say whatever they need to say, but it¡¯s usually just pretty words.¡± She placed her right hand on Aegis¡¯ left shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ve dealt with plenty of bad people in your life, but most of them were upfront about it. These ones,¡± Pyri motioned further into the prison in the direction they¡¯d been heading. ¡°They¡¯re the deceptive, manipulative type. They¡¯ll say anything in any situation to get the outcome they want.¡±
¡°Exactly.¡± Sapphire nodded in agreement.
¡°So we can¡¯t trust them.¡± Rakkan nodded.
¡°No, we can¡¯t.¡± Pyri replied. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean we shouldn¡¯t use them. Just¡¡± Pyri pulled her hand away from Aegis¡¯ shoulder. ¡°Be ready for them to turn on you at any time. Never let your guard down, no matter how friendly they may seem. You should never, at any point, consider any dark network player your ally. They don¡¯t even consider each other allies. Got it?¡± Pyri locked eyes with Aegis once more. Aegis was visibly thinking on her words for a moment before he returned her gaze and nodded.
¡°Got it.¡±
¡°Okay. As long as we all understand that.¡± Pyri smiled and tilted her head back again. ¡°Lead on.¡±
Another brief moment of hesitation fell on the group until finally Herilon let out a shrug and a sigh and turned to continue walking through the prison halls. The others followed behind him down the narrow corridors around several bends until they approached the furthest prison cells.
Unlike the previous time they¡¯d visited this place where there were 5 occupied cells, this time, there was only one. Sitting on the rudimentary, uncomfortable looking bed in the back of one of the cells was Finley, with a large old book in his hands blocking his face from view. Aegis stopped in front of the bars of his prison cell, with the others standing behind him as much as the hallway allowed.
Aegis was sure that Finley knew they were there, their footsteps had been clacking off the paved stone hallway the entire way up to the cell - but despite this, Finley didn¡¯t take his eyes off his book nor shift it even slightly to give a more clear view of his face.
¡°Where are your friends?¡± Aegis broke the silence.
¡°Their sentences have long since been served.¡± Finley replied.
¡°Not yours, though?¡±
¡°No. Mine was a bit longer. I did wipe two entire guilds by myself, after all.¡± Finley spoke nonchalantly.
¡°While we were petrified.¡± Sapphire growled back, causing a smirk to grow over Finley¡¯s face which Aegis barely spotted out from behind his book.
¡°We¡¯re here to make a deal. We can get you out right away, if you help us out.¡± Aegis said.
¡°Hm.¡± Finley finally lowered his book to look Aegis in the eyes. ¡°Ol¡¯ daddy hasn¡¯t been playing fair?¡± He smiled devilishly.
¡°You¡¯ve been paying attention to what¡¯s been happening?¡±
¡°The entire world has been paying attention. Every broadcast is hyping up this sham of a tournament. The big showdown between Makaroth and Seraxus, or Feng, or whoever else.¡± Finley shook his head dismissively. ¡°No mention of you, though.¡± He pursed his lips to the side.
¡°They¡¯ve filled up all the registration slots for all 5v5, 3v3, and 2v2 tournaments. There¡¯s no way for us to qualify using those standard methods.¡± Aegis explained.
¡°Hm.¡± Finley grunted once more, this time placing his hand curiously on his chin. ¡°The amount of proxy players they would¡¯ve had to hire for that would not have been cheap. I suppose, as big as this event is, it¡¯s in their best interest to control it as much as possible. So, it makes sense.¡± He mumbled to himself, loud enough that the others could hear him though.
¡°Do you know of another way we might be able to earn the points required for the preliminary matches?¡± Aegis asked him upfront. Finley stopped scratching his chin and stood up off the bed to step closer to the bars where Aegis stood.
¡°What¡¯s in it for me if I help you?¡± Finley asked.
¡°I told you, I¡¯d get you out of this cell right now.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Nah.¡± Finley waved this off quickly with his hand. ¡°What you are talking about is crashing a rigged tournament being orchestrated by the most powerful streaming network in this game world. I¡¯ve only got a week left on my sentence, you¡¯re going to have to do better than that.¡±
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¡°What do you want?¡± Aegis asked apprehensively.
¡°Well¡ I imagine since you¡¯ve had that big bump in viewers¡ compliments of our invasion¡¡± Finley walked closer, grabbing the bars in front of Aegis. ¡°You¡¯ve been getting quite a healthy stream of revenue, have you not? Players like me, we¡¯re all about real world wealth.¡± As he spoke, Aegis heard multiple people standing behind him sucking their teeth at him.
¡°How much?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Seriously?¡± Darkshot groaned, but Aegis ignored him. Finley smiled at Aegis¡¯ words, however.
¡°One hundred thousand american dollars.¡± Finley declared. His words drew out several gasps.
¡°Who does this guy think he is?¡± Sapphire grumbled. Aegis didn¡¯t immediately reply, however. Nor did he look back at his companions to see their approval or disapproval. He could feel their eyes burning into the back of his head, however.
¡°Fine.¡± Aegis sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll get Chax to transfer an equivalent amount to that in gold to you.¡±
¡°Ah, hang on. I didn¡¯t finish.¡± Finley¡¯s smile grew devilishly large. ¡°Per person.¡±
¡°You mean you want us to pay that amount for each of us?¡± Darkshot asked in disbelief.
¡°You expect Aegis to pay you five hundred thousand dollars? After the shit you tried to pull on this island?¡± Rakkan shouted angrily. Aegis, too, was taken aback. He had only just earned those amounts, and his mind hadn¡¯t fully comprehended just exactly what was being asked of him. He found himself staring down at his feet for a brief moment, then turned back to look at Pyri, who was staring back at him with a blank expression.
¡°It¡¯s your decision, do what you think is best.¡± Pyri replied.
¡°No way you pay this guy, right?¡± Herilon scoffed, and it fell silent once more. ¡°I bet this guy doesn¡¯t even know how to qualify you guys, he¡¯s just going to take the money and run off. I wouldn¡¯t trust a word he says.¡± He warned Aegis.
¡°Tsk tsk tsk¡. For players like me, living in a network of scammers and cheats¡ Your reputation is everything. Break your word once, and you¡¯ll never be able to find players willing to team up with you, or make deals with you. I was able to convince my previous companions to work with me solely because my reputation is flawless. I never break an agreement, or go back on my word.¡± Finley spoke confidently, stepping from the bars. He then slowly began pacing back and forth in the cell in front of them as they all watched his every move intently.
¡°There¡¯s a method. It¡¯s a one off, meaning if we mess it up, it¡¯s over. You¡¯d need the help of a lot of proxy players, which I can get given my standings within my network. But to pull it off, you need to really know what you are doing. Especially on this short of a time frame that you are asking. I doubt you¡¯d be able to find someone else to do it cheaper.¡± He paused to smile at Aegis once more. ¡°You were right to come to me, I¡¯m most likely your only chance to get into the tournament. But if my fee is too high for you, you might as well just give up on attending.¡±
Aegis listened intently, as did the others, but did not immediately reply. There were several other protests that were muttered under breath by Rakkan, Herilon, Sapphire, and Darkshot. Pyri and Lina however remained completely silent. Pyri¡¯s words rang out through Aegis¡¯ head, reminding him not to trust Finley so easily, but her silence was deafening under the current situation. When Aegis turned to look back at her for guidance, she simply stared back expectantly, leaving him to look to Lina.
Lina wasn¡¯t much help either, she returned a worried stare of uncertainty, and a shrug, causing Aegis to sigh at himself and turn back to Finley.
¡°Alright.¡± Aegis cleared his throat. ¡°I¡¯ll hire you to qualify all of us, for five hundred thousand dollars.¡± Aegis¡¯ words silenced the murmuring of the others. ¡°But, no payment until the job is done.¡±
¡°Hm.¡± Finley eyed him carefully. ¡°And now, how can I trust you?¡±
¡°Pfft. Seriously?¡± Sapphire blurted out.
¡°What? You think because he¡¯s walking around as the Harbinger of Light, he¡¯s beyond deception?¡± Finley shook his head at Sapphire.
¡°Aegis would never trick and lie like that.¡± Lina spoke loudly on his behalf.
¡°I¡¯m sure you all believe that. Me, on the other hand, not so much. Payment upfront.¡±
¡°No chance.¡± Darkshot shouted.
¡°Don¡¯t do it, no shot he¡¯s going to help you once he¡¯s got his money.¡± Herilon commented.
¡°Half up front, half when the job is done. That¡¯s the final offer.¡± Aegis announced after a moment of consideration.
¡°Fine.¡± Finley smiled. ¡°Deal. You have my word, I will do my best to make sure your qualify for the preliminaries of this upcoming monthly tournament.¡± He extended his hand out through the bars to shake Aegis¡¯. Aegis stared at the hand for a moment, hesitating. Eventually, though, he relented and shook it, much to the dismay of some of his nearby companions.
¡°I hope you know what you¡¯re doing.¡± Sapphire shook her head disapprovingly.
¡°He made the right choice. Once you see the method, you¡¯ll quickly come to realize that I truly was your only option.¡± Finley replied to Sapphire on Aegis¡¯ behalf, then motioned to the bars. ¡°Now. Do you mind getting me out of here? We¡¯ve got work to do.¡±
¡°Ugh¡¡± Herilon groaned in frustration and began fidgeting with his interface. ¡°I¡¯ll let Quinn know the situation. She won¡¯t be happy.¡±
Within the following 15 minutes, the group of players were stepping out of the Kordas barracks and onto the streets, under the bright sunlight. This time, their group was one player bigger, Finley bringing up the rear. The moment he stepped out into the sun, he stretched his arms high up towards the sky and sighed.
¡°Ah¡ freedom. I missed the warmth of the fake virtual sun.¡± He cheered with a heavy hint of sarcasm in his voice. The others all turned around to watch him expectantly, waiting for him to finish his moment. When he lowered his arms, he met their eyes and smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s get down to business, shall we?¡± He suddenly motioned towards the nearby street, where another player could be seen approaching.
Cheryl, with her bright pink hair waving in the wind, walked forward hastily with a big smile on her face.
¡°What the hell is she doing here?¡± Lina snapped angrily.
¡°Oh don¡¯t get so defensive. I¡¯m here to help.¡± Cheryl smiled as she stepped out of the crowds of the street to stand beside Finley at the base of the barracks steps.
¡°If we want to pull this off, we¡¯re going to need her help.¡± Finley explained. ¡°I¡¯ve already been notified of a gold transfer from your friend Chax, so, I suppose we should get started right away. The quicker we get this done, the better. The method I am proposing will take exactly 16 hours. One mistake, and it all falls apart. So you must all follow my instructions to the T. Got it? If you guys mess it up, there¡¯s no refund.¡±
¡°We can follow your instructions.¡± Aegis spoke on behalf of his group.
¡°Good¡ Now,¡± Finley turned to Cheryl. ¡°Which one first?¡±
¡°Lina. I can do her best.¡± Cheryl replied excitedly.
¡°Right. Good. Lina, come with me.¡± Finley motioned her over, but she didn¡¯t respond and instead stared at the pair of players like they were crazy. This caused Finley to sigh in frustration. ¡°What¡¯d I just say? Follow my instructions exactly.¡± He glared at Aegis, who turned to Lina.
¡°Go, it¡¯ll be okay. He wants his money, right now he¡¯s got a good reason to not turn on us.¡± Aegis nodded to her, which finally prompted Lina to step forward.
¡°Okie dokie. I¡¯ll start. Avatar of Loki: Lina!¡± Cheryl cheered, suddenly transforming into Lina as a perfect copy.
¡°Heh?¡± Lina looked at her copy with wide eyes.
¡°Why?¡± Aegis looked at Finley in confusion.
¡°We need to keep them guessing for as long as possible. Like I said, this plan is a one off, and if VGN figures out what we¡¯re up to before we¡¯re done, it¡¯s over. The less you know, the better, because I need you streaming the entire time so they don¡¯t suspect anything. I¡¯ll rotate your party members out one by one and qualify them using my method, and we¡¯ll utilize Cheryl¡¯s avatar skill to hide the fact that your members are missing.¡± Finley explained.
¡°Your jobs¡¡± He then motioned to everyone else other than Lina. ¡°Is to just keep training and act like nothing is happening. Got it?¡± Finley said, and they all nodded back reluctantly. ¡°Good. The Training Hall of Kordas is that way.¡± Finley pointed towards the western section of the bustling city. ¡°Stream on, right away. Cheryl, don¡¯t forget to act like Lina to the best of your ability.¡±
¡°You mean, act like Aegis¡¯ girlfriend? No problem!¡± Cheryl cheered before running over and grabbing onto Aegis'' right arm. Aegis quickly shook her off though as he saw a look of pure rage appearing on the real Lina¡¯s face.
¡°C¡¯mon, you¡¯re with me.¡± Finley motioned Lina to follow him before he began walking into the streets of Kordas.
¡°It¡¯ll be fine. Trust me.¡± Aegis said to Lina, causing her to hesitantly nod back and follow after Finley. Once Lina and Finley left, the others all found themselves glaring at the fake Lina.
¡°Guys, you really need to work on your acting skills. If you can¡¯t pretend I¡¯m the real Lina, this just simply isn¡¯t going to w-w-w-work.¡± She faked a shy stutter at the end of her sentence before walking forward, leading the group in the direction of the Kordas training grounds.
¡°I feel like we¡¯re all really going to regret this.¡± Darkshot sighed, but was the first to start following behind her.
¡°If it gets us to the tournament to crush Seraxus, it¡¯ll be worth it.¡± Rakkan replied, following as well. Pyri, Herilon, Sapphire and Aegis went closely behind them.
Chapter 248: The Deception
Chapter 248: The Deception
Aegis and his companions spend the entire afternoon at the Kordas Training hall. Rather than utilize any of the facilities, they insead repeatedly sparred with one another on the open sections of the grounds. Pyri showed off to the group several of her new spell combinations, but admittedly held back some from the stream that Aegis was broadcasting.
His viewership held steady at just under 2 million, while Cheryl did her best to practice her ¡®shadow¡¯ skills, though very obviously was nowhere near as skilled as Lina was. Aegis had to hope that no one watching his stream was looking skeptically at her movements - after all, they¡¯d have no reason to suspect that she wasn¡¯t the real Lina, and that was what they were counting on. It was particularly important that Aegis¡¯ viewers didn¡¯t scrutinize because of Cheryl¡¯s lack of modesty when it came to attempting to act out being Aegis¡¯ girlfriend, though Aegis was careful to not be too cold towards her overly forward nature.
They were all relieved when Aegis got a message from Finley four hours later, stating that Lina was done and they were ready for the next member.
Aegis carefully manipulated his positioning and camera visibility to allow for Pyri to leave, the real Lina to return, and Cheryl to change her avatar appearance into Pyri¡¯s. The switch happened smoothly, and off camera, but very quickly so that no one would possibly expect that anything had happened.
With real Lina present, Aegis felt a lot more comfortable, and in between sparring with Rakkan, Herilon, and Darkshot, he found a moment where he could pull Lina off to the side and mute his stream.
¡°How was it?¡±
¡°I¡¯m qualified. It wasn¡¯t easy, but Finley is right. It¡¯s better we don¡¯t talk about it, his method is really easy to sabotage.¡± Lina explained quickly and quietly. Aegis nodded back at her before quickly unmuting his stream and going back to sparring.
Makaroth sat in the Meeting Chamber of the Sages of Paradigm¡¯s guild hall, far off on the island of Savringard, several long hours after Aegis and Finley had begun the execution of their plan. Sitting with him were the many other officers of his guild, as well as several low level unguilded players. The hall itself was luxurious, decorated with golden dragon statues lining the round walls intermittently. The table had a beautiful centerpiece of living, wriggling flowers of a variety of colors sitting in a silver vase. Their movements were slow so that you¡¯d only notice them moving if staring directly at them, but once caught, your gaze was hard to remove from them.
Heavily armored players with glows emitting from pauldrons, hilts, helmets and capes were all that sat present here at this found table, and they were all deep in discussion about the upcoming event.
¡°Remember, it¡¯s unlikely we¡¯ll be able to beat Seraxus. It¡¯d be nice if you could,¡± Makaroth spoke directly to Synopse who sat across from him. ¡°But if you can¡¯t, we¡¯ve got a deal with them to at least let the matches be close, and push it to the 5th round of the best of five. That¡¯ll keep everyone on the edge of their seats.¡±
¡°Also extend the viewership time on the event, allowing for more ad space.¡± One of the unguilded players commented, revealing a VGN logo stitched onto their simple leather armor.
¡°So you¡¯re saying if I can¡¯t beat him, at least I should put on a good show?¡± Synopse glared at Makaroth, and he picked up on this hint of aggression.
¡°I¡¯m not saying I don¡¯t believe you¡¯ll win. You¡¯re the best PvPer we have in this guild, and your team looks promising. I¡¯m just saying it for the just-in-case scenario.¡± Makaroth spoke in a friendly tone. ¡°I¡¯ve got full faith in your abilities as a Chronomage, especially with that artifact staff. In fact, we might as well give the reverse warning - don¡¯t stomp him too hard in 3 rounds. A clean sweep would be a bit sad.¡± Makaroth laughed, prompting other officers present in the room to laugh along with him, including his wife Lilya.
¡°Right.¡± Synpose nodded back hesitantly.
¡°Unfortunately, there¡¯s no way for us to arrange the brackets in our favor. The game is designed in a way that all those who make it past preliminaries are placed into the top 16 bracket randomly. We¡¯ll just have to hope for favorable matchups. A battle against Feng¡¯s guild, the Korean guild Ev.xO or the Spanish guild Sin Eaters would all bring in great viewership numbers. The only extremely disappointing outcome would be if our big showdown happens in the first round.¡± The VGN employee chimed in again.
¡°Ah, well, we¡¯ll just have to hope for the best.¡± Makaroth shrugged. ¡°And what about Yumily?¡±
¡°Yes, Yumily will be performing a concert at the arena before the matches begin. She¡¯s already scheduled to perform, we¡¯re just waiting for the location of the tournament to be announced. That is also random, we won¡¯t know until the preliminary rounds are concluded in 6 days.¡± The employee replied.
¡°Right. With Yumily there, that¡¯ll put all of the world''s eyes on the tournament. Everyone who matters will show up for the big day.¡± Makaroth smirked proudly to himself, getting big smiles from his officers across the room. ¡°We aren¡¯t going to have any expected guests, right?¡± He turned once more to the VGN employee.
¡°Hm. Nope, as it is¡¡± The employee began fidgeting around in their interface for a long few moments. ¡°The registration for all qualifying smaller tournaments are still locked up until after the date of the tournament. There¡¯s no gladiator points registered to the Player Aegis from Kalmoore.¡± The employee clarified.
¡°Good.¡±
¡°Kinda mean to block him like this, dontcha think?¡± Another officer in the room chimed him, which got a few chuckles from the others.
¡°He needs to learn some respect, and words don¡¯t really reach his ears.¡± Makaroth replied dismissively. ¡°With his attitude, he¡¯d ruin the vibe and mood of the whole tournament anyway. It¡¯s two birds with one stone, really. He¡¯ll learn his place, and we¡¯ll ensure we put on the greatest show any viewer of the Shattered World has ever seen.¡± Makaroth smiled.
¡°It¡¯s going to be so epic!¡± Lilya cheered excitedly, followed by several other cheers.
¡°Wait¡ that¡¯s odd¡¡± The VGN employee was still fidgeting around with their interface, scrunching their eyebrows in confusion at what they were looking at.
¡°What¡¯s odd?¡± Synopse asked curiously.
¡°Well, Aegis has no points, but¡ three of his party members have enough to participate¡¡±
¡°Heh?¡± Makaroth¡¯s eyes went wide.
¡°Which ones?¡± Synopse asked.
¡°Looks like¡ Lina, Pyri, and Rakkan.¡± The employee explained.
¡°How?¡± Lilya asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
¡°I¡¯m not sure¡¡± The VGN employee responded anxiously.
¡°I thought you said all of the 3v3 matches were booked up?¡± Makaroth confirmed.
¡°They were. They are. There¡¯s no way they participated and won two three vs three tournaments.¡± He answered quickly.
¡°Pull up his livestream.¡± Makaroth ordered one of the other officers present. He quickly fidgeted with his own interface, until a guild hall display screen appeared floating above the center of the table, visible for all present players to see. It was a live-stream viewer of Aegis¡¯ livestream
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On the display, Aegis stood within the training hall with his companions, including Herilon and Sapphire. Like he¡¯d been doing the previous weeks, he was intensely training with the others, practicing their weapon skills and attacking methods while Sapphire stood back and kept their health up.
¡°They¡¯re just training.¡± Lilya commented, while everyone else watched the stream in silence.
¡°If they were just training, how are they qualifying?¡± Another officer chimed in, followed by more intense stares.
¡°There¡ that¡¯s odd¡¡± Synopse broke the silence, pointing intensely at the screen as Darkshot was on display firing a volley at Aegis.
¡°What?¡±
¡°The ranger, Darkshot¡ His bird is not with him. It¡¯s off to the side, on Sapphire¡¯s shoulders instead.¡± Synopse pointed this out quickly.
¡°So?¡± Lilya replied with a confused look.
¡°Why wouldn¡¯t Darkwing sit on his shoulder? I¡¯ve studied their playstyle quite a bit. That bird always sits on his shoulder.¡± Synopse answered.
¡°It could just be resting. Their training is pretty intense.¡± A fourth player joined into the conversation as they all watched Aegis¡¯ stream intently.
¡°Yeah but, why are they even bothering with training? They should¡¯ve given up on participating. But somehow, they¡¯re still qualifying one by one.¡± Calikgos spoke up for the first time.
¡°Uh¡¡± The VGN player spoke up nervously, drawing all eyes unto himself. ¡°You¡¯re not going to believe this, but Darkshot just earned enough gladiator points as well. I watched it happen - he went from 0 to 100.¡±
¡°What?¡± Makaroth shouted in disbelief, standing up from the table.
¡°How¡¯s that possible? He¡¯s right in front of us. Is this a past broadcast?¡± Lilya asked.
¡°It¡¯s live¡¡± The officer who turned the livestream feed on declared.
¡°That¡¯s¡¡± Synopse stood up and squinted his eyes at the screen closely. ¡°That¡¯s not Darkshot.¡± He finally spotted enough odd movements in Cheryl¡¯s performance to say it with certainty. ¡°That¡¯s most likely a disguise. Perhaps the Avatar of Loki player is back, helping them.¡±
¡°That¡¯s unlikely. You really think they¡¯d work with those guys after they tried to sink their island?¡± Calikgos asked no one in particular.
¡°That kid will do anything to get back at me.¡± Makaroth answered, clenching his fists on the table. ¡°How are they qualifying?¡± Makaroth asked everyone around him. ¡°Anyone? Any ideas? They¡¯ve still gotta qualify Aegis, and he¡¯s the streamer. Loki won¡¯t work on him.¡± He paused, waiting for a response, but got nothing. ¡°Come on people.¡± Makaroth clapped angrily, startling a few of them in their chairs at his sudden change in demeanor - seeing him this angry wasn¡¯t something they were accustomed to.
¡°Uhm¡ whatever it was, it was worth 100 points. The standard tournaments only reward 50 points for reaching first place.¡± The VGN employee answered timidly.
¡°So? What structured PvP event rewards 100 points?¡± Makaroth asked the table expectantly, but still got no response. ¡°Anyone? Come on? Any ideas? One of you must have something, we¡¯ve got the top players in this entire game world sitting in this room.¡±
¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t really pay attention to much PvP stuff.¡± Calikgos replied apologetically.
¡°Me too.¡± Lilya added.
¡°Well¡¡± Synopse began frantically fidgeting through his interface, checking over the database for any information he could find, until finally, he landed on something. ¡°No way...¡± Synopse said with wide-eyes of disbelief.
¡°What? What is it?¡±
¡°Brawler¡¯s Tournament. Underground thieves and fighters guilds, certain ones are sanctioned to be recognized by the official PvP tournaments.¡± Synopse explained.
¡°What the hell is a Brawler¡¯s Tournament?¡± Makaroth asked him quickly.
¡°It¡¯s a Free for all tournament. 16 players participate, only, no one ever does it because if you lose, you can drop items on death and the victor can loot them. There is a modifier for combatants to increase the chance of them dropping items and gold on death as well, and it has a minimum gold participation cost. The outcome is also often completely unpredictable, but if you win one of those brawls, you earn 100 gladiator points.¡± Synopse explained.
¡°That¡¯s gotta be how they¡¯re doing it.¡± Calikgos shrugged.
¡°Fill up all registration slots for all of the remaining brawls. Right now.¡± Makaroth turned to the VGN employee.
¡°Wha? I uh¡ I don¡¯t really know where to sign up for those events. We¡¯re also pretty low on proxies, we¡¯ve already had to hire out of firm to fill up the tournament slots.¡± The VGN employee pulled back from him, wincing in anticipation of his response.
¡°I don¡¯t care how you do it, get those brawl slots filled, now!¡± Makaroth shouted.
¡°Makaroth¡ relax. Is it really that big of a deal if they qualify?¡± Synopse tried to calm him down. Makaroth didn¡¯t answer with words, but instead glared back at him.
¡°Shows over!¡± Finley shouted as he ran up towards Aegis with Darkshot by his side.
¡°Huh? Wait, what? What are you doing?¡± Aegis looked at him in surprise, but had no time to react in any meaningful way to hide Finley from his broadcast.
¡°Forget about that, they¡¯re already onto us. We¡¯ve gotta move quickly.¡± Finley grabbed his shoulder and yanked Aegis away, while simultaneously Cheryl warped out of her Darkshot transformation and back into her real form.
¡°Go quick, Aegis!¡± Darkshot urged him to follow Finley without resisting. Finley pulled Aegis through the streets quickly, with all others racing to keep up with them. Players and NPCs alike were pushed aside by the players, some grumbling at how rude they were to rush through the streets like that, whilst others were excited to see Aegis passing by with his large livestream viewership.
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Aegis asked as they moved, Finley was able to release Aegis¡¯ arm so that the two began running side by side.
¡°I told you it was a one off, and if they figured out what we were doing they could easily mess with it. They figured it out, we¡¯ve gotta register you fast before it¡¯s too late. My proxies aren¡¯t even ready yet.¡± Finley grumbled in frustration - he was fidgeting with his interface now while running alongside Aegis.
They quickly made their way through several intersections towards a section of Kordas that Aegis had never visited before. It was on the shady side, with strange merchants lining the streets wearing overly baggy clothing and staring curiously at them as they ran past.
Eventually though, Finley turned off the street into an old rundown building that was squished between many others of likeness. The door into the building squeaked on its hinges and looked as though it might fall off at any moment, and the floorboards squeaked and bent under his and Finley¡¯s weight. A small entry hall with deteriorating wooden pillars stood before them, with a counter on the far side. An old, balding and wrinkled human male NPC sat behind the counter, looking up at them as they entered.
¡°He¡¯d like to register for the next brawler tournament.¡± Finley said.
¡°Very well, there is a small f-¡± Before the old man could finish his sentence, Finley slapped a pouch of coins onto the counter.
¡°Aegis has now been registered for the upcoming brawl. It begins in three hours, 40 minutes.¡± The NPC spoke robotically.
¡°Show me a list of the other registered participants.¡± Finley ordered him, while Aegis stood back to watch a transparent list of players appear floating above the counter. As it appeared, their other companions all arrived at the building behind them and entered, including Cheryl.
The list on display was of 16 slots, 13 of them filled with names of players at level 150. One of the names on the list was Aegis.
¡°Shit.¡± Finley read over their names quickly. ¡°None of these are mine.¡± He said with a worried tone as slot 14, and then 15 filled up. ¡°These are all VGN guys. Fuck.¡± Finley frantically wriggled into his inventory and slapped another gold pouch on the counter. ¡°Register me.¡± Finley ordered the NPC.
¡°Very well.¡± The NPC replied, and a moment later, the 16th name on the list to appear was Finley¡¯s. Finley then let out a frustrated sigh.
¡°Whoooo boy.¡± Cheryl chuckled, whilst no one else seemed to grasp the situation.
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Aegis asked Finley.
¡°They figured out how we were earning points. I was using proxy players to rig these FFA brawls, to guarantee that your party won each brawl, earning them 100 gladiator points one at a time. But, this time¡¡± Finley looked over the list more closely. ¡°This FFA match isn¡¯t going to be rigged.¡±
¡°No big deal, right? There¡¯s two of you in, and it¡¯s just an FFA. You should still be able to win, right?¡± Sapphire asked, but she got no response as a tense air filled the room.
¡°You¡¯re mistaken.¡± Finley shook his head at her. ¡°These names¡ they¡¯re all VGN proxies.¡± As he spoke, Cheryl had to hold back laughter.
¡°You¡¯re totally about to lose all your gold you just got hired for.¡± she said to Finley.
¡°You¡¯re saying it¡¯s not going to be an FFA at all?¡± Pyri confirmed, to which Finley nodded and locked eyes with Aegis.
¡°Hope all that PvP practice pays off. ¡®Cause they¡¯re going to block registration for the rest of the brawler matches. This¡¯ll be your only shot to qualify. And it¡¯s going to be a 2 vs 14 match.¡± Finley spoke coldly.
Chapter 249: Prep
Chapter 249: Prep
A transparent screen remained suspended above the wooden table at the center of the Sages of Destiny¡¯s meeting hall. Makaroth leaned forward with his elbows on the table, chin resting on his clenched hands with his fingers intertwined. He silently glared up at the screen alongside all of his guildmates, and the VGN representatives. Not a word was spoken from any of them, nor did any sound come from the livestream that was displayed on the screen before him.
They all watched intently at the reactions of Aegis, visible on his livestream as he stared wide-eyed in the direction of the old man behind the counter. The registration list remained floating there, with Aegis, Finley, and the names of 14 other players visible. Finley, too, stood alongside Aegis staring at the list. It was a long 15 seconds of total silence, both on the stream, and in the guild hall.
¡°Those are ours?¡± Makaroth asked finally, breaking the silence. His words were directed at the VGN employee, but his eyes didn¡¯t shift from the screen.
¡°Y¡yes. We grabbed who we could on such short notice.¡± The employee replied nervously.
¡°How good are they? Who are they?¡± Makaroth asked impatiently.
¡°Uhm¡¡± The VGN employee began frantically fidgeting with his interface to find a suitable answer, but he was beaten to it.
¡°I recognize three of them.¡± Synopse spoke up, squinting at the broadcast of Aegis¡¯ livestream to look at the list of 16 registered users. ¡°Ioen, the ranger¡¡± Synopse pointed out the name with his index finger on the transparent screen, leaning over the table. ¡°He¡¯s famous for leading mercenary groups to victory in numerous major siege PvP battles. He¡¯s skilled in organizing and leading groups of players that have never played together before.¡±
¡°A strategist?¡± Lilya asked, and Synopse nodded back to confirm.
¡°How is a strategist going to be useful in an FFA battle?¡± Makaroth grumbled under his breath.
¡°C¡¯mon.¡± Calikgos huffed air and chuckled at the tension still hovering in the air amongst them. ¡°You guys, it''s 14 vs 2. You really think those guys stand a chance?¡± He said with a big grin. Makaroth and Synopse both turned to glare at him, but before they could utter a response, sound once again began coming from Aegis¡¯ livestream, drawing their attention towards it.
¡°There¡¯s two of you, right? So is it still possible?¡± Darkshot asked.
¡°Heh.¡± Finley responded mockingly while shaking his head.
¡°What? Aegis is really good. You are pretty good too, aren¡¯t you?¡± Darkshot replied.
¡°It¡¯s not so much about skill¡¡± Aegis mumbled to himself as he looked down to his feet, his mind going deep into thought.
¡°Why not? It¡¯s always about skill.¡± Darkshot protested.
¡°The problem is going to be the action economy.¡± Pyri stepped in to explain while Finley and Aegis¡¯ minds both drifted off. This caused the others to turn their attention to her as she took a deep breath and shrugged. ¡°For every one action or decision that Aegis and Finley make, their opponents will make 14. That means that the quality of their actions, skills, and attacks need to be 7 times more valuable than those of their opponents. That¡¯s incredibly challenging to pull off. Especially if their enemies are organized and working as a team.¡±
¡°Are you sure those 14 players are all going to be working together?¡± Sapphire asked while motioning to the list.
¡°Pretty much.¡± Cheryl replied.
¡°Yep.¡± Finley said as well.
¡°Damn.¡± Sapphire grumbled back.
¡°There¡¯s still one thing in your favor¡¡± Herilon stepped forward to stand alongside Aegis and Finley, eying the list more carefully. ¡°Even if they¡¯re working together, the rules of the FFA battle will forbid them from partying with one another. That means they won¡¯t be able to heal or buff each other, and there will be friendly fire.¡± Herilon paused as he looked to Aegis, whose attention he had gotten from these words. The two briefly exchanged looks as Aegis gave him a knowing nod. ¡°If you can take advantage of that, you might have a chance.¡±
¡°Tch.¡± Finley shook his head as he turned from the group, and began walking out of the building.
¡°Where are you going?¡± Rakkan asked as he walked by Cheryl, who quickly moved to follow behind him as he stepped through the worn doorway.
¡°Putting all my gold and items in storage, so I don¡¯t drop it when I die. I suggest you do the same, Aegis.¡± Finley replied, his voice trailing off as he and Cheryl disappeared through the threshold. They shut the creaky door behind them, leaving the group in silence once more - only this time all of them were pondering the situation. Suddenly, though, Aegis jerked his head upwards at the list of registered players once more, squinting his eyes at them.
¡°If these aren¡¯t directly employed by VGN, they had to be hired players, right? Mercenaries?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Most likely.¡± Herilon shrugged back.
¡°How did they hire them? How do you hire mercenaries in the game to do things like this?¡±
¡°Usually they list themselves for hire in mercenary guilds.¡± Lina answered enthusiastically.
¡°So these guys, they should have listings somewhere, right?¡± Aegis turned to her, and she nodded back.
¡°I think so¡¡± Lina replied hesitantly, while everyone else jumped into action by opening up their interfaces. Their fingers were pressing transparent screens floating in front of their faces that only they could see, and Sapphire was the first to get a hit.
¡°Yep. Got three of them, they¡¯re all members of the same mercenary guild based out of Lanusk.¡± Sapphire exclaimed excitedly. ¡°They¡¯re pretty pricey to hire, but they¡¯ll deny they¡¯ve been hired and do just about anything for you¡ Unfortunately, it doesn¡¯t look like they¡¯re open to be re-hired.¡±
¡°Re-hired?¡± Darkshot looked at her with raised eyebrows.
¡°Yeah¡¡± Sapphire shrugged back, glancing between Darkshot and Aegis. ¡°I mean, that¡¯s why you want us to look them up right? If you can outbid VGN, they¡¯ll join your side?¡±
¡°No.¡± Aegis quickly shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s not the reason. I¡¯m not going to pay anyone else. Can you send me their listings?¡± He asked Sapphire.
¡°Sure.¡± She fidgeted with her interface a bit more before Aegis received a message from her on his friends list, detailing the web address of the mercenary listings. Once he had it, he pulled it up into his own interface.
The listing displayed before him was indeed matching one of the names of the players registered for the brawl, and it contained a great deal of information on the hired player - including their class, equipment, and skills. Specialization, and recorded video montages of their greatest accomplishments were also included in the listening, to help sell themselves as a mercenary.
¡°Are all listings for hiring mercenary players like this?¡± Aegis confirmed once he had finished reading over it in detail.
¡°More or less.¡± Sapphire shrugged.
¡°As far as I know.¡± Herilon also replied.
¡°Good. Okay.¡± Aegis took a deep breath and looked over his companions. ¡°I need your help. I need you guys to find the mercenary listings for all fourteen of these players, as soon as possible.¡±
¡°Okay¡ but¡¡± Sapphire replied curiously while Lina, Rakkan, Darkshot and Pyri immediately got to work without question. ¡°May I ask why?¡±
¡°Because friendly fire isn¡¯t the only advantage I can have going into this.¡± Aegis grinned at her.
Finley stood in front of a large wooden door, a huge iron lock placed above the handle that he was in the process of unlocking. He¡¯d pulled a big iron key out of his inventory to click the lock open, then began shuffling items out of his inventory and placing them down inside the large storage chamber behind the door - it was already filled with quite a few sealed crates and barrels that lined the back wall.
Cheryl stood in the doorway, unable to enter the player-exclusive area, but watched Finley with her arms crossed.
¡°You¡¯re really going in that brawl to help him? I don¡¯t think that was included in what he paid you for. You¡¯re risking a lot, for nothing.¡± Cheryl sighed.
¡°Heh.¡± He shook his head without turning back to look at her. ¡°You¡¯ve got a lot to learn still, Cheryl.¡±
¡°What¡¯dya mean?¡± She squinted at him curiously.
¡°When there is conflict, there is money to be made on both sides. Picking a side is a mistake. You should always set yourself up to be beneficial to both.¡±
¡°How is you signing up to help out Aegis in the brawl doing that, exactly?¡± Cheryl asked curiously. To this question, Finley simply turned to look her in the eyes and smiled deviously.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Makaroth and his companions continued to watch Aegis¡¯ stream, but there wasn¡¯t much to be seen. Most of what Aegis was doing was through his interface, and his interface was being hidden from the stream. This left the majority of the entertainment and informational value of his stream to come from Hae-won, but she¡¯d entered into an off-topic rant about autopod brands with the viewers in Aegis¡¯ livestream chat.
¡°He¡¯s not going to be able to outbid VGN on any of those mercenary contracts, is he?¡± Lilya asked the VGN employee, who shook his head profusely at this.
¡°Absolutely not. Our contracts are rock solid.¡±
¡°Good.¡± Liyla smiled.
¡°Then, why¡¯s he want to look them all up?¡± Calikgos asked.
¡°He probably wants t-¡± Synpose was interrupted by loud knocking on the large pair of double doors leading into their guild hall¡¯s meeting chamber. Following the knock, two players pushed the doors open and stepped inside.
Both players were familiar to the officers of the Sages of Destiny, but for different reasons. One of the players was a member of their guild, escorting the other into the room. The other had the name [Emerill - Level 159] sitting above his head.
¡°You¡¯re one of the dark players that attacked Kalmoore, aren¡¯t you?¡± Calikgos asked curiously.
¡°I am indeed. Greetings! It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you all.¡± Emerill smiled.
¡°His friends are the ones helping Aegis.¡± Liyla mumbled to Makaroth.
¡°Why¡¯d you let him in here?¡± Makaroth motioned towards the guildmate of his that was walking in the room alongside Emerill.
¡°Because I have a proposal for you. On behalf of my companion Finley.¡± Emeril bowed dramatically. These words were met by a curious silence, as Makaroth exchanged looks with Synopse briefly.
¡°I¡¯m listening.¡± Makaroth replied while crossing his arms and glaring across the table at Emerill, who stood opposite him.
¡°For the price of 2 million USD, Finley will turn on Aegis in the brawl, guaranteeing his elimination from this upcoming tournament.¡± Emerill spoke proudly. Immediately after the words left his mouth, several officers began to chuckle, including Calikgos.
¡°2 Million? Are you insane? Why would we pay that when we already have the advantage?¡± Calikgos spoke in a condescending tone.
¡°An advantage, yes. But it¡¯s not guaranteed to go your way. I can speak from first hand experience, Aegis is very persistent.¡± Emerill shrugged.
¡°Your friend is the reason we¡¯ve even got this problem in the first place. We¡¯re not dealing with you, get lost.¡± Makaroth replied coldly.
¡°Very well.¡± Emerill sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll be hanging around outside your guild hall, in case you change your mind.¡± Emerill gave a slight nod and smile before turning to leave the room - the other member of their guild that had led him inside the chamber followed him out and shut the doors behind him with a loud bang.
¡°This is getting ridiculous. This kid doesn¡¯t even like games, and he¡¯s causing so much trouble.¡± Makaroth grumbled to himself before turning his sights on the VGN employee once more. ¡°Make sure you tell these mercenaries to crush those two idiots.¡±
¡°Yes sir.¡± The employee replied.
Three hours went by in no time at all. At no point did Aegis or his companions step foot outside of the run-down registration building. The elderly NPC sitting behind the counter paid no mind to their presence as the group repeatedly exchanged information with one another by utilizing their friends list and interfaces.
It wasn¡¯t until exactly 5 minutes before the brawl¡¯s starting time that Finley and Cheryl re-appeared, swinging the creaking door open wide. The door was irritatingly loud on its rusty hinges, but it drew no attention from Aegis or the others.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t even left this room? You¡¯re out of time, you realize that, right?¡± Finley asked, but got no response. Aegis was focused intently on his interface, not realizing that his viewership numbers were quickly creeping up to 2.5 million. Word quickly spread of the upcoming brawl, and the fact that Makaroth wasn¡¯t currently streaming helped with the promotion of the event. Not only that, but several other non-VGN streamers who stood in defiance of Seraxus¡¯ reign of terror were doing their part in hyping up Aegis, including the largest german guild Schadenfreude.
¡°Hello?¡± Finley snapped his fingers loudly, finally getting Aegis¡¯ attention.
¡°Five minutes left. We can enter the tournament grounds already pre-emptively. We should enter at the same time so we get adjacent starting positions.¡± Finley spoke loudly.
¡°Right. Good thinking.¡± Aegis nodded back, finally closing out of his interface. As he did, so did the others, and they all exchanged anxious looks.
¡°You¡¯re ready? Did you drop off your items in the storage hall as to not drop any of it?¡±
¡°Huh? No. No time.¡± Aegis shook his head.
¡°You might want to get on that.¡± Finley replied.
¡°Nah. It¡¯ll be fine.¡± Aegis answered, causing Finley to smirk.
¡°Cheeky lil kid.¡± He added with a head shake. ¡°Alright. Suit yourself. I¡¯m going in now.¡± Finley waved at him before walking to the old man. ¡°I¡¯m registered for the upcoming brawl. I¡¯m ready to participate.¡± Finley said, and within an instant, Finley¡¯s character avatar dissipated into white light and disappeared - he was transported into the PvP arena.
¡°Good luck cutie.¡± Cheryl winked before stepping out of the building by herself. Once she was gone, Aegis took a deep nervous breath and shrugged his shoulders. His eyes wandered amongst his companions who all stared back at him, looking just as nervous as he was.
¡°Good luck.¡± Lina stepped forward and gave Aegis a quick kiss, her and his face blushing bright red afterwards.
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis nodded, then stepped towards the elderly NPC. Before he could speak, Pyri placed her hand on his shoulder to stop him.
¡°Aegis. Don¡¯t trust Finley, no matter what. If he looks like he¡¯s switching sides¡¡±
¡°Why would he switch sides? I paid him.¡± Aegis raised his eyebrows at her. She shook her head dismissively and ignored this question.
¡°If he starts acting suspiciously¡ even a little bit. Knock his ass out. Got it?¡± Pyri replied. Aegis nodded back, causing Pyri to release her hand from his shoulder.
¡°I¡¯m registered for the upcoming brawl. I¡¯m ready to participate.¡± Aegis copied Finley word for word, and instantly after he¡¯d finished speaking, his vision went blank. Like Finley, his body was seen dissipating into light by his companions as he was taken out of the registration hall and transported into the brawl arena.
Within seconds, his body reformed on top of a small circular stone pedestal. The outerrim of the pedestal had a transparent blue wall around it that went up to the open sky above. The first thing Aegis did was try touching the wall, but it was solid despite being made up of wavy blue light and being easily seen through.
|
Please wait for the match to begin.
Match begins in: 3:25
|
The message popped up in his face as a reaction to him touching the blue wall, and he quickly waved it off. From there, he decided to properly take in the rest of his surroundings. He spotted 15 other identical circular altars spread out in a large circle around him, in a round arena with a sandy, stone-tiled flat arena not too unlike the ones he¡¯d done his intermediate quests in.
Each and every one of the circular altars had another combatant waiting on it, also trapped within their blue walls and waiting for the timer to countdown. The nearest altar to his left contained Finley, who exchanged looks with Aegis briefly.
¡°You¡¯re certain they¡¯re all against us?¡± Aegis asked him.
¡°The moment you appeared, they all started doing that.¡± Finley answered, gesturing towards the other players. Aegis followed the gesture with his eyes and saw what Finley meant. Every single one of the other fourteen players were glaring in his direction. It sent an anxious chill down Aegis¡¯ spine - not a single one of them was anything less than level 150.
¡°They¡¯re not the best PvPers in the world, but this is a paycheck for them. They make a living off of this. You better be ready, because you are their meal ticket. They will stop at nothing to take you down. This isn¡¯t a game to them.¡± Finley spoke ominously. ¡°Go all out from the start. You won¡¯t get a second chance to regret it.¡±
¡°Got it.¡± Aegis replied as he eyed the timer counting down as red numbers floating at the top of his peripheral vision. With one minute remaining, he carefully equipped his shield to his back, and his claws to his hands, drawing out the blades from his knuckles thanks to his redesign of the item.
¡°This is suicide.¡± Hae-won whispered nervously to herself, allowing Aegis¡¯ now 2.6 million viewers to hear her.
¡°This is content.¡± Tommy responded, currently in a voice call with her in Shinji - though Aegis¡¯ viewers couldn¡¯t hear him. Shinji said nothing, looking intently at the still broadcast, stretching out his fingers as he prepared for the action that was to come.
¡°Yo what?¡± Seraxus said to himself as he caught a slew of messages streaming through his chat. ¡°That Shattered guy is that desperate to qualify? He teamed up with the Harbinger of Darkness?¡±
¡°Shit, this I gotta see.¡± Zuon heard Seraxus speaking to his viewers as they walked side by side. Zuon began frantically fidgeting with his interface to pull up Aegis¡¯ livestream.
¡°C¡¯mon kid.¡± Quinn mumbled, as she and Ren watched Aegis¡¯ stream being displayed on a large screen within a Kordas tavern. She was accompanied by nearly all of her guild, as well as Christoph and Artaphernes. Where Aegis had left them behind, all of his party members, Sapphire, and Herilon too had pulled up his livestream. Within the town of Rene, his council members were all spectating as well, pausing whatever current tasks they were doing. Amlie stopped in the middle of tending to her fields, while Ruffily stopped mid-construction of a building. A screen of Aegis¡¯ stream was on full display within Erikson¡¯s tavern as well.
¡°Yuki, are you watching? This doesn¡¯t look good.¡± Yumily messaged Yuki nervously as she and her fellow band-mates were watching Aegis¡¯ stream on the deck of their Airship. It was sailing high above the abyss, in-between islands.
¡°I can¡¯t watch. I¡¯m busy.¡± Yuki replied to the message as she was focused on her task at hand within the crafting chamber of the Night Hunter¡¯s guild hall - she was working intensely alongside Tullan who was covered in sweat, hammering away at the mithral form of Aegis shield. ¡°I need to be done for when he wins.¡± Yuki added confidently.
¡°This kid, does he ever get tired of being the center of attention?¡± Feng laughed to his guildmates that sat around him in a tavern with Aegis¡¯ stream on full display. ¡°Why¡¯s he qualifying like this? Why not the normal way.¡± He shook his head mockingly at the situation. Makaroth, on the other hand, watched the stream silently alongside his officers. He had no comments to make, instead simply glaring at the timer to the match as it counted down.
| Match begins in 10¡ 9¡ 8¡ |
Aegis took a deep breath, eying the counter one final time before glancing between his opponents. Staffs were glowing, arrows were knocked, blades were unsheathed.
¡°Here goes nothing.¡± Finley spoke ominously.
¡°Avatar of Darkness.¡±
¡°Avatar of Eirene.¡± In unison, wings of light and shadow erupted from their backs and bright glows of black and and white clashed with one another.
Chapter 250: Stay In School
Chapter 250: Stay In School
The blue wall came down just as Aegis inhaled as much oxygen as his lungs could hold, as if preparing to dive into a deep ocean. His ear rang out with a moment of deafening silence as time seemed to stand still, but only for a moment.
The silence was replaced by the whistling sound of an arrow soaring through the air towards him, but he¡¯d already tilted his head to the side to allow it to soar over his right shoulder. Following this, black smoke erupted all around him - a result of one of the other combatants being a shadow dancer and throwing a smoke bomb at him. It blinded his vision momentarily, which he was able to correct by flapping his white wings, but the smoke had served its purpose.
A shadow dancer had teleported behind him and struck out at his back with their daggers, while simultaneously a globe of water suddenly appeared around his head, encapsulating his airways and preventing him from breathing further. Within those first two seconds he¡¯d been blinded by smoke, and was being drowned by a wizards magic, while under assault from an unseen ranger and shadow dancer. All sounds became muffled due to the water bubble around his head, but he vaguely could make out the call out of a dragoon skill.
From Finley¡¯s point of view, he saw Aegis disappear into the dark smoke, then watched as all of the other combatants not wielding staves or bows begin charging towards him. All but for the spear-wielding dragoon class player who leapt up into the air at great height with his spear glowing bright orange.
¡°Sky Piercing Dive!¡± The Dragoon shouted before lunging through the air towards Aegis like a bullet. Finley launched himself off the ground and intercepted the dragoon¡¯s attack by body checking him to the side, causing his trajectory to shift and crash into the ground a good distance away from Aegis. The ground cracked and erupted in dust and small chunks of broken tiles and sand due to the impact.
¡°Cinderstorm!¡± A wizard called out, drawing Finley¡¯s attention. He saw a young gnomish female with fiery red hair wielding a glowing red staff, directing 5 multicast cinderbolt orbs through the sky towards him. He swatted at the orbs with his wings but to no avail, they stuck to him like magnets. Seeing this, Finley postured himself to charge at her, but a battlemaster rushed at him to block his path instead, all 5 floating weapons in tow. In addition, the dragoon that he had body checked quickly recovered and was turning to engage him as well.
Another battlemaster, seeing Finley occupied, decided to ignore him and join in with an assassin, monk, druid and cleric as they rushed towards Aegis within his smoke cloud, still obscured from the others briefly. It was in this brief moment that Finley caught a glimpse of the second wizard, a demi-human with orange fox ears, wielding his staff and concentrating on the aquatic magic that was being used to drown Aegis.
All of this happened so quickly that Finley almost forgot he wasn¡¯t fighting alone, and turned to look at Aegis as he finished clearing off the black smoke with his wings. With the smoke gone, his white wing form was revealed to the players - in his left hand he was tightly clutching the wrist of the shadow dancer that had attempted to strike at him from behind and refused to let him go. It was a human male, wearing dark leather armor, and he began struggling against Aegis¡¯ grip.
Aegis didn¡¯t let up, though. Instead, he turned to face the shadow dancer with his back towards the rest of the players charging at him from across the arena floor, and with his free hand he began striking out at the shadow dancer with his Jealousy Claws.
The shadow dancer used one hand to parry Aegis¡¯ strikes, the other to strike out at Aegis, but Aegis ignored the damage from the attacks to prioritize dealing damage to the shadow dancer as quickly as possible. Even parried strikes dealt damage, and with consumables not being allowed and no team work, Aegis knew the shadow dancer couldn¡¯t last long under these conditions. All he had to do was not let go. All while not being able to breath or see clearly, due to the globe of water being held around his head by the demi-human wizard.
¡°Get him off me!¡± The shadow dancer shouted in frustration, his voice muffled as it reached Aegis¡¯ ears through the water.
¡°Quake strike!¡± Another muffled voice called out from the center of the arena, followed by the player''s large maul being slammed into the arena floor. Immediately upon impact, the ground of the arena began to crack and shake violently, breaking apart and causing chunks of rock and tiled stone to jut upwards - the floor became unstable, uneven, and difficult to navigate.
Aegis was thrown off balance briefly, but quickly dug his wings into the ground to hold himself steady so that he was not forced to release the shadow dancer. Then, ranged attacks were bombarded towards him. A crossbow bolt was fired from the Battlemaster who was running towards him, and a barrage of multishot arrows were redirected at him from an unseen ranger in the distance.
The fastest of the other melee fighters, the monk and druid, both arrived at Aegis¡¯ back and began striking out at him. The monk opened with a flying kick, which Aegis blocked with a projected shield, throwing off the monk player''s momentum. The druid shifted into a large spiked cobra beast and slithered through the quaked floor using strange, seemingly unpredictable movements before coiling his head back and lunging at Aegis¡¯ ankle. Before hitting, though, a second projected shield appeared in front of the strike and blocked it.
The druid and monk pulled back and tried to strike again, as Aegis walked aggressively away from them - leaning into the shadow dancer whose wrist he continued to tightly grip. This allowed him the most amount of time possible to continue to strike at the shadow dancer before the other melee fighters arrived. The speed of the monk and druid''s attacks, coupled with the parries and dagger strikes of the shadow dancer he was grappling with, were proving troublesome, though.
¡°Aura of healing.¡± Aegis cast, to begin the process of his self-recovery.
¡°He¡¯s blocking everything.¡± The monk shouted in frustration as he attempted to maneuver around Aegis to get at him from different angles. ¡°He¡¯s keeping his shield on his back, but blocking everything with projections.¡±
¡°He can¡¯t block everything.¡± The maul-wielding player shouted as he leapt into the air and crashed downward through the sky towards where Aegis was standing. Aegis jumped forward to avoid it, pulling the shadow dancer along with him and slamming him into the outer wall of the arena.
¡°Tch, unbelievable.¡± The shadow dancer cried out as he watched Aegis pull back his right claw one last time, striking the shadow dancer and killing him.
¡°Combatant Daelor has been eliminated.¡± A robotic female voice echoed out across the arena as the body of the shadow dancer faded from the arena, dropping his daggers and black leather armor on the ground at where his feet had been.
Hearing this, Finley took a moment from parrying, dodging, and otherwise retaliating against the Dragoon and Battlemaster that were on him. He glanced towards Aegis and saw the players swarming towards him, as well as the globe of water still stuck on his head. He then once more briefly glanced at the two wizards that were keeping their distance from the battle - one wizard was focusing on cinder bolts that were slowly burning down his health, and one wizard was focusing on a water spell that was drowning Aegis, risking draining his stamina rapidly the moment he ran out of breath.
¡°Gotta take one of them out.¡± Finley mumbled to himself.
¡°Don¡¯t think so, pal.¡± The battlemaster engaged with him replied, sending his 7 weapons down at Finley from the front, whilst the dragoon lunged at him from behind.
¡°It¡¯s not like you can stop me. I¡¯m a harbinger of darkness.¡± Finley replied before launching himself off the ground and flapping his wings violently, soaring high into the air. The dragoon, with skills that enhanced his jumping power, was able to launch into the sky after him, but not quick enough.
¡°PIERCING DARKNESS!¡± Finley shouted, waving his greatsword in the direction of the water casting wizard. A black wave of thick dark magical energy shot out from the end of Finley¡¯s greatsword while simultaneously he was stabbed in the back by the dragoon while the dragoon¡¯s spear was emitting a red light.
¡°I know that hurts.¡± The dragoon smirked.
¡°Not as much as my attack.¡± Finley gestured with a nod down at the wizard, who was caught off guard by the aerial attack and the speed at which it shot through the air. It pierced the head of the wizard, dealing a massive amount of damage and killing him instantly.
¡°Combatant Bamrek has been eliminated.¡±
Finley did a quick 360 swing of his sword mid-air to clear the dragoon off of him, forcing the dragoon to pull his spear out from Finley¡¯s back and drop back down to the ground, landing gracefully. Finley had no time to relax, though, as two separate arrow barrages came soaring at him from different directions, forcing him to focus on flying out of their path. Unfortunately, though, the arrows were redirected and began following him through the sky.
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He was flying faster than them, but he saw no form of suitable cover that he could use to absorb the impacts of the arrows for him, and there were far too many - if he let them catch up to him he¡¯d be taken out. He was quickly regretting taking to the skies, given the disadvantageous position he was now in, and the Dragoon, Battlemaster and Wizard players all saw it as they stared at him from below, waiting for him to attempt to land so that they could strike. All while the cinderbolts continued to slowly burn down his health.
Aegis, on the other hand, now with both of his hands free, immediately turned from the outer wall of the arena and charged at his incoming opponents. First the monk struck him, then the druid in his cobra-form. Following this, he took a nasty hit on his arm from the maul-wielding fighter that let out a loud, bone crackling sound that caused Aegis to wince from the pain. The monk then followed up, pursing Aegis and punching him several more times, but was taken aback by Aegis¡¯ sudden change in behaviour.
¡°Why¡¯d he stop guarding our attacks?¡± The monk asked rhetorically, he got no answer from the other players.
¡°Who cares, just kill him.¡± The maul-wielder shouted. Just as Aegis made it beyond them, he engaged with the assassin and dragoon, and took strikes from them as well as he ran by them, until reaching the final melee fighter near the center of the arena. The slowest of the bunch - the second battlemaster, was preparing to strike out at Aegis with all of his weapons.
¡°STOP ATTACKING HIM, MORONS!¡± An unfamiliar voice called out from across the stadium - one of the rangers who was focused on pursuing Finley with his arrows using redirects, had briefly glanced down at the melee fighters to see what was going on. Aegis briefly glanced in his direction to see who it was talking, [Iouen - Level 150] floating above his head. Aegis sucked his teeth and frantically continued rushing forward, continuing with his current plan of action despite Iouen alerting the other players to it. He could only hope that they wouldn¡¯t react quick enough.
Aegis jumped into the air, spreading his white wings out wide and curling them forward towards the battlemaster who was caught off-guard by Aegis¡¯ fixated aggression. A single thought ran through his mind - why is he so focused on me?
The battlemaster began to panic as he saw all other combatants rushing at Aegis¡¯ back, striking out at his wings as Aegis landed his knees into his chest and used his weight to knock the battlemaster off of his feet. He then made use of his wings as well to hold him down.
¡°VIRABHADRA!¡± Aegis shouted.
¡°Don¡¯t let him take that hit alone!¡± Iouen shouted to them, trying to encourage the other melee fighters to jump in and absorb the Virabhadra¡¯s damage alongside the battlemaster. His shout was ineffective, though - the instincts of any skilled PvP player in the Shattered World online was that you ran away from the Virabhadra skill, not towards it.
Due to this, the battlemaster took the full retaliatory damage from Aegis by himself, killing him by dealing almost exactly his health in damage with very little overkill damage.
¡°Perfectly calculated. He took exactly enough damage so that his Virabhadra would take out the battlemaster. No more, or no less. There may have been more ideal ways to utilize that cooldown, but Aegis¡¯ priority is to lower the number of combatants as much as possible, as fast as possible.¡± Hae-won spoke quickly as the battlemaster¡¯s body vanished from the arena on Aegis¡¯ livestream broadcast. ¡°As we all know, in structured PvP matches, even brawls, healing will be reduced to half at the 5 minute mark, and disabled completely after 10 minutes. Even under such harrowing conditions, Aegis cannot forget these basic rules or they will eliminate any possible chance he and Finley may have for victory.¡± She paused to take a deep breath before continuing.
¡°Only 30 seconds into this match, the 14 vs 2 has already turned into an 11 vs 2.¡± Hae-won smiled nervously while leaning in close to the broadcasting screen, watching Aegis¡¯ every movement intensely.
¡°How¡¯d he know that he had enough damage stored in his Virabhadra already?¡± Sapphire mumbled with disbelief as she stood alongside the others, watching Aegis¡¯ broadcast within the registration hall.
¡°Because they gave my son the one thing you should never give him if you want to defeat him.¡± Pyri smirked at her. ¡°Time to study.¡±
Makaroth continued to watch in silence, glaring at the broadcast while Synopse anxiously glanced between Makaroth¡¯s demonic glare and the broadcast of his son fighting alongside Finley.
As the light dome from Aegis¡¯ virabhadra spell faded and the red arms of Shiva dissipated, Aegis took a fighting stance and faced the melee combatants staring him down. The monk, druid, dragoon, assassin, and magic-knight that was wielding the two handed maul all gave pause, spreading out in front of him. Aegis did nothing but glare at the five, and this was enough to cause them to hesitate, none willing to go in first.
¡°Don¡¯t fear them.¡± Iouen shouted across the arena. ¡°Their flashy attacks are over. Both of their big damage spells have 5 minute cooldowns. Right now they are vulnerable. He can¡¯t outheal all of us.¡± Iouen¡¯s words were enough to return confidence to the players in front of Aegis, much to his dismay.
¡°If you can¡¯t do something about these rangers, I¡¯m gonna be in trouble.¡± Finley shouted down to Aegis.
¡°Use your aura of darkness to blind them.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°That¡¯ll block the use of your wings. Our skills don¡¯t really mesh well together.¡± Finley replied.
¡°That¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll be okay without them for a bit.¡± Aegis replied back before being forced to jump backwards and avoid the swing of the large maul crashing down towards him - it impacted the tiles on which Aegis had been standing moments before and sent them flying into the air in pieces due to the hit.
¡°If you say so. Aura of Darkness.¡± Finley called out, and with his words, a black burst of shadowy abyssal mist erupted from his body, engulfing him as well as the skies above the arena, blocking out the sun completely from those below the mist. This resulted in Aegis becoming the only visible thing in the arena, due to his glowing Avatar form - though just as Finley had warned, the darkness was causing the light of Aegis¡¯ wings to flicker in and out of existence.
No longer able to see Finley in the dark mist, the Dragoon, Battlemaster, and Wizard that were focused on him decidedly changed their focus towards Aegis. Within seconds, the cinderbolts that were burning away at Finley¡¯s health were flown through the air out of the dark mist and planted themselves on Aegis'' body in various places.
Aegis completely ignored their existence, though - relying on the healing from the new aura form of his healing wind spell to offset it. Instead, he needed all of his focus to dodge, guard, parry and block the attacks of the 5 melee combatants in front of him. This switched to 7 very quickly when Finley¡¯s battlemaster and dragoon arrived and came at him from behind. There was nothing but the sound of metal clashing all around Aegis as he made use of all of the training he had undergone the past few weeks.
There were many of them, but none of them were nearly as skilled as Herilon or his party members. It wasn¡¯t long before their frustrations were beginning to show - all the while Finley utilized the dark mist to soar through the sky and locate the two ranger players cleverly keeping themselves concealed by utilizing camouflage skills.
¡°I can¡¯t fucking land a single. Fucking. STRIKE!¡± The maul-wielder yelled out in frustration, swinging more wild with every strike, until a final vertical swing was taken at Aegis, which Aegis ducked underneath just barely, causing the swing to pass by and slam into the monk player instead, dealing massive damage.
¡°You guys might wanna be careful with those big weapons you¡¯re swinging around. They¡¯re not toys, you know.¡± Aegis said in a mocking tone, grinning at the maul-wielding warrior. This angered him further, provoking more reckless attacks which Aegis was able to easily dodge.
¡°I can¡¯t use any of my skills without hitting you idiots. Back off if you can¡¯t land attacks, you¡¯re just in the way.¡± One of the dragoon players shouted.
¡°How¡¯s a cleric player so damn slippery?¡± the assassin added in frustration. Let me just hit him with my wire cooldown, would you all?¡±
¡°And let you take the bounty? No thankssss.¡± The druid hissed in his cobra form.
¡°None of you idiots are going to kill him if you don¡¯t work tog-¡± Iouen tried to instruct them, but speaking gave away his position, allowing Finley to dive out of the black mist towards the ground on the far side of the arena towards Iouen.
Iouen had been leaning up against the wall, his clothing and skin shifting colors to match that of the wall he was up against. The moment he spotted Finley diving at him with his greatsword, though, Iouen dashed out of the path of the strike, causing the black blade to slash into the wall of the arena.
¡°There you are. You¡¯re really the only troublemaker here.¡± Finley said as he turned to face the fleeing Iouen. ¡°If I can just take you out, they¡¯ll be nothing but a bunch of bumbling morons.¡±
¡°Pinning shot.¡± Iouen jumped in the air and spun around 360 degrees, releasing an arrow in Finley¡¯s direction during the instant he¡¯d been facing him. The arrow shot true, but Finley jumped to the side to avoid it. This wasn¡¯t enough - without even turning to look at how Finley had dodged the shot, Iouen was able to perfectly redirect it to hit Finley in the back.
¡°Tch.¡± Finley sucked his teeth, quickly glancing around at his surroundings until he¡¯d spotted a small green bird hiding on the ground nearby, staring up at him. ¡°Hate birds.¡±
¡°I love them. Especially sitting ducks.¡± Iouen replied while he turned to face Finley and nocked an arrow.
¡°Do I look like a duck to you?¡±
¡°Quack quack.¡± Iouen mocked as he released the shot and it split into dozens of more arrows, all of which began to converge on Finley. Due to having been hit by the pinning shot, vines had shot out from Finley¡¯s back and rooted themselves in the sandy tiled floor of the arena at his feet, holding him in place. Finley was able to make use of a wave of black mist that washed over his body to clear himself of the crowd control effect, then jump out of the way at the last moment to avoid the arrows as they impacted the ground and wall near where he¡¯d been standing.
¡°There we go. Now your offensive and defensive cooldowns have both been used. You really are a sitting duck.¡± Iouen spoke proudly.
¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡± Finley tightly gripped the hilt of his greatsword in frustration.
Chapter 251: Momma Said Knock You Out
Chapter 251: Momma Said Knock You Out
¡°Finley¡ I could use my wings¡¡± Aegis called out with a strained voice, barely audible across the arena over the sounds of clashing blades. Finley was staring down Iouen, who had an arrow pulled back in the drawstring of his bow and was aiming it directly at Finley¡¯s head. He wasn¡¯t firing, however, but waiting patiently for any sort of movement out of the Harbinger of Darkness that stood before him. Similarly, Finley stood completely still, weighing his options. He knew full well that with his cooldowns unavailable to him, every single minor decision he made from this point on would be incredibly significant.
Finley¡¯s eyes wandered down towards Iouen¡¯s feet briefly, gauging his stance to get a feel for what he was posturing to do next. It was somewhat intimidating to see how prepared he looked to dodge Finley¡¯s next move - his stance was better than that of Quiver¡¯s, who he¡¯d had plenty of experience sparring with in the past. This was enough to tell him that engaging Iouen, despite being so close, would be a mistake.
He took a deep breath, and with a wiggle of his fingers, canceled the dark aura of abyssal mist that had been floating in the skies above the arena, allowing once more for the sunlight to shine down on the battle. He then jumped backwards and to the side as Iouen fired off his next few shots, parrying away any arrows that were not marked as pinning shot arrows, while Iouen curiously tilted his head to the side at this decision.
¡°You¡¯re running away?¡± Iouen asked him in a condescending tone. Finley didn¡¯t reply, but instead smirked while a flash of light erupted from the wings of Aegis - their forms now fully restored.
With glowing wings, Aegis utilized the shield that he had fastened on his pack to repeatedly cast two guard projections around himself to block incoming strikes from the 7 opponents wailing on him. Frontal attacks, he¡¯d parry with his claws. Back attacks, he¡¯d deflect and redirect upwards or downwards using his wings, and any he couldn¡¯t block, he¡¯d turn his back towards so that they hit his shield instead. From the sides, he made use of the guard projections, changing the angles and their elevations to make it impossible for anyone to find an opening.
Adding onto his defenses, the 7 melee strikers coming at him from all sides were getting in each other¡¯s way. The two dragoon players and Maul wielding player required wide swings to land their most powerful attacks. The assassin, monk, and druid needed much less space, and the battlemaster was forced out completely - relying solely on angling in his floating weapons to strike at Aegis, which he easily managed.
The only reliable source of damage on Aegis was that of the wizard¡¯s cinderbolts, but Aegis¡¯ aura of healing was managing to offset it.
Still, even when attacks were blocked and parried, he was taking damage, and forced to heal himself with his fast casted heals in between strikes. With his stat points dumped into mana regeneration, he wasn¡¯t at risk of dying immediately, but simultaneously he wasn¡¯t managing to land any significant retaliatory damage.
Worse, was that structured PvP in this game world was designed specifically to counteract stalling playstyles like Aegis¡¯, in that after 5 minutes of this match starting, his healing would be halved. 10 minutes, and he¡¯d not be able to heal himself at all anymore. This meant he was on a timer, and as the 2 minute mark went by, he began to feel the pressure. His stamina was beginning to near its halfway point, from all of the blocks and parries that he was executing.
In between his defensive moves, he found himself looking between the gaps in his opponents at Finley to see what he was doing, but only found him struggling to dodge ranged strikes from Iouen, and a still yet unseen Ranger who was firing across the arena at him. Worse for Finley was that the final and 11th combatant, who¡¯d been standing towards the middle of the arena seemingly unsure what to do, finally jumped into action by engaging Finley with his scepter and shield - wielding the typical attire for a cleric class player.
With this in his view, Aegis knew he wasn¡¯t going to get any help. He only had three minutes left to do something about this extremely lopsided battle, and he had to do it himself.
He made use of the training he¡¯d participated in over the past few weeks, and started leaning into the movement of his opponents. To conserve his own stamina, he instead began redirecting the attacks at his back to hit the other opponents that were adjacent to the attackers, utilizing their stamina to deal damage to each other rather than use his own.
He¡¯d managed to get a handle on a few of the opponents fighting styles and attack patterns - some were using oddly static damage rotations that you¡¯d expect them to use on an NPC boss as they attempted to maximize their damage output onto Aegis. Others, like the maul-wielding fighter at his front, who was attacking recklessly with no rime or reason. The frustration from all of them however was easily seen on their faces, as at least for now, Aegis was able to prevent any direct hits on himself.
¡°Enough dancing around. World piercing strike!¡± A dragoon player behind him finally shouted out in frustration, charging up a glowing strike on the tip of his spear. Aegis had little time to react, and quickly gauged his options as he saw the orange glow from the spell mix in with the white glow of his wings from behind him. He thought of dodging, or redirecting it to make use of this dragoons cooldown skill, but then had to decide who to redirect it at. A quick glance with his eyes told him that the Monk, Druid, Assassin, and other Dragoon were all glancing in the direction of the attacking dragoon¡¯s skill, being mindful of where it was going. The battlemaster was too focused on controlling his five floating weapons to look, and the Maul-wielding fighter didn¡¯t care to look.
Both would be prime targets to redirect the strike at, but Aegis knew he¡¯d still be able to make use of the reckless behavior from the fighter and instead, made the split second decision to strike both his wings out at the glowing orange spear, grabbing the shaft just beyond the dangerous bladed tip so that he could apply force to angle the shot towards the battlemaster.
The opposing strength stats of himself and the dragoon doing the attack went in his favor, given that dragoons are a dexterity-based class. This allowed Aegis¡¯ plan to go off perfectly - the orange beam of light shot out from the dragoon¡¯s spear just as Aegis shifted to the left and re-angled the spear to the right enough so that it shot out at the assassin player and battlemaster player. Of the two, the assassin was the only one to jump out of the way, while the battlemaster looked down at the beam as it impacted him, like a deer caught in headlights.
¡°Combatant Ladran has been eliminated.¡±
¡°Tch, move out of the way you moron.¡± The offending dragoon shouted out in frustration as the battlemaster¡¯s weapons fell to the ground, ready to be looted by the victorious player. His body hadn¡¯t even finished dissipating from the gameworld before the assassin player let out an angry roar.
¡°Back off, and I¡¯ll keep him busy until the healing timer kicks in.¡± The assassin ordered the others as he spread out the fingers on both of his hands. Both dragoons complied first, followed by the monk. The maul-wielder hesitated in backing off, but eventually did so as the assassin used his spell quickly after his warning went out. Ten wires formed on the tips of each of his fingers, and at the ends of each wire appeared a dagger. Immediately after they¡¯d finished forming, all wires began to rapidly spin around the assassin, cutting into anything and everything around him as he lunged at Aegis. Rather than completely try to dodge the attack, however, Aegis lunged at the slow-to-react druid with less dexterity and strength stats than the other classes, and grabbed onto the druid in his cobra form as he attempted to slither away.
The other players who¡¯d backed off were weary of intervening due to the violent, high damage nature of the wire attack from the assassin as it engulfed Aegis, but Aegis made sure to yank the druid with a grapple back into the wires alongside himself, so that he too was taking damage.
Desperate, the druid quickly shifted back into his humanoid form to break out of Aegis¡¯ grapple, with a bright puff of green mist erupting from his body which momentarily blinded Aegis as he lost grip of the druid - but Aegis had seen Ren beast shift enough times to have a sense for where the druid¡¯s real body would form after the transformation and was able to quickly re-grapple the druid, then yank him with great force into the assassin player, allowing the wires and daggers to rapidly slice him up.
Aegis then quickly cast a heal on himself to recover from the massive damage he was taking from the wires, while watching as the druid failed to get out of them or heal himself enough to offset the damage they were dealing to him.
¡°Combatant Chijio has been eliminated.¡±
¡°What are you idiots doing?¡± Iouen shouted angrily at the central part of the arena where the others were fighting. It wasn¡¯t just him who¡¯d gotten annoyed by how events were unfolding, as the hidden ranger suddenly fired a large volley of arrows at Aegis while he was trapped in the wires, still taking cinderbolt damage. The amount of damage he was taking, despite his mithral armor, was massive. He was forced into repeatedly healing himself to survive, and the two dragoons, monk, and maul-wielding fighter were eagerly readying ranged attacks from outside the wirestorm to join in on the damage.
Finley, however, wasn¡¯t letting the chance go to waste. The moment the volley of arrows had been fired at Aegis, he¡¯d managed to finally pinpoint the location of the last combatant - a ranger hiding camouflage near the southern end of the arena. He was leaning against the wall similarly to how Iouen had been hiding, with his skin and clothing morphed to match the colors and textures of the object he was up against.
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With a flash of his black wings, he launched himself away from the cleric who was engaging him in melee combat, and maneuvered around several redirected arrows that had been swirling around him, compliments of Iouen. Within seconds, he arrived at the location of the ranger who¡¯d been too focused on maximizing his damage on Aegis, and managed to catch him off guard by crashing down on him from above.
Engulfed in black mist, Finley¡¯s greatsword did massive damage, and it only took a few fast swings against the ranger to take him off, despite the efforts of the ranger trying to avoid the strikes and disengage from Finley.
¡°Combatant Prondar has been eliminated.¡±
With this, the arrow barrage on Aegis ceased, allowing him to equalize his health with repeated healing casts. The other combatants who were eagerly waiting outside of the wirestorm saw this, and one of the dragoons reared up a strike while the maul-wielder prepared another earth-based spell, causing the head of his large weapon to begin giving off a brown glow. Both spells would be coming at Aegis from opposing sides. Aegis knew the one most likely to dodge a redirect would be the attentive dragoon, but he couldn¡¯t let the opportunity go to waste.
He knew he needed to not only dodge both of their attacks, but make them hit each other. The dragon¡¯s glowing spear shot off first, piercing through the spinning daggers and wires. Aegis couldn¡¯t get close enough with his wings to redirect it, given the distance the dragoon was attacking from, and the fact that the wire attack was binding him up and slowing his movement massively.
The assassin continued to grin at Aegis¡¯ predicament, proudly staring at the red damage numbers repeatedly appearing above Aegis¡¯ head. The only thought on his mind, in that moment, was that he¡¯d be the one collecting the bounty. The last thing he was expecting was for Aegis to dash towards him, to get closer to the source of the wires.
Still, the assassin was alert enough to jump backwards and try to avoid Aegis¡¯ lunge, seeing Aegis¡¯ hand extended out towards the collar of his leather armor as he attempted to grab it. Despite jumping backwards, though, he moved nowhere. A guard from Aegis¡¯ shield was projected right behind the assassin, causing his back to bump into it and prevent his backwards movement, which in turn allowed Aegis to quickly grab the collar of the assassins armor and oppose the assassins strength stat in a grapple check. Only, Aegis already knew the stats of the assassin - he¡¯d researched it before the brawl, and knew he¡¯d have enough difference in strength that he could not only grab the assassin, but yank him towards where Aegis¡¯ had been standing and switch places.
This in turn resulted in the assassin being in the path of the dragoons high damage cooldown, taking massive damage. It wasn¡¯t enough to outright kill the assassin, but Aegis threw in an extra quick claw attack for good measure, and that did the trick.
The others barely had time to process what had happened as the wires began to dissipate from the game world. The message of a combatant being defeated hadn¡¯t even gone out yet, and the attack from the maul-wielder fired off.
He slammed his maul into the ground, causing the arena floor to crack open and form a fissure, which quickly ripped apart the tiles as it grew outward in front of the fighter¡¯s body towards Aegis, the fading assassin, and the dragoon who stood opposite. The dragon still had a dumbstruck expression on his face, processing the fact that he¡¯d just accidentally hit the assassin instead of Aegis.
Nonetheless, he saw the fissure coming and made a last minute attempt to jump up into the air to get out of the path of its high, ground based damage. Unfortunately, Aegis knew this player had a tendency to dodge upwards - he¡¯d seen plenty of footage of his fighting style on his mercenary page. Thus, Aegis used his second shield projection to form his shield vertically in the air above the dragoon, causing his head to slam into it. This, in turn, knocked him back to the ground where he ate the full force of the fissure attack, which dealt massive damage, and repeated damage for anyone who remained standing on top of the fissure.
Due to the shock of the projection forming, and the time it took the dragoon to get back to his feet, he didn¡¯t have enough time to get out of the fissure before it took him out.
¡°Combatant Pagrue has been eliminated.¡±
¡°Combatant Quavio has been eliminated.¡±
Within the span of a few seconds, both were taken out by friendly fire. The monk, dragoon, and fighter all cautiously glared at Aegis as he flapped his wings in the air to move upwards and away from the crackling fissure, the loud sounds of the earths destruction dominating their ears.
¡°Come on, seriously?¡± The wizard, who maintained cinder bolts on Aegis, yelled out at them. Aegis landed softly a good distance away and began rapidly healing himself to recover the damage and get himself back to full. ¡°Stop him, he was almost dead. Don¡¯t let him just heal!¡±
¡°No, you idiots, You need a proper plan! Stop using your skills so foolishly!¡± Iouen shouted out at them. The monk and dragoon listened to this command, but the maul-wielder did not, and rushed forward towards Aegis with reckless abandon. Aegis lifted his shield to block a strike, then another, but didn¡¯t need to put any effort in retaliating, as instead a pair of black wings descended down from the arena sky and crashed into the fighter, a black greatsword swinging at his back and cutting him down.
¡°Combatant Ouergan has been eliminated.¡±
As the fighter¡¯s body disappeared from the arena, his maul fell to the floor, and Finley landed softly beside Aegis. The black and white wings contrasted heavily with one another once more as they stood side by side.
The cleric walked forward anxiously to align himself with the monk and dragoon, not but 20 meters in front of Aegis and Finley. While Iouen instead positioned himself a good distance away alongside the wizard with the fire staff.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, my cinderbolts are not able to out damage his aura of healing.¡± The wizard apologized to the others.
¡°You shouldn¡¯t look at it that way¡¡± Iouen said in a calm voice. ¡°Instead, think of it as, your cinderbolts are counteracting his aura of healing. And all that¡¯s about to change.¡±
¡°5 Minutes have passed since combat has begun. All sources of healing received by players will now be reduced by 50%.¡±
¡°Good, that means that he won¡¯t be able to keep healing through our attacks.¡± The monk cracked his knuckles.
¡°But it also means their damage cooldowns will be up soon.¡± The cleric commented.
¡°Precisely. However, we still have the numbers advantage. If you¡¯d all just listen to me, I have a strategy that can guarantee our victory.¡± Iouen replied confidently, though the others did not look so confident.
¡°Oh really? Care to share it with the rest of the class?¡± Finley asked in a mocking tone, but got no response.
¡°Hm.¡± Emerill smirked as he was led back inside the meeting chamber of the Sages of Destiny guildhall. All the officer''s eyes were on him, and he was reveling in the attention. ¡°Figured you¡¯d want me back.¡±
Makaroth looked up at the livestream of Aegis as he stood in the arena alongside Finley, with only 5 opposing players remaining, then glared back down to Emerill.
¡°Tell your friend we¡¯ll pay. I¡¯m hiring him. End this.¡± Makaroth spoke coldly.
¡°Seriously?¡± Synopse asked with a tone of disbelief, but he got no response.
¡°We don¡¯t work on promises.¡± Emerill shrugged.
¡°Pay him.¡± Makaroth ordered the VGN employee, who stood relatively close to the doorway that Emerill had come through. He ignored Synopse¡¯s reaction completely.
¡°Yes sir.¡± The VGN hurriedly shot up from the table and rushed towards Emeril.
¡°Isn¡¯t this a bit much? Is it really that bad if he makes it to the tournament? We¡¯ll be-¡± Synopse was cut off.
¡°I¡¯m not gonna have that little shit ruined everything I¡¯ve worked towards. This tournament is OUR big show. Not his.¡± Makaroth snapped back at Synopse angrily, silencing the room so that the only sounds to be heard were that of the VGN employee trading a large sack of coins to Emerill.
¡°Pleasure doing business with you. I¡¯ll let Finley know about his new mission right away.¡± Emerill replied with a devious tone, before opening up his interface and fidgeting around with it for a few seconds.
Pyri, who was seemingly watching Aegis¡¯ live stream alongside the others, let out a long, drawn out sighing sound as she canceled her invisible spell that she¡¯d cast in the center of the old, run down registration hall. Once the invisibility faded on the spell, the others were able to see it - a scrying spell had been up in front of her the entire time of which she was keeping an eye on Emeril, utilizing the equipment that he¡¯d dropped when Aegis had defeat him back in the graveyard of Orm.
Lina, Sapphire, Herilon, Rakkan and Darkshot were all shocked to see the appearance of the scry out of the corner of their eyes, beyond the transparent livestream viewers they were watching in their interface.
¡°You were scrying?¡± Sapphire asked curiously.
¡°What did you see?¡± Lina asked worriedly.
¡°One moment.¡± Pyri replied, as if she was inconvenienced by something minor. She then quickly logged out of the gameworld. As Jillian, she then hopped out of her Simbox and ran over to Eli¡¯s, and hit the Simbox communicator to speak to him directly.
¡°Makaroth just paid him 2 million to turn on you. Knock his ass out.¡± Jillian said as quickly as she could, knowing full well the time shift between the gameworld and the real world was unforgivingly not in her favor.
Aegis, who remained standing beside Finley with their wings glowing closely, heard her voice traveling to his ears through the Simbox interface. He saw the five enemies in front of him, and pulled his shield off of his back as if he were preparing to engage them.
¡°Be careful of his Virabhadra, it¡¯s a slow spell animation once he¡¯s casted it, all you need to do is keep your distance and not let him gra-¡± Iouen began to explain to the others, but was interrupted.
¡°VIRABHADRA!¡± Aegis shouted, slamming his shield into Finley as he stood beside him, as Finley was in the middle of swinging his greatsword down on Aegis.
¡°Pierci-¡± Finley wasn¡¯t able to get the spell off, despite them both casting nearly at the same time. Pyri¡¯s warning had reached him just as Finley had received the message from Emerill through his friends list, but Aegis was the first to react, causing an undeniably deadly amount of damage to Finley and killing him instantly.
¡°Combatant Finley has been eliminated.¡±
¡°Two million well spent.¡± Aegis called out with a big grin, speaking to no one in particular. The other five combatants were looking at him in complete shock.
252: Iouen the Strategist Pt.1
Chapter 252: Iouen the Strategist Pt.1
A few moments earlier, Finley stood alongside Aegis within the brawl arena. Their wings stood idle, the light and darkness clashing and competing for the space between them. Aegis had his shield fastened to his back and his claws in front, in a fighting pose as he glared across the arena at their remaining five opponents. At that moment, a message appeared in front of his screen, from Emerill.
Finley eyed the message, not wanting to raise his hands to wave it away and alert Aegis that something was up. Instead, he grinded his fingers around the hilt of his greatsword, holding it in front of himself. Aegis¡¯ attention was completely off of him, and his Piercing Darkness skill was off of cooldown. Even if a projected shield were to appear, it would still deal enough damage to kill Aegis in one hit, specifically because the skill did bonus damage to light-aligned players.
Still, Finley hesitated. His eyes wandered from Emerill¡¯s message, to Aegis¡¯ openings as he stood beside him, unaware of the change in Finley¡¯s allegiance. One second passed, then another, then a third, and he continued to take no action until finally he saw Aegis casually removing his shield from his back.
¡°Be careful of his Virabhadra, it¡¯s a slow spell animation once he¡¯s casted it, all you need to do is keep your distance and not let him gra-¡± Iouen spoke, as Finley saw Aegis ever so subtly posturing to bash his shield at him, not the players in front of them. Even seeing this, Finley did nothing, but his lips ever so slightly began to curl up at the corners into a smirk.
¡°VIRAB-¡± the moment Aegis began casting it, is when Finley finally took action, and half-heartedly swung his greatsword down towards Aegis.
¡°PIERC-¡±
¡°HADRA!¡± Aegis finished the cast, erupting in light and causing massive damage to Finley, forcing him out of the brawl. His vision went blank, and a few moments later he reappeared inside the registration hall alongside the others, in the same place he¡¯d been before entering the brawl. The only difference was, his greatsword was absent.
¡°What the hell was that?¡± Rakkan was the first to react, stomping forward on the creaking wooden floor towards Finley, then grabbing him by the collar of his armor and lifting him up off his feet. Similarly, Lina had drawn out her daggers and was glaring angrily at him.
¡°Once an evil bastard, always an evil bastard, huh?¡± Sapphire eyed him as she pulled a carrot from her inventory and bit into it.
¡°Time to throw you back in a prison cell.¡± Herilon joined in.
¡°Whoa whoa whoa, easy guys¡¡± Finley raised his hands peacefully. ¡°It¡¯s not like I broke any laws. A brawl is an FFA in the end, isn¡¯t it?¡± Finley smiled half-heartedly, staring down at the furious eyes of Rakkan. ¡°I mean, you¡¯re welcome to attack me, but, it¡¯d just result in you being thrown in jail, not me. Unless I¡¯m about to bear witness to the first instance of corruption by the leading Kordas guild?¡± He added in a condescending tone, glancing between Herilon and Rakkan.
¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Darkshot said.
¡°Put him down. It¡¯s not worth it.¡± Sapphire said. Rakkan was hesitant to comply, but eventually lowered Finley back to the floor so that his feet landed on the wood in front of him, then released his grip on Finley¡¯s collar. Finley casually brushed his armor where Rakkan had grabbed him, just as the door leading inside bursted open. An annoyed Cheryl quickly stomped inside the room and pushed Rakkan out of the way, taking his place and grabbing Finley by the collar of his armor once more to lift him up off his feet with her impressively high strength stat.
¡°Are you kidding me?¡± Cheryl roared at him, taking everyone else by surprise. ¡°What the hell was that?¡±
¡°What was what?¡± Finley asked, while simultaneously the group saw Pyri begin to re-materialize inside the gameworld in the room across from them, in the exact same location that she¡¯d logged out from.
¡°You know exactly what I mean.¡± Cheryl snarled at him. Pyri quickly took stock of the situation, eying everyone in the room carefully.
¡°He got wind of what was going on faster than I could attack him.¡± Finley shrugged as best as he could given his current position.
¡°Heh.¡± Pyri chuckled loudly, causing Cheryl to turn her head to catch Pyri in the corner of her eye. ¡°There¡¯s no way. I scryed on your friends and discovered of the bunch, one of them was waiting around Savringard outside the Sages of Destiny guild hall. I figured something was up, so I kept my eye on that one, and the moment he made the deal, I warned Aegis through his Simbox communicator - the fastest way possible to alert him. Even then, there was absolutely no way I was able to alert him before you were told by your friend the deal was made.¡±
¡°Damn right.¡± Cheryl¡¯s anger was ignited from Pyri¡¯s statements, lifting Finley higher up into the air. ¡°Because of you, we¡¯re losing all our money.¡±
¡°Wait. What?¡± Herilon looked at him curiously.
¡°You hesitated? On purpose?¡± Darkshot asked to clarify the situation.
¡°Calm down.¡± Finley rolled his eyes at Cheryl. ¡°The contract that I gave to Emerill specifically stated that upon payment, I would turn on Aegis and become his enemy. Nothing in the contract stated that I actually needed to defeat Aegis. I told you, always play both sides of a conflict.¡±
¡°What about playing both sides? You coulda got in good with Makaroth if you took him out.¡± Cheryl grumbled, but slowly lowered Finley to the ground.
¡°Yeah, I guess I¡¯m playing favorites.¡± He smirked. ¡°I¡¯ve done my part, the rest is up to your party leader.¡± He spoke to the others, before turning back to Cheryl. ¡°We should probably get out of here though, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re welcome here anymore.¡±
¡°You¡¯re not.¡± Lina growled at them. Without another word, Cheryl and Finley hastily made their way out of the registration hall and headed back out into the streets of Kordas.
¡°Whoa, what a quick reaction from Aegis! I knew that the Finley guy was no good!¡± Ren cheered, his voice barely audible above the other cheering players that stood around him within the Kordas tavern. Everyone was applauding Aegis for his quick and decisive reaction to the situation, throwing fists in the air and hooting - except for Quinn and Artaphernes, who were staring at the large transparent livestream broadcast screen above the bar with a look of concern.
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Ren, in his excitement, turned to his older sister and saw her look - quickly stoppin his cheers to eye her curiously.
¡°What¡¯s wrong? There¡¯s only five enemies left! Aegis has basically already won, right?¡± Ren asked, but Quinn softly shook her head in disagreement. ¡°But he was handling them no problem when there were 11 of them. Five should be easy!¡±
¡°No. It¡¯s the opposite.¡± Artaphernes replied on behalf of the worried Quinn. ¡°If Iouen takes control of the situation and they stop playing so recklessly, Aegis is still at an extreme disadvantage. From here on in, it¡¯s going to get extremely difficult for Aegis to win, especially without Finley.¡±
¡°That certainly simplifies things.¡± Iouen was the first to shake off the shock of what they¡¯d just witnessed. Aegis quickly re-applied his shield onto his back, then took his fighting stance towards the others.
¡°No virabhadra means we can go in without restraint, right?¡± The monk player asked.
¡°Wrong.¡± Iouen shouted aggressively. ¡°You¡¯ve all been playing this fight incorrectly from the beginning. We¡¯re up against a unique class holder with equipment that far surpasses our own. Despite our numbers advantage, we were never the aggressors here. The optimal strategy is to not engage him.¡± Iouen ordered, causing the Monk and Dragoon to take a few steps back away from Aegis.
Aegis let out a frustrated huff of air after hearing these words, and broke into a sprint towards the two remaining martial fighters.
¡°Disengage. Do not let him into your melee range.¡± Iouen ordered them. Their hesitation was very apparent, neither felt inclined to flee from the claws of Aegis as he quickly closed the gap. ¡°DO IT IF YOU WANT TO WIN!¡± Iouen shouted, breaking through their hesitation. Finally, they complied. The dragoon and Monk began using their superior dexterity to create space between themselves and Aegis. The moment they began running, Aegis gave up on charging forward towards them.
¡°The wizards cinderbolts are low damage, but once the 10 minutes are up, his healing will be ineffective and it will be enough to eventually kill him. A wizard on their own will have difficulty kiting and keeping distance from a martial fighter, but with our help, we should be able to protect him. All we have to do is stay away from Aegis and let the cinderbolts burn him down, and he has absolutely no counterplay to this strategy on his own. That is how we take advantage of our numbers. Understand?¡± Iouen explained to the others.
Aegis turned to glare across the arena at the distant Iouen, but made no attempts to charge at him.
¡°It¡¯s unfortunate that we cannot be in a party for this brawl, that means all of our communications must be done vocally, allowing our opponent to hear everything we say. But even if he knows our strategy, there isn¡¯t much he can do.¡± Iouen continued, as the dragoon, the monk, and the cleric all began posturing to protect the wizard, while the wizard maintained control of the 4 cinderbolts burning away at Aegis¡¯ health.
Iouen, on the other hand, began to strafe off to the side slowly, an arrow nocked in his bow and aimed at Aegis¡¯ head, but not firing.
¡°Remember, any damage you deal will be added to his Varibhadra that he will undoubtedly try to use in 5 minutes, once the healing is set to 0%.¡±
¡°Why is he just letting him strategize like that?¡± Sapphire shouted in frustration at her livestream broadcast.
¡°He¡¯s not ¡®letting¡¯ him.¡± Herilon corrected her.
¡°We studied all of these mercenaries. Iouen the strategist always wins any large scale mercenary battles he leads, because on top of him having incredible game knowledge and great strategies, he never dies during the battles.¡± Pyri explained.
¡°His kiting skills are amazing. Aegis isn¡¯t going after him because he knows it¡¯d be a waste of time. With this many opponents to use as a shield, he¡¯d never reach Iouen even if he went all out.¡± Herilon added on.
¡°So he¡¯s screwed, right? If they really hold back Aegis for 5 minutes, they can just burn him down slowly with those cinderbolts?¡± Darkshot asked. No one had a response to this, instead the air filled with tension as they all went back to watching the livestreams on display in their respective interfaces.
Aegis quickly glanced between his opponents, then eyed the timer for the duration of the match. It had just hit the 6 minute mark, and as Iouen had instructed them, none of his opponents were showing any signs of aggression. Instead, his health was slowly being burnt away by the four cinderbolts that were being pressed on various parts of his body.
He knew from watching Pyri that trying to shake off the bolts would be a waste of time. He knew from watching the video footage of Iouen that trying to catch him would be a waste of time. A dragoon and Monk both had impressively high dexterity, they alone would be fast enough to stay ahead of Aegis and keep the wizard safe, and any attacks he did land, the cleric would block with his shield or guards and heal it back up. As he pondered all of this, he was forced to cast a heal on himself - with the 50% healing reduction, his aura of healing alone was no longer enough to offset the cinderbolt damage.
¡°Aura of beauty.¡± Aegis then cast, doubling up on his auras to boost his stamina recovery.
¡°Here he comes.¡± Iouen warned them, and all of them took a fighting stance.
¡°It¡¯s a foolproof strategy, I¡¯m really at a disadvantage here.¡± Aegis grumbled across the arena, just loud enough for them to hear. ¡°The thing about strategies though, is, well, it¡¯s one thing to plan them out and theorycraft them.¡± Aegis dug his feet into the tiles of the floor, taking a fighting stance as his wings postured backwards on his back, preparing to thrust him forward with a violent flap. ¡°It¡¯s another thing to execute them.¡± Aegis mumbled to himself, before launching forward towards his opponents.
The monk and dragoon reacted by jumping backwards, but Aegis immediately dug his wings into the ground to stop his forward momentum and instead opened his palms towards the wizard, emitting bright flashes of white light from his fists as he used his holy mastery to fire off multiple smites towards the wizard. The wizard was watching Aegis intently and saw the attacks coming, making an attempt to jump to the side to avoid the smites, but a shield projection formed on his right to block him - the wizard side jumping into the shield and hitting it with his shoulder.
He then attempted to jump left to avoid the linear projectiles of the smites, but a second guard projection formed, causing the wizard to hit his shoulder into that as well. With milliseconds left, he knew jumping forward or backward wouldn¡¯t take him out of the path of the smites, and was about to take a direct hit if not for a third projected shield appearing in front of the wizard at the last second, cast by the cleric. The cleric blocked Aegis¡¯ smites, then quickly began healing himself from the damage he took.
¡°Multishot.¡± Iouen shouted, firing several arrows out of his bow at once. ¡°Pinning shot.¡± He added, causing three of the 15 fired arrows to begin glowing green. Aegis aggressively ran at the arrows rather than away from them, getting close enough to the volley to create a shield projection directly in front of the glowing green arrows, so that Iouen had no time to redirect them away from the guard. The impact on the guard caused the pinning shot vines to erupt out of the projection, which faded 2 seconds later and left the vines to fall pointlessly to the ground.
Aegis took a good amount of damage from casting guards directly in the path of the volley, but it completely negated Iouen¡¯s attack and wasted his mana. He quickly healed himself from the damage while launching himself forward toward the wizard, simultaneously the cleric player moved to position himself in front of the wizard with his shield.
The wizard, seeing Aegis approach, began running backwards away, and Aegis postured as if he would be charging directly at the cleric¡¯s shield, but at the last moment launched himself up off the ground and flapped his wings to get a good amount of height above the cleric. The monk dashed and jump kicked through the air to cut off Aegis¡¯ aerial charge, but Aegis created a guard on his left that the kick hit instead.
Aegis still took the damage from the kick, but his momentum wasn¡¯t thrown off as he dove at the wizard. Next, the dragoon came in to play defense. Using a high jump with glowing magic on his feet, the dragoon was able to leap high up into the air.
¡°Sky shatter!¡± The dragoon called out, before whipping his spear with incredible force downward directly in the path of Aegis, the spear giving off an ominous red glow. It shot like a bullet towards the ground as Aegis quickly created a second guard projection in front of himself to stop his forward momentum, preventing him from colliding with the path of the dragoon¡¯s attack.
Chapter 253: Iouen the Strategist Pt.2
Chapter 253: Iouen the Strategist Pt. 2
¡°How dishonorable.¡± Kenji spoke as he stood beside Yumily, on the deck of their airship as it continued to sail above the abyss. Kaito flanked her on the other side, and the group of them were watching a livestream broadcast on display, the livestream viewer floating above the deck of the ship in front of them on a large transparent screen.
¡°They¡¯re not even hiding the fact that they all intend to team up on him now.¡± Kaito commented. Yumily said nothing, but had both of her hands clasped tightly together into a fist in front of her chest as she watched intently.
¡°C¡¯mon kid.¡± Shinji murmured to himself as he anticipated Aegis¡¯ next movements with his fingers, standing anxiously within his broadcaster editor simulation with all of Aegis¡¯ camera angles visible in front of him - including a shot of Hae-won who was watching Aegis¡¯ stream silently, sitting on the edge of her seat. She¡¯d lost all calm and focus, and was enveloped in the situation, as was Aegis¡¯ audience.
A brief glance at Aegis¡¯ livestream chat saw it moving rather slowly considering the viewership numbers were inching up towards 3 million.
¡°I still don¡¯t get why he went that route to qualify for the tournament? I thought he wanted a showdown with us?¡± Hajax asked with a condescending tone. ¡°The guys an idiot - 5 on one, he¡¯s got no chance.¡± Hajax then shook his head dismissively. He, Zuon and Seraxus were watching Aegis¡¯ live stream while simultaneously Seraxus was streaming, the group of them sitting in an otherwise abandoned and rundown tavern with destroyed furniture scattered about, and several large holes in the wall.
¡°Nah¡ it¡¯s fitting. If he wants a shot at me, he¡¯s gotta at least be able to win that.¡± Seraxus smirked.
¡°Look at him.¡± Zuon motioned to Aegis¡¯ expression on the stream. ¡°He still thinks he can win.¡±
¡°Cause he can. If he¡¯s smart enough.¡± Seraxus replied confidently.
Aegis lightly flapped his wings to glide back down to the ground of the arena floor, not wanting to reveal to his opponents just how bad he was at controlling his wings to fly - at best they were tools for jumping higher and gliding down slowly from otherwise dangerous heights, or staying hovering in one spot in the air for a bit.
His feet softly touched down on the sand-covered tiles of the arena floor, his eyes focused on his opponents. The cleric in the middle, with the monk on his left and dragoon on his right. The wizard further back, and the ranger Iouen behind him. All weapons drawn, pointed in Aegis¡¯ direction. The time ticked down, and none of them took a step forward, doing their best to wait out the clock.
Aegis had his eyes jump from the clock, to his viewership numbers. He ran his mind quickly over the abilities he had in his arsenal, then reminded himself of the abilities of his enemies. The footage he¡¯d seen of Iouen¡¯s incredible kiting skills repeatedly played in his mind, and the thought of ever catching him and locking him down seemed impossible. His linear smites were not so easily manipulated as cinderbolts, they were too easy to dodge and block even if he used his guards.
He slowly began to clench his fists tighter and tighter in frustration. All the variables were presented before him, like a question on an exam - but he couldn¡¯t find a solution. The sound of laughter began to echo in the back of his mind. He briefly glanced back up to his viewership numbers, and he knew Makaroth was watching. Mocking him, laughing at this hopeless situation he¡¯d put him in. Being able to stop him from even participating in the tournament, how pathetic was he? There were so many more obstacles before him, and he wasn¡¯t even getting past the starting line. The laugher got louder, and he lost his focus, glaring angrily and bearing his fangs towards his opponents but still taking no actions.
¡®Do I even need to participate in this stupid tournament? Aren¡¯t I just playing into their hands?¡¯ Aegis¡¯ thoughts wandered. ¡®Just to stop Seraxus - to have a place where he can¡¯t flee from combat by any means¡¡¯ he reminded himself why he was doing this. The laughter slowly faded into the background of his mind as Rakkan took its place.
¡°How can I tell him to control his anger, when I can¡¯t even do it myself?¡± Aegis mumbled out loud to himself. Not loud enough for the others in the arena to hear, but enough that his viewers could. He quickly shook off his frustration, hopping in place and shaking out his shoulders in an attempt to reset his mind. ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as an exam question that doesn¡¯t have a solution¡¡± He spoke louder, this time so that his opponents could hear.
¡°You¡¯re not going to come up with a strategy that beats us. Not in the¡¡± Iouen eyed the timer, ¡°three minutes you have remaining. There isn¡¯t one.¡±
Aegis ignored him completely, he instead pulled up his interface and began pressing buttons on it wildly, his eyes racing from various menus and documents. Seeing him so unguarded and focused on his interface caused the dragoon and monk to look to one another curiously - the temptation to strike him while he was vulnerable was becoming too much to bear.
¡°Don¡¯t.¡± Iouen warned them as he saw the dragoon take a single step forward. This was enough to dissuade him from taking any actions. A few more moments went by as Aegis continued to fidget around with his interface, until he suddenly closed it out with wide eyes and looked forward at the group with determination.
¡°Two thousand, two hundred and thirty three. That¡¯s doable.¡± Aegis spoke suddenly. Iouen heard this number and squinted his eyes curiously, taking a moment to process what meaning it could possibly have.
¡°Two thousand¡ What¡¯s that number mean?¡± The wizard asked, looking to Iouen anxiously. Before Iouen could respond, Aegis began dashing forward at incredible speed - this time going directly for the cleric. This was enough for Iouen to have the number clarified.
¡°That¡¯s the amount of DPS he needs to burn through the cleric¡¯s mana supply before the timer is up.¡± Iouen shouted. ¡°He found a weakness, because the cleric can¡¯t kite him. INTERRUPT HIS ATTACKS!¡± Iouen shouted worriedly.
¡°Shit.¡± The cleric anxiously dug his feet into the ground and raised his shield up as an angry winged Aegis closed in on him. The monk and dragoon both flanked to the sides as Aegis arrived and took swings at him with their weapons, but Aegis utilized guards to block their initial strikes while slashing out his claws at the shield of the cleric, the blades scratching over its surface.
The cleric braced the hit to reduce the damage, but Aegis wasn¡¯t making any attempts to bypass brace or the shield, instead focused on hitting it as much as possible. His rate of attack was impressively relentless.
¡°DON¡¯T LET HIM SWING LIKE THAT!¡± Iouen shouted in frustration. The wizard was the next to jump into action, and began manipulating his cinderbolts so that they were no longer simply burning Aegis, but were wrapping their cinders around his claws and applying magical force to redirect the swings upwards and downwards away from the shield of the cleric. It was working in stopping Aegis¡¯ attacks with his claws, so he added in his wings.
He struck out with the pointed ends of the wings, dealing high amounts of holy damage as they slammed into the shield and released flashes of holy energy upon each impact.
Taking the damage he was, the cleric was focused to start casting repeated heals on himself. The healing was being reduced by half just as Aegis¡¯ heals were, making it difficult for him to keep up with the damage he was taking. Iouen saw this, and was forced into action. He began firing volleys of arrows and curving them down at Aegis from above, hoping to encourage Aegis to disengage in order to dodge the arrows that were raining down on him.
Aegis did no such thing, instead began swatting at the arrows with his wings to minimize the damage, while repeatedly re-angling his shield projections on his left and right to prevent the dragoon and monk from getting through.
His guards, wings, claws all tied up by his opponents, he quickly flicked his shield off of his back, then dug his left foot into the straps of his shield as it landed on the tiled floor beneath his feet. He was able to quickly, loosely fasten his shield to the sole of his feet, then suddenly kicked his shield out at the cleric¡¯s shield to utilize shield bash.
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It worked - the sound of Aegis¡¯ shield clashing with the clerics rang out through the arena. It didn¡¯t do as much damage to the cleric as Aegis would¡¯ve liked, though.
¡°Bless.¡± Aegis was forced to cast using words, given all of his limbs were now tied up. The holy energy from his bless spell wrapped around all of his weapons - claws, shield, fists, wings. ¡°Greater heal.¡± He followed it up with a self-heal to offset the damage he was taking from all of his opponents as they attempted to hold him back.
The wizard warped his cinderbolts completely off of Aegis¡¯ body, forced to use them purely defensively. His cinder controls paled in comparison to Pyri¡¯s, and was only able to actively manipulate two at a time. This meant he wasn¡¯t able to deflect the two claws AND the shield, but Aegis¡¯ shield foot was forcing him into awkward, hopping and spinning movements. It worked in his favor, adding more unpredictability to his attack patterns as he repeatedly lunged forward into the cleric, pushing him back and moving their engagement further from the center of the arena and closer to the outer walls.
¡°You gotta be kidding me.¡± Iouen gritted his teeth as he saw the damage numbers hitting the cleric - Aegis was easily clearing his proposed DPS check of two thousand two hundred on the Cleric. ¡°I¡¯ve been pressured less by entire guild armies.¡± Iouen grumbled to himself as he charged forward, closing in on the battle now that he saw his volleys were completely ineffective at stopping Aegis¡¯ damage.
¡°He¡¯s running me out of mana fast!¡± The cleric exclaimed.
¡°I can¡¯t get past these fucking shield projections!¡± The dragoon shouted in frustration.
¡°If you¡¯re holding anything back, I suggest you stop.¡± The wizard called out.
¡°Right.¡± The monk took a deep breath. ¡°Tiger stance.¡± He called out, suddenly causing yellow transparent fangs to magically appear around his fists and feet. Hearing this gave Aegis pause, forcing him to turn to his left as the monk¡¯s speed suddenly increased rapidly.
¡°Good.¡± Iouen let out a sigh of relief upon seeing this cooldown being used. ¡°You¡¯re a tiger stance user.¡±
The next punch from the monk slammed directly into Aegis¡¯ shield projection - his fists were stopped by the shield, but the magical fangs passed through it and shot out towards Aegis¡¯ head, forcing Aegis to turn his head from the cleric and tilt his neck to the side to dodge the fanged projectile that flew over his shoulder. The monk followed up with more attacks, each sending out fang projectiles that bypassed his projections.
Aegis released the projection that was separating himself from the monk, and instead of trying to just dodge the monk''s strikes, he reached out at his next punch with his claws in an attempt to deflect his fists. His claw strike was disrupted by the cinderbolts of the wizard, though, allowing the monk to punch forward directly at Aegis.
Aegis then instead moved his left wing to redirect the fist, but saw out of the corner of his eye a close range pinning shot that¡¯d been fired at it, coming from Iouen who¡¯d closed in to make his shots much less predictable.
A pinning shot, Aegis knew, was something he couldn¡¯t afford to get hit by - it¡¯d allow the cleric to create distance and reset somewhat. Any time he allowed the cleric to recover would be time he couldn¡¯t afford.
¡°Smite.¡± Aegis could angle his hand and fired a smite below his left wing, lifting up the left wing just enough so as to not hit it with his own attack. The smite then collided with the pinning shot, exploding the arrow mid-air and preventing the strike from hitting him.
In turn, though, he had no attention left to spend on the direct fist attack the monk was sending at him, and it crashed into the center of his chest, knocking him back off his feet and causing him to slam into his own shield projection that lay behind him, separating him from the dragoon.
The dragoon however was anticipating this moment of Aegis being off balance, and violently swept his spear along the floor of the arena, slicing out at the back of Aegis¡¯ ankles from underneath his shield projection and landing a direct damaging attack of his own.
The monk didn¡¯t let up and took several more rapid punches and kicks at Aegis. He re-created his projection in front of himself to disrupt the momentum of his strikes, but the magical fangs were still shooting through the projections at Aegis and forcing him to dodge - all while this was happening he was not dealing any damage to the cleric.
Again, another several arrows shot at Aegis from behind, and the dragoon did another sweeping spear strike at his feet. This time Aegis lifted his foot with the shield on it and angled it at the speartip, the pain from the blade cutting through his ankles finally subsiding after two seconds as his wincing expression cleared up.
He managed to brace the spear, but was forced to use all of his limbs defensively and heal himself over the next few seconds.
¡°See? He¡¯s good, but he¡¯s not unbeatable.¡± Iouen shouted encouragingly to them as they were managing to get Aegis¡¯ attacks under control despite the high amount of aggression he was outputting. Two wings, four limbs, two shield projections. "That''s an impressively high APM to control all of that, but it''s gotta be your limit right? How long can you stay that fo-¡±
Aegis took his challenge to heart. He began wiggling his fingers to cast multiple smites, all angled at the cleric. Five shots at a time fired linearly out of his hands, exploding into the Clerics¡¯ shield.
¡°I¡¯ll take you all on.¡± Aegis roared angrily, sending a chill down Iouen¡¯s spine.
¡°Tch.¡± Iouen¡¯s wide-eyed expression told Aegis all he needed to know. He couldn¡¯t keep his eyes focused on just one opponent at a time, though - he instead glanced towards the cleric who was preparing to jump away and disengage from Aegis. Before he could, though, Aegis stomped his right foot down onto the cleric''s right foot, using opposing strength checks to crush his foot and pin it to the ground against the tiled arena floor, cracking it slightly from the impact and causing the cleric to shout out in pain.
¡°Get off of my foot, damnit.¡± The cleric shouted, striking out at Aegis with a shield bash which Aegis avoided taking head on by redirecting it with his right wing. He used his left wing for balance as he lifted his left foot up again to block another few strikes from the monk. The claws would pass through projections, but not his actual shield. He then spun around and attempted to claw strike the dragoon behind him but once again had his claws sent in the wrong directions due to the cinderbolts.
¡°Smite.¡± Aegis mumbled, casting out of his fist five more smites at the cleric''s shield, smashing into the shield at point blank and erupting bright flashes of holy light from them. Following this, Iouen began firing arrows at Aegis rapidly, several multishots with random pinning shots mixed in. Aegis could tell he was getting flustered - but that didn¡¯t help him in dodging the amount of shots now coming at him from behind.
He couldn¡¯t move - he had to keep his right foot pinning down the cleric''s foot else risk being disengaged from. He couldn¡¯t use his real shield - it was the only thing preventing him from being beaten up by the monks'' tiger stance. His claws were useless - the wizard had control of them completely. He was using his projections now to stop the dragoon from hitting him, so the only thing left to deal with the arrows were his wings, and they couldn¡¯t stop pinning shots. Not all of them, at least.
Aegis allowed several pinning shots through - some hit his wings, but several others he was able to redirect beyond his wings to impact the cleric¡¯s shield behind him, causing both Aegis and Cleric to get bound by vines that shot out from the point of the arrows impacts and dug themselves into the sandy tiled floor of the arena.
¡°Shit.¡± Iouen said as he¡¯d realized what he¡¯d done. Aegis no longer needed to use his right foot to hold the cleric in place, they were both pinned for the next few moments.
¡°Not good, I can¡¯t move. He¡¯s gonna have free reign on me.¡± The cleric shouted out worriedly.
¡°Should I burn the vines on the cleric?¡± The wizard asked.
¡°No, don¡¯t let him use his claws or this is over.¡± Iouen replied quickly to this. ¡°Just disrupt those smites - if he has to heal himself he can¡¯t use smite. Can¡¯t you guys deal more damage? Return the pressure?¡± Iouen asked, eying the monk who was rapidly kicking and punching his tiger-fangs into the shield on Aegis¡¯ left foot which he was clumsily waving around - its size was helping a lot in enabling Aegis to behave in this way.
¡°Yeah, I guess.¡± The dragoon pulled his spear back and bent his knees into a fighting stance. ¡°Let¡¯s see how your shield projections take this. Swarm of stings.¡± He cast, causing his arms and spear to glow orange. Then, like a sewing machine, his spear began to shoot forward at Aegis¡¯ shield projection that separated the dragoon from him. The arm and spear movements were way too fast to be visible by the human eye, and red damage numbers began to rapidly appear from the points of impact that the spears were having on Aegis¡¯ shield projection.
Just as Iouen had wanted, Aegis was forced to quickly start healing himself from the damage, else risk dying.
¡°Nice.¡± Iouen grinned as he saw it happening. Aegis couldn¡¯t smite, he had to do nothing but heal. The spear attacks were coming through incredibly fast. Aegis knew this attack made the dragoon immobile - all he had to do was move and he¡¯d be able to stop being hit by it, but he was hit with the pinning shot and locked in place, and he couldn¡¯t use his real shield to brace the spears and lower the damage due to him being forced to use it on the monk. He felt completely bound and tied up, and a few more seconds went by without him able to land any attacks on the cleric. He eyed the time of the match - there was only one minute remaining now.
Chapter 254: Iouen the Strategist Pt. 3
Chapter 254: Iouen the Strategist Pt.3
¡°How about a game of chicken.¡± Aegis shouted eagerly as he turned his fists towards the dragoon. He removed the shield projection that separated them, instead casting it in front of Iouen throw off his next shots. The spears began to hit Aegis directly, while simultaneously Aegis began firing smites at the dragoon. The first five smites hit the dragoon head-on, dealing massive damage.
¡°Should I guard those?¡± The cleric asked with wide eyes.
¡°Tch.¡± Iouen didn¡¯t have an answer, as several spear jabs hit Aegis and Aegis fired another volley of smites at the dragoon. Both stood their ground - Aegis because he had no choice, and the Dragoon because he was determined to burn through Aegis¡¯ health bar. The next five smites smashed into the Dragoon and erupted in flashes of holy light upon impact. Iouen attempted to sidestep Aegis¡¯ guards in order to fire arrows that could intercept the smites, but Aegis re-cast a new projection repeatedly, blocking him from getting a clear shot while wildly swinging his left foot out at the monk to deflect a kick - causing the monk foot and Aegis¡¯ foot to slam into one another with nothing but Aegis¡¯ shield in between.
Aegis then took his wings and struck them down at the pinned cleric beside him, but the wizard saw that Aegis was no longer striking with his claws and instead moved his cinderbolts onto Aegis¡¯ wings, using the cinders to redirect the wings and prevent them from hitting the cleric.
¡°Yes, guard them. Don¡¯t let our dragoon die.¡± Iouen shouted in frustration after failing to fire any meaningful arrows towards the engagement. The cleric complied, creating a guard between Aegis¡¯ smites and the dragoon, blocking them. This in turn allowed Aegis to output damage on the cleric, but was forced into healing himself again to prevent a death as his health dipped below 10,000 due to the dragoon¡¯s strikes.
¡°Just a bit longer. The healing is almost disabled.¡± The wizard shouted encouragingly across the arena.
¡°Hang on a bit more!¡± Iouen joined in the encouragement. The timer ticked down as Aegis was locked in the stalemate. The pinning shots began to wear off and forced Aegis into stomping his right foot back down on the clerics - he saw it coming this time and attempted to avoid having his foot pinned, but Aegis was too quick for him. Upon impact, he shouted out in pain.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, he can¡¯t maintain his damage on you. Hold out a bit longer!¡± Iouen shouted, watching as Aegis was forced to heal through the dragoon¡¯s jabs. The projections continued to appear in front of Iouen, preventing him from any clean shots. The cinderbolts continued to redirect Aegis¡¯ wings and claws, and his left foot did its best to block the monk attacks, but some were getting through.
¡°You¡¯re seriously no joke. I¡¯ll commend you for that, but your time is about up.¡±
¡°I SAID,¡± Aegis roared, abandoning all defenses. ¡°I''LL TAKE YOU ALL ON!¡± He turned his claws, shield, wings, and smites all onto the cleric, while using his shield projections to lock the cleric in place.
¡°He¡¯s suicidal!¡± The cleric shouted frantically as he caught a glimpse of Aegis¡¯ infuriated expression bearing down on him from overtop his shield.
¡°Just finish him off, he¡¯s not protecting himself anymore, his health is already low from the jabs!¡± The dragoon shouted. The monk landed several flat strikes on Aegis¡¯ left side, while the dragoon stabbed into his right side. With the projections gone, Iouen was able to fire a multishot folly at Aegis¡¯ back. The only one still playing defensively was the wizard, but he couldn¡¯t redirect enough of Aegis¡¯ attacks.
¡°Even if he takes out the cleric like this, he¡¯ll go down.¡± The monk called out with a smirk as he felt the satisfying impact of his fists on Aegis¡¯ body for the first time. All of Aegis¡¯ smites hit the cleric, he got several claw strikes in, and bashed his shield in using his left foot.
¡°Guys, I can¡¯t-¡± The cleric stumbled backward from the pressure of Aegis¡¯ attacks, attempting to brace and guard them while healing himself repeatedly, but his mana was low - in fact hitting 0. Unlike Aegis, he hadn¡¯t dumped his stats into mana recovery, and Aegis knew this from studying his mercenary page.
¡°It¡¯s fine, he¡¯s not healing himself. He¡¯s only got a few seconds left, and it¡¯s over.¡± Iouen replied, desperation faintly audible in his own voice as he watched several of his arrows pierce into Aegis¡¯ back. ¡°MARK!¡± Iouen added, imprinting a ranger mark onto Aegis¡¯ back. ¡°It¡¯s over. The moment healing is gone, I¡¯ll rain of arrows him.¡± Iouen called out to the others. Aegis let out a desperate roar of final frustration, still ignoring the damage he was taking, and eying the timer of the match at the top of his peripheral vision. With three seconds left, he landed a final volley of smites on the cleric¡¯s shield which finally did what he was aiming to do.
¡°Combatant Cecil has been eliminated.¡±
The cleric¡¯s body began to dissipate from the gameworld, whilst Aegis health dipped below 3000 from the damage he¡¯d taken, and only 3 seconds remained before the 10 minute mark hit. Not enough time to heal himself.
¡°RAIN OF ARROWS!¡± Iouen shouted triumphantly, turning all of his mana into hundreds of arrows that were fired upward into the sky of the arena above, and all quickly began to converge on the mark that he¡¯d imprinted on Aegis¡¯ back. Seeing this, both the monk and dragoon jumped backwards to get out of the fray.
¡°PURIFYING LIGHT!¡± Aegis shouted out desperately, beginning the cast of the spell he¡¯d yet to show to anyone in the world yet. A moment before the arrows hit him, the spell went off. Aegis¡¯ health returned to full and removed all debuffs on his persons.
"10 Minutes have passed since combat has begun. All sources of healing received by players will now be reduced by 100%.¡±
He raised his shield up and braced as many arrows as he could, while simultaneously dodging to cause as many as possible to crash into one another. He had no time left to make any misplays or mistakes, though. He used the rain of arrows coming down on him as a visual shield to prevent the others from seeing what he was doing - all but the wizard at least. Aegis rapidly dashed towards the wizard who saw him coming and attempted to avoid him by jumping backwards.
The damage he took from the rain of arrows was massive, even using his mithral armor and shield, having fully healed himself, he was immediately taken back down to below 4000 health and had no way to recover. The cinderbolts from the wizard pressed up against him and began dealing burning damage, while Aegis created guard projections around the wizard to prevent him from getting away.
¡°You¡¯ve gotta be almost dead from all that!¡± The wizard shouted out desperately as Aegis closed in on him. The debris cleared from the impact of the rain of arrows, and the other three combatants could now see Aegis as he got in range of the wizard. The three of them jumped into action to help, but there wasn¡¯t enough time for them to do anything meaningful.
| You take 432 fire damage.
You take 428 fire damage.
You take 414 fire damage.
|
All four cinderbolts burned down Aegis¡¯ health, but he knew there was a 3 second delay between cinderbolt damage ticks. Aegis eyed his health now sitting at 3290 remaining as he swung his claws of jealousy out at the wizard, slashing into his cloth armor multiple times to deal massive damage.
¡°Combatant Topin has been eliminated.¡±
The wizard¡¯s body faded from the arena, and his staff fell to the ground. This prompted Aegis to spin around and face the dragoon and monk, who were both rushing towards him, and Iouen who had an arrow pulled back in his drawstring.
¡°Rain of arrows uses all of your mana, you¡¯ve got nothing left but normal shots.¡± Aegis called out to Iouen.
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¡°I hit you with so many arrows - even if that spell fully healed you, you¡¯re only a hit away from dying.¡± Iouen replied as he fired an arrow and watched as, even though Iouen couldn¡¯t redirect it due to having no mana, it was enough to show Aegis dodging the arrow rather than trying to deflect it or block it. ¡°Not even his shield can save him now.¡± Iouen smirked.
¡°Just hit him and he¡¯s dead.¡± The monk announced. The monk and the Dragoon closed in on Aegis quickly, and Aegis eyed his mana, seeing it completely empty due to the purifying light spell using it all. The only resource he had left was his wings, and his stamina, and he was counting down the seconds until his mana recovery would re-activate - 30 seconds after the purifying light spell had been used. But they didn¡¯t know that, Aegis thought.
Just as the monk and dragoon closed in and got in range to strike at him, Aegis kicked his shield up off of his foot and into his left hand, fastened the straps, then held it out in front of himself.
¡°VIRABHADRA!¡± Aegis shouted at the top of his lungs,
| Unable to cast [Virabhadra] - not enough mana. |
The error message popped up in front of his interface. Instead, he activated the aura of light with a wiggle of his fingers, as his other auras had been disabled due to lack of mana. Aura of light worked for an instant, creating a large dome of light around himself that slightly resembled his Virabhadra spell, but the aura of light dome dissipated quickly due to the same error message.
| Unable to maintain [Aura of Light] - not enough mana. |
It was enough of a bluff, though, and both the dragoon and the monk leaped backwards to avoid the erupting dome. The only one who looked curiously at the attack attempt was Iouen - something felt off, but he was sure Aegis had said the spell clearly, which is something that cannot be feigned.
¡°That¡¯s it. That¡¯s his 5 minute offensive cooldown gone. He¡¯s got nothing left, right?¡± The dragoon commented.
¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s finish this.¡± The monk joined in with enthusiasm, and they both rushed at Aegis once more. Iouen stood back, aiming at Aegis and calmly walking towards the fight that was now taking place across the arena, waiting for an opportunity to land an attack with his plain arrow shots.
Aegis was frantic in his next few movements, he desperately jumped backwards and flapped his wings to increase the speed of his jumps. The monk and dragoon both had much higher dexterity than he, and were quickly catching up to him.
He was running out of space to run as well, as he arrived at the far wall of the arena, and instead began creating shield projections in the air and using them as stepping stones to get off the ground. This made it harder for the pair to reach him, but both had high jumping abilities and were able to launch themselves up towards him. The dragoon jumped up with glowing orange feet to cut off Aegis midair, while the monk eyed one of the shield projections Aegis was using as stepping stones.
Aegis saw him eying it at the last second, knowing full well that they no longer needed to hit Aegis directly - hitting the shield projections would be enough to redirect the damage to him and kill him. Aegis quickly launched himself downwards out of the air with a flap of his wings to avoid a spear strike from the dragoon, while simultaneously he canceled his guard projections just as the monk was about to hit one with a flying tiger kick.
Aegis struggled with the landing due to the desperate maneuver he¡¯d just pulled off, stumbling backwards and recovering slowly while the monk and dragoon landed softly on the ground. All three were visibly exhausted, breathing heavily with their resources drained nearly to 0, including Aegis¡¯ stamina now that he couldn¡¯t have an aura of beauty active. This gave them all a reason to pause shortly and glare at each other while they caught their breath. Iouen, on the other hand, tried to use this time to fire a silent shot at Aegis from behind, piercing into his shoulder from an unsuspecting angle.
| You take 1065 piercing damage. |
¡°Tch.¡± Aegis winced from the impact point, his shoulder pushing forward. The other saw this moment of weakness and rushed at him once more - but 30 seconds had gone by. His mana was recovering again, and quickly. He eyed it carefully and saw he¡¯d have enough mana just in time, and held his ground.
¡°He¡¯s not running.¡± The monk commented excitedly as Aegis lifted up his shield.
¡°Good, let¡¯s finish this like men.¡± The dragoon cheered as they both moved to come at Aegis from opposite sides with a pincering strike. Iouen, on the other hand, looked at this behavior curiously.
¡°Wait¡¡± Iouen mumbled as he thought out loud. ¡°That virabhadra, it didn¡¯t have red arms.¡± He realized it too late as the monk and dragoon closed into melee with Aegis. ¡°IT WAS A FAKE CAST!¡± Iouen warned them.
¡°VIRABHADRA!¡± Aegis shouted just as they¡¯d gotten into melee range. The dragoon and monk were caught off guard and attempted to jump backwards to avoid it, but Aegis projected a shield carefully behind each of their backs to prevent them from jumping away. The red arms of shiva grew out of Aegis¡¯ shoulders as the holy dome of light enveloped them, dealing damage equal to 80% of damage he¡¯d taken in the last 5 minutes, divided between them. It was well more than enough to immediately kill both of them, causing their bodies to dissipate.
¡°Combatant Lafto has been eliminated.¡±
¡°Combatant Shergal has been eliminated.¡±
Items from their equipped inventory dropped to the ground where they¡¯d been standing, but Aegis paid no mind to it. The red arms of shiva faded, as did the dome of light that had erupted from Aegis¡¯ shield, leaving just him standing there, shield up and turning to face Iouen who stood a great distance away from him across the arena. Iouen said no words, leaving the only sound to be heard to be that of Aegis¡¯ heavy breathing, as he hunched over. It was a long, uncomfortable few moments of silence.
¡°The avatar spell lasts 15 minutes. Your wings will be gone in about four minutes. I can easily kite you out for that duration, while applying enough pressure that you have no opportunity to go on the offensive.¡± Iouen spoke calmly, though his words seemed more for himself than for Aegis. ¡°Your health has to be incredibly low, you wouldn¡¯t let that monk hit your shield projection, and that was before I ticked you in the shoulder. I¡¯m willing to bet you¡¯re one or two hits from going down. Meanwhile, I¡¯m still at full health.¡±
¡°Yeah¡¡± Aegis sighed as he stood upright, his stamina slowly recovering to a respectable amount. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you kiting. I know that if I try to rush at you, you can drag this out for as long as you need to.¡±
¡°Exactly. And I only need to hit you once, while you need to dodge everything I shoot. I''ve got some mana, now, too." Iouen sighed. "So why is it that I still feel like I''m the one on the back foot?" He groaned in frustration. "You''re really something else. Easily the most terrifying opponent I''ve come up against. Your desperation to win bleeds through your every action."
"Sorry about that... but, you''re right to feel on the back foot." Aegis said calmly before launching himself into a sprint, propelled by his wings digging into the dirt. Only, Aegis wasn''t charging at Iouen - instead he was running off towards the edge of the arena. Iouen carefully followed his movements with his arrow, squinting to try and see what he was doing but realized it too late.
"You wouldn''t..." Iouen gasped as he fired several shots at Aegis. Aegis dodged and jumped over them, and Iouen desperately used his recovered mana to redirect them but failed to land the arrows with the redirects. "Daisy, to me!" He shouted, calling out to his familiar - a tiny green bird that''d been posturing around the edge of the arena for the entire match. Daisy fluttered her wings and began flying towards Iouen desperately, but Aegis projected a shield to block her flight. She fluttered over the shield projections, but Aegis kept casting more, while Iouen began taking shots at the projections in a desperate attempt to finish Aegis off.
Aegis quickly removed the projections just in time to stop the arrows from hitting them, then managed to close the gap between himself and the bird and swat it down to the ground with one of his wings of light, knocking the wind out of it. He then rolled to the ground to dodge under another arrow from Iouen, and in that same movement, reached out and grabbed the small green bird in his fists and stood back up, breathing heavily again.
Iouen stopped shooting arrows, while Aegis held the bird up in his direction using his right fist to clutch it tightly, and pointing the bladed claws of his left hand at the birds head. The bird desperately pecked at Aegis'' hand to break free, but each peck was doing a negligable 1 point of damage.
"All the rangers I''ve encountered, even the evil ones, have had a deep attachment to their familiar. I''ve done my research, and you in particular have named your familiar after someone interesting." Aegis called out to Iouen.
"That''s not very Eirene-like of you." Iouen grimaced at him. "I''ve looked into you as well. All of your encounters, you come off as very unapologetic. But everything you''ve done has been rooted in good. You''re not an evil kid, you''re a good kid. And you''re a follower of Eirene."
"Forfeit the match, or I''ll kill your familiar." Aegis threatened him. This threat brought silence to the arena once more, as Iouen hesitated - thinking on his next actions and words carefully.
"You went through so much trouble to save so many NPCs. I don''t believe you''ve got the heart to do something so cruel, especially if you know how much that familiar means to m-" Iouen stopped himself as he locked eyes with Aegis. He saw nothing but fury and rage behind his eyes as he glared back, moving the tip of his bladed claws closer to the desperately chirping green bird''s head. In that brief instant, Iouen saw that Aegis was not bluffing.
"Jeez..." Iouen shook his head to himself and let out an exasperated sigh, finally lowering his bow and un-knocking the arrow in it. "Seems like when a certain individual is involved, your kindness is limited. You really are a spiteful healer." Iouen shook his head to himself. He then let out one final, long and frustrated sigh before dissappearing from the arena along with the green bird that Aegis had clutched in his fist.
¡°Combatant Iouen has forfeited the match.¡±
¡°Combatant Aegis has won the Brawl.¡±
Chapter 255: Aftermath
Chapter 255: Aftermath
Long messy blonde hair, loosely tied into a ponytail at the back of his head. His cheeks sunken in, with dark circles under his eyes. Despite his clearly exhausted state, frustration was the emotion shown by the wrinkles on the side of his face and the frown on his lips as Iouen sat up out of his Simbox to a dimly lit, small room.
A single, older model Simbox sat up against the wall of the room, barely fitting. Aside from it, the room had nothing but plain white walls and a window with dark blue blinds closed, blocking out the daytime sun. He swung his legs over the side of the Simbox and touched his feet on the hardwood floor for a brief moment, staring down at them. Eventually, though, he got up and walked to the door to swing it open and step out into the hallway of his small apartment.
He was immediately met with the sounds of broadcasters speaking, from within his living room. Turning down the hall, he could see a report on display that was covering the brawl match that he¡¯d just participated in.
¡°Watch this movement, right here. He manages to project two shields and deflect multiple attacks within the span of three seconds¡¡± One broadcaster spoke in an amazed voice.
¡°This level of spell control, from a non-spellcaster class - it¡¯s simply incredible to witness. Not a single movement was wasted¡¡± The broadcasters were sitting in a studio simulation, with clips on floating screens behind them from Aegis¡¯ livestream showing gameplay from the brawl. The network broadcasting it was not VGN, but one of the larger foreign networks.
Iouen half heartedly turned to take a glimpse at what was on display, but instead was met by the eyes of a young girl as she rolled a wheelchair around the bend of the hallway to get a view of her older brother.
¡°Check it out,¡± She pointed over her shoulder at the screen. ¡°You made a highlight reel. Too bad it was someone else¡¯s.¡± She spoke sarcastically. In this moment of her speaking, he could see the IV¡¯s linked up to her body and the simple gown she was wearing. She looked paler and more sickly than he did, though without the bags under her eyes.
¡°Sorry, Daisy.¡± Iouen said as he turned to look back at his feet.
¡°For what?¡± Daisy asked curiously.
¡°Failed the contract. If I¡¯d stopped him, we might¡¯ve had enough money for one of those nano-bot trials.
¡°Oh c¡¯mon¡¡± Daisy replied in a cheerful voice as she reared her wheelchair around to face the screen. ¡°What is that thing you always say when I lose a game?¡± She began fidgeting with her wrist implant to change the screen. Iouen didn¡¯t reply, but instead looked curiously at what she was doing. The broadcast switched over to his mercenary website where his services were advertised. On it, his listing was being bombarded with hiring requests of all sorts.
As Daisy had pulled it up, he had 23 requests, but in the brief few seconds that the pair looked at it together, the requests shot up to 31 and were climbing. He briefly glimpsed at the headlines of the requests, things such as ¡®Lead our Guilds Army¡¯, ¡®Help Defend this Village¡¯ - all high paying jobs.
¡°Just because you lost, doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re a loser, right?¡± Daisy smiled hopefully. ¡°Get your ass back in there!¡± She added cheerfully as a smile crept over Iouen¡¯s face.
¡°Can I atleast have a snack first?¡± He chuckled in response.
¡°Sorry, Makaroth. With the amount of attention brought to the brawl, we can¡¯t afford to avoid covering it. We¡¯d lose too many viewership numbers. Instead, management is planning to show his participation in the upcoming tournament and play it up.¡± The VGN employee spoke timidly from within the meeting hall of the Sages of Destiny. Aegis¡¯ livestream was still on display on the livestream viewer floating above the table in the center of the room.
Synopse, Makaroth, and all of the others were staring silently at it. Most eyes were on Makaroth, but Makaroth¡¯s were on Aegis as he stood alone in the arena, panting heavily and not speaking a word. Makaroth had both his fists on the table, clenched tightly in anger as his eyes strained, but suddenly they let up, and he released his fists into open hands that he gently placed on the table.
¡°Right. Of course. That¡¯d be the smart thing to do from here.¡±
¡°One other thing¡¡± The employee spoke up, drawing Makaroth¡¯s eyes onto himself which the VGN employee was not happy to have. ¡°The other networks are creating a narrative already around the fact that those 14 mercenaries were all hired to stop Aegis. They¡¯re theorizing that either you, Seraxus, or Feng put them up to it. Whatever the answer, it isn¡¯t a good lo-¡±
¡°Pin it on the pirates. The ones he stiffed earlier.¡± Makaroth replied quickly.
¡°Makaroth¡¡± Synopse spoke up, but was once again ignored.
¡°It¡¯ll fit nicely, they have plenty of reason to want revenge on him for how he fooled them on his way back to Kalmoore.¡± Makaroth shrugged innocently before turning to Synopse.
¡°Right, yes, of course. We¡¯ll run with that. I¡¯ll get right to it.¡± The VGN employee replied quickly before disappearing from the game world.
¡°They¡¯re not gonna like that.¡± Calikgos commented, shaking his head.
¡°You let me worry about them. I¡¯ve got another task in mind that¡¯ll guarantee they¡¯ll let it slide.¡± Makaroth stood up from the table.
¡°I suppose this means I should start training my team for a possible encounter with Aegis and his party.¡± Synopse also stood up.
¡°Nah. Don¡¯t worry about that just yet. He hasn¡¯t made it to the tournament yet.¡± Makaroth said with a mischievous grin. ¡°For that, he needs to make it through the preliminary matches. I¡¯m sure he will, but then he¡¯ll be informed of the designated arena for the finals and whichever island it is set on. That arena, he¡¯ll have to somehow get to in person.¡± Hearing this, Lilyana stood up from her chair beside Makaroth and wrapped her arms around his avatar¡¯s oversized muscular right shoulder and leaned on it with a smile.
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¡°My husband is so clever. Kalmoore only has one airship, right?¡±
¡°Exactly.¡± Makaroth turned to her, and the two leaned in and kissed lightly on the lips. Synopse, on the other hand, shook his head in disbelief at what he was hearing being suggested.
¡°Guess I¡¯ll just go get ready for the preliminaries. But¡ if I may¡¡± Synopse paused to make sure Makaroth was listening, ¡°Stop trying to prevent him from getting into the tournament. He¡¯s got the same determination you do, so I doubt it¡¯ll work.¡±
¡°Maybe he does,¡± Makaroth shrugged, ¡°But he doesn¡¯t know this game like I do.¡± He spoke confidently before turning to Calikgos. ¡°Let¡¯s have a chat with the Shattered Pirates. I¡¯ve got a new, high paying request for them that¡¯ll have them forgive us for blaming this fiasco on them, and help them get revenge.¡±
¡°This Arena will close in 180 seconds.¡± The female announcer spoke, her voice carrying through the air around Aegis. Once she had, a timer appeared at the top of Aegis¡¯ peripheral vision, counting down the three minutes, and a notification popped up in front of his face.
| [Any items dropped during the brawl can be taken by you. Anything you fail to pick up will be returned to the player who dropped it once the arena closes.] |
After reading it, Aegis waved the message away and began panning his eyes around the arena floor. The broken tiles, and shattered earth that¡¯d been sent up from the many attacks dealt during the match obscured his vision somewhat, but for the most part he could clearly see the collection of items that¡¯d been dropped.
Iouen¡¯s bow, the large maul, daggers, leather armor and staves - all of the equipment looked well crafted and enchanted. He had no doubt it¡¯d be quite valuable and worth a lot to sell. On top of that, several of the players had dropped coin pouches, filled with gold. Aegis couldn¡¯t imagine it would¡¯ve been much - they all had plenty of time to stash their valuables before the brawl started.
Finally, though, Aegis¡¯ eyes landed on Finley¡¯s greatsword. Of all the dropped items present, it stood out the most. Despite not being in the hands of any player, it continued to shimmer with a black aura of darkness that gave off fumes of abyssal smoke, dissipating in the air above it.
His stamina slowly recovered above half, allowing his breathing to calm. He straightened his back, and briefly glanced up at his viewership count - 3 million players were watching him as he stood in the middle of the arena doing nothing. He was tempted to walk over and grab the sword, not only to have it but to disarm Finley of it, and as his eyes turned back to it, the conflict in his mind became visible on his face.
Ultimately, though, with 1 minute on the clock remaining, he made up his mind. He crossed his arms and stood staring forward, only hoping that Shinji would catch his determined glare from a good angle (he did). A glare that was intended for no one but Makaroth, who caught it on his livestream viewer briefly within his guild meeting hall before he shut it down to prepare for his own livestream to begin.
The last few seconds that the timer had left were filled with nothing but the silent winds howling above the arena walls in the open sky around Aegis. When the timer hit 0, Aegis¡¯ vision went blank, and he was teleported out of the arena. Within two seconds, he re-appeared in the registration hall with all of his companions.
¡°FUCK YEAH!¡± Darkshot was the first to react to his reappearance, rushing forward to give him a hug and shake him up.
¡°Incredible showing.¡± Herilon grinned while patting him on the shoulder.
¡°Not bad.¡± Sapphire smiled while chewing pieces of a carrot she¡¯d recently bit off.
¡°You did it!¡± Lina rushed forward and hugged Aegis as well, pushing Darkshot off. He squeezed Lina tight while looking over her head to see a big proud grin on Rakkan¡¯s face as he nodded back at him approvingly. Pyri, too, was smiling at him with glowing red cheeks, tears swelling up in her eyes.
¡°My lil boy¡¯s gone and became a big ol PvPer.¡± She squeaked, causing Aegis to finally break his stoic expression and chuckle.
¡°Don¡¯t forget why you did all that, though.¡± Herilon reminded him as he released his grip on Aegis¡¯ shoulder.
¡°Right.¡± Aegis nodded back, turning to the old man behind the desk. ¡°We¡¯d like to register for this month''s gladiator tournament. Us, a party of five.¡± Aegis pointed out his companions.
¡°Very well. The 5 members of your party that you have selected have all earned enough gladiator points to qualify for the preliminary rounds of the monthly Gladiator Tournament. Are you sure you¡¯d wish to register with this party? Once registered, your party cannot be changed.¡± The old man spoke in a robotic fashion.
¡°I¡¯m sure.¡±
¡°Very well. You have been registered.¡± He replied, and as he did, Aegis and the others had a notification appear in front of their faces.
| You have been registered for the Monthly Gladiator Tournament alongside the following participants: [Lina], [Pyri], [Rakkan], [Darkshot]. The preliminary matches will begin in 2 days, 20 hours. Check in for the preliminary matches will occur one hour prior at any Gladiator Registration NPC. [More Information¡] |
Aegis waved away the message and turned to the rest to see them doing the same thing, and each of them began exchanging looks with grins on their faces.
¡°Hell yeah. Finally!¡± Darkshot pumped his fist into the air, to which Darkwing cooed excitedly from his shoulder.
¡°How do the preliminaries work, exactly?¡± Aegis asked curiously, turning to Sapphire and Herilon - though after asking his question he got the sense that Lina and Rakkan also had the answer to this question as they eagerly leaned in to respond. Sapphire beat them to it, however,
¡°You¡¯ll randomly be matched up against other teams for 5, 5v5 matches in an arena similar to the one you just fought in. Typically, to qualify for the top 16, you¡¯ll need to win 4 out of 5 of those matches. You might need to hit 5 out of 5 though this time around, given how many players want to participate. It¡¯s being hyped up by every broadcasting network at the moment, due to the amount of top streamers participating.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t think there are any streamers from the top 50 who aren¡¯t trying to qualify. Except for a few social streamers like Yumily, of course.¡± Herilon added.
¡°We could get matched up with anyone, though. From a group of level 30 players who are your biggest fans, to¡± Lina spoke excitedly but was interrupted.
¡°Seraxus.¡± Rakkan jumped in, bearing his teeth and clenching his fists.
¡°A showdown in the preliminaries.¡± Darkshot added as the room went silent for a moment.
¡°That¡¯d make things easy.¡± Aegis replied sarcastically. ¡°Doubt we¡¯ll get lucky though¡¡± His mind wandered as he looked towards the door leading out of the registration hall. ¡°With almost three days left, and our training feeling all but complete¡ why don¡¯t we get an upper hand on the competition in another way?¡±
¡°What do you have in mind?¡± Pyri asked him curiously.
¡°We¡¯re all advanced class players now. No need to sit at level 150. Let¡¯s do some grinding.¡± Aegis replied with determination.
Chapter 256: Play
Chapter 256: Play
Aegis was led by Sapphire and Herilon into the Night Hunter¡¯s guild hall, as per a suggestion by Herilon.
¡°We¡¯ve got a decent grinding spot on Kalmoore still. I¡¯m sure Quinn wont mind sharing it with you temporarily, given the circumstances.¡± Herilon gave an explanation. As a result, the group found themselves idling in the front foyer of the guild hall, staring at the marble tiled floors and the satyr NPC behind the counter. Herilon and Sapphire had disappeared further inside the building for a moment, leaving them to their own devices.
¡°You think we should make a guild?¡± Darkshot suggested suddenly, motioning to the walls around them. ¡°Then we¡¯d get lots of underlings. And a cool guild hall like this.¡± He added.
¡°We already have a castle.¡± Aegis shrugged in response. ¡°Underlings seem like a lot of work, too.¡±
¡°No way, you get to boss them around, and they all look up to you. ¡®Please sir Darkshot, teach me how to be as awesome as you are¡¯.¡± he mimed a weak, squeaky high pitched voice, ¡°¡®I¡¯m sorry, somethings cannot be taught. But if you follow in my footsteps, you may become stronger than you ever thought possible.¡¯¡± He replied to himself in the deepest, manliest voice he could muster. Rakkan simply rolled his eyes at him while Aegis and Lina let out a light chuckle.
¡°Leading a guild takes a very special type of personality. Without proper leadership, a guild tends to fall apart or become a miserable experience for all people involved. It¡¯s not something you should force.¡± Pyri explained.
¡°Do you think I might have that special type of personality?¡± Darkshot turned to Pyri with hopeful eyes. She returned an awkward smile to him which every single person could see right through.
¡°Maybe.¡± She answered politely. Before more could be said, the doors leading into the guild hall behind them swung open, and a surprised Sherry stepped into the foyer with a large backpack strapped over her shoulders. The pack was stuffed so full of goods and wares that they were towering up over the back of her head, visible behind her as the bag jingled and clanged its contents against each other.
With two quiet clops of her hooves on the tiled floor, she stopped in her tracks and panned her eyes over the group.
¡°Hi.¡± She smiled and waved awkwardly.
¡°Hello.¡± Pyri replied as she and Lina waved at her.
¡°Yo, Sherry. Perfect timing. What do you think¡¡± Darkshot began with wild hand gestures. ¡°Me, leading my own guild of dark rangers. The Dark Ranger guild.¡± He waved his hands dramatically through the air. Sherry was not as subtle in her response - her eyebrows crinkled immediately, with one rising up far above the other.
¡°Really? You¡¯re gonna lead a guild?¡±
¡°Well, yeah. It¡¯d be awesome, right? Aegis can build me my guild hall in Rene.¡± Darkshot nonchalantly motioned to Aegis.
¡°I can do what now?¡± Aegis replied, raising his brows similarly to how Sherry had, getting a light coo out of Darkwing as he nestled into Darkshot¡¯s shoulder and closed his eyes as if losing interest in what was happening around him. Disappointment quickly flooded over Darkshot¡¯s face as a result.
¡°How about¡¡± Sherry stepped towards him with a smile. ¡°You just stick to being that cool, dark ranger, who shoots from the shadows. I think the lone wolf style suits you better¡¡± She added a seductive smile and wink at the end while gently putting one hand on his shoulder.
¡°You¡ you think so?¡± Darkshot¡¯s face suddenly went red, barely able to look her in the eyes. He instead looked over her shoulder beyond her stuffed pack to see Rakkan shaking his head to himself in disbelief and looking away from the two.
¡°Yeah, definitely. I like the strong, independent type. Being a guild leader would just bog you down, ruin your style.¡± She added encouragingly.
¡°Yeah. Yeah I guess you¡¯re right¡
¡°Of course, because where do you shoot from?¡± Sherry leaned in closer, making it uncomfortable for even Aegis to watch.
¡°The darkness.¡± He mumbled boyishly back. Sherry then quickly pecked him on his rosy red cheeks.
¡°Damn right.¡± She smiled, released her hand from his shoulders, then began heading further into the guild hall. ¡°Tullan¡¯s requested more materials for your shield.¡± She glanced back at Aegis while walking away. ¡°He wants me to tell you that they¡¯ll be done in a day or two, before your preliminaries start.¡±
¡°Oh. Okay, got it. Thanks.¡± Aegis replied, and the last thing he saw of Sherry was a wave of her hand as she disappeared around a corridor leading further into the hall, the sound of her satyr hooves clopping on the floor slowly fading away. It went awkwardly silent for a few moments as Darkshot slowly tried to recompose himself.
¡°Where do you shoot from?¡± Aegis playfully asked Lina, breaking the silence.
¡°The darkness.¡± She whispered back in a faked, shy manner, mocking Darkshot.
¡°Oh shut up.¡± Darkshot grumbled back as the others laughed. The laughter died down quickly to the sound of several sets of footsteps approaching on the other side of one of the many doors leading into the front foyer. When the door swung open, it revealed Quinn, Sapphire, Trexon and Herilon.
¡°So. You need a spot to grind?¡± Quinn asked, not wasting any time with small talk.
¡°Yup.¡± Aegis nodded back as he and his party all turned to face her attentively.
¡°Alright. We¡¯ve got a spot you can borrow. It¡¯s exclusive, we had Trexon carve a teleport altar there due to its remote location. But there¡¯s a few caveats.¡± Quinn crossed her arms and looked over the group.
¡°Monsters there are all elite, levels are in the 180 range. The mob density is low, making it pretty inefficient for experience in a big group, but there aren¡¯t any other spots on our island with higher level enemies. As far as the general playerbase of the Shatter World online know, higher level enemies are not found on the main islands. Once you want to start leveling higher, you¡¯ll need to find isolated small islands, or travel into the abyss.¡± Quinn explained
¡°Hm. How have the other guilds been leveling, then?¡± Pyri asked curiously. ¡°I¡¯ve noticed certain guilds were filled with players higher than level 180.¡± She added. It was obvious to everyone in the room who she was referring to, without her having to be specific.
¡°Don¡¯t watch their streams, I take it?¡± Quinn smirked playfully at her. ¡°They grind lower level enemies, en-masse. They use certain tactics where they use weaker, out of party guildmates to help them take down enemies so that they can gain all of the experience for themselves, independently.¡± Quinn replied.
¡°What do the out of party players get out of that arrangement?¡± Aegis asked curiously.
¡°The honor of getting to help out their guild master, and favorite streamers, usually.¡± Quinn rolled her eyes to the back of her head as she said this. ¡°Though in some cases they¡¯re paid in gold.¡±
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¡°It¡¯s a really efficient way to level, it''s pretty hard to compete with them in experience without it.¡± Sapphire added with a carrot bite.
¡°So with that in mind, we¡¯ve got plenty of guild members volunteering to help you guys o-¡± Quinn couldn¡¯t finish her sentence.
¡°No.¡± Aegis shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re not playing like that.¡± Aegis looked towards his party members for a moment before turning back to Quinn.
¡°Are you sure? If we split you up and had a group of 10 of our guild mates help you take down elite level 180 mobs, allowing each of you to get experience from each mob by yourself, you¡¯d level pretty fast.¡± Quinn looked at him skeptically, as if she thought he hadn¡¯t fully understood her explanation the first time.
¡°Maybe¡ but, like that, are we even really playing the game properly? That doesn¡¯t sound fun at all.¡± Aegis shrugged. After hearing this, Herilon and Quinn turned to look at each other with big smiles on their faces. ¡°I mean, unless you guys disagree?¡± Aegis turned to his party members.
¡°Nope. That sounds boring as hell. I¡¯d rather kill stuff myself.¡± Rakkan replied.
¡°Same.¡± Darkshot added.
¡°I don¡¯t really think I¡¯d need help to begin with.¡± Pyri replied nonchalantly.
¡°Mhm.¡± Lina nodded back at Aegis approvingly.
¡°Told you.¡± Herilon shrugged at her. ¡°I¡¯m gonna get a crush on you if you don¡¯t quit being so cool.¡± Herilon then winked at Aegis.
¡°Alright. Go ahead and open a portal for them. Just make sure you don¡¯t get lost or die, you haven¡¯t much time left.¡± Quinn motioned to Trexon.
¡°Right away.¡± He nodded back as his hands and staff began to glow blue. The others took a step back and grouped up in front of him eagerly as he finished casting his portal spell. A few seconds later, a floating arcane doorway appeared in the middle of the guildhall foyer, a shimmering ring of blue magical energy wriggly around the rim of the portal.
Looking through it, Aegis saw what looked to be ancient ruins made up of tan and beige stone blocks, some stacked and others toppled, with tangled vines and roots gripping them and reclaiming them on behalf of nature.
¡°Good luck.¡± Trexon said encouragingly once the portal had finished forming. ¡°You¡¯ve enough dust to return? Don¡¯t forget to attune to the altar.
¡°I¡¯ve got some.¡± Pyri confidently patted a brown pouch strapped to her belt.
¡°Let¡¯s head through. Thanks again for everything.¡± Aegis said as he waved to them and lead the group through first. Quinn gave him a knowing nod as he disappeared, followed by the others one by one.
Once all five had stepped through, the quiet ambience of the guild hall was immediately replaced by the sound of wild birds chirping in the surrounding trees, and wild unseen creatures calling out to one another in the wilds surrounding them.
They found themselves standing atop a clean cut portal altar made up of white stone blocks with runes carved into them. The altar was built atop a paved floor of tan bricks that were aged and significantly contrasted with the newer stones of the altar, making it clear that one was recently built, and the others were ancient and had been here for ages.
The paved stones faded into dirt, grass, vines and twigs to their left, but turning to their right they saw the path lead into an overgrown city. Some buildings were still standing, but just barely, and the canopy of the large trees growing around them in the surrounding forest towered over the ruined structures, not allowing much in the way of sunlight to reach the buildings that hid in their shade.
As the group of five all panned around to take in their surroundings, the portal that they¡¯d stepped through disappeared behind them.
¡°It¡¯s not a dungeon, we didn¡¯t get an alert.¡± Darkshot pointed out.
¡°Those ruins look like they could hold a dungeon in them, somewhere, though.¡± Aegis motioned in the direction of where the old paved road led.
¡°Probably an ancient rune waiting to be discovered somewhere in there.¡± Rakkan said as a smile grew over his face.
¡°At least one.¡± Aegis nodded in agreement.
¡°Hm.¡± Pyri tapped her own shoulder to cast fly on herself, then began levitating up into the sky. The group was currently in a small clearing, allowing her to soar up without interference, but as she got higher to take in their surroundings, she could see very little of what was below the trees in front of them. There were a few tall ruined structures that stood up to the large overgrown forest, but most of it was hidden from her view. The best she could do was get a sense of how large these ruins were, and they seemed to extend far out through the forest in front of them as far as her eyes could see. Eventually, she hovered back down to the others.
¡°These ruins are massive. Quinn mentioned the enemies are of low density, which typically means they are few and far between. With only two days¡ we¡¯ll need to think wisely about how we approach this.¡± Pyri explained as her feet lightly tapped down back onto the portal altar. As she spoke, though, Aegis was already fidgeting around in his interface.
¡°There¡¯s only one way to be efficient under these circumstances, as far as I can see it.¡± Aegis pulled out a large gray sack from his inventory and handed it to Darkshot. Darkshot took the bag curiously and opened the top to peer inside, while Rakkan and Pyri leaned over to look inside as well.
¡°A bunch of cooked meat, and elixirs?¡± Darkshot raised his eyebrows at Aegis after seeing the contents.
¡°Care package, for solo grinding.¡± Aegis replied without meeting his eyes as he was busy loading up another pack, taking it out and handing it to Rakkan.
¡°Wait. You want us to kill level 180 elites on our own?¡± Darkshot asked in disbelief as Rakkan took his pack with a grin and quickly added it to his own inventory. ¡°Is he serious?¡± Darkshot turned to Rakkan, hoping to get someone on his side, but Rakkan shrugged back.
¡°Here¡¯s yours.¡± Aegis handed the next pack to Pyri who gladly took it.
¡°You know, that offer from Quinn didn¡¯t sound so bad. If we¡¯re going solo, why not have some helpers?¡± Darkshot continued, this time looking to Pyri, but she also just shrugged at him.
¡°And yours.¡± Aegis gave a final sack to Lina, and she took it hesitantly, looking down at it somewhat disappointed.
¡°C¡¯mon.¡± Darkshot groaned.
¡°Darkshot.¡± Aegis locked eyes with him, then turned to the others one by one. ¡°Pyri. Rakkan. Lina.¡± he took a deep breath. ¡°We¡¯ve been training nonstop recently. And before that, we¡¯ve fought all manner of dangerous beasts spread out through this Shattered World Online. Do you really think there''s going to be anything here that you, Darkshot, the one who shoots from the darkness, cannot handle?¡± Aegis ended his gaze on Darkshot with a grin. The hesitation on Darkshot¡¯s face slowly faded away.
¡°Nah¡ I guess not. There¡¯s nothing I can¡¯t kite.¡± Darkshot finally came around and replied with confidence.
¡°Alright.¡± Aegis put his hand forward, palm facing down. The others finished adding their sacks to their inventory, and the first to lean in and put his hand atop Aegis¡¯ was Darkshot. Next was Rakkan, then Pyri, and finally with some hesitation Lina. In a circle, with their hands stacked, they all exchanged brief looks of excitement.
¡°Let¡¯s kick some ass.¡± Aegis cheered before throwing all of their hands up in the air.
¡°Alright. Imma be level 160 by the time of the preliminaries, easy.¡± Darkshot cheered before turning and walking along the paved path towards the ruins.
¡°I¡¯m going to be 161.¡± Rakkan replied as he joined him.
¡°I¡¯m probably going to hit 170.¡± Pyri added nonchalantly.
¡°Yeah right.¡± Darkshot replied with a puff of air. As they got further away, Aegis was preparing to follow after them, but was stopped as Lina grabbed the back of his cloak of Eirene, tugging on it lightly.
Aegis turned to look at her, staring at her feet, listening to the sound of the other three voices fading off as they walked further and further away into the ruins.
¡°Is everything okay?¡± Aegis asked her.
¡°Yeah¡ well, no¡¡± Lina whispered shyly.
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Aegis turned to face her and took her hand from his cloak and into his own.
¡°It¡¯s just, well¡ uhm¡¡± She had trouble speaking clearly, and continued looking down at her feet to avoid Aegis¡¯ gaze. ¡°I want to stay with you.¡± She finally managed to get the words out.
¡°You¡¯re worried about fighting the elites on your own? The elixirs in the bag are really powerful, so-¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s not that.¡± She shook her head quickly, before he could finish. ¡°I just want to stay with you. You were gone on your advanced quest, and then the training, and the brawl, so¡¡± She mumbled. Aegis didn¡¯t need a further explanation, as he began to understand how she was feeling.
¡°Right, we haven¡¯t been able to spend much time together. I¡¯ve been so focused on preparing for this tournament, not thinking about anything else¡¡± Aegis turned his head down to his own feet as he pondered for a moment. Lina didn¡¯t reply to this, but her silence was all he needed for him to understand he was on the right track. ¡°Okay,¡± he tightly gripped her hand and began leading her towards the ruins. ¡°Let¡¯s play together. We¡¯ll have to work extra hard to keep up with the others, though, okay?¡± Aegis smiled at her encouragingly as she finally looked up from her feet to meet his eyes.
¡°Mhm.¡± She nodded back excitedly, a giant smile growing over her face.
Chapter 257: Almerak
Chapter 257: Almerak
Very few beams of sunlight were making their way through the thick canopy of the large trees around them, as Lina and Aegis stepped into the ruins. Darkshot, Pyri and Rakkan had all taken off at top speeds, disappearing far off into the forest - so far in fact that not a sound of their activities could be heard from the pair.
Aegis had let go of Lina¡¯s hand and was walking ahead of her, peering around the thick brown, vine covered trunks of the forest. Most of the paved stone was overtaken by thick mounds of dirt and grass, and the ruined structures had very little structure left to them. There was a pillar or wall standing up here and there, but most of it was rubble. The natural smells of mushrooms and wild flowers filled his nose, alongside the sounds of the animals and the light winds blowing in the canopy above. He found himself once again marveling at how realistic it felt, as if he was actually wandering in a real set of ruins. That thought faded, though, as he heard Lina¡¯s footsteps following closely behind him.
He felt a sudden urge to take the lead - to take charge of the situation and tell her what to do. But, as he thought on it, his mind drew a blank on what he should say. He himself wasn¡¯t exactly sure why, as if some other words were bubbling up in the bottom of his throat. Words that he couldn¡¯t quite piece together into a meaningful sentence, as he didn¡¯t know what he wanted to say. It wasn¡¯t something that sat on the forefront of his mind, but it was there, and it was preventing him from focusing on the task at hand.
When he finally opened his mouth to speak, he stopped himself from even forming a word and instead began scratching the back of his head. He suddenly felt as though he couldn¡¯t even turn around to face her, and he¡¯d no idea where the feeling was coming from.
¡°Uhm¡ I should scout around for the enemies, right? Since we don¡¯t know what they are yet?¡± Lina suggested.
¡°Yeah. Good idea.¡± Aegis nodded without looking back at her.
¡°Okay. I¡¯ll try to be quick.¡± She replied enthusiastically, before disappearing from his side. He caught a glimpse of her re-appearing in front of him as she shadowstepped several times from branch to branch in the treetops above. Her movement, like always, was impressively fast, and the environment they were in gave her more than enough shadows to play around with.
Once he was alone, though, he felt a sudden relief of pressure and let out an elongated, frustrated sigh at himself. As if he had an urge he couldn¡¯t scratch, he aggressively kicked at a large rock and sent it rolling away across the ruins pointlessly. He wasn¡¯t the one who usually struggled to talk, between himself and Lina. She was my girlfriend, why couldn¡¯t I talk to her. The more he thought about it, the more he¡¯d realized he hadn¡¯t really talked to her at all, or spent time with her since the events of his birthday. When he¡¯d pieced that together, he slowly started to realize what was wrong - what he wanted to say.
He wasn¡¯t able to construct anything meaningful before Lina returned, however. She appeared in a puff of black smoke as she shadowstepped in front of him, using the shadows cast by the canopy. She had a strange expression on her face, a mix of fear and discomfort.
¡°I found some¡ Some of the monsters.¡± Lina said. Aegis was quick to jump at the opportunity to converse about it, despite her awkward expression.
¡°Really? What is it?¡±
¡°I saw a few of them. I think it¡¯s the only type of monster in these ruins. They¡¯re called Manticores. Do you know what those are?¡± Lina asked.
¡°Uh, not really. It''s a mythical creature, right?¡±
¡°Right¡ Like a mixture of a bunch of animals?¡±
¡°Yeah¡¡± She sighed, looking around awkwardly. ¡°They appear in a lot of games, usually interpreted differently. Sometimes they¡¯re really scary, and sometimes really creepy. These ones are the creepy kind.¡± Lina explained.
¡°How so?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Probably better if you see one yourself¡ There was one that was asleep over here. Want to see?¡± She asked hesitantly.
¡°Yeah, of course. I mean, we¡¯ve got to hunt them, right? They¡¯ll give good experience?¡±
¡°Probably.¡± Lina shrugged. ¡°Okay, this way.¡± She motioned him to follow her, then led deeper into the forest. The pair moved as quietly as they could, avoiding thick bushes and brambles that were growing all about. After nearly 5 minutes of walking quietly with Lina in the lead, there was a sudden shuffling sound that gave them pause. They both stopped moving and looked in the direction of the sound.
A large collection of bushes and vegetation sat between the trunks of two trees and shook for a brief moment before going still. Lina looked at Aegis nervously out of the corner of her eyes, and he saw her uncomfortable stare briefly before focusing on the bush and drawing out his shield from his back.
¡°Hello? Is someone there?¡± A young lady''s voice asked, a soft welcoming tone reaching their ears. The moment it spoke, Aegis looked to Lina once more and she violently shook her head no and held her hand out in front of Aegis, to signal him to stop. ¡°Please, I don¡¯t have any money if you are bandits. I¡¯ve gotten lost out here and just want to find my way home.¡± The voice continued. The look on Lina¡¯s face, Aegis saw, was getting progressively more terrified.
¡°Please won¡¯t you help me find my way home?¡± The voice spoke a third time, this time protruding its face out of the bush to reveal itself, but simultaneously get a view of Aegis and Lina. It had large, almost perfectly circular round eyes with pupils like that of a human. Long, stringy eyelashes and eyebrows, and an exaggerated human face covered in wrinkles. A hideous, malformed face with no ears, extending out of a mane of thick hair like that of a lion. Two bumpy black horns extended out of the forehead and curled upwards once before pointing their sharp tips forward towards Aegis and Lina.
The face looked masculine, but the voice was clearly that of a young girl, and upon seeing them it opened its mouth once more to speak. Its mouth and lips were large and oversized, with long stringy black hairs growing around the edges of it. Within were razor sharp teeth and a strangely shaped black tongue with grooves on the end of it.
Lina immediately shivered violently, and Aegis could immediately understand all of the facial expressions that she¡¯d been showing him up until now. Its eyes began to shimmer with a red glow as it locked onto them, and [Almerak Manticore(Elite) - Level 187] became visible above its head in red font, signifying it was a hostile creature.
¡°It¡¯s going to attack us, now?¡± Aegis asked Lina, but she didn¡¯t reply. Instead, she looked somewhat frozen with wide eyes as she looked at it. ¡°Lina?¡± he asked, but got no response much to his surprise. Simultaneously, he watched as something long and pointed began to rise up from behind the bush that the head was sticking out of, a tail resembling that of a scorpion¡¯s.
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Then, without warning, the creature lunged forward towards Lina, and she remained frozen and unable to move.
¡°Lina!¡± Aegis shouted, but got no reaction. He quickly jumped in front of her and lifted his shield up just in time to brace the attack - the Manticore jabbed its tail forward over its body down at Aegis and the stinger slid off the side of his mithral shield.
|
You take 11,346 Piercing damage.
You take 6,205 Acid damage.
|
It was some of the highest damage number¡¯s he¡¯d seen since upgrading his gear, immediately putting him on edge. He was only grateful that his shield was resistant to acid and wouldn¡¯t melt away like an Iron shield would. The beast followed up its tail attack with a charge attack using its horns, ramming into Aegis¡¯ shield which he blocked.
| You take 9,783 Piercing damage. |
It then prepared to follow up by slashing out at him with a pair of claws that extended out of two massive lion paws that it had on its front legs, while at the same time Aegis watched two large, bat-like wings begin to expand from the back of the four legged creature.
¡°This thing hits hard, I shouldn¡¯t block his attacks like this.¡± Aegis declared as he saw the claws rearing up, but the speed at which it was attacking was incredibly fast - he was sure that fighting players for so long would¡¯ve given him a leg up but was quickly realizing the truth behind all the warnings he¡¯d been given about high level monsters in this game.
Still, as he said this, a quick glance back at Lina told him she wasn¡¯t going to react. So, instead, he quickly turned from the creature and scooped up Lina in his arms, sweeping behind her knees with one hand to cradle her while casting a guard at his back to block the two claw attacks.
|
You take 15,680 Slashing damage.
You take 14,924 Slashing damage.
|
Within a few seconds, he was near death due to the bombardment of attacks this creature was hitting him with, and it had no intention of letting up. It pulled its head back as if preparing to release a blast of magical energy, and a quick glance from Aegis allowed him to see a magical orb begin to form at the back of its throat.
¡°Aura of healing. Greater heal.¡± Aegis quickly cast, while at the same time jumping away as quickly as he could to create distance between himself and the Manticore. As he had, a beam of green acid fired out of its mouth in a straight line, cutting through trees and ruined stone walls like butter, leaving a green gooey stain around the impact points.
¡°Please, don¡¯t run away!¡± The manticore called out after him in the young female voice as Aegis desperately dashed around several trees.
¡°Lina, did you get hit with some sort of crowd control ability?¡± Aegis asked her frantically as he started weighing his options. His Avatar of Eirene skill was still on cooldown for the day, due to the brawl. He looked to his party interface in the corner of his peripheral vision to see Lina¡¯s status and saw she had no debuffs. ¡°Maybe a connection problem with your Simbox?¡± He tried to reason, still seeing her just staring blankly at him. He wanted to try and figure it out, but the manticore was somehow keeping up with him despite him zig-zagging around the trees of the forest. He felt the wooshing air caused by the creatures wings as they flapped behind him, and in an instant the scorpion tail was jabbed out at his back once more. Luckily, he was able to sidestep it, then quickly cast a heal on himself and jump backwards to avoid a swipe of the Manticore¡¯s claws.
¡°Let¡¯s escape this forest together.¡± The manticore spoke, a deadpan stare from its circular eyes as it spoke. Aegis felt the creepiness of this creature in his bones, but he also felt he might be able to take it on - especially if he had Lina¡¯s help.
¡°Lina, I need you,¡± Aegis mumbled while preparing himself to dodge the next set of attacks. He hadn¡¯t realized it, but without saying anything else, this had snapped Lina out of her trance. She blinked, looking at Aegis¡¯ chin from below as he held her and continued speaking. ¡°To get out of this. These Manticore¡¯s are no joke. If it¡¯s a connection issue, please fix-¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m really scared of these things.¡± Lina took a deep anxious breath, her eyes still wide but finally blinking.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so? We didn¡¯t have to fight them. We could grind somewhere else.¡±
¡°But this is the best spot!¡± Lina replied as tears started to build up in her eyes. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to slow us down, and get in the way. I want to be by your side and help you! I wasn¡¯t able to help you when Rene was burning, and¡ I¡¡±
¡°You were worried about something like that?¡± Aegis asked as he jumped back and dodged another swipe from the creature''s claws.
¡°You don¡¯t need to fear me.¡± The Manticore joined into the conversation, and Aegis could feel Lina shivering in his arms from its voice.
¡°When we started, I knew so much more. I could always help. Now I feel like I can¡¯t help anymore. Like you are so far away¡ the brawl, the pirates, I watched it all, it was so incredible, so¡¡±
¡°Lina, I¡¯m the one who should be worried.¡± Aegis finally found the words he was looking for earlier, boiling to the surface. ¡°The way I acted after everything happened, it was embarrassing. I apologized, but I guess I¡¯m still ashamed of it. A little bit of me was afraid of how you thought of me now, since I yelled at everyone.¡± Aegis explained while jumping away from the Manticore further into the forest. It continued its close pursuit and made several more strikes towards Aegis¡¯ back and knocked over trees in the process.
¡°No, no of course not. I understand you were angry. It didn¡¯t change how I felt. I just want to be with you.¡± She replied with her voice trailing off.
¡°I¡¯m glad¡ because I feel the same way.¡± Aegis let out a sigh of relief.
¡°Let¡¯s all become one, together.¡± The Manticore added, turning Aegis¡¯ sigh of relief into that of an annoyed one. ¡°Shut the hell up you stupid creepy cat thing.¡± Aegis grumbled back at it. For the first time, Lina felt herself holding back a slight chuckle rather than feeling afraid after the creature spoke. The laughter ended when Aegis abruptly had to switch the direction in which he was fleeing, due to him coming face to face with a second, distinctly different but equally hideous manticore face.
¡°Why hello there partner!? Fine weather we¡¯re having today, ain¡¯t it?¡± The second manticore spoke with an accent resembling that of a cowboy from the wild west.
¡°You gotta be kidding me.¡± Aegis shook his head in disbelief as the tail of the second Manticore reared up and prepared to strike. ¡°Who the hell designed the voices for these things?¡± Aegis asked Lina in disbelief, causing her to smile anxiously. ¡°Do you think you can help me kill these idiotic monsters? Or should we get out of here and look for somewhere else to grind?¡± Aegis asked her, looking down into her eyes for a brief moment. ¡°Together, we should be able to take them out easily.¡±
¡°Okay.¡± Lina nodded back. ¡°Let¡¯s take them out together.¡± she added while wiggling herself out of his arms. Both Manticores charged at them from the front, and Lina and Aegis both drew out their weapons to stare back at them, watching as they knocked over the few trees that stood between them and the creatures.
¡°Giddyup, partners!¡± The second manticore cheered.
¡°Let¡¯s escape this place together, as one!¡± The young female-speaking one called out.
¡°Let¡¯s shut these idiots up.¡± Aegis drew out his claws of jealousy, dug his heels in and prepared himself for the counterattack, while a coat of black mist began to emanate from Lina¡¯s body.
Chapter 258: Weak Spot
Chapter 258: Weak Spot
¡°I¡¯ll keep them focused on me. Try to find their weak spot, okay?¡± Aegis asked Lina, and turned to see her nod back hesitantly. Despite her change in demeanor, he could still see the fear in her eyes. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s okay - I won¡¯t let them hurt you.¡± Aegis tried to reassure her, and she nodded back again, with slightly more confidence.
As the creatures closed in, both of their tails reared back and their fanged maws opened wide, smiling at Aegis with their uncomfortably circular eyes. Once close enough to strike him, Lina shadow stepped away into the shade of the trees around them and Aegis jumped backwards, allowing the tails to pierce into the forest floor and melting small acidic craters into the dirt upon impact.
Lina reappeared around them in several different spots, striking at them with her mithral daggers. Aegis could see them getting distracted by her movements and losing interest in him, so he lunged forward and bashed one in the head with his shield.
¡°Challenging roar!¡± He shouted, though not thinking it¡¯d do much to get their attention due to the enemies being elite. It did have some effect, though, as despite being stabbed on various parts of its body, the female sounding one ignored the strikes in favor of swiping at Aegis with its claws while the one he¡¯d shield bashed on the nose retaliated by chomping out at him. He avoided both of their strikes with great difficulty.
¡°Their bellies are taking extra damage. I am dealing a lot of damage to them.¡± Lina called out as Aegis was forced to block the chomp with his shield, and the swipes with his guard.
|
You take 14,332 Slashing damage.
You take 15,193 Slashing damage.
You take 12,775 Piercing damage.
|
¡°Greater heal. Aura of Healing. Aura of Beauty.¡± He called out quickly after blocking the strikes, casting the heal on himself while erupting his auras outward from the heels of his feet, both of which easily encapsulating Lina and granting her the effects. ¡°Good, keep it up, I¡¯ll try to handle their attacks.¡± Aegis said in response to Lina.
¡°Shadow Dance!¡± She cast a familiar spell to Aegis. She began rapidly teleporting around the manticores and striking at their stomachs - anytime one looked to be drawn to her movements, she swapped targets. Still, not fast enough to completely avoid them as one managed to eventually predict one of her jumps and sting its tail out at her. Aegis reacted by projecting his shield in front to absorb the blow with the protection, however.
|
You take 10,932 Piercing damage.
You take 5,989 Acid damage.
|
¡°Jeez.¡± Aegis groaned while quickly healing himself. ¡°I thought, given how much we¡¯ve trained with each other on PvP movement, that monsters would become a joke. Not only are these things incredibly fast, but they¡¯re keeping up with our movements too.¡± Aegis commented in disbelief as he was forced to dodge and block several more strikes.
¡°Well¡¡± Lina began replying, but paused as she jumped around. Her voice started coming from random directions, echoing off the trees as she rapidly teleported mid-response. ¡°Monsters in this game have stats like ours, and in higher levels they begin to scale to superhuman levels. That is why the majority of players who handle higher level content need to do it in a group. In addition, don¡¯t forget that they are AI that are a part of the game in which we are inputting commands. The AI can cheat a bit and read our input, making it easier for them to predict what we are going to do next and react to it.¡±
¡°Ah. Yeah. I guess that makes sense.¡± Aegis nodded as he pondered her words. ¡°Tch. Cheating creeps.¡± Aegis shook his head disappointedly at the Manticores.
¡°I aint no cheat, partner.¡± The second Manticore replied in his heavy southern accent.
¡°Sure you aren¡¯t buddy.¡± Aegis grumbled back at the beast as it swiped its claws at him with incredible speed. ¡°Still, to keep up with shadow dance¡ isn¡¯t that the fastest movement possible in the game?¡± Aegis asked, trying to confirm something he¡¯d researched.
¡°Mhm. I mean, I¡¯m not fully buffed, so I could still go faster.¡± Lina replied.
¡°Could we fully buff you?¡± Aegis asked curiously.
¡°Nope. Need a bard and a support-type wizard, and some elixirs. But this is okay for these guys.¡± Lina replied.
¡°Got it.¡± Aegis replied, nonchalantly dodging another tail strike. It took a bit of time, but eventually he fell into a rhythm of dodging their strikes when he needed to, and once he¡¯d done that, he began blocking their strikes on purpose. After 10 minutes of fighting, the two Manticores went down due to Lina¡¯s massive damage output on them.
|
Level Up! Shield Mastery has reached Level 156!
Level Up! Greater Heal has reached Level 153!
Level Up! Leather Armor Proficiency has reached Level 152!
Level Up! Aura of Healing has reached Level 152!
Level Up! Aura of Beauty has reached Level 152!
Almerak Manticore x2 Slain!
You gain 1,125,730 Experience!
|
¡°Damn, Quinn wasn¡¯t joking. Those two alone granted about 5% of a level¡¡± Aegis said with wide eyes as he looked at the notifications that had popped up in his peripheral vision.
¡°Mhm. Now imagine we had a small guild helping us killing them, and letting us get all the experience for ourselves.¡± Lina replied with a smile as she eyed a pair of item orbs that rolled out of the bodies of the Manticores.
¡°I guess that¡¯s how Feng and Makaroth are the highest levels in the game, huh?¡± Aegis asked, with no attempt to hide the resentment in his voice.
¡°Yeah¡¡± Lina answered weakly. Aegis walked over the orbs and tapped them as the pair watched two strange chunks of blue jagged stone pieces roll out.
¡°What is that?¡± Lina asked curiously as Aegis leaned down to inspect the item cards of the stones.
|
Name: Relic of Almerak (117)
Type: Relic
Description: Once a piece of something greater, now destroyed and broken apart into 231 fragments, scattered throughout the ruins of Almerak.
|
The second fragment listed itself as fragment 81. Once he¡¯d read the item cards, he held one in each of his hands and looked at the jagged stones curiously.
¡°I think if we collect all 231 fragments of these stones, it might be possible to fix it and find out what it is. But it says the fragments are scattered about the ruins.¡±
¡°231 could be hard. Did it say that they all drop from the Manticores?¡±
¡°Nope, wasn¡¯t specific about that.¡± Aegis shrugged back at her. He then looked up to see the sun moving through the sky, its position indicating it was closing in on the evening. ¡°We¡¯ve only got about 36 hours left to grind before the preliminaries start. It¡¯d probably be hard to try to find them all before then¡¡±
¡°Yeah¡¡± Lina replied as she eyed a giant smile growing across Aegis¡¯ face. ¡°Probably really hard. We¡¯d have to pull a lot of manticores¡ while exploring all these ruins¡¡± She added as his contagious smile slowly spread to her.
¡°Mhm¡ Would have to be stupid to mass pull mobs like these, though¡¡± Aegis raised his eyebrows at her.
¡°Yeah, really stupid.¡± Her eyes lit up with excitement. Aegis pulled out his harvesting knife and quickly got to work on the manticores, obtaining crafting parts from their fangs, tails, and leather which looked impressively sturdy, far beyond what was given by the Salamanders.
¡°Even these materials are great¡ If we could gather enough before the tournament we could maybe upgrade our armor¡ too bad there¡¯s not much time.¡± Aegis said, though not with a dejected sounding voice.
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¡°Well¡¡± Lina saw in his eyes what he was planning to do. She was quickly reminded of her first day of playing with Aegis, where he had her kite a boar king around the forest so that it¡¯d knock down trees for him to harvest.
¡°You go that way, I¡¯ll go this way, then we meet around the middle.¡± Aegis pointed out opposite directions as he gave his instructions.
¡°¡®Kay!¡± Lina cheered back excitedly.
Darkshot was proudly staring at his character sheet as the sun began to set that evening, noting his level now sat at 152 and many of his skills had leveled up. He was resting on a rock in front of the corpse of a manticore, eying a relic fragment that he had obtained with the number 47 on it. He bit into a kebab that Aegis had given him in his supply back to boost his stamina recovery before standing up and dusting himself off.
¡°I¡¯m making hella good time.¡± Darkshot said to himself as he opened up his friends list and checked in on his party members. Rakkan had reached level 152 as he had, Pyri was at 153, and Aegis and Lina were both still at 151. ¡°Well, of course Pyri¡¯d be faster. At least I¡¯m beating Aegis though.¡± Darkshot rubbed his hands together before pulling his bow out, getting a coo of acknowledgement from Darkwing on his shoulder. He began prowling through the forest under the darkening sky, until he spotted tracks of a nearby Manticore.
Using his class skills he was able to easily track down the Manticore to its resting place without alerting it to his presence. He got a good position up in the canopy of a nearby tree before pulling back an obsidian tipped arrow in his bow and was preparing to fire - aiming at the vulnerable part of its belly that was visible as it lay sleeping on its side.
¡°HOWDY PARTNER!¡± Aegis suddenly shouted, running out of a nearby ruined structure towards the Manticore. He wasn¡¯t speaking to Darkshot - he hadn¡¯t even noticed Darkshot hiding in the tree. He was yelling at the Manticore to wake it up and get its attention.
¡°Yo whaddup homie?¡± The Manticore replied with heavy slang as it suddenly jumped up to its feet. It went from slumbering peacefully to aggressively baring its fangs at Aegis in less than a second.
¡°Not much, homie!¡± Aegis called back to it, though now sure he had its attention, he started running in the opposite direction.
¡°What the hell Aegis, that one was mine!¡± Darkshot shouted down to him as Aegis barely heard him over the sound of stampeding manticores. As Darkshot shouted, he saw several pairs of bat wings flapping above the trees, in pursuit of Aegis. In addition, several were stomping after him on foot. Seeing the amount - 11 Manticores in total, prompted Darkshot to quickly throw his hands over his mouth in an attempt to take his words back. The fear of accidentally drawing aggro from the manticores onto himself sent a chill down his spine, but luckily none seemed to notice that he¡¯d called out due to the variety of weird voices coming from the manticores mouth - it sounded like a party of the most diverse group of individuals ever as they all called out at Aegis with various accents.
¡°Man¡¡± Darkshot sighed to himself once he was sure he was safe. ¡°What the hell is that idiot doing?¡± Aegis asked Darkwing, who simply cooed back in equal confusion.
Pyri, who was also alerted to the commotion, used her fly spell to soar above the trees until she spotted a newly formed opening in the forest. A total of 23 manticores were gathered by Aegis and Lina, and the pair were now battling them in the clearing that¡¯d been formed due to the manticore attacks melting through the surrounding trees.
From her point of view, she could make out Aegis skillfully maintaining threat on them as Lina shadow danced through the area, releasing tendrils of shadows from the darkened areas that aided in her dealing damage.
Pyri then spotted Darkshot climbing to the top of a tree not too far away, taking in the view as well. Finally, due to the commotion, Rakkan was also spotted as he¡¯d made his way to the top of a ruined structure - one of the few still standing high enough to protrude out of the forest canopy.
¡°I thought we couldn¡¯t AoE grind these?¡± Darkshot said through the party interface so that everyone could hear them.
¡°Well, it¡¯s kinda hard, but I wanted to collect all those ruins fragments before the preliminaries.¡±
¡°They¡¯re elite, though, right? You can¡¯t really hold aggro on them.¡± Rakkan asked.
¡°Yeah, it¡¯s pretty hard¡¡± Aegis replied with his voice strained.
¡°Should we grab some more and join in?¡± Pyri asked deviously.
¡°That¡¯d be great, thanks.¡± Aegis answered her with no hesitation, causing Pyri and Rakkan to chuckle.
¡°One day. Someday, maybe, we¡¯ll be able to just have a nice, relaxing, easy going grinding session.¡± Darkshot grumbled as he began eying the surrounding forest for more Manticore tracks.
Two hours later, long after the sun had set, a giant portion of the ruined forest had been decimated. A large, roughly 100 square meter area had been cleared of all trees and ruined structures. It was littered with craters of sizzling acid, and corpses of manticores.
At the very center of the clearing was Aegis and his party, eagerly sitting and standing in a circle. At the center of the circle was a pile of blue stone fragments, and the group was quickly shuffling through them.
¡°I¡¯m missing 32. Anyone got 32?¡± Darkshot asked.
¡°Here.¡± Lina pulled it from the pile and handed it to him.
¡°Thanks.¡± Darkshot replied excitedly as he took it from her and placed it in his pile of fragments. The group was each taking on a numbered range of fragments and were then attempting to puzzle them together, but it became clear after a short while that they were still missing a good number of them.
¡°Do you think we need to kill more manticores?¡± Rakkan asked as the group gave up for the time being and began adding the fragments to their inventories.
¡°Nah, not likely. A lot of them didn¡¯t even drop a fragment. I bet some are just laying around the ruined buildings.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°Okay, I¡¯ll start searching.¡± He answered with enthusiasm. In an instant, he created several echoes of himself and headed out of the clearing and back into the overgrown ruins.
¡°Yeah, I think I¡¯m gonna take a break and get some rest before the match. Level 153 aint bad, right?¡± Darkshot asked.
¡°Nope. That¡¯s not a bad idea though. We¡¯ve been going non stop for awhile now.¡± Pyri replied while eying Aegis specifically. Once their eyes met, Aegis nodded along.
¡°Alright, yeah. I¡¯m just gonna harvest all these manticores and cook them, then I¡¯ll take a rest.¡± Aegis replied to her.
¡°Good. I¡¯m going to hop out of the Simbox for a shower and a real meal, then.¡± Pyri said as she began fidgeting around with her interface. A few seconds later, she vanished from the game world.
¡°Later,¡± Darkshot waved.
¡°Cya tomorrow.¡± Aegis answered.
¡°Bye.¡± Lina smiled, and Darkshot promptly logged out as well, leaving the pair alone. ¡°Should I make a campfire for you?¡±
¡°That¡¯d help, thanks.¡± Aegis replied as he pulled his harvesting knife from his inventory and got to work on the manticores. He counted the corpses as he made his way around the clearing, totaling 83 that the group had slain. In the end, he managed to hit level 152 but was close enough to 153 that he was sure he¡¯d get it in the morning.
| Level Up! Creature Harvesting has reached Level 157! |
Once he¡¯d finished, he had several manticore flanks that he brought with him back to the campfire where Lina was seated on the remains of an acid-melted log, watching him curiously as he eyed the meat in his hands.
¡°It¡¯s got really strong recovery properties, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to be easy to cook.¡± Aegis said as he sat down on the log beside her without thinking. After he¡¯d pondered a few ideas on how to cook it, he handed the flanks to her to hold for him without speaking, and she took it with no complaints despite the gooey texture of the meat on her hands and the strange clear liquid dripping out of it. With his hands free, he took out his cooking tools and began setting them out around himself, near the fire.
By the time he¡¯d finished, the meat goop had covered her knees and hands, and she was looking down at her armor uncomfortably.
¡°Oh, sorry,¡± Aegis quickly took the meat away and placed it on a large cutting board that he¡¯d brought out of his inventory. ¡°I just made you hold it without thinking.
¡°No, it¡¯s okay.¡± She smiled as she stood up and started wiping the goop off of her salamander leather leggings. ¡°I¡¯m happy¡¡±
¡°You¡¯re happy I handed you goopy meat?¡±
¡°No¡¡± She chuckled as she caught his awkward smile at her. ¡°I¡¯m happy you handed it to me without thinking. Like we¡¯re a pair. My mom said that when you really like someone, you don¡¯t need to talk as much¡¡± Lina explained herself, but as she did she got flustered from her own words.
¡°Oh. Yeah¡¡± Aegis awkwardly broke eye contact. ¡°I guess that¡¯s true.¡± He turned away and began cutting the meat into smaller slices so that it''d fit on the tiny grill of his cooking toolkit that he had brought out. ¡°We¡¯ve been playing together for a few months now, so I guess I feel really comfortable around you. I trust you. But I shouldn¡¯t just plop goopy meat on you.¡±
¡°No it¡¯s okay, you can plop your goopy meat on me whenever you want.¡± She replied eagerly, but afterwards repeated the words to herself in her head as Aegis let out a chuckle. ¡°Ah, I mean¡¡± She anxiously began to fidget as her face went bright red. ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant. You know, I only meant, manticore meat is okay to give to me, definitely not the other thing.¡± She continued, but Aegis¡¯ lack of immediate response caused her to go over her words again. ¡°Ah, I didn¡¯t mean definitely not the other thing, though, because, well¡¡± She got stumped and stopped talking, letting out a nervous sigh.
¡°Hah, it¡¯s okay¡ I know what you meant.¡± Aegis turned back and smiled at her, trying to reassuringly calm her down as he saw her cherry-red cheeks. She avoided eye-contact, though, and instead sat back down on the log and began fidgeting with her fingers. Once he¡¯d gotten over the cuteness of how shy she was, her words and what she was saying slowly sank in.
His eyes, almost against his own will, wandered down her body, following her female form as it was concealed in tightly fitting salamander leather armor. Her black hair, tied back in a pony-tail with the bangs hanging over the front of her face as it tilted downward. He paired this image of her beautiful avatar character with her real body, in the real world, which he thought equally beautiful, and suddenly his heart began to beat faster within his chest.
At the mere suggestion of it by Lina, hormones that¡¯d been suppressed by Aegis due to his focus on his goals began to bubble up inside of him, and he quickly broke eye-contact from her to focus back on slicing the manticore meat, while breathing heavily for no particular reason.
¡°Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.¡± Hae-won let out an extremely long drawn out, whispered cheer as she watched Aegis¡¯ expression intently through Shinji¡¯s camera work. ¡°C¡¯mon Aegis, be a man!¡± Hae-won shouted at the display of his livestream from within her broadcasting simulation, the chat zooming past her with random heart emojis.
Chapter 259: Hands-On Experience
Chapter 259: Hands-On Experience
¡®It¡¯s normal for guys to think about those things, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t¡¡¯ Aegis¡¯s mind raced as he stared intently at the flanks in front of him. His cooking skill was taking over his hand movements and doing most of the work as he cut it up into smaller, manageable pieces fit for use in recipes - his focus was completely elsewhere now. ¡®When she said that, was it part of the joke? Or is she thinking about it too. I guess it¡¯s normal, we¡¯re dating after all¡ but,¡¯
| You take 1 point of slashing damage. |
The red number popped up above his head as he¡¯d accidentally cut himself.
¡°Ow. Tch.¡± He winced at the pain. Despite the minor wound, the game simulated the pain to its fullest on his finger and a red number floated above his head.
¡°Are you okay?¡± Lina asked worriedly as she watched him from behind, still sitting on the stump.
¡°Yeah, I¡¯m okay. This meat is a bit tougher than I expected.¡± Aegis laughed awkwardly, then shook his head to himself in frustration. He took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves and focus back on the task at hand, but was unable - the imagine of Lina¡¯s character behind him was burned into his mind. He began to imagine what she would look like naked, pondering how it would be similar to her real body.
| You take 1 point of slashing damage. |
¡°Damnit.¡± Aegis grumbled.
¡°Do you need some help?¡± Lina spoke with concern in her voice, leaning forward. Aegis quickly held a free hand back to signal her to stop.
¡°Nope, I¡¯m okay. No problem.¡± He reassured her. He then attempted to slap himself on the cheek to psych him out of his current train of thought. The fact that they were alone in the wilderness with no one else around, just the two of them, it was all becoming painfully apparent to him the circumstances they were in. ¡®Does this mean she¡¯s thinking about it? Normally, the guy makes a move, right? Is she waiting for me to do something? Where the hell is Derrick when I need him¡¡¯ Aegis continued to hastily run these thoughts through his head.
| You take 1 point of slashing damage. |
¡°Let me help.¡± Lina insisted, seeing the damage number pop up. She quickly pulled out a mithral dagger and moved beside Aegis as he sat on his knees, leaning forward over the manticore flanks as they rested atop his cutting board. Lina dropped to her knees as well and leaned over the meat to eye where Aegis had been cutting it, seeing the uneven slices of the flank that he¡¯d already made.
Aegis kept his head pointed downward, refusing to look up at her for fear of accidentally checking her avatar¡¯s form out again.
¡°Should it be this thin? Or thick like these ones?¡± Lina asked as she pointed out two separately cut slices of manticore meat.
¡°Uh, either is fine. They are both used in different recipes.¡± Aegis replied quickly.
¡°Okay.¡± Lina answered with enthusiasm before leaning closer to get at the meat, then began slicing it for him. She, with no difficulty whatsoever, was able to cut the flank into small slices with her dagger. It only took her a few cuts to realize that it wasn¡¯t particularly difficult to handle. ¡°Are you sure everything is okay?¡± She asked upon this realization.
¡°Yeah. Yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡± He cleared his throat awkwardly. ¡°Just tired, I guess. Lots of stuff happened today.¡± He shrugged.
¡°Oh. Right. Do you want to sleep now?¡± Lina asked him innocently.
¡°Huh?¡± Aegis lifted his face up to look at her, revealing how red his cheeks were. ¡°You mean, here, right now?¡± he blurted out, flustered.
¡°I have some camping gear in my inventory¡ or we can log out and sleep¡¡± She answered timidly, taken aback by his suddenly surprised tone.
¡°Yeah, of course. Camping gear, that¡¯s normal for when we¡¯re out on adventures. Of course.¡± He let out a sigh of relief, but it was short lived as he felt pressured once more to act. With no experience of being a boyfriend, he had no sense for what hints to look for, and when he should act.
He suddenly got an irresistible urge to study it. About how to pick up on what your girlfriend wants, and how to be more intimate, but he fought against it and went back to cutting the meat.
¡°Okay, sure. That¡¯s a good plan. I¡¯ll cook the meal, and you set up the tents?¡±
¡°Got it.¡± Lina nodded back quickly. She finished slicing the flank then got up and began pulling out camping gear from her inventory, then assembling a tent near the fire. As she looked away, Aegis felt he could finally breathe, and gasped for air as quietly as he could now that he knew she wasn¡¯t facing him directly.
¡°How the tables have turned¡¡± Hae-won rubbed her hands together with a devilish grin. ¡°Who is the shy one now, lover boy?¡± She turned to the chat, as Aegis¡¯ viewership numbers were rising above 2 million and the sentiment of his audience were all of romance and anticipation. ¡°I think it¡¯s voting time, ladies and gentlemen. Will Aegis make a move? Or will it be another dry night for poor Lina?¡±
¡°Seriously? Isn¡¯t that a bit much? They¡¯re kids¡¡± Shinji grumbled at Hae-won, his voice reaching her ears but not being heard on the broadcast. He was watching it all unfold as he veered the camera around Aegis to keep an eye on both of their facial expressions - Lina was calm now and focused on her task of setting up the tent while Aegis remained bright red.
¡°Kids? They¡¯re both 19. Practically adults. Legal age. This is what the people want to see.¡± Hae-won replied to him grumpily after muting herself on the broadcast.
¡°I mean, the viewership numbers don¡¯t lie¡¡± Tommy joined in, speaking in a matter-of-factly tone.
¡°Oh man, c¡¯mon. Get it together.¡± Derrick groaned as he watched Aegis stream from his living room. It was night in the real world, so that the only source of light in the room was the screen. His voice was muffled by the sound of his toothbrush in his mouth - he was wearing his pajamas already and preparing for bed.
Lina and Aegis went about their tasks in silence, and it wasn¡¯t long before he was finished preparing the meat and began grilling it over the campfire, a light sizzling sound and pleasant scent filling the air. Lina finished assembling two tents, complete with sleeping bags and amenities to insure they wouldn¡¯t receive any penalties for sleeping under poor conditions.
She then sat across the fire from Aegis and watched as he focused in on his craft to ensure the meal tasted the best he could possibly make it taste, and this helped him take his mind off of lewd things for the time being.
¡°There, it¡¯s done.¡± He announced proudly once he¡¯d organized the meat onto a plate with various other cooked vegetables, and a custom cooked sauce to go along with it.
¡°It looks really delicious. Did it give you a lot of experience?¡± Lina asked as her mouth began to water from the scent alone.
¡°No¡ here.¡± He handed one plate to her, then took the other himself. ¡°I haven¡¯t done any of my crafting advanced quests yet. I suppose once all this tournament stuff is over, I¡¯ll have to do it. If it''s anything like the intermediates, though, It¡¯ll probably take forever.¡± Aegis replied as he thought about it.
¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll manage it though. Did you know? You¡¯re still the only player with advanced shield mastery.¡±
¡°Really?¡± He raised an eyebrow curiously.
¡°Yup. I saw some guide videos that popped up, all of them featured clips from how you cleared it. People analyze all the decisions you made, and how to recreate them.¡± She nodded back.
¡°But, if they saw my clips, can¡¯t they just copy exactly what I did?¡± He asked as he took a bite of his food.
¡°Nuh uh.¡± She shook her head in response as her mouth was full. She took a short pause to chew and swallow. ¡°Wow, this is really delicious!¡±
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis smiled.
¡°For the advanced quests, the objectives stay the same but the monsters change a bit - different positions at the start, and such. Some people even claim you got an easy version of the quest, but that theory doesn¡¯t have much traction.¡± Lina continued.
¡°Where¡¯d you hear all this?¡±
¡°Hm? Well, you are a popular streamer now, so you show up on a lot of the gaming news broadcasts. My parents watch them, so they like to send me any clips that relate to our party.¡± Lina explained.
¡°Oh. Huh¡¡± Aegis was reminded of the times he¡¯d randomly seen broadcasts of Makaroth before he had started playing the game, despite not wanting to watch anything on him. ¡°Being around the top is actually a pretty big deal then, huh?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a huge deal.¡± She smiled before taking another bite of food. ¡°This might be the best food I¡¯ve ever eaten. I can¡¯t believe this isn¡¯t real¡¡± She said as she continued to wolf it down.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
¡°I¡¯m glad you like it.¡± Aegis smiled at her. ¡°I bet if I get advanced cooking, I¡¯ll be able to make even better stuff for you to try.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t wait!¡± She cheered.
¡°Do they talk about you guys too?¡±
¡°Yup. There was a lot of focus around Pyri awhile back, because her APM was so high, but recently the big talk is how viable Rakkan¡¯s class is in PvP, since no one has ever seen it PvP before.¡±
¡°What about Darkshot?¡±
¡°Uh¡ a few top streamers and content creators talk about him, but it''s usually to make fun of his bird.¡± Lina replied while pulling her lips in apologetically, but Aegis started laughing.
¡°Nothing about how cool he is?¡±
¡°Oh, sometimes. They like saying his phrase when he makes a nice play¡ ¡®I shoot from the darkness¡¯.¡±
¡°I shoot from the darkness.¡± Aegis said in unison with Lina, followed by both of them laughing. ¡°I can¡¯t believe he made a catch phrase.¡± Aegis shook his head.
¡°Well, you have one too.¡± Lina shrugged at him.
¡°What? Really? No I don¡¯t.¡± Aegis furled his eyebrows at her.
¡°You do.¡± She giggled, then cleared her throat and straightened her back in preparation for her best Aegis impersonation. ¡°You¡¯re not getting past my shield.¡± She said in a manly voice.
¡°That¡¯s not a catch phrase.¡± Aegis huffed at her.
¡°It is! It¡¯s so cool too. You said it a few times when you were saving Kalmoore.¡±
¡°No, nope, no way, that¡¯s not my catch phrase. I want a new one.¡± Aegis gestured his hands at her, but this only made her laugh.
¡°You can¡¯t change it now, it¡¯s too popular. I think Fanta-see Network is already selling it on t-shirts and stuff.¡±
¡°Seriously?¡± Aegis groaned.
¡°Mhm.¡± She giggled at his reaction again.
¡°Does that mean I need to keep saying it? Won¡¯t it be lame if I just keep saying the same thing?¡±
¡°Darkshot doesn¡¯t seem to think so.¡± Lina held back more laughter. ¡°It should be okay, as long as you just say it at the right times, I think.¡± She added a shrug.
¡°Right.¡± He let out a drawn out sigh, not hiding the fact that he thought the whole thing was ridiculous. ¡°What about you, whats your catch phrase?¡±
¡°Hm? Me? I don¡¯t have one.¡± Lina replied.
¡°Hah? No way you can get off without having one. Make one up, right now.¡± Aegis demanded.
¡°What? No way, it¡¯s too embarrassing.¡± Lina shook her head at him furiously.
¡°What¡¯dya mean it¡¯s too embarrassing?¡±
¡°It¡¯s something boys do. Girls don¡¯t do stuff like that.¡± She waved her hands.
¡°So Pyri doesn¡¯t have one either?¡±
¡°Nuh uh.¡± Lina replied.
¡°What about Rakkan?¡±
¡°He¡¯s got one.¡±
¡°What¡¯s his?¡±
¡°I¡¯m the encyclopedia.¡± Lina replied with a straight face, but the moment Aegis heard it, he spit out the food in his mouth and bursted out laughing.
¡°What?¡± Aegis asked in disbelief, Lina holding back her own laughter. ¡°When did he say that? He said that?¡±
¡°I think when we were defending the Dark Elf city. You know? When Darkshot was trying to get him to say a catch phrase¡¡±
¡°That¡¯s what he landed on?¡± Aegis asked and she nodded. ¡°C¡¯mon, you can get one too, easily better than all of ours.¡±
¡°Nope. Don¡¯t want one.¡±
¡°How about¡ The shadows are my domain¡¡± Aegis whispered in an evil voice.
¡°Noo!¡± She urgently shook her head disapprovingly.
¡°No? Okay, how about this¡¡± Aegis put one hand on his chin to think on it for a second. ¡°It¡¯s stabby stabby teleporting time.¡± Aegis spoke once again in the spookiest voice he could muster. This time Lina burst out laughing at him.
¡°No way, I¡¯m not going to get one. I won¡¯t say anything during a fight, ever.¡± Lina insisted.
¡°Well, you better be careful¡¡± Aegis motioned to his viewership count. ¡°If you don¡¯t say anything yourself, stabby stabby teleporting time might catch on.¡± Aegis grinned.
¡°It better not.¡± She threw a nasty glare towards his live streaming icon, as if to threaten his audience.
The two continued discussing catch phrases, and Lina went over other popular clips of their adventures thus far that had made the rounds. Aegis was in the dark on what people thought of him, and what parts of his growth they were focusing on the most, so found it very informative. Eventually, though, the pair finished their meals and felt the night time atmosphere getting the best of them. Aegis let out a yawn and stretched first, standing up.
¡°I guess we should settle in for the night. Tomorrow we¡¯ll want to get a lot more experience before the preliminaries.¡± Aegis said.
¡°Yeah, right.¡± Lina nodded as she stood up and stretched as well, walking to the campfire and quickly stomping it out. ¡°Thank you for the tasty meal.¡± She added with a smile before turning towards the two tents. One was a pale tan color, the other brown.
¡°Which tent do you prefer? I mean, since they¡¯re both yours.¡± Aegis asked as he eyed them, nerves creeping back up on him as the thoughts he had running through his mind earlier slowly began to re-emerge.
¡°Oh. Either is okay for me, they¡¯re both the same really.¡± Lina shrugged.
¡°Okay.¡± Aegis nodded as he walked up to the brown tent. He pulled back the door of the simple, triangular tent to peer inside and see the sleeping bag already set up with a pillow on the interior. It didn¡¯t look comfortable at all, though - the uneven bumpy ground was coming through the floor of the simple, minimalistic tent. He was sure it¡¯d be much better to just log out of the Simbox and sleep in his bed.
It was this realization that made it click in his head - Lina must¡¯ve known that already, yet she was choosing to camp here in the wilderness, in these cheap low quality tents. The only reason she¡¯d do that¡
With this on his mind, he saw her standing in front of her tent, pulling the flap to the side, then looking towards him with a smile.
¡°Uhm, good night.¡± She said to Aegis. As their eyes met, he didn¡¯t immediately reply. Instead, the two ended up staring directly at each other for a long few seconds. Aegis felt a fluttering sensation inside his body as his nerves heated him up. He wasn¡¯t sure what to do in the situation, but he wasn¡¯t about to fail a test - even without studying, he could wing it. He went with his instincts.
¡°Do you want share a tent instead?¡± Aegis asked her, but broke eye contact before he could get the words out. She, too, looked away towards her feet as her face flushed red. She took a moment to answer, wiggling the heels of her salamander leather shoes into the dirt.
¡°Yes¡¡± Her voice came out weak and soft.
¡°Okay.¡± Aegis got quieter as well. Lina then slowly climbed into the tan-colored tent and moved to the back, sitting next to the pillow so that Aegis could come in as well. He ducked his head down and followed her inside ,closing the flaps of the tent behind them, then sitting near the door, opposite to her. He then eyed the single sleeping bag and pillow on the ground.
¡°Should I get the other one first, from the other tent?¡± Aegis asked nervously. Lina was slow to reply, and looked closely at the sleeping bag before slowly shaking her head no. ¡°Okay.¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°We¡¯ll get a penalty to our stamina if we sleep in armor, so,¡± He quickly went into his inventory and took off his salamander leather armor, so that he only had his common clothing underneath - all of it themed in the blue and purple colors of Rene. Lina saw him do this, and followed suit.
¡°Here, I¡¯ll open the sides so we can both fit¡¡± Aegis leaned closer to her to get over the bag and loosened the sides.
¡°Okay.¡± Lina replied quietly. She watched him do it as well as she could, but the only source of light was that of the moon and stars shining above them down on the dent, and not much light was making it inside. This somehow made Aegis calmer though, as he couldn¡¯t see her and focus on her appearance like he¡¯d accidentally been doing earlier.
He then moved to lay in the sleeping bag,shifting to the side as much as possible to make room for Lina, while laying on his back. Once he was in, she very slowly moved to lay in the bag beside him, but it was immediately apparent that neither would be covered from the cold if they remained as they were.
Despite this, they remained laying side by side in silence for a long, awkward few minutes. All the while, Aegis was psyching himself up, knowing how shy Lina was. He only had to remind himself of what she¡¯d said earlier, and that she was choosing to be here with him. ¡®She likes me as much as I like her, so¡¡¯
He took a deep breath, rolling on his side towards her and then propping himself up on his arm to lift his head up over hers slightly. From there, in the darkness, he could look into her eyes, and she his. The limited light made it hard to see, but they were both sure they were staring at one another. Aegis could see in her eyes the same thoughts on his mind, and that was enough to give him courage to slowly lower his head down and press his lips onto hers.
She said nothing, but her lips moved along with his. It was virtual, but the feeling of her breath, her skin, it felt incredibly intimate. She placed her hands on Aegis¡¯ waist, and Aegis placed his free hand on the side of her face as they continued for a long while, neither wanting to stop.
Her hands made their way under his shirt and onto his skin, moving across his back. Aegis decided to follow her lead and moved his free hand from her face down to her waist, lifting her cotton shirt up to feel her bare hips on his palm. The moment he did, he felt a rush of adrenaline, the idea of it happening, his first time, here - nervous and excitement mixed together. He continued to kiss Lina and slide his hand up her shirt.
¡°Uhm.¡± Lina pulled her lips away as his hands got higher, and she moved one of her hands to stop his. ¡°It¡¯ll be weird, because our profanity filters are still on.¡± She said nervously.
¡°Oh. Right¡¡± Aegis whispered as he pulled his head back and sat up slightly, realizing the situation they were in. ¡°We¡¯re still in the game¡ it¡¯s the first time for me, so¡¡± Aegis thought out loud.
¡°Me too.¡± Lina replied shyly.
¡°Should we? Or¡¡±
¡°It can be good practice¡¡± She said while avoiding his eyes briefly.
¡°Okay¡¡± The two of them were bright red now. ¡°I¡¯ll turn off the filter¡¡± Aegis fidgeted with his interface, as Lina began to do the same thing.
|
[Warning]
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Disabling your Profanity Filter will require you to restart your livestream broadcast and relabel it to 18+, to warn viewers of more mature content. The age of your audience will become restricted to 18+. You may lose a significant number of viewers by doing this. Are you sure you wish to continue?
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Aegis had gotten so caught up in the moment, and with his own nerves, that he¡¯d completely forgotten about everything else around him - including the livestream. He looked up at his icon and see his viewership had shot up to a whopping 3 million.
¡°You guys are perverts.¡± Aegis grumbled, as he hit the yes button and turned off his livestream.
¡°DON¡¯T YOU DARE!¡± Hae-won screamed at her screen, but it was futile.
Chapter 260: The Morning After
Chapter 260: The Morning After
The morning sun peered in through the living room windows of Jillian¡¯s house, creeping slowly across the carpet until arriving at the base of the couch. From there, they slowly made their way up to her face, and once shining directly onto her closed eyelids she winced and opened them.
The first thing she looked at was the natural morning daylight, but could hardly differentiate it from the virtual rising sun that she¡¯d been seeing within the game world. She wiped a small streak of drool from the side of her mouth before rubbing her eyes to try and clear up their grogginess, then scratched her stomach over her baggy white t-shirt that she¡¯d slept in.
She could hear the sound of the birds chirping outside, but they were somewhat muffled by two voices talking enthusiastically. She sat up on the couch and turned her head to look up at the source of the voices - a news broadcast was playing on the living room television.
¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t even think Juan¡¯s guild team is even going to survive the preliminaries.¡± One commentator said as they pulled up a screen of team-names. Jillian could quickly recognize some of the names on display and tell what was being discussed.
¡°Really? They¡¯ve gotten past the preliminaries plenty of times in the past though.¡± The second and female commentator replied in a surprised tone.
¡°Yep. The competition this time around is going to be that tough.¡± He shrugged. ¡°If it was on skill alone, maybe¡ but, Feng¡¯s guild, Makaroth¡¯s guild¡ they¡¯ve all got powerful gear and high level members. Any discrepancies they have in skill, they¡¯ll make up for in other areas.¡±
¡°What about Eerie¡¯s team?¡±
¡°Hm, that¡¯s a tough one¡ It could go either way. They¡¯re gonna be ones we keep an eye on. Their specialty is best of 5¡¯s, so if they can make it to the main matches they¡¯ll do well¡¡±
¡°How well are we talking? Do you think they¡¯ve got a chance to finally dethrone Seraxus?¡±
¡°Pfft, no way. At least, I don¡¯t think so. What are your thoughts?¡±
¡°I think this tournament is just going to be a battle for second place, like always. And anyone who is unlucky enough to get his side of the bracket is just going to have to head home early.¡± The commentator shrugged.
Jillian rolled her eyes at the screen and quickly tapped her wrist implant to change the broadcast over to Aegis¡¯ livestream after briefly glancing at his Simbox across the living room from the couch, where he was still playing inside. To her surprise, though, Aegis wasn¡¯t currently livestreaming himself. Instead, she was presented with Hae-won as she was engaging with Aegis¡¯ audience over old footage of Aegis when he was taking on the Advanced Shield Mastery quest.
¡°It is something we need to take into account guys, certainly.¡± Hae-won said in response to one of the audience¡¯s chat messages. Aegis¡¯ chat was visible on the stream as she interacted with them, and it was clear she was paying more attention to the chat than the old footage on display.
¡°Yeah, but see, that¡¯s different. That¡¯s not what we¡¯re talking about.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Ultimately, the question is, does it qualify as losing your virginity if it''s in a virtual world? Or should you still be considered a virgin?¡±
The moment Jillian heard this, she began paying a whole lot more attention to the message that the chatters were typing. Her eyes went wide with confusion, but it didn¡¯t take her a long time to piece together why this was Hae-won¡¯s current topic of conversation. She went through several more emotions after this, but eventually landed on a devious smirk as she stood up from the couch and walked over to Eli¡¯s Simbox.
¡°I¡¯m going to make some breakfast. Do you want something?¡± Jillian asked after pressing down on the touch screen of the box to activate the communicator.
¡°Huh? Uh, yeah. Yeah, I¡¯ll be out in a minute.¡± Aegis replied back, sounding as though he¡¯d just been shocked awake.
¡°Okay. I¡¯ll whip something up for both of us.¡± Jillian replied. She then headed to the kitchen to do exactly that, and a few minutes later she could hear the sound of the Simbox opening and Eli stepping out.
¡°Shit¡ uh¡¡± She heard him blurt this out, sounding flustered and confused for a moment. Jillian¡¯s devious smile grew wider but she continued preparing eggs in a pan on their electric stove.
¡°Everything okay?¡± She called out through the house.
¡°Huh? Uh, yup. Yeah, everything¡¯s fine. Just gotta go to the bathroom.¡± Eli replied hurriedly, before he ran through the house to the bathroom and shut the door quickly behind himself. The bathroom, being across the hall from the kitchen door, meant that she could still hear awkward panicked sounds coming from within. Whatever Eli was doing, it wasn¡¯t using the toilet.
¡°You sure you¡¯re alright?¡± Jillian asked after she heard two bottles getting knocked over.
¡°Yup. Yeah. Just fine. Just a little sleepy, that¡¯s all.¡± Eli called out back through the door. After a few more moments of commotion, Eli stepped out of the bathroom holding a bunched up ball of clothing - the simulation suit that he¡¯d been wearing. Now, instead, he was wearing a bathrobe. He did his best to hide from his mom what he was holding, but she could see it in clear view from the kitchen doorway as he took it and headed to the wash-dryer machine and threw it all inside.
¡°Something happened with your Simulation suit that I got you?¡± Jillian asked.
¡°Huh? No, nah.¡± Eli replied flustered as he made his way into the kitchen finally, just as Jillian was setting down plates of breakfast for the both of them. The smell of fried eggs and toast filled their noses. He pulled up a chair and sat down but saw his response didn¡¯t satisfy his mom¡¯s curiosity. ¡°I mean, yeah, I just spilled toothpaste on it just now, that¡¯s all. Gonna wash it before going back in.¡±
¡°Oh, really? You didn¡¯t brush your teeth though.¡± Jillian raised her eyebrows at him as she sat down as well.
¡°No, yeah, of course, not yet, because I spilled the toothpaste.¡± Eli replied. ¡°Thanks for the breakfast.¡± He tried to change the subject while quickly diving into the meal. Jillian pretended to shrug and lose interest, beginning to eat as well. A few moments of silence later, though, she couldn¡¯t help herself.
¡°You know, those suits are designed for that sort of thing. You can detach the lower part and wash it in the sink really quickly, you don''t need to put it in the wash-dryer.¡± She said without making eye contact with him.
¡°Huh, really?¡± Eli replied initially with interest, but quickly realized what her words implied. ¡°I mean, why would you mention that though? How do you know where I spilled the toothpaste?¡±
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
¡°Oooh I think we both know it¡¯s not toothpaste you¡¯re trying to clean off of it.¡± Jillian shrugged with her eyebrows, but still avoided looking at him.
¡°What? You think I wet myself?¡± Eli asked with an exasperated tone, his cheeks brightening to a cherry red. Jillian didn¡¯t dignify this with a response, but instead looked him in the eyes with a look only a mother could give her son to let them know that she already knew.
¡°You want me to wash it for you? I read the manual so I can show you how to detach it.¡± Jillian suggested.
¡°No. Mom. C¡¯mon. Seriously? What are you even talking about?¡± Eli shot up from the table. ¡°I¡¯ll wash it right now, myself. The toothpaste, I mean.¡±
¡°Of course.¡± She feigned ignorance, going back to her meal as if nothing of significance was happening. Eli rushed out of the kitchen to get his suit out of the wash-dryer, but as he did he could hear the sound of Hae-won talking over his broadcast. It only took hearing a few sentences for him to pick up on what she was discussing.
¡°Damnit, Hae-won.¡± Eli grumbled to no-one in particular as he stomped and huffed his way back into the bathroom. It wasn¡¯t hard for him to figure out how to detach the groin area of the simulation suit and wash it under the sink, just as Jillian had suggested.
¡°I¡¯m done eating. Gonna hop in. Is Lina still logged in? I¡¯d like to chat with her.¡± Jillian called to him through the closed bathroom door.
¡°Mom, don¡¯t you dare say anything to her. Don¡¯t say anything weird, okay? Hae-won¡¯s making it weird enough.¡±
¡°Why, was it weird?¡±
¡°No, it wasn¡¯t, it was gr- look I¡¯m not talking about this with you.¡± Eli shouted back at her through the door, completely flustered. Jillian held back laughing to the best of her ability as she put her own suit back on over her clothes and made her way back to her Simbox.
¡°Ah, I love my son.¡± She smiled, shaking her head to herself.
¡°C¡¯mon mom, promise you won¡¯t say anything.¡±
¡°Okay, okay, fine, I won¡¯t.¡± Jillian sighed before climbing into the Simbox and beginning the simulation.
Pyri re-appeared in the clearing as Lina was in the process of packing up her tents from the night before. Pyri also took note that many of the trees that had been destroyed from their battle with the Manticores were already being regenerated and growing back quickly.
¡°Morning.¡± Pyri smiled at Lina and waved.
¡°Good morning.¡± Lina smiled back, meeting her eyes briefly before going back to packing up the tents.
¡°Need any help with that?¡±
¡°Nope, I¡¯m okay.¡±
¡°Okay.¡± Pyri shrugged, watching her intently. She kept her eyes locked on Lina¡¯s face, trying to see any changes in expressions, but saw none - which she found boring. Temptation began to rear its head in Pyri¡¯s mind as she prepared to ask a question as vague as possible, but was prevented from doing so by the appearance of Darkshot as he logged into the gameworld nearby.
¡°Ahhh.¡± Darkshot stretched and yawned loudly. He then took a deep breath and sucked in all the virtual air he could. ¡°Nothin¡¯ like fresh wilderness in the morning.¡±
¡°Good morning.¡± Lina politely said to Darkshot.
¡°Morning.¡± Pyri joined in on the greeting. Her mind was still on the cleverest, most indirect question she could ask Lina, but she was beaten to the punch.
¡°How was your night last night?¡± Darkshot asked with a mischievous tone.
¡°It was nice¡¡± Lina replied, but as she did she looked at Darkshot and saw the slight grin on his face that said he knew, and her face quickly reddened.
¡°Darkshot¡¡± Pyri gave him a disapproving look which wiped the grin off his face and made him clear his throat. She was happy for an opportunity to take the high road while still getting to see Lina¡¯s awkward reaction, but it was enough for Lina to see that Pyri knew as well.
¡°You guys¡ saw?¡± Lina asked shyly, avoiding eye-contact with them as she put the last of her tent away.
¡°Nah. Hae-won¡¯s been going off all morning though.¡± Darkshot chuckled. Lina quickly bent her knees so she was in a ball and slapped her hands over her bright red face. Before more could be said, Aegis appeared inside the game world with a look of urgency on his face - everything in his bones told him he¡¯d needed to log back in quickly to protect Lina from Pyri. Unfortunately, seeing her with hands over her face, he knew he was too late.
He let out an exasperated huff of air to show his disappointment in both Darkshot and Pyri as he started fidgeting with his interface to turn his profanity filter back on, then activated his livestream broadcast.
¡°Yo. Hae-won. I heard you talking. Stop saying weird stuff.¡± Aegis said, directing his voice to his live streaming icon as his viewership was already sitting at 100, 000 viewers the moment he¡¯d flicked it on due to Hae-won¡¯s discussion. ¡°You guys, too. We didn¡¯t do anything weird, it¡¯s normal to do that stuff with someone you love.¡± Aegis said in a commanding voice.
His speech worked better than he had hoped, all attention fell off of Lina immediately and Darkshot and Pyri both looked at him with wide eyes of shock. He didn¡¯t understand why, immediately, until Lina as well stood back up and turned to face him with a wide-eyed, shocked expression.
¡°What?¡± Aegis looked around them confused.
¡°You just said¡¡± Lina weakly got the words out before she was interrupted.
¡°Yo! Aegis!¡± Rakkan shouted excitedly, running towards the group while accompanied by his echoes. ¡°Aegis, you¡¯re never gonna believe it!¡± he cheered. In the few seconds it took for Rakkan to run towards them across the clearing, Aegis realized why they were shocked, and what he¡¯d accidentally said. He cleared his throat and desperately diverted all focus onto Rakkan, marching towards him.
¡°What¡¯d you find?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°The rest of the stone fragments. They were scattered around the ruins like you said. My skills helped me find them though. Look, I pieced together the fragments and it looks like some sort of map. I think it leads to a hidden dungeon entrance.¡± Rakkan said as he pulled a tablet from his inventory. It had cracks, but the many pieces that he¡¯d puzzled together were holding as if some magical adhesive was sticking them together.
¡°Really? That¡¯s awesome.¡± Aegis responded with forced enthusiasm. The others, however, continued to stare at the back of Aegis¡¯ head with expressions of disbelief.
¡°Yeah. See here? This has got to be the entrance. I bet it¡¯s gonna be the highest level dungeon on Kalmoore.¡± Rakkan replied excitedly.
¡°Nice. That¡¯s great.¡± Aegis answered, pretending to be extremely interested in the tablet. Rakkan took this time to look at the others, and only then did he notice the awkward atmosphere.
¡°Did something happen?¡±
¡°Huh? Nope. Nothing happened.¡± Aegis shook his head at Rakkan feverishly. ¡°Let¡¯s keep grinding Manticores. We can mark the location of the dungeon but, in case it¡¯s too dangerous we oughta hold off going inside for now. We¡¯ll have to come back after we¡¯re done with this tournament business.¡±
¡°Oh, right, okay. Well, all the manticores we killed have already respawned. Should I start grouping them up?¡± Rakkan asked.
¡°Yup. Great idea. Everyone, let¡¯s start rounding up Manticores and start grinding.¡± Aegis clapped loudly. ¡°Hustle, hustle, no time to waste.¡± He motioned them to scatter into the surrounding forest ruins.
Pyri rolled her eyes at him, holding back laughter as she cast fly on herself. Lina shadowstepped away as fast as she could, and Rakkan took off with his echoes. Only Darkshot stayed back to lock eyes with Aegis.
¡°C¡¯mon, you gotta pull some Manticores too, with your arrows.¡±
¡°Mhm.¡± Darkshot pulled his lips to the side. ¡°Whatever, loverboy. It doesn¡¯t count ¡®cause it was virtual, by the way.¡± Darkshot said while turning to head away from Aegis.
¡°Hah? Of course it does. It¡¯s basically the same inside the simulation.¡± Aegis replied defensively.
¡°Ah! So it did happen!¡± Darkshot turned back with a devious smile.
¡°Just shut up and pull some manticores.¡± Aegis shouted at him angrily, and Darkshot quickly ran off while cackling over his shoulder at Aegis.
¡°Man. Buncha morons.¡± Aegis shook his head to himself in disbelief. ¡°They¡¯re like middle-schoolers. You too, Hae-won.¡± Aegis grumbled. He needed a few more seconds to clear his head, though. Several deep breaths later and his skin returned to its normal color - his focus went back on the task at hand as he heard the stomping footsteps of rampaging Manticores that began to pursue his party through the surrounding forests, closing in on him.
Chapter 261: Pre-game Jitters
Chapter 261: Pre-game Jitters
¡°We¡¯re only one hour away from the start of the 29th Gladiator Arena Tournament of the Shattered World Online, hosted every in-game month. It lines up with the 3rd in-game year anniversary of the launch of the Shattered World Online.¡± A VGN Broadcaster with short brown hair wearing a business suit spoke to his live streaming camera. He had a badge pinned on the breast of his suit jacket with his name, ¡®Thomas¡¯, written on it.
He sat in a studio in a puffy yellow chair with large rounded armrests, adjacent to his co-caster. She had long beautiful blonde hair and wore an eye-catching blue dress that sparkled against her form. Her pinned badge named her ¡®Jennifer¡¯. Both were leaning forward, exchanging looks with each other and the camera and they spoke.
¡°Yes of course, it being only the 29th due to the first three months of the games launch having these tournaments disabled.¡± Jennifer clarified.
¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Thomas nodded at her. ¡°But this tournament isn¡¯t just going to be exciting because of the anniversary, no no no.¡± He shook his head playfully and smiled at the camera. ¡°This tournament will feature some of the most powerful players known within the game world. And not just the ones who specialize in player versus player gameplay.¡±
¡°Exactly, Thomas. After the 26-time reigning champion Seraxus traveled to Kalmoore and threatened the island as well as his son, Makaroth challenged Seraxus to an official battle within the tournament, giving Seraxus a chance to claim Makaroth¡¯s throne as the number one player. Seraxus accepted the challenge under the conditions that he¡¯d leave Kalmoore unharmed, for the time being.¡± Jennifer explained excitedly.
¡°Yes, it¡¯s going to be quite the showdown.¡± Thomas rubbed his hands together. ¡°Makaroth, who revealed his son was the well known Harbinger of Light Aegis, stepped in to protect his son despite his son holding a deep grudge against his father for their past relationship. Truly a difficult step for Makaroth to take, but he¡¯s not going to back down when it comes to protecting Aegis, no matter how spiteful he is towards his father.¡±
¡°I truly feel for Makaroth, this situation must be hard on him. But, he¡¯s been training his best player versus player guild members for this tournament to take down Seraxus. Synopse, Makaroth¡¯s right hand man, has stepped up and assembled a team of the Sages of Destiny¡¯s greatest combat members. We have footage of them right now, live, as Synopse and his team check-in for the preliminaries.¡± Jennifer spoke while waving her hands to pull up a livestream feed of Makaroth¡¯s broadcast.
The screen hovered behind the two on a floating, partially transparent screen. On it they could see a large crowd of players gathered in a line outside of a gigantic stone stadium. Some were in the line to get into the stadium, while others were crowding around Makaroth and Synopse¡¯s 5-man team, begging them for autographs and cheering them on. Makaroth was nothing but waves and smiles to his fans, but Synopse and his group kept serious expressions on their faces as they focused on the task at hand.
¡°Synopse certainly has what it takes to get through the preliminaries, but taking down Seraxus? I¡¯m not sure.¡± Thomas spoke in a concerned tone.
¡°It¡¯s hard to be sure.¡± Jennifer shrugged. ¡°We¡¯ve never seen high level, high geared PvE focused players enter the tournament to try and take him on. At the same time, there¡¯s a reason Seraxus is the 26-time reigning champion of these tournaments. His team of PvPers are extremely skilled with almost perfect coordination. His weapon is the undisputed most powerful item known in all of the Shattered World, allowing him to kill anything it touches in a single hit. And then, finally, the man himself - Seraxus¡¡±
As Jennifer continued to speak, the broadcast on the screen floating behind them switched over from Makaroth¡¯s stream to Seraxus¡¯. He was back in Puagas, heading to the gladiator arena with his companions. There was a stark contrast between his stream and Makaroth¡¯s - there were no other players or NPCs around him and his party. The streets looked desolate around the gladiator arena, with the buildings lining the streets in shambles - some with clear scorch marks and others missing walls. The arena itself was cracked and missing portions of stone walls around the upper sections of it.
Seraxus was joking around with his party, laughing and smiling as they responded to messages appearing in his livestream chat from his audience.
¡°He single handedly defined the current Battlemaster Meta that we are all experiencing today, showing everyone just how powerful that fighter intermediate class can be when put in the right hands.¡± Thomas explained.
¡°That¡¯s right. Because of him you will rarely find a PvP team that doesn¡¯t contain at least one Battlemaster, usually more.¡±
¡°Still, none can hold a candle to his gameplay with the class. Synopse has got his work cut out for him.¡± Thomas said to Jennifer, and she nodded back in agreement.
¡°Now as the reigning champion, he has the ability to forgo the preliminary matches and skip right to the finals. But as we all know, Seraxus always waives this right in favor of fighting more people in the preliminaries.¡± Jennifer explained.
¡°He claims to do it because he just loves to fight as many matches as possible, but many people speculate he opts to fight through the preliminaries to maximize the number of souls he¡¯s able to consume with his Sword of Hatred.¡± Thomas smirked.
¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s the real reason.¡± Jennifer laughed. ¡°In addition, he also gets to decide which arena the finals will be hosted in. The past 26 tournaments have all been hosted in Puagas for this very reason, giving the island the nickname of ¡®The PvP island¡¯.¡±
¡°I¡¯m curious to see if this time around he¡¯ll decide to move the tournament to another island, given all the attention it''s getting?¡± Thomas asked.
¡°It¡¯s possible.¡± Jennifer shrugged. ¡°Due to the efforts of several divine guilds, he was previously unable to leave Puagas. But recent events have shown us he¡¯s got methods to do it now, so who knows what¡¯ll happen.¡±
¡°Speaking of Divine guilds¡¡± Thomas cleared his throat and waved his arms at the screen floating behind them, switching the stream away from Seraxus¡¯ and over to another.
A tall man with short blonde hair wearing heavy silver plate armor could be seen lining up on his own island, preparing to sign up for the preliminary matches himself. He was surrounded by other plate-wearing players, all wielding different weapons. He himself, with [Mikael - Level 150] floating above his head.
The city around him was as lively as Makaroth¡¯s, but not so much attention was being put on him. Instead, the focus was on other big streamers in line alongside him - their names were not visible but they could be heard speaking Spanish. Simultaneously, Mikael spoke German to his 4 companions with serious expressions on their faces.
¡°Schadenfreude, not currently members of our VGN, is a guild filled with almost solely divine class players. They¡¯ve devoted themselves to containing Seraxus and have vowed to put a stop to his reign of terror. It¡¯s thanks to them that he hasn¡¯t been able to leave Puagas up until recently.¡± Thomas explained.
¡°It¡¯s a noble cause, but despite their hundreds of attempts to take him down, they¡¯ve all failed repeatedly. I admire their perseverance. They¡¯re led by Mikael, a crusader class player who worships multiple Shattered World gods, including Zues and Odin.¡±
¡°They¡¯re regulars in our tournament broadcasts. They consistently make it out of the preliminary rounds, and have fought head to head against Seraxus multiple times, but always get defeated in a clean sweep in the best of 5 series.¡±
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¡°And behind Mikael we can see several of the largest Spanish streamers preparing to sign up for their preliminary matches. Included amongst them is the top 10 streamer, Mateo the Bloodletter - the advanced assassin class.¡±
¡°Unfortunately, due to our arrangements with the Spanish broadcasting company, we aren¡¯t able to show his matches from his point of view, though.¡± Thomas apologized.
¡°What we can do, though¡¡± Jennifer smiled and motioned to the screen again as she fidgeted with her wrist implant to change the broadcast once more, ¡°is show you Feng, and his guild the vindicators.¡± She followed this with a dramatic pause as Feng¡¯s livestream came up on the screen behind her. Feng was surrounded by hundreds of players wearing the matching red Vindicator tabard. He stood out due to the shiny, glowing nature of his powerful enchanted armor and the large sleek katana sheathed on his waist.
¡°Unlike Makaroth, Feng will be participating in the tournament personally, alongside 2 other fully geared, skilled PvP teams.¡±
¡°That¡¯s right, that means 3 separate teams will be entering the preliminary matches on behalf of the vindicators guild. That all but guarantees we¡¯ll see at least one of them making it to the finals.¡± Jennifer nodded.
¡°We hope.¡± Thomas looked at her with a concerned expression. ¡°They¡¯re not the only ones signing up. We¡¯ve gotten reports that there are a record number of teams applying to participate in this tournament. Some just eager to meet their favorite streamers, others hoping to make a name for themselves with so many eyes on the matches.¡±
¡°Each team who participates in the preliminary rounds will be forced to play 5 random matches against any of the other teams that have registered for the preliminary rounds. If you win a round, you¡¯ll be put up against another team who won their first round, and so on and so fourth, until you¡¯ve played all 5 matches. Who they get matched up against in the preliminaries is completely random.¡±
¡°In previous tournaments, generally any team that managed to win 4 out of their 5 matches were able to get into the finals. However, given the amount of signups, it seems that only the teams who are able to win all 5 of their preliminary matches will get a chance to see the finals.¡±
¡°I feel bad for anyone that ends up against Seraxus, then.¡± Jennifer chuckled, to which Thomas joined in.
¡°Either way, we¡¯ll be keeping track of our biggest combatants and give you live updates for the outcomes of everyone''s preliminary matches which will be starting shortly. Be sure to stay tuned, grab your popcorn, and get ready for the biggest showdowns in Shattered World history. We¡¯ll be back right after this commercial break.¡± Thomas spoke, and following his words, the news broadcast began playing an advertisement for a special Sim suit.
¡°So, that¡¯s what we¡¯re up against. They¡¯re not even mentioning Aegis.¡± Tommy sighed as he stood in the middle of the Fanta-See Network studio¡¯s main room, where multiple screens were on the wall in front of him. Some large, some small, and at the base of them were desks with keyboards on which multiple new interns were furiously typing away at work.
Standing beside Tommy was Hae-won in her typical sweatpants and baggy t-shirt attire, and Shinji in his business suit. The three had been watching the broadcast together while simultaneously eating bagels in one hand and sipping tea and coffee from a fast food restaurant¡¯s paper cup in their other hands.
¡°The other networks are avoiding his name as well, as much as they can. Mostly.¡± Shinji pointed out as he motioned to several other news broadcasts that were playing on the other monitors with no audio.
¡°Makaroth must still think he can stop Aegis from participating. Maybe he¡¯s hoping he¡¯ll drop out of the preliminaries?¡± Tommy suggested.
¡°Nah,¡± Hae-won replied, her voice somewhat muffled by the food in her mouth that she was eating. ¡°Prolly somethin¡¯ more sinister.¡±
¡°Well, either way, if he¡¯s gonna make a splash in this VGN controlled world, he¡¯s gonna need a good hype-man.¡± Tommy turned to her.
¡°Hype-woman.¡± She corrected him with a look. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s got the best of the best. If he gets through the prelims, I¡¯ll go there in person and make sure they can¡¯t ignore him.¡± A devious grin grew on her face.
¡°Great.¡± Tommy nodded approvingly at her. ¡°You, just keep doing what you are doing.¡± He said while turning to Shinji. ¡°The amount of poaching officers I¡¯ve been getting for your editing skills is getting ridiculous.¡±
¡°Ah, well¡¡± Shinji smiled and awkwardly scratched his head.
¡°What¡¯s Aegis doing now?¡± Tommy asked as he began fidgeting with his wrist implant to answer his own question. A second later, Aegis¡¯ livestream was pulled up on the main monitor where Hae-won¡¯s substitute, Alicia, could be seen casting in front of his footage. Aegis was standing with his companions in line in front of the Odin Arena within Kordas. There was a line of players surrounding him on either side, filled with high and low levels alike. They were not crowding around Aegis, but instead clearing a path for him and his party to approach the arena.
¡°Looks like Kalmoore¡¯s showing him some serious respect.¡± Tommy commented.
¡°They oughta, he put ¡®em on the map.¡± Hae-won shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m done eating¡¯, lunch break is over.¡± She said while shoving the rest of her bagel in her mouth.
¡°Me too.¡±
¡°Good. Get to work. Let¡¯s show these VGN bastards who they¡¯re messing with.¡± Tommy cheered at his co-workers enthusiastically as they both headed back to their offices to climb into their Simboxes. ¡°That goes for all of us.¡± Tommy shouted to the other interns in the room. ¡°This is our big chance to show the world who the Fanta-See network really is. Let¡¯s not waste it.¡±
¡°Yes sir!¡± The workers replied in near unison.
Aegis was taken aback by the scene unfolding before him. He walked in front of Pyri, Rakkan, Darkshot and Lina towards the gladiator arena, glancing at the rows of bowing players that flanked the streets on either side. It¡¯d been like this since the moment they had stepped out of the portal to Kordas and arrived on the altar within the city''s walls.
[Aegis - Level 155] stood above his head. He and the others had managed to get three more levels after grinding the Manticore¡¯s the entire day, gaining a small boost in all of their skill levels.
It wasn¡¯t until Aegis got near the stadium that he spotted someone standing in his path - Quinn had her hands on her hip and a big smile on her face as he approached.
¡°What¡¯s with all this?¡± Aegis asked her as he motioned the players around him.
¡°Everyone¡¯s here to cheer you on and show you respect. You¡¯re the champion of Kalmoore. It¡¯s thanks to you that this island survived and become so prosperous.¡± She motioned to the city around them in a general manner. ¡°If you do well in this tournament, you¡¯ll bring even more fame and attention to yourself, and in-turn, us.¡±
¡°Thank you, Aegis, sir.¡± A young human player, level 30, suddenly spoke up from the bowing crowd. ¡°My business in the real world hasn¡¯t been doing well, but my shop in Kordas has been making enough money for my family to survive ever since you¡¯ve been streaming. If you hadn¡¯t¡¡± The man choked up with tears. Several others began to speak up around them giving similar sentiments, overwhelming Aegis for a moment as he heard their stories. It wasn¡¯t until he looked at his companions and saw their expressions that he snapped back to reality, though.
Pyri, Darkshot and Lina all had looks that expressed their wonder and joy at all the good they had done for the people of Kalmoore. Rakkan, on the other hand, had an anxious look on his face - his eyes were locked onto the arena waiting ahead of them.
¡°I¡¯m glad we¡¯ve been able to help everyone, but I want to make it clear.¡± Aegis spoke loudly, clearing his throat as everyone else quickly quieted down to listen to him. ¡°We¡¯re not entering this tournament to gain fame, wealth, or anything like that. We¡¯ve got one goal, and one goal only.¡± Aegis paused to lock eyes with Rakkan. ¡°We¡¯re putting a stop to Seraxus.¡± Aegis spoke with determination. Rakkan gave him a nod back after a brief pause.
¡°Well, whatever happens just know that this island and all of the people on it have your back.¡± Quinn smiled. ¡°Now, before I can let you check in¡ I¡¯ve got something to give you. If you two wouldn¡¯t mind doing the honors?¡± Quinn said while looking beyond the rows of people lining the streets. From behind them, Aegis and the others watched as two familiar faces emerged.
¡°It wasn¡¯t easy, I¡¯ll tell yeh that much.¡± Tullan said with an exhausted look on his face, bags under his eyes.
¡°We made sure it was as strong as it possibly could be, though. And suit your needs, like you requested.¡± Yuki said while walking beside Tullan, looking equally exhausted. Despite this, they both looked eager as they approached Aegis from the crowds, moving to stand beside Quinn.
¡°You¡¯ve finished it?¡± Aegis asked excitedly, as the others'' eyes opened wide.
¡°Aye, that we did. A mithral shield infused with the essence of indestructible light.¡±
¡°Woven with powerful dragon scales, voidsilk, and hydra leather.¡±
¡°Fully enchanted with Trexon¡¯s most powerful enchantments, as well.¡± Quinn commented with a nod.
¡°A shield that can stand up to the sword of hatred. The most powerful defensive tool in the entirety of the Shattered World Online.¡± Tullan said excitedly as he made a gesture to Yuki, and she began to fidget with her interface, preparing to pull it out of her interface.
The eyes of everyone nearby locked onto Yuki, waiting eagerly for the shield to be revealed.
Chapter 262: Star of Light
Chapter 262: Star of Light
The shield had a dull, purplish iron tint to its base. It was circular, but jutted out slightly with sharp points at the top, bottom, middle left and middle right sides of the circle. The base had an inner circle indentation inscribed with runes and texts that looked familiar to Aegis, but he couldn¡¯t read them exactly. Each of the runes were glowing with a bright white light, but they were hard to see clearly due to the second layer of mithril forged onto the base.
The second layer was formed into the shape of a 10 pointed star, each point of the star was connected to the base at the center where it was fused between the base and the third layer, but the spikes themselves were curved outward and protruded slightly beyond the circular base, so as to allow attacks to slide off the shield, or catch weapons under the points if used to defend in certain ways.
Finally, the third layer, a star of Eirene, was forged atop the second layer at the very center point of the shield. The star had fewer points than 10, but it lined every other point up with the 10 of the second layer below it. The star was not flat, but bulged out at its center where all points converged, and from the center came a blinding white light that gently sprayed out strands of light over the rest of the shield, like a barrier of holy magic that washed over the mithral from the center.
All eyes fell upon the shield with wonder and amazement as Yuki held it forward towards Aegis. He carefully retrieved it from her hands, and the first thing he did was spun it around to view the back of it. It had a reinforced dragon scale backing, with hydra-leather straps sewn in with void silk thread. There were two standard straps for holding the shield with his wrist, but Aegis had made special requests to add more loose, outer straps. Their purpose, Yuki and Tullan did not know, but they included them nonetheless.
¡°It looks absolutely incredible¡¡± Aegis said with his eyes wide open. This put a big proud smile on both Yuki and Tullan¡¯s faces as they exchanged looks of relief with one another. Aegis then slid his left arm into the central straps and fastened the shield on, equipping it. It fit perfectly, and covered half of his body due to its large size. ¡°It¡¯s also pretty light, considering.¡±
¡°Aye, took me a lot of leveling with refinement and blacksmithin¡¯, but I got some high quality mithral in that baby. No wasted metal, as thin as it can be without compromising its effectiveness. The aesthetic, and the backing, was all the work o¡¯ this young lady, though. When people say she¡¯s the best tailor in the game, I believe ¡®em.¡± Tullan motioned to Yuki beside him.
¡°I couldn¡¯t have done much without you, your metalworking was incredible. I hope I can use it to incorporate some of my usual outfit designs.¡± Yuki smiled back.
¡°O¡¯ course!¡± Tullan cheered as Aegis took this time to wave it around a bit and get a feel for it.
¡°And, the stats?¡± Darkshot asked eagerly from behind Aegis. He turned to see not only Darkshot, but Rakkan, Lina, and Pyri all excitedly waiting to hear the stats on the new, artifact-level shield.
¡°Right. I guess that¡¯s the most important thing here, isn¡¯t it?¡± Aegis said as he tapped on his interface to open up the shield¡¯s item card.
|
Name: Star of Light
Slot: Off-hand
Type: Shield
Armor: 12,305
Quality: 95%
Durability: Indestructible
Requirements: Level 150, 150+ Strength
Option 1: Increases Favor with Eirene while equipped by 1000
Option 2: Increases casting speed by 3% [Source: Voidsilk]
Option 3: Increases Damage and Healing from Spells by 290 [Source: Mosmir Voidreaver Pincer]
Option 4: Negates damage from soul-infused weapons [Source: Indestructible Light]
Enchant 1: Reduces all spell damage taken from all types of magic by 4.3% [Source: Spellward(Trexon)]
Enchant 2: Restores 950 Health every 3 seconds. [Source: Healing Wind(Aegis)]
Description: A Shield made of Mithral, Voidsilk, Hydraleather, Royal Mosmir Pincers, Silver Dragon Scales, and Indestructible Light. Carved with runes and a star depicting the Goddess Eirene and her teachings. Crafted by Tullan, Yuki.
|
Aegis made sure to share the item card with his party, who looked upon it in amazement.
¡°I¡¯ve never seen so many options on a single item before¡¡± Lina commented.
¡°Two enchants¡ dang. Trexon must¡¯ve leveled his enchanting to pull that off.¡± Rakkan said.
¡°It looks freakin¡¯ sick, too.¡± Darkshot cheered.
¡°Pretty cool.¡± Pyri smiled at the card as she finished reading it.
¡°So, you think it¡¯s gonna be enough to get you through the preliminaries?¡± Quinn asked jokingly, drawing attention back onto the task at hand. Aegis spun around to face her and saw she still had her hands on her waist, and behind her stood the imposing stadium awaiting their arrival.
¡°Right.¡± Aegis took a deep breath, shuffling his shield one more time before relaxing his shoulders and looking Quinn in the eyes. ¡°We¡¯re definitely ready.¡±
¡°Good. Now c¡¯mon, let¡¯s get you checked in.¡± She stepped aside and motioned him and the others to continue walking forward towards the stadium.
Aegis once again took the lead, with his party and then Quinn, Yuki and Tullan following closely behind him as they walked between the large statues of great champions that stood flanking the path that led into the arena¡¯s main entrance.
Once under the roof and in the front hall of the stadium, they were able to easily approach the registration counter. There wasn¡¯t a line of players waiting to check in like there was on the bigger islands; the other teams had already checked in and were standing off to the side, staring at Aegis and his team as they approached the desk.
¡°We¡¯re here to check-in for the gladiator tournament preliminary round.¡± Aegis said to the lizardfolk NPC behind the counter wearing leather armor, a necklace dangling a pendant with the mark of Odin around his neck.
¡°Check in for Aegis, Lina, Pyri, Darkshot and Rakkan confirmed. Your first preliminary match will begin in 11 minutes. You must remain inside this Gladiator Arena for the remainder of your preliminary matches in order to be eligible to be transported into your match once it begins. Leaving the arena will count as forfeiture of the preliminary matches and disqualify you from the tournament. Do you understand these conditions?¡±
¡°I understand.¡± Aegis replied on behalf of his party members who were all listening intently.
¡°Good. You will receive a notification in your interface when your next match is ready. Speak to me after you¡¯ve received the notification and I will transport you to your arena room with your randomly selected opponents. Given the number of participants, you must win 5 out of 5 of your preliminary matches to move on to the next stage of the tournament. A single loss will lead to disqualification. Good luck.¡± The NPC explained robotically.
¡°No pressure, huh?¡± Quinn joked as she saw the nervous look on all of their faces.
¡°Yeah. Hehe¡¡± Aegis forced an awkward laugh.
¡°Relax¡¡± Quinn placed her hand on his shoulder. ¡°Herilon said he trained you guys up, that you¡¯ve become top grade combatants. And he doesn¡¯t give out that kind of praise easily.¡±
¡°Right.¡± Aegis nodded.
¡°Oooh man¡¡± Darkshot sighed to himself and began nervously hop in place.
¡°It¡¯s been awhile since I¡¯ve done some real, structured and competitive PvP. It¡¯s always nerve-racking for the first match, but it wears off quickly, don¡¯t worry.¡± Pyri said as a smile grew across her face. Lina looked to her with hopeful eyes, happy to hear this reassurance. Rakkan on the other hand continued to look anxious, staring down at his feet and taking deep breaths.
¡°Worst case, they¡¯ll take over and kill Seraxus for you. Maybe.¡± Quinn motioned across the stadium hall towards another group of players, some of which Aegis recognized. Artaphernes, Anazia, and 3 other members of their guild were huddled in a circle together, discussing strategies for potential class matchups.
¡°They¡¯re competing too?¡± Aegis asked Quinn surprised.
¡°Yeah.¡± Quinn shrugged back. ¡°They always compete through. They¡¯ve made it through preliminaries a couple times, even.¡±
¡°Oh. Okay.¡± Aegis nodded back before taking a deep breath himself. He looked to his companions and ran his mind over all manner of last minute details, playing out several combat scenarios in his head very quickly. The seconds zoomed by unrealistically fast, and the 11 minutes seemed like nothing at all.
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By the time the popup arrived, it took Aegis by surprise and startled him.
[Your First Preliminary match is ready. You have 5 minutes to report to a Gladiator Tournament Registration NPC to be transported to your match.]
He waved the alert away and saw all of his party members do the same, exchanging looks of nervousness amongst each other once more.
¡°Guess it¡¯s time, huh?¡± Quinn smiled as she saw their hand movements.
¡°Let''s do this!¡± Artaphernes shouted enthusiastically, startling them out of their stares briefly. Artaphernes¡¯ group then quickly rushed across the hall to the NPC near Aegis. ¡°Please send us to our first match.¡± Artaphernes spoke to the NPC quickly. He got no response, but instead Aegis and the others watched as Artaphernes¡¯ party dissipated into bright light specs of dust that slowly vanished in thin air.
Seeing this, Aegis turned to his companions once more and took a deep breath.
¡°Alright guys. We trained our levels, our teamwork, and our individual skills in player versus player combat. All just for this - to make it through these matches, then enter the stadium at the finals where Seraxus will undoubtedly be waiting for us. According to Rakkan,¡± Aegis motioned to him, ¡°One defeat is all it will take for the souls trapped within the Sword of Hatred to be released. He¡¯ll lose all of his accumulated power, and he¡¯ll be brought back to being a normal, annoying battlemaster, unlike what he is now. His reign of terror will end, and this shield can help give him that defeat, but, we¡¯ve got to get there first. It¡¯s not going to be easy, though - a lot of people will be standing in our way, for one reason or another. But I doubt anyone but us is going to seriously try and destroy that sword. So it¡¯s up to us.¡± Aegis said as firmly as he could, and he got knowing nods from his companions, as well as Yuki, Quinn, and Tullan.
¡°No matter what opponents we face, we won¡¯t hold back. As of right now, everyone else that has entered the preliminaries is our enemy. Including Artaphernes, if we get against him. Ready?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Ready.¡± Darkshot put his hand in the center, getting a few odd looks from the others. ¡°What? We gotta do the hand cheer thing. It feels right.¡± Darkshot shrugged. Aegis rolled his eyes at him before placing his hand atop Darkshots. This was followed by Lina, then Pyri, and finally Rakkan.
¡°What do we chant, then?¡± Aegis asked him.
¡°Uh¡¡± Darkshot pondered for a moment, briefly rubbing his chin with his free hand while Darkwing cooed from his shoulder as if pondering as well.
¡°How about Kalmoore?¡± Quinn suggested from outside the circle. The others looked at each other as they considered it, and eventually agreed with their eyes and facial gestures with one another.
¡°Kalmoore on three. One. Two. Three, Kalmoore!¡± Aegis cheered, and the others shouted it too. Not just Aegis¡¯ group either, but Quinn, Trexon, Yuki, and a handful of other fans that were huddled around the outside of the stadium watching them all intently. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s do this.¡± He turned towards the registration NPC eagerly. ¡°Please send us to our first match.¡± Aegis asked the NPC, and he nodded in response.
Within seconds, Aegis¡¯ vision darkened and he felt light. His body dissipated into nothingness for a brief few moments before he felt weight returning to his body. It reformed alongside his companions in a familiar looking combat arena.
It was circular in form, the ground made up of sand-covered tiles. A tall, 5 meter wall stood around the outside with rows of stands above them, all vacant. Four 5 meter high pillars stood in a square formation around the arena, with the two closest flanking Aegis and his party on the left and right from where they had appeared in the arena.
On the other side, their opponents had yet to appear. This gave Aegis and the others time to spread out into a proper formation, but they quickly found their movement limited due to a blue transparent box of energy surrounding them.
Please wait for the match to begin.
Match begins in: 1:31
The message popped up in front of Aegis¡¯ face as he accidentally bumped into the box. With this in mind, he motioned Rakkan to stand on his left, Lina on his right. Darkshot and Pyri both stood side by side behind him, then they all drew out their weapons and prepared themselves for a fight.
¡°Whatever we get up against, be ready. It could be anyone.¡± Aegis said with an intensity to his voice. He slightly bent his knees and lifted his shield as after a few more seconds, light specs of dust began to form in the area directly opposite them in the arena.
A moment after the specs had appeared, they increased rapidly and formed into 5 players. Aegis looked at their equipment first to quickly read what they were up against. He identified a berserker, monk, cleric, wizard and druid. His mind began working out how they might fight them, but as his eyes moved up to their names, he stopped immediately.
The names, he didn¡¯t recognize. The levels beside the names, however, were all between 60-80.
¡°Whoa!¡± The cleric player cheered, running up to the front of their blue box and bumping into it. Aegis spotted his vestments of Eirene over his basic iron armor that he was wearing. ¡°GUYS! We got Aegis!!!¡± He shouted out with excitement.
¡°Whoa, seriously? THE Aegis? Holy shit, it¡¯s him!¡± The druid player chimed in, also leaning forward as the others rushed to the front of their box to ogle him.
¡°Seriously?¡± Darkshot sighed in disbelief, lowering his bow. Pyri held back a chuckle while Rakkan groaned and Lina smiled.
¡°No way. Yo. Aegis. We¡¯re huge fans man!!¡±
¡°Yeah, can we get your autograph?¡±
¡°Yeah, c¡¯mon, please?!¡± Aegis was visibly taken aback. For all the things he was preparing himself to face, this was not one of them. He turned his head to Lina and she smiled and shrugged at him.
¡°Uh¡ I guess¡¡± Aegis replied weakly.
¡°Don¡¯t you guys want to fight?¡± Darkshot asked them curiously.
¡°No way, we suck at player versus player. We just signed up for a chance to meet one of you guys.¡± The druid replied quickly.
¡°Yo you just talked to Darkshot¡¡± the Berserker player whispered to the druid excitedly, which Darkshot clearly overheard.
¡°Ah, I suppose it¡¯s only natural. I bet you want my autograph too?¡±
¡°Hell yeah!¡± The berserker cheered before attempting to run forward - he¡¯d momentarily forgot the blue box was still there and prevented them from approaching.
¡°Oh god.¡± Pyri rolled her eyes as she watched in real-time as Darkshot¡¯s ego grew.
¡°How can we give them autographs, though? I thought we¡¯re not allowed to use items here outside of what we have equipped?¡± Aegis asked as he turned to Rakkan.
¡°Uh¡¡± Rakkan wasn¡¯t trying to hide how reluctant he was to answer as he eyed the players across from them in annoyance. ¡°They can unequip their items after the match starts and drop them on the ground. You can then mark them with your weapons or tools. Most likely, they¡¯re going to start the match with a¡ yep.¡± Rakkan motioned to the berserker as he equipped in one of his hands an inscribing kit equipped as his main-hand weapon. This was Pyri¡¯s limit and she bursted out laughing.
Match begins in 5¡ 4¡ 3¡ 2¡ 1¡
The moment the timer counted down to 0, the blue walls vanished and the others eagerly jogged forward across the arena to Aegis¡¯ group.
¡°Sorry about this, but we started out on the mountain island. There¡¯s not a lot of streamers there, and it''s expensive to travel so, this is the only way we could have a chance to meet our favorite streamers.¡± The wizard apologized, while simultaneously he unequipped his staff and presented it to Aegis.
¡°It¡¯s no problem, I guess¡¡± Aegis shrugged awkwardly.
¡°Here!¡± The berserker enthusiastically unequipped his inscribing kit so that it dropped to the ground, then did the same with his axe. One by one, the others unequipped their weapons and dropped them for Aegis.
Rakkan remained on edge, his weapons ready as Aegis picked up the kit and got to work.
¡°You guys want something special written? I don¡¯t really normally do this sort of stuff¡¡± Aegis replied awkwardly.
¡°Just your names, that¡¯d be great!¡± The berserker exclaimed while motioning to Darkshot as well as Aegis.
¡°Do you even know how to use this toolkit?¡± Aegis turned to Darkshot as he stepped forward beside him.
¡°Huh? Of course I do. I¡¯m Darkshot.¡± He replied in his dramatic tone.
¡°So cool¡¡± The berserker squealed with excitement.
¡°How old are you kids?¡± Pyri asked curiously.
¡°Oh me? I¡¯m 9.¡± The berserker replied.
¡°I¡¯m 12, though.¡± The wizard said proudly.
¡°I¡¯m 17!¡± The cleric joined in. ¡°Oh, when you sign my shield, can you put your catch phrase on it?¡± Hearing this, Aegis turned to Lina who held back a chuckle.
¡°Sure¡¡± Aegis replied. He quickly went through and etched their requests onto their weapons, leaving just Darkshot left with the axe. Darkshot struggled to use the tool, making it very apparent he had not taken up the scribing skill, but eventually managed to etch in a little scribble that somewhat resembled a D and an S.
¡°Great. Thanks a lot guys!¡± The berserker shouted as he eyed his axe with glowing eyes.
¡°What would you do if you got someone else as your opponent?¡± Aegis asked curiously.
¡°Oh, just surrender, I guess. Try again next month. We¡¯re lucky we got one of our favorites though. You, or Feng, or even Makaroth would¡¯ve been awesome.¡± The wizard replied.
¡°Hey it¡¯s true you¡¯re really out to get Makaroth, right? He¡¯s your dad?¡± The monk asked.
Aegis looked awkwardly at him, trying to hold himself back from answering this question inappropriately.
¡°Alright guys, that¡¯s enough, no questions. We¡¯re here for the tournament. You guys gonna surrender now? Or want us to kill you?¡± Pyri asked them nonchalantly.
¡°Oh, right. Yeah, we¡¯ll surrender. Thanks again. Good luck in the tournament! We¡¯ll be cheering you on!¡± The wizard answered, then promptly hit a button in his interface which removed him from the match.
Combatant Jerin has retired.
Combatant Telly has retired.
Combatant Pippymonk has retired.
Left behind was the cleric and the berserker, as they eagerly continued to stare at Aegis¡¯ group with bubbly eyes.
¡°Hey, is it true you guys had sex last night? I couldn¡¯t watch because of the age restriction.¡± The berserker asked with an inappropriate level of enthusiasm. Lina¡¯s face immediately went bright red as he motioned to her. Aegis avoided looking at the kid as well and couldn¡¯t immediately think of how to reply. ¡°No way! You totally did. That''s an awesome man. Hell yeah!¡± The berserker extended his hand as if to get a high-five from Aegis.
Combatant Smasherman has been defeated.
Combatant Starhealer has been defeated.
Rakkan had very swiftly cut them both down with a single swing of his mithral longsword.
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis said.
¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡± Rakkan replied coolly.
Aegis¡¯ team has won the match. Now exiting the arena¡
Chapter 263: Just Preliminary Things...
Chapter 263: Just Preliminary Things
¡°Hey!¡± Artaphernes called out excitedly to Aegis and his members, just as they began to reappear from tiny specs of light forming together. Aegis could hear him before he could see him as his body finished the teleportation process within the simulation, and by the time it had fully formed his body back into the entrance hall of the Kordas arena, he saw Artaphernes and his party walking over to him. ¡°How was the first match?¡±
Aegis didn¡¯t reply right away, instead glancing to the side where Quinn, Yuki and Tullan were all awkwardly avoiding his eyes. Their reaction made it clear that they¡¯d been watching the ¡®match¡¯ unfold.
¡°Uh. Went great. Was easy.¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°Same.¡± Artaphernes replied with a nod. ¡°I bet the first couple will be like that. It¡¯s usually only the last two that are tough in these preliminary matches.¡± Artaphernes explained.
¡°Yeah, that makes sense.¡± Aegis nodded.
¡°Alright. Well, good luck.¡± He gave Aegis a quick pat on the shoulder while sending friendly nods to the others.
¡°Thanks.¡± Aegis replied.
¡°You too.¡± Pyri smiled as they watched Artaphernes¡¯ group huddle off away from Aegis¡¯. Once they¡¯d gone, though, it fell deathly silent amongst Aegis¡¯ party. The awkward silence continued to linger for some time, but Aegis felt the uneasiness being placed on him, and eventually he couldn¡¯t take it anymore.
¡°Is everyone really going to keep making a big deal about it? It¡¯s not a big deal.¡±
¡°Some will, but it¡¯ll only bug you if you yourself think it¡¯s a big deal.¡± Quinn shrugged.
¡°Well, I don¡¯t, so¡¡± Aegis grumbled back at her.
¡°Yeah, right.¡± Darkshot chuckled. ¡°You know, what I don¡¯t get is¡¡± he stepped forward and eyed Lina and Aegis curiously, noting that Lina¡¯s face wasn¡¯t bright red despite her avoiding his eye contact. ¡°This time around, it seems like you¡¯re way more embarrassed than she is.¡± Darkshot motioned to Lina.
¡°Yeah, I noticed that too¡¡± Pyri scratched her chin as a mischievous grin grew over her face. ¡°Care to explain?¡±
¡°I love it when they do my job for me.¡± Hae-won said to Aegis¡¯ audience, leaning forward on her chair with a fake, virtually simulated bag of popcorn in her hand. She quickly began throwing the popcorn into her mouth and munching on it loudly.
¡°Mom, you said you wouldn¡¯t be weird.¡± Aegis glared at Pyri.
¡°I¡¯m not the one being weird here.¡± She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at Aegis. Aegis saw this and turned to the others, who seemingly confirmed Pyri¡¯s perspective.
¡°Uhm. It¡¯s okay¡¡± Lina smiled. ¡°I¡¯m just happy to be closer to Aegis¡ It¡¯s still just a simulation and, well, it¡¯s not our real bodies, right? It was nice to feel close though, so¡ I am happy.¡± Lina replied bashfully, fidgeting her fingers while looking down at her toes.
¡°Oh, what a cute and honest answer.¡± Pyri replied with a look of disappointment.
¡°Ah. Ahahaha¡¡± Darkshot rubbed his hands together as he saw Aegis¡¯ face suddenly go bright red again. Rakkan glanced from Darkshot, to Aegis, to Pyri in confusion. ¡°I finally got it.¡± Darkshot pressed his hand on Aegis¡¯ shoulder and let out a long drawn out sigh. ¡°The mistakes of your youth have finally caught up with you, my inexperienced MMORPG player friend.¡± Darkshot shook his head condescendingly at Aegis.
¡°What? What¡¯s he talking about?¡± Quinn turned to Yuki, Tullan and Pyri, hoping to get an explanation. Instead, though, they all shrugged back.
¡°Oh, allow me to explain¡¡± Darkshot bowed politely to everyone.
¡°Don¡¯t you dare, or I¡¯ll kill you.¡± Aegis glared at him, causing Darkshot to quickly step back away from Aegis with no hint of him intending to stop.
¡°It¡¯s very simple. Our lovely neighborhood shadow master Lina, here,¡± He motioned to Lina dramatically, ¡°is a grizzled MMORPG veteran. She¡¯s skilled in not only playing, but in character creation. She spends a great deal of time tweaking her character''s body and appearance into her idealized form of beauty. That is what she presented to her boyfriend Aegis the night before.¡± Darkshot explained, while Lina smiled awkwardly at Darkshot for a brief moment before she too had picked up on why Aegis was acting so defensively about the situation.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡¡± Quinn put her hands over her mouth.
¡°Aegis, on the other hand¡ well¡ let¡¯s just say, he thought character creation was a waste of time. He tweaked his hair and his facial structure a bit, and was done with it. Meaning what he presented was the raw, naturally scanned version of the real deal. The full package. Lina¡¯s seen everything under the hood, in both real world and virtual.¡± Darkshot crossed his arms and looked up to the sky proudly, as he¡¯d finished presenting his case.
¡°Is that true¡?¡± Lina asked Aegis curiously, with her cheeks beginning to shine red.
¡°Well¡ I thought that¡¯s what everyone did? Why spend all the time¡ whatever, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Aegis quickly shook his head. ¡°Guys, are we doing preliminaries right now or what? What¡¯s with all this stupid talk? We need to focus. Right Rakkan?¡± Aegis turned to him with hopeful eyes.
¡°Yeah. Exactly.¡± Rakkan nodded back awkwardly, a poor attempt to reassure him. Despite this, it remained somewhat awkwardly quiet until the group was notified that the next match was ready. Aegis wasted no time to hurriedly rush over to the NPC behind the counter and let him know that they were ready for the match, and they were promptly teleported back into the isolated gladiator arena
A 5 minute timer appeared at the top of Aegis¡¯ peripheral vision once more and began ticking down. He drew out his new shield, Lina took out her daggers, and Rakkan formed his echoes. Darkshot nocked an arrow and Pyri readied a staff, and the five of them spread out within the blue energy box that was restricting their movement in the arena until the match started.
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Across from them, when the timer counted down to three minutes, their opponents appeared. It was disorienting at first to take in their opponents, as Aegis glanced between them and saw them all looking completely identical to one another. Five elves, short black hair, long pointed ears. Staves fasted on their backs with dark green silk robes. Once they¡¯d finished forming from the specs of teleporting light magic, they began drawing their staves off of their backs and moving to stand in a line formation. Their movements at the very least were not synchronized, nor were their names, but all of them were level 150.
¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Aegis asked as he eyed them curiously.
¡°Five wizards with matching gear and appearance¡ That¡¯s not something you see often.¡± Darkshot commented.
¡°Typically, this means they plan to employ a cheat strategy. Expect them to focus fire with a single spell type, or use a combo attack. Teams like this tend to be one-trick ponies, but that trick can be very dangerous if you aren¡¯t prepared.¡± Pyri explained to the group quickly.
¡°Any ideas what their trick could be?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°I haven¡¯t seen this sort of formation before.¡± Lina replied.
¡°Me either.¡± Rakkan added.
¡°There¡¯s too many possibilities to try and predict in this short amount of time.¡± Pyri said as she watched the timer count down to 2 minutes. As they spoke, Aegis saw the line of Wizards across the arena from them were silent, glaring back at him. With no need to communicate amongst each other, despite having seen their opponents, confirmed what Pyri said. They had a strategy they were planning to employ irregardless of who they were up against.
¡°Alright.¡± Aegis took a deep breath. ¡°We¡¯re going to brute force them. They¡¯re wizards, their intermediates could be varied or uniform, but we¡¯ll take on the standard wizard weaknesses. They¡¯ve got no self-healing and low defenses, and we¡¯ve got good gear and levels. The moment the match starts, go all out and try to kill them immediately. I¡¯ll worry about defenses, so feel free to be reckless.¡± Aegis explained to the others.
¡°Got it.¡± Darkshot nodded, and Darkwing from his shoulder let out a confirming coo. Lina bent her knees and began glancing around at the shadows being cast by the arena¡¯s central pillars, picking which one she¡¯d jump to.
Match begins in 5¡ 4¡ 3¡ 2¡ 1¡ Start.
The blue wall that was containing both teams vanished, and immediately every single player sprung into action. The difference between this match and their first was staggering - the wizards opened up with several large form weather manipulation spells. A gigantic tidal wave began to form and roll forward, while a cloud of crackling thunder appeared out of thin air ahead of them.
¡°Rune: Enlarge.¡± Rakkan stepped forward ahead of Aegis as the waves rolled forward towards them, flooding the arena instantaneously as lighting began to shoot out of the sky into the water and spread the electrical damage out through the waves. Rakkan cast the rune on his Mosmir Spear, then pulled his arm back and prepared to throw it as the spear grew massively in size. ¡°Rune: Echo.¡± He added just as he thrust his arm forward and released the giant spear. The spear quickly split into three more, each as big as the first. They crashed into the waves barreling towards Aegis, Darkshot, himself and Pyri, and broke them apart due to their sheer size. Beyond the waves, the wizards became visible once more and three of them could be seen charging up a three-person ritual spell.
¡°The storm and the waves are a distraction. Spells cast by multiple wizards in a ritual are extremely powerful.¡± Pyri quickly explained as she spotted it.
¡°Shadow Dance!¡± Lina shouted, having already teleported beyond the waves using the dark shadows that the thunderstorm overhead had projected onto the arena. It made it easy for her to rapidly teleport around the wizards and start cutting them down, dealing massive amounts of damage.
The two wizards that had cast the storm and the waves broke up their large spells in favor of defending against Lina and Rakkan¡¯s attacks, but when Darkshot and Pyri joined in with arrows and cinderbolts, they stood no chance. Within a few seconds, all five wizards were eliminated.
| [Aegis¡¯ team has won the match. Now exiting the arena¡] |
A few moments later, they were teleported back to the Kordas arena.
¡°Nice job!¡± Quinn cheered at them.
¡°I wonder what spell they were gonna cast, though?¡± Tullan asked curiously as he closed out his livestream viewer to look upon Aegis¡¯ group.
¡°Better we didn¡¯t wait to find out.¡± Pyri shrugged.
¡°Still, that seemed a bit easy¡¡± Darkshot shrugged.
¡°When you fight against gimmick teams, you can usually just brute force them down. At least, that¡¯s what my research told me.¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°Mhm.¡± Pyri nodded encouragingly at him. ¡°Was a good call. In other games, we had a saying. If your opponent starts doing weird, non-meta stuff, the solution is always the same¡ You walk up to them and just hit them. Almost always works.¡± Pyri chuckled to herself.
A few meters away, a bright flash of light appeared and quickly collected, forming out Artaphernes¡¯ party members as they had finished their matches.
¡°Oh, how did your match go?¡± Quinn asked them before their bodies had finished forming. If she¡¯d waited to see the dejected looks on their faces first, she likely wouldn¡¯t have asked.
¡°We¡¯re out.¡± Artaphernes sighed while looking down at his feet.
¡°Heh? Seriously?¡± Tullan asked.
¡°What happened?¡± Yuki asked. Artaphernes shook his head and began marching away, heading out of the arena. Only Anazia was willing to look up and answer as they walked past.
¡°Seraxus.¡± She replied coldly. The name was enough to send a thick tension into the air. The laughter and small talk died from that point onward - they watched as Artaphernes¡¯ group exited the arena, and remained completely silent until the next match was ready.¡±
¡°We¡¯re ready to enter our third preliminary match.¡± Aegis declared the registration NPC.
¡°Very well. I will transport you to face your opponents.¡± The NPC replied, after which Aegis¡¯ group was broken up into small flecks of light and teleported away from Quinn, Tullan and Yuki.
¡°The matches are going to start getting longer from here on in.¡± Trellin spoke to his crew. He was standing at the front of one of his three airships as they were hovering in the night sky, above the forests surrounding the city of Kordas. The lights from the buildings were shining brightly on the darkened landscape before them.
Behind him, armed members of the Shattered Pirates were preparing their various winged beasts for combat. They were fastening saddles to the backs of gryphons, wyverns, hippogryphs and various other creatures.
¡°Our intel reports that the only airship Kalmoore currently has in operation will be the Sky Darling.¡± He pulled out a long brass telescope and extended it, then pressed one end up to his eye and peered at the city of Kordas. ¡°It¡¯s currently docked at the Skyport Tower, so it¡¯ll be an easy hit and run job on that front. We¡¯ve also discovered that the top guild has been working with carpenter guilds to begin construction on Airships that can fly without using light stones¡¡± He moved his telescope over the city until spotting the shipyard in question.
¡°Three are in progress. If we destroy their Sky Darling, they¡¯ll accelerate construction and still likely have a way off this island. That¡¯ll mean our mission fails.¡±
¡°So what should we do, boss?¡± One of the Shattered Pirates asked Trellin eagerly.
¡°Well¡¡± Trellin smirked as he began fidgeting with his interface, until pulling out a large sac from his inventory. ¡°I made a special order just for this mission. Let¡¯s give that kid a taste of his own medicine.¡± Trellin plopped the sac down and opened the top, to reveal the contents of the bag to his crew members. A collection of brightly glowing red flower petals were gathered within the bag, which brought smiles to the Shattered Pirates crew.
¡°We attack both targets simultaneously once Aegis¡¯ party enters their 5th preliminary match. That¡¯ll be our distraction. They won¡¯t know what hit them. Everyone, wings up at 30.¡± Trellin shouted, making sure he spoke loud enough that the crewmembers of all three airships could hear him. They replied with a resounding, proud roar of cheers.
Chapter 264: 5-0 or Nothing
Chapter 264: 5-0 or Nothing
For the fourth time, Aegis¡¯ party members were transported out of their preliminary match and returned to the darkened entrance hall of the Kordas arena. The tiny balls of light formed together to create their virtual avatars in front of an eagerly awaiting Yuki, Quinn, and Tullan.
The entrance hall was now completely empty of any other competing players - all others had been eliminated from the tournament. Instead, a good number of onlookers remained outside the arena, cheering in at Aegis in the hopes that he¡¯d notice them, or feed off of their encouragement. There were a few lanterns bolted to the walls of the wide hall to illuminate it, but they did a poor job. Instead, most of the light coming into the hall was either from the entrance of which the onlookers stood on the south side, or the end of the hall on the northside where it opened up into the large open-air arena. Moon and starlight sprinkled in from those directions along with a cool evening breeze that Aegis took into his lungs, gasping for air as he¡¯d returned to his senses within the hall.
It wasn¡¯t just him, either. Rakkan, Darkshot and Lina were all out of breath and quickly bent to grab their knees, or started leaning up against a nearby wall. Only Pyri was keeping her composure, but had a strained expression.
¡°Congratulations on winning the 4th preliminary match. Your fifth match is being prepared and will be ready in approximately 10 minutes. Please wait and I will notify you when you may enter.¡± The NPC behind the counter spoke robotically to them.
¡°That one looked tough.¡± Quinn commented as she eyed the group.
¡°Of course it was. Do ya know who you were up against?¡± Tullan asked them.
¡°No¡ Well, Darkshot said something about it, but¡¡± Aegis shook his head dismissively.
¡°They¡¯re a famous PvP guild from Korea.¡± Yuki explained.
¡°Yeah, streamers. I¡¯ve watched ¡®em before.¡± Darkshot nodded in Yuki¡¯s direction as he straightened himself out.
¡°They were the first fun match we had. I was worried it¡¯d be boring the whole way up.¡± Pyri smiled, to which Aegis rolled his eyes at her.
¡°Well.¡± Quinn began fidgeting around with her interface. ¡°Ren¡¯s been keeping track of all the big teams competing. They¡¯re all streaming - Shattered World streams are seeing record-breaking viewership numbers, more than the launch day. Almost no one has been eliminated yet, with a few exceptions like those guys you just took out.¡± Quinn said, pausing briefly and squinting her eyes at a screen floating in front of her face for a moment.
¡°Seraxus, Feng¡¯s three teams, Makaroth¡¯s team, then a bunch of the original big PvP team names like Schadenfreude and the Spanish Bloodletter are all still in. Only 16 teams can progress, though¡ so this round is going to knock a lot of the big names out. It¡¯s unavoidable.¡± Quinn finished by crossing her arms.
¡°What you¡¯re saying is, the next match is going to be a hard one.¡± Darkshot groaned.
¡°It can¡¯t be helped. People with a 4-0 record can only get matched against teams who also have a 4-0 record.¡± Lina shrugged.
¡°Whatever we get up against, we¡¯ll win.¡± Aegis spoke confidently. He began inspecting the straps on his shield, fastening them and making sure each loop was adjusted properly to serve its purpose. Seeing this, Darkshot began fidgeting with the strap of his quiver and shifting it around, then moving the tails of his arrows around and refilling them into his quiver from his inventory. Lina, Pyri and Rakkan all quickly found things to do as well to keep their nerves at bay, making sure all of their equipment was in order.
¡°You guys don¡¯t plan on strategizing?¡± Quinn commented after watching them for a few moments.
¡°What¡¯s the point? We don¡¯t know who we¡¯ll be up against yet.¡± Aegis asked her with a raised brow.
¡°Well, yeah, I know, but¡ Don¡¯t you still want a game plan going in?¡±
¡°We¡¯ve got one of those already. We know our win condition.¡±
¡°Alright.¡± Quinn shrugged. ¡°Just, I noticed in that last match you guys seemed extremely reactive to your opponents. It¡¯s good to fight with an adaptable playstyle based on who you are up against but I think you also want your own playstyle. Making your opponents play around you isn¡¯t a bad way to PvP either.¡± Quinn explained. Aegis¡¯ eyes were on hers, she could tell he was listening to what she was saying and processing her words, but he didn¡¯t reply.
¡°Eh, what they¡¯re doin¡¯ is workin¡¯ fer now. Let ¡®em to it.¡± Tullan patted Quinn¡¯s shoulder.
¡°You guys are doing great. Yumily said she is also cheering for you.¡± Yuki smiled.
¡°She¡¯s allowed to cheer for us? Isn¡¯t she a part of the VGN?¡± Pyri asked curiously.
¡°Hum, well, yes, but she¡¯s also a part of Kalmoore so I think it¡¯s okay¡¡± Yuki tilted her head to the side innocently, pondering Pyri¡¯s words.
| [Your Fifth and final Preliminary match is ready. You have 5 minutes to report to a Gladiator Tournament Registration NPC to be transported to your match.] |
The message popped up for Aegis and all of his companions, and they all looked up from what they were doing to stare at it.
¡°It¡¯s time.¡± Aegis said as he waved the message away, then turned and marched towards the registration NPC behind the counter.
¡°Good luck!¡± Yuki cheered.
¡°Kick their asses.¡± Quinn added.
¡°Knock ¡®em dead.¡± Tullan grunted. After hearing their words, Aegis turned to look into the eyes of all of his party members. All of them had a shared look of determination that matched his own.
¡°Please send us to our final match.¡± Aegis asked the NPC, and following these words they were all broken up into tiny specs of light. His vision went blank momentarily as his virtual avatar was removed from the Kordas arena and transported into an isolated, private arena that looked identical to all those they¡¯d fought in previously.
His body formed out of the balls of light alongside Lina, Pyri, Rakkan and Darkshot. They stood in a blue boxed cage as the timer appeared atop his peripheral vision.
|
[Please wait for the match to begin.]
Match begins in: 4:36
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|
For the very first time in all of their preliminary matches, despite being fairly quick to talk to the NPC, they arrived after their opponents had. Standing in the blue box in the arena opposite to them was a set of five players all wearing matching bright red tabards. Aegis recognized it immediately as the Vindicators guild tabards. His heart skipped a beat as he scanned over the names above their heads.
To his relief, it wasn¡¯t Feng¡¯s team, but the names and levels were intimidating in their own right.
[Xiao Bai Mao - Level 161], [Xiao Long - Level 159], [Feng Zhi Zi - Level 157], [Tian Xin Tang Guo - Level 156], [Xi Ha Yu - Level 160]. A rogue, a druid, a fighter, a cleric and a bard respectively.
¡°Well, all things considered, it could be a lot worse.¡± Aegis said as he took a deep breath, looking across the arena at them. They were all glaring angrily at Aegis and his companions already, drawing out their weapons.
¡°Got any information on this group?¡± Darkshot asked him, the anxiety in his voice already audible.
¡°I¡¯m going to look up what classes they are. We can tell their base beginner classes based on what they¡¯re wielding, but their intermediates and advanced classes aren¡¯t immediately obvious.¡± Aegis began fidgeting with his interface, desperately opening it up and scanning the web for information on this Vindicator PvP team.
¡°They¡¯re all wearing voidsilk and iron.¡± Lina commented as she eyed their gear up and down. ¡°High level leather as well. Their gear is very good.¡±
¡°They also out level us.¡± Rakkan added. These words made it clear everyone was worried as the timer ticked down and their opponent¡¯s glares bore into them. Pyri, however, broke the tension with a slight giggle. She then began hopping around behind the others, her staff drawn out.
¡°Finally. Ooooh!¡± She squealed excitedly. ¡°I¡¯ve missed this feeling. Structured PvP against tough opponents.¡± She cracked her neck to the left and right. ¡°C¡¯mon guys, let¡¯s kick their butts!¡± She added an enthusiastic cheer, and her enthusiasm caused Darkshot, Lina and Rakkan¡¯s confidence to slowly return.
¡°Bloodletter, the advanced assassin class. That¡¯s Xiao Bai Mao.¡± Aegis closed out of his interface, having finished his search on the internet. He pointed directly at the dagger wielding player glaring at them from across the arena. ¡°Xiao Long is a Wildmancer, they¡¯re like nature wizards. We¡¯ve not fought one of those before. Feng Zhi Zi is a blademaster. Tian Xin Tang Guo is a Light Keeper, an advanced healer class based on Cleric. Xi Ha Yu is a Rythmancer, think bards but more beat, less instrumental and vocal. Drums, basically.¡± Aegis quickly explained.
¡°Congratulations. You can use the internet.¡± Xiao Bai Mai replied, making it clear that he was able to hear Aegis¡¯ words. He was a demi-human cat, with long pointed white cat ears protruding out of the top of his head amongst his short black hair.
¡°We know all about who you are. No internet needed.¡± Feng Zhi Zi spoke, a halfling standing with his arms crossed, leaning up against his staff as the base of it was stuck into the ground behind him.
¡°Poor little boy and his loser American friends. He has so many daddy issues.¡± Tian Xin Tang Guo commented in a condescending tone. The only female in the group, she had long floppy yellow bunny ears not unlike Sapphire¡¯s, wearing heavy plate armor with a shield and scepter in her hands. Her long black hair extended all the way down her sides and back, reaching her knees. As she spoke, she wagged her finger at Aegis¡¯ party.
¡°You should leave your family problems at home. Gladiator tournaments are not for therapy.¡± Xiao Bai Mao continued.
¡°Yes, just because daddy left you both, no need to be so upset.¡± Tian Xin Tang Guo replied to him as a devilish grin grew over their face.
¡°It¡¯s unsightly. Just accept you were unwanted and move on.¡±
¡°Aegis.¡± Pyri spoke in a deep voice, one of which none of them had heard before. Having her stand behind them in their standard formation, they were all forced to turn to look back at her and see her emotionless expression. ¡°Change of plans.¡± Pyri stepped forward to the front, motioning Rakkan, Lina and Aegis to take a few steps back. ¡°I¡¯m killing these ones by myself.¡±
| Match begins in 5¡ 4¡ 3¡ 2¡ 1¡ |
¡°Provoking momma bear might not have been the best decision for the Vindicator¡¯s third string PvP team, but they¡¯ve shown themselves quite capable thus far. We¡¯ve got a few clips of them in their previous preliminary matches up until this point where they¡¯ve utterly dominated all of their opponents up until now.¡± Hae-won spoke quickly while Shinji edited small screens to play footage of the Chinese team¡¯s previous rounds overtop Aegis¡¯ broadcast as they were preparing to start the match.
¡°They haven¡¯t fought our Aegis yet, though. This¡¯ll be an interesting match where anyone could come out on top. If Aegis defeats them here, that means that he and his party will have qualified for the main tournament despite all the things that have stood in his way, though. Everything is on the line.¡± Hae-won¡¯s nervousness could be heard in how she was speaking, but she looked on at the livestream broadcast in front of her with hope in her eyes.
The messages in his chat were continuing to zoom past, with many words of encouragement from his viewers, which helped Hae-won maintain her faith in her streamer.
¡°It feels like this is the first real opponent that Aegis¡¯ team has ever had to face in a structured 5 vs 5 match, so It¡¯s hard to not get worried for them. Let¡¯s cheer loudly, so that they can hear us and feel encouraged!¡± Hae-won shouted.
¡°They¡¯ll be okay. Right?¡± Yuki asked Quinn and Tullan as they stood in the entrance hall still, all with their livestream viewers floating up in their peripheral vision.
¡°Yeah. I think so¡ Maybe¡ The thing is, th-¡± Quinn¡¯s response was interrupted by the sound of a large explosion. A bright flash of blinding red light erupted from the city of Kordas in the distance, sending out a violent shockwave of dust and wind from the source of the explosion.
¡°What in the bloody hell was that?¡± Tullan shouted as they all turned to face the direction of the bright red flash. Loud screams could be heard filling the streets as the many fans of Aegis¡¯ who¡¯d been lining the streets outside began to duck, panic and scatter about the city.
Within seconds, bright red flames could be seen rising up from the city buildings in the distance.
¡°We¡¯re being attacked. Familiar eyes.¡± Quinn cast, quickly causing her eyes to glaze over as she took on the view of her familiar pet. It was soaring high above the city and therefore could very quickly take in the full scope of what had transpired. From the eyes of her hawk she saw the flames rising up out of the newly created Shipyard, where all three Airships that had been under construction were covered in blazing red flames. The hulls of the ships and all the work already put into them had been undone - the wood was shattered and burning to a crisp.
Worse, the fire was rapidly spreading to nearby structures within the crafting district of Kordas where the shipyard was located. NPCs and players could be seen fleeing the area to get away from the quickly growing flames.
¡°The shipyard exploded. An accident?¡± Quinn spoke to Tullan as she remained viewing the scene through her familiar.
¡°Eh? They¡¯re not workin¡¯ with anythin¡¯ that can explode over there. At least not that I know of.¡± Tullan replied quickly.
¡°Get Trexon to head over there quickly with a team of wizards and put out the fires, they¡¯re spreading fast. Make sure he does his best to locate the source of the explosion as well, if he can.¡± Quinn ordered him.
¡°Aye, I¡¯m on it.¡± Tullan replied as he pulled up his guild interface and began relaying this information to the rest of the guild.
¡°Okay good.¡± Quinn said as she continued to steer her familiar through the skies above Kordas, looking about the rest of the city. ¡°If it wasn¡¯t an accident, who or why would attack the Shipyard, and why now?¡± Quinn asked herself. She started scanning the streets for any suspicious individuals fleeing the area around the burning shipyard. It wasn¡¯t easy to spot anything suspicious, due to the sheer number of players and NPCs that were rushing away quickly.
Her persistence paid off eventually, however, as she¡¯d managed to spot one individual who was walking away from the burning shipyard calmly - a tall player with a dark hood pulled up to prevent her from seeing his name. Quinn made some quick whistling sounds with her real body to instruct her familiar to swoop down out of the sky and get a closer look at who this player was.
The hawk carefully soared down from the heights of the tallest Kordas buildings, inconspicuously reaching the ground level where the player was so that she could see his face from under his hood using the eyes of her familiar. It only took her a quick glance to recognize them.
¡°It¡¯s Trellin. Shit. Tullan, get Herilon and the others to the Skyport Tower!¡± Quinn shouted as she canceled her vision sharing and took on her true eyesight again. From there she turned and looked up at the tall Skyport of Kordas where the Sky Darling was docked. The sky was dark, but due to the lights of the nearby Kordas buildings, Quinn was able to spot silhouettes of several winged creatures flying in the sky around the tower.
¡°Fast!¡± Quinn shouted to Tullan, who nodded back nervously. ¡°Yuki, with me.¡± Quinn drew out her bow and nocked an arrow before she began sprinting in the direction of the tower.
¡°Okay.¡± Yuki nodded, drawing out her giant iron needle and pursuing after her.
Chapter 265: The Airship Incident Pt. 1
Chapter 265: The Airship Incident Pt. 1
The silhouettes of the mounted players on the backs of the winged beasts became more pronounced as they nocked arrows whose tips burst into flames. Staves and wands, black runes on their skin glowing - the Warlock and Wizard players too prepared their attacks on the lone airship docked at the Kordas Skyport. Many eyes that were drawn towards the blazing flames growing in the distant shipyard were drawn towards the lights that were created as the Shattered Pirates prepared their barrage of attacks for the Sky Darling.
¡°Fire!¡± A voice shouted, audible to both Yuki and Quinn as they rushed to the scene. They stood no chance of making it in time, but despite this they both readied their own weapons.
¡°Multishot!¡± Quinn shouted as she loosed an arrow into the sky, aiming upwards above the other players and NPCs that were standing in the street around her, dumbfounded. They were accustomed to casting such violent spells within the city limits to result in an arrest, but as the arrows split into more due to her multishot spell, the guards reacted in alarm towards what she was aiming at, and not her. It only took a moment for the players to see the tabard of the Night Hunters proudly worn on Quinn¡¯s chest for them to understand why.
¡°All Kordas guards are to defend the Skyport, we¡¯re under attack by pirates!¡± Quinn shouted to the nearest guards, who quickly nodded and drew their own crossbows, joining her and Yuki in their sprint towards the tower. Despite all this, the barrage of attacks from the Shattered Pirates were fired down on the Sky Darling.
Before the first flaming arrow could penetrate into the wooden planks of the ships deck, however, a blue magical shell appeared around the ship. The arrows crashed against it, causing it to send out ripples and waves of light within itself to illuminate its spherical shape around the entirety of the Sky Darling, not unlike a sage¡¯s Shell spell, but not exactly identical to it.
All of the arrows, then all of the spells crashed into the protective spell, preventing any harm from befalling the Sky Darling.
¡°We¡¯ve seen this protective magic on other airships before. It¡¯s limited in how much damage it can absorb. Keep firing!¡± The leader of the attacking pirates shouted to his comrades. They did exactly that, but after a few more hits landed, an angry Leonard and Gregory stomped out onto the deck of the ship. Gregory was wearing his standard black and white suit and tie, while Leonard was wearing his somewhat standard open bathrobe with shiny pink drawers underneath.
¡°It¡¯s the pirates that attacked us before.¡± Gregory declared to Leonard immediately. Both of their faces were repeatedly lit up by a mixture of red flames from the pirate¡¯s attacks, and the flashing blue energy from the shield protecting them.
¡°I know, I recognize them. The darlings came back for more. First time wasn¡¯t enough?¡± Leonard replied mockingly.
¡°We don¡¯t like losing.¡± The leading pirate, an orc with an eyepatch replied. He was the only one of the bunch not engaged with the blue barrier, but his battlemaster weapons were visibly floating around him at the ready as he hovered above the others atop his dark brown gryphon.
¡°We don¡¯t like being attacked!¡± Quinn shouted angrily as her multishot arrived, soaring around the Sky Darling and piercing into the winged creatures and players.
¡°Tch. Locals are here. Parties one and two, continue your assault on the ship. Three and four, take care of them.¡± The orc, [Hammond - Level 158] ordered.
¡°Man hari!¡± Yuki shouted, firing off hundreds of tiny needles into the sky alongside Quinn¡¯s arrows. The attacks from the two both hit, but unfortunately the wounds inflicted by Quinn and Yuki were quickly mended up by clerics that flew amongst the Shattered Pirates.
This didn¡¯t stop Quinn from firing more shots, though. Alongside her, a group of Kordas Guards had arrived at the base of the tower. They began bombarding the flying pirates with crossbow bolts as well, which unfortunately did much less damage than Quinn did.
¡°Quinn, you will protect my Sky Darling, won¡¯t you? This shield was expensive but won¡¯t hold forever.¡± Leonard called down to her.
¡°Workin¡¯ on it!¡± Quinn sighed back at him. She followed this up by beginning to ascend upwards towards the rooftops, to get closer to the mounted pirates. She did this by firing several grappling shots into the stonework of the tall neighboring structures and yanking herself up on the rope that grew out of the tailend of her shots, until arriving on the blue tiled roof of a building that nearly matched the height of the Sky Port tower, enough that she could use her character stats to make a giant leap up onto the top of the tower. As she landed, she saw the Kordas guards up here were already firing their crossbows at the winged creatures who soared quickly all around them, flapping their wings furiously and screeching out at each bolt and arrow that hit them.
Glowing divine magic followed each impact, and Quinn quickly took stock of how many healing players she was dealing with. It only took a moment for him to spot out all four of them, and she then took aim at the closest one as it began soaring near to the top of the Skyport.
Once the cleric got in range, she jumped up into the path off the player''s wyvern, off the side of the tower while flipping in the air to increase her momentum. She then fired a close-range shot at the player and landed a ranger mark onto their chest.
¡°Rain of arrows!¡± Quinn shouted while falling through the air straight down back to the streets of Kordas below.
¡°Shit!¡± The cleric player had no time to react as Quinn unloaded the remainder of her mana to barrage the cleric with an unreasonable amount of arrows, turning them into a porcupine and eliminating them from the game world. Quinn was then in a freefall towards the ground with a potentially deadly amount of falling damage waiting for her, but Yuki quickly shot out her giant mithral needle from her hands and caused multiple glowing green needles to sprout out of it beneath Quinn, quickly spurning out threads and creating a net to catch Quinn a few meters below the top of the Kordas Skyport.
¡°Thanks.¡± Quinn looked down at her through the net and smiled.
¡°No problem.¡± Yuki replied.
¡°One healer down, three to g-¡± Quinn cut herself off as she saw a glowing orange spear flying towards her from the streets below. She quickly rolled out of the way on the net as it was pierced through, sliced to shreds as the spear flew beyond her and into the side of the Skyport tower. The glowing bright orange flash from the spear quickly subsided, revealing Trellin to be holding the other end of it. He then used it as a handle and a foothold to leap up onto the top of the tower while Quinn grabbed onto Yuki¡¯s ripped net as it swung down into the shorter building across the way from the tower - the gravity of the swing caused Quinn¡¯s body to slam into the side of the building.
¡°Don¡¯t make this harder than it has to be. We¡¯re just here for the airship.¡± Trellin scowled down at Quinn from atop the tower as he looked down at her struggling to hold onto the net.
¡°That¡¯s our airship.¡± Quinn growled back at him. She pulled out a mana elixir and prepared to drink it, but Trellin reacted to this by yanking his spear out of the stone bricks of the tower and preparing to throw it down at her before she could drink.
¡°Should protect it better, then.¡± He said before flinging the spear. The spear barely left his hand, though, before crashing into a projected mithral shield with the emblem of the Night Hunter¡¯s on the front of it.
Baffo, arriving on the streets below, was looking up at Trellin. Alongside him stood Sapphire, Ren and Herilon.
¡°I¡¯m gettin¡¯ real tired of people underestimating Kalmoore.¡± Sapphire shouted before angrily chomping into a carrot, then tossing it to the ground. Around them, several more Night Hunter players were arriving to their aid and began firing arrows and spells up at the mounted pirates, including Yorgi.
¡°You didn¡¯t really think that some pirates could take on an entire Kingdom, did you? That¡¯s a bit much, even for you.¡± Herilon called up to Trellin.
¡°How much did they offer you?¡± Quinn asked as she drank the mana potion uninterrupted and was able to quickly swing from Yuki¡¯s nets back onto the neighboring building''s tiled roof.
Trellin didn¡¯t immediately reply, but instead looked to his companions as they continued their assault on the blue shield surrounding the Sky Darling. He saw the clerics struggling to keep up with healing the damage being dealt by the Night Hunters, the guards, and now the Blades of Kalmoore members that were arriving and joining in the fight.
¡°Enough to do this.¡± Trellin turned to face Hammond. ¡°Plan B!¡±
¡°Roger that, you heard the Captain. Switch Formations!¡± Hammond ordered, and following this command, all mounted players began pulling back and retreating, including Hammond after he swooped down to pick up Trellin.
¡°They¡¯re retreating?¡± Ren asked curiously.
¡°No chance. He¡¯s going all in this time.¡± Herilon said, directing his words to Quinn.
¡°Alright.¡± Quinn took a deep breath and fired several more arrows after the retreating players, then jumped back to get on top of the Sky Port. ¡°Everyone, take up defensive positions along the Skyport, the Sky Darling, and the nearby buildings rooftops. Stay as spread as possible in case they¡¯re planning bombardment. Get defensive magic ready, Yorgi.¡±
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
¡°Okay.¡± Yorgi nodded.
¡°We gonna be alright here?¡± Leonard asked Quinn worriedly as he caught her eye. He had at this point taken the time to tie his bathrobe shut, at the very least.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t imagine how they¡¯ll get through this¡¡± Quinn said as she eyed the large number of players and guards gathering to defend the port. Most of which were well equipped and above level 150. ¡°Just to be safe, though, you oughta get off the ship along with any NPC passengers you have.¡±
¡°Okie dokie.¡± Leonard shrugged. He retreated below deck for a moment, then re-emerged with several female and male NPCs in their underwear. ¡°Just a short interruption, we¡¯ll continue once this is all over.¡± He assured the NPCs as he ushered them off the ship, he and Gregory followed behind them. Quinn watched this unfold while making several whistling sounds to instruct her familiar to fly out into the skies nearby, trying to get eyes on what Trellin and his pirates were up to.
¡°Quinn.¡± Leonard stopped to look her in the eyes. ¡°I¡¯m not too invested in this ship, given that we can make new ones now. But, the boy¡¡±
¡°I know.¡± Quinn replied, looking back at him for a brief moment.
¡°Alright.¡± Leonard shrugged, then continued past her to catch up with Gregory and the NPCs. Quinn made sure he was gone, then eyed her guildmates and companions who had taken up formidable positions around the tower.
¡°Eyes.¡± She cast, taking on the vision of her familiar as it soared high in the night sky above the city. The moment she did, she spotted it - one of Trellin¡¯s airships was barreling towards Kordas with all of the mounted players flying around it defensively.
¡°Heh?¡± Quinn said in disbelief, but as the ship neared her bird, the spell that was allowing her to see through her familiar was canceled. ¡°You gotta be shitting me.¡± Quinn gasped in disbelief.
¡°What, what is it? What¡¯re they doing?¡± Herilon asked as he moved to stand beside her, seeing the look of bewilderment on her face.
¡°They¡¯ve got an anti-magic zone on their ship - it can no longer be piloted. It''s gliding through the air towards the Sky Darling.¡±
¡°They¡¯re going to crash their airship into ours?¡± Herilon tried to confirm.
¡°Looks like it.¡± Quinn took a deep breath. ¡°Non-magical attacks, do as much damage to the ship as possible. It can¡¯t be steered. Redirect it away from the Sky Darling!¡± Quinn shouted desperately. Following her command, arrows were fired and melee class players began springing into action, jumping over the rooftops to get closer to the gliding pirate ship as it soared downward out of the sky towards them.
¡°Fuck.¡± Sapphire groaned.
¡°I will try to stop it!¡± Yuki shouted before rapidly casting varios high level tailoring spells. The result of her spells were gigantic threads being stitched between the buildings that stood between the descending ship and the Sky Darling.
Herilon took several giant leaps from the nearby rooftops to be the first one to land aboard the ship - it was completely empty. No cannons, cargo, or players. The ship had completely been abandoned and was being used purely as a battering ram against the Sky Darling. It was moving incredibly fast, though, and increasing in speed. Arrows and heavy objects were being flung at the ship, but nothing was doing enough damage to possibly deconstruct or halt the ship.
¡°Urrrrrraaah!¡± Herilon shouted, relying purely on his characters¡¯ physical stats due to him being in the ship¡¯s anti-magic zone. He pulled out his mithral greatsword and did a wide cleaving swing at the main mast of the ship, slicing cleanly threw it and causing it to keel over backwards, crashing into the stern behind it on the upper deck and destroying it. The sails ripped apart from the impact, but the ship continued its trajectory.
Herilon then quickly rushed to the side of the ship where he knew the wing sails to be and sliced them off the left side. This caused the ship to begin to swerve at an angle slightly before it crashed into the first set of threads that had been woven by Yuki. The ship ripped the threads out of the nearby buildings, pulling chunks of brick along with them.
¡°Come on!¡± Yuki shouted out in frustration as she watched the ship continue to barrel through the air towards the, curving to the side at an angle but holding strong in its trajectory.
¡°It¡¯s not going to be enough to stop it.¡± Quinn called out worriedly.
¡°I gotcha.¡± Baffo shouted as he rushed onto the Sky Darling. Seeing this, Sapphire and several other shield-wielding players moved to his side, holding their shields out in front of their bodies off the side of the Sky Darling¡¯s deck, in the direction that the abandoned pirate ship was coming at it from.
Multiple volleys of arrows were fired down at their shields by the pirates on their mounted beasts in an attempt to dissuade their defensive formation, but they didn¡¯t budge.
¡°Dig your feet in and brace for impact.¡± Baffo ordered the players who stood alongside him. They watched as the last defensive threads of Yuki were torn through by the ship, and Quinn, Ren, Yuki and Yorgi could do nothing but watch anxiously.
A moment later, the side of the sinking ship crashed into Baffo and the others¡¯ shields with a loud booming roar. As much as they dug their feet into the deck of the Sky Darling, the force of an entire ship proved to be too much. They were pushed back after large red damage numbers appeared above their heads in the form of bludgeoning damage.
Following this, the side of the Pirate ship broke through the side railings and entire half of the Sky Darling, sending broken planks of wood from both ships flying out in all directions as tiny splinters and shards. The wingsail of the Sky darling nearest the pirate ship was crushed under its weight as the blue protective magic was dispelled by the anti-magic aura being emitted by the Shattered Pirate¡¯s abandoned airship. Half of the upper deck, the stern, and all of the windows shattered.
Still, Baffo and the others did their best to push back against the impact. Baffo managed to get a footing through pressing his back leg against the base of the Sky Darling¡¯s mast, then used his strength alongside the others to finally stop the momentum of the airship.
Quinn looked on in momentary shock as she saw the massive amount of damage that¡¯d been dealt to the Sky Darling, but she quickly snapped herself out of it as several arrows were fired down at her from the mounted pirates nearby.
¡°It¡¯s fine. We can repair it, their attack failed. Good work, Baffo!¡± Quinn said as she saw the strained look on his and Sapphire¡¯s faces. ¡°Take out these buzzing flies!¡± She ordered the other nearby players, as well as the guards.
¡°Quinn, something¡¯s off!¡± Herilon shouted from atop the empty pirate ship. He was glancing around at the mounted pirates, eying their expressions including Hammonds. Despite them having failed to the destroy the Sky Darling after sacrificing one of their own airships, none of them seemed in poor spirits. In fact, he spotted a smirk growing on Hammond¡¯s face.
Herilon¡¯s words were enough to draw Quinn¡¯s attention to the same thing, and she quickly processed what was going on and realized Trellin wasn¡¯t with them.
¡°Can they destroy the ship from this state without magic?¡± Quinn asked out loud. ¡°They¡¯re doing this as revenge, aren¡¯t they? What exactly did you guys do to them?¡±
¡°Aegis threatened them with blast petals.¡± Renn replied nonchalantly. Hearing his words, all players present paused and exchanged nervous looks with one another. Herilon, Sapphire, Baffo, Yorgi, Ren, Yuki, and several others.
¡°RU-¡± Baffo couldn¡¯t get the words out, as a huge explosion erupted from the lower deck of the abandoned pirate ship. Red scorching hot flames lit up the top of the Skyport tower, sending a violent shockwave of force outwards from the explosion point. Mixed in with the flames were thousands of broken wooden fragments that began raining down on the city below as glowing red blazing embers.
The bright red flash from the explosion was blindingly bright, and the force was enough to knock Quinn completely off the tower, crashing her back into the walls of the nearest Kordas structure to the Skyport tower. She attempted to open her eyes and look at the results of the destructive explosion, but she saw nothing but red. She had a more pressing matter to deal with though as she went into a freefall to the ground, alongside Yuki.
Yuki, not as accustomed to combat, looked flustered and unable to react, so Quinn quickly shot out a grappling arrow towards the top of the burning tower. She then threw her bow over her shoulder, grabbed the grappling shot with one hand, and Yuki¡¯s arm with the other, to stop them both from continuing their fall towards the streets below.
From there, it took a few moments for them to climb back up to the top of the tower. By the time they arrived, Yorgi had flown back up and began bombarding the tower with ice and water magic alongside several other spellcasters that survived the explosion. Quinn quickly took stock of the situation, spotting Sapphire, Baffo, Ren and Herilon who all survived the damage from the explosion. She also noted that the anti-magic effect from the pirate ship was gone, due to the ship itself being completely gone. It, along with the Sky Darling had been completely blown to smithereens. There was barely anything left, scattered about the destroyed top of the Skyport tower of Kordas.
There was nothing but defeated silence to be heard as they exchanged looks once more, then watched as Hammond and the other Sky Pirates began soaring off into the night sky.
¡°Even if Aegis wins his last match, he won¡¯t have any way to getting to the finals unless they host them on Kalmoore.¡± Ren said in a worried tone.
¡°You gotta be shitting me¡¡± Artaphernes shouted as he arrived atop the tower, Anazia and several other of his guild members appearing shortly after as they looked on in shock at the scorched wood all around them.
¡°What the hell happened?¡± Christoph asked as he too arrived, alongside Miranda and several other members of the Blades of Kalmoore.
¡°We got attacked by Shattered Pirates. Hired by someone to make sure Aegis and his party can¡¯t attend the tournament finals.¡± Baffo explained in a defeated tone.
¡°Damnit, seriously?¡± Christoph replied in disbelief. ¡°That¡¯s the Sky Darling?¡± He motioned to what was left of it.
¡°Yeah.¡± Herilon sighed. ¡°Fuck!¡± He shouted, angrily punching his fist into the floor of the tower.
¡°Maybe we really do suck.¡± Sapphire sighed, wiping scorch marks off of her cheeks and ears. ¡°He¡¯s gone through all this trouble to fight these bad guys. We said we¡¯d help him out¡¡±
¡°They timed the attack so that he¡¯d be in his final preliminary match when it happened, so that he couldn¡¯t defend the ship himself.¡± Yorgi pointed out.
¡°And we failed to step up on his behalf.¡± Artaphernes sighed. ¡°I was too busy drinking over our loss, I forgot about our promise, that we¡¯d all fight these guys together.¡± Artaphernes looked down at his own feet dejectedly.
¡°I didn¡¯t imagine they¡¯d do something this bold.¡± Christoph shook his head in disbelief.
¡°There¡¯s a lot of money on the line. It¡¯s not that unbelievable.¡± Anazia shrugged at him. ¡°What about the other ships, you were working on building some that didn¡¯t use island stones, right?¡±
¡°Tullan and Trexon are trying to put out the fires, but they¡¯ve already said in guild chat that there¡¯s barely anything salvageable.¡± Baffo answered her as he fidgeted around with his inventory momentarily. Quinn remained silent, deep in thought as she stared off blankly into the night sky. The others fell silent as well as the last of the flames were extinguished. Nearby cleric players were tending to the wounds of the Kordas guards and other players that¡¯d suffered damage from the explosion.
¡°Ren. Turn into the biggest flying creature you can. Anyone who can¡¯t fly yourself, hop on his back. Highest levels get priority.¡± Quinn quickly ordered them.
¡°Huh? Where¡¯re we going?¡± Ren asked her curiously.
¡°There¡¯s still two Airships in Kalmoore. The Pirates had three, didn¡¯t they?¡± Quinn asked Herilon and he nodded back as a slight grin began to creep over his face. ¡°Kalmoore may not be the strongest island, but we¡¯re persistent. Let¡¯s go get Aegis an Airship.¡± Quinn shouted with determination.
Chapter 266: The Airship Incident Pt. 2
Chapter 266: The Airship Incident Pt. 2
¡°Listen up,¡± Quinn shouted from atop Ren¡¯s giant eagle form¡¯s back. Wind was blowing her hair and cloak back with repeated whipping motions as she knelt down, craning her head to the left and right to take stock of the players that were able to join her. ¡°It looks like they used airburst to get into range of Kordas to pick up their crew, so we¡¯ve got a small 10 minute window to take over their ships. Deal as little damage as possible to the vehicles and take out every pirate you see, without mercy.¡± Quinn instructed them.
She got a multitude of responses ranging from ¡®yes ma¡¯am¡¯ to simple head nods. The amount of players that had joined in the pursuit was much higher than she was anticipating - some players had mounted their own winged creatures, while many wizards, druids and warlocks made use of their magic to allow non-flying classes to join in.
With their speed, it only took two minutes for the two sailing Airships to come into view under the clear, moonlit sky. They were both moving side by side at full speed, soaring to the edge of Kalmoore taking the shortest path possible. However, before they could close the gap further on the fully loaded and therefore somewhat slower airships, Quinn spotted out a large cloud of barely visible green smoke hovering in the air between her group and the ships.
¡°Poison clouds. Fly above it!¡± Quinn shouted the moment she spotted it. Most of the players were able to react in-time, including Ren. Some, however, flew into it and began coughing violently as they inhaled the smoke and took on a poison status effect. Red numbers began to appear above their heads in rapid succession, to which Sapphire began using her cleansing magic to remove it and heal them up from beside Quinn. She wasn¡¯t the only healer class player to do this either, as Kayliera the druid and many others got to work to save them.
¡°That spell, it¡¯s tricky to position and takes a bit of preparation to cast. It was positioned perfectly to cut us off or slow us down, though. They know we¡¯re coming, and exactly how we¡¯re approaching?¡± Yorgi reported to Quinn as he used his fly spell to glide beside her. Herilon, Sapphire, Baffo and Yuki were all standing tightly together on the back of Ren.
¡°Could¡¯ve just done it as a precaution.¡± Baffo suggested.
¡°And got lucky?¡± Sapphire raised her eyebrows at him.
¡°I doubt it.¡± Herilon replied under his breath. Quinn looked Herilon in the eyes, as if to try and read his thoughts. He did his best to convey them by staring intently back at her for a moment.
[Tullan]: Quinn, it¡¯s all under control over here. The fire was started by a bunch¡¯o blast petals. Trexon sent¡¯ya more details though, in a private message.
The green message from the Night Hunter¡¯s guild chat quickly popped up in the midst of her interface. After seeing it, she looked forward to see they still had a few seconds before they were in range of the Shattered Pirates¡¯ cannons, and the mounted pirates were getting their winged beasts ready to engage. She took this time window to open up her interface and navigate to her friends list, where she saw several messages from Trexon waiting for her.
¡°Our Kordas security didn¡¯t fail, nor did the pirates outsmart them. At least not directly. The guards survived the attack and assured us that no unauthorized players got into the shipyard.¡± Trexon¡¯s first message read.
¡°Secondly. There were no flags for off-island players entering the city limits through the guards, or the defensive magic placed on the walls, until after the attack took place.¡±
After reading this, Quinn opened her mouth and began speaking into the messaging system to reply to him.
¡°I saw Trellin leaving the area around the Shipyard after the explosion took place.¡±
Quinn sent the message quickly, glancing between her interface and the impending battle ahead of her.
¡°My detection spell picked up on him and his crew entering the city limits as the explosion occurred. It was a misdirection. We are NOT incompetent. My advanced class defensive magic is not faulty. We took the proper precautions to prevent a surprise attack like this.¡± Trexon replied firmly.
¡°You realize what you¡¯re implying happened?¡± Quinn asked.
¡°I¡¯m not implying it. I¡¯m stating it as fact.¡± Trexon answered quickly.
Quinn had very little time to contemplate his words, though. She was forced to exit out of her interface and pull her bow from off of her shoulder, as she and the forces of Kalmoore clashed with the Shattered Pirates.
¡°You¡¯re planning to steal my ships? After all we¡¯ve been through?¡± Trellin shouted out from the deck of one airship, directing his words at Herilon.
¡°We¡¯re planning to steal yourships because of what we¡¯ve been through, jackass.¡± Herilon shouted back as he drew out his greatsword.
¡°I told you it wasn¡¯t personal, didn¡¯t I?¡± Trellin sighed back at him as he readied his spear.
¡°It¡¯s personal to us.¡± Herilon growled back. Following this final exchange of words, the battle erupted in the skies above Kalmoore. Flashes of magic of various colors exploded outward, lighting up the forests on the ground below. The sound of metal clashing, cannons being fired, and beasts roaring could be heard all about them. Herilon wasted no time in jumping from Ren¡¯s back and landing on the deck of the ship Trellin stood on, several feet away. He took a barrage of attacks, but he was healed up quickly by Sapphire while Baffo leapt to join by his side, using his shield to provide cover for Herilon.
Herilon didn¡¯t waste the opportunity provided to him by his companions and engaged with Trellin directly, their spear and greatsword clashing in a mixture of bright orange and blue flashes. Quinn and Ren focused their aggression on the mounted players, leaving the deck to the melee fighters who had managed to arrive compliments of the casters of Kalmoore.
With Quinn¡¯s leadership, she was able to single out all of the Shattered Pirate¡¯s clerics first, and once they were taken down the others began quickly dropping like flies. In the commotion. Trellin saw the falling of his crewmates and, despite being on somewhat equal ground with Herilon, could tell his ship was losing.
A small glimmer of hope arrived when Trellin saw that the cooldown for Airburst was almost available, so that they could escape, but this hope was shattered when several Kalmoore players took out both Airship pilots.
Losing ground to Herilon, and seeing the battle going out of his control, he made a final, desperate attack against his own airship, piercing his own spear through the deck beneath his feet and releasing a large, deadly blast of glowing orange Dragoon energy. Herilon was forced to jump back from the impact as it exploded outward, destroying the deck and lower deck as it ripped apart the wood and left a gigantic hole in the ship. Instantly, it began plummeting downward out of the sky towards the forest below.
¡°You¡¯re really going that far?¡± Herilon shouted at him in disbelief as the orange light from the attack faded, the two feeling the uncomfortable downward momentum that was taking over the vehicle they stood on.
¡°It¡¯s fine. These airships are worthless since you and your friends found the green dragons.¡±
¡°They¡¯re not worthless, they¡¯re still millions of gold in materials.¡± Herilon shook his head at him disapprovingly.
¡°Pennies in comparison to what we were paid for this mission.¡± He replied as he prepared his spear to throw another powerful attack at the remaining airship, still holding strong in the sky above them.
¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Herilon shouted, dashing forward and slashing his mithral greatsword into his former companion. The blade cut through Trellin like butter, as he¡¯d abandoned any defensive posturing. The damage had been enough to kill him, but not before he released a large glowing orange spear towards the final airship. Baffo reacted in time, though, by jumping to position himself between the spear and the Airship, blocking the damage with his braced shield.
It was a hefty amount, but due to Baffo¡¯s class and heavy mithral plate armor, he was able to survive the blow and land on the other side of the breaking airship. He and Herilon could do nothing from that point onward other than go down with the ship, watching as the remainder of Kalmoore¡¯s forces mop up the last of the Shattered Pirates defending the final Airship.
¡°Captain¡¯s gone. It¡¯s all yours.¡± Herilon shouted up to Quinn. She gave a nod back in his direction that he couldn¡¯t see, just moments before the broken airship crashed into the forest below, breaking in half and sending chunks of the ship in different directions as it dragged along the dirt and knocked over several large trees before coming to a halt. Quinn went from observing the destruction of the crash, to looking at the deck of the remaining ship.
There, she saw Garrick of the Black Lions leap off the back of a Black Lion¡¯s guild member that happened to be a druid, ferrying Garrick and several others onto the ship to engage in the crewmates of the Shattered Pirates. They made quick work of the pirates, disabled the cannons and then disappeared below the deck of the ship. The other forces of Kalmoore finished off the last of the mounted players, and in that time Garrick returned above deck with his guildmates.
¡°The ship is ours!¡± Garrick declared proudly with a loud cheer, so that all could hear him. Following his words, the skies around the ship erupted in cheers as well.
¡°Great. Good work everyone!¡± Quinn shouted as Ren landed softly on the deck to allow her, Yuki and Sapphire to disembark. ¡°Go pick up Baffo and Herilon, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± She asked, and Ren nodded his large eagle beak at her before leaping off the side. Simultaneously, Yorgi and Kayliera landed softly nearby using their respective magic.
¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to know how to steer this thing, would you?¡± She turned to her guildmates, who all replied with awkward laughter.
¡°I¡¯ve seen Leonard do it a bit. I can¡¯t use any of his skills, but¡¡± Yorgi looked at the stern and confirmed the wheel was unscathed from the battle. ¡°I should be able to steer it?¡± He shrugged nervously.
¡°Good. Get on that. Kayliera¡¡± Quinn walked close to her, pulling her long hair aside to get access to her ear. ¡°I¡¯ve got something I need you to do for me.¡± She said before leaning in and whispering.
Through Yorgi¡¯s efforts, the airship managed to arrive back in Kordas, approaching the skyport tower. The steering was a bit shaky as it got close to the tower and Yorgi was forced to navigate around the buildings, but he did his best to be careful. During this time, Quinn had opened up Aegis¡¯ livestream to check on how his match was doing, given that it had long gone past the 10 minute mark where healing would¡¯ve been disabled.
To her surprise she saw that Aegis, Lina, Darkshot and Rakkan were all standing back, away from the match with their arms crossed. They were watching as Pyri fought to take on all 5 of the Vindicators by herself, on her own request. She appeared to be having success, as only 2 Vindicator players were still fighting. Seeing this unbelievable scene unfold, she couldn¡¯t help but let out a huff of air in disbelief.
She was forced to stop watching Aegis¡¯ shenanigans, though, as the ship began to shake violently as it bumped into the top of the Skyport of Kordas.
¡°Secure it as best you can. Force the wing sails shut.¡± Quinn ordered the nearby players, and everyone quickly sprung into action. Without a pilot class player, they had to manually pull in the ship¡¯s wing sails - and without an in-tact pier due to the recent explosion, they were forced to pull rope from their inventory to tie the ship off to a stump of stone that still remained from the once centrally standing ticket-booth on the top of the tower. They made due with what they had, though, and docked the ship.
¡°Not bad¡¡± Artaphernes clapped, impressed as he watched them work. Anazia and several others from his guild eyed the ship with smiles and grins.
¡°And that¡¯s what you get when you mess with Kalmoore!¡± A familiar female voice shouted. Quinn had to look over to see who it belonged to, and spotted Miranda live streaming to an audience of 2000 viewers as she cheered at the ship''s arrival.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
¡°With this, we¡¯ve secured passage for the kid, huh?¡± Anazia smirked.
¡°Yeah, it would seem so.¡± Quinn smiled back at him, proudly glancing between her guildmates as well.
¡°I¡¯m glad.¡± Yuki let out a light sigh of relief.
¡°You mighta picked the wrong class there, wizard.¡± Garrick said jokingly as he began walking off the side of the ship alongside Yorgu. ¡°Not bad flying.¡± He violently slapped Yorgi¡¯s back to encourage him, but ended up bumping him forward a few meters and nearly caused him to topple over.
¡°Eheh, no thanks. I¡¯m happy being a wi-¡± He was interrupted as a second force pushed on his back, and Garricks. Everyone, in fact. A gigantic blast of black flames erupted from inside the Shattered Pirate¡¯s captured airship, igniting the wood in flames and sending chunks of wood flying in all directions. Anyone still standing on the ship was sent off from the force of the explosion, and the flames burned rapidly like a hungry beast, consuming anything flammable that it got into contact with.
¡°You gotta be shitting me!¡± Sapphire shouted in disbelief as she had been knocked face first into the top floor of the Skyport, alongside many others. She rushed over to Yorgi and helped him get to his feet, healing his wounds from the explosion. ¡°Put it out, quick! Put out the fire!¡± She ordered him. Yorgi was disoriented, but did his best to draw out his staff and begin casting ice magic on the consuming black flames. He extinguished some of it on the deck, but the mast was gone in seconds and the parts he missed kept spreading.
¡°Come on! Faster!¡± Sapphire shouted at him desperately as other players, lacking skills to fight fires, got up and looked on in horror.
¡°I¡¯M TRYING!¡± Yorgi shouted back at her frantically. He shot out as much ice magic as his hands would allow, and not long after did Trexon arrive using a fly spell and joined in aiding him, but by the time the flames had been extinguished, the damage had been done. The explosion, coupled with the rapidly expanding flames, had completely undone the airship. What remained of it began breaking apart and falling out of the sky, crashing into the paved streets of Kordas far below as players and NPCs ran away from the area.
¡°How? How did that happen?¡± Yuki asked with tears welling up in their eyes.
¡°You did make sure that no pirate players were still around, right?¡± Artaphernes looked between Quinn and the others.
¡°Yeah, of course.¡± Garrick replied as he wiped sweat and dirt from his face and armor, and stood back up to stand alongside his guildmates.
¡°Wait, you let the Black Lion¡¯s secure the ship?¡± Anazia asked in disbelief, staring at Quinn with wide eyes.
¡°Eh? What are you trying to say there, lil miss?¡± Garrick growled at her.
¡°You know exactly what I¡¯m saying.¡± Anazia put her hands on the hilt of her daggers sheathed on her belt, posturing aggressively towards him.
¡°Stop.¡± Quinn raised her hand in-between the two groups.
¡°She¡¯s right, though, Quinn. It¡¯s a mistake to trust these guys.¡± Artaphernes said on Anazia¡¯s behalf. ¡°They¡¯ve stooped low before, and with the kind of money that¡¯s being thrown around to stop Aegis, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they made a deal.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t make any deal with anyone. I don¡¯t know what the hell this guy is talking about!¡± Garrick shouted angrily at him, but Artaphernes kept his cool. Quinn carefully glanced between the two as Trexon softly landed on the tower nearby and walked towards her.
¡°Here.¡± Trexon pulled from his inventory a rolled up piece of parchment that was badly burned, so that only one half was still visible. ¡°Using my high level lore skills, I was able to recover a lot of what was on this destroyed document. You should be able to see it when I cast the skill, but it only lasts a brief moment.¡± Trexon told Quinn as he unrolled the parchment and held it in front of her face.
¡°What is that?¡± Anazia asked curiously. Neither Trexon, nor Quinn replied as Trexon activated his Greater Sage skills to cause burned away text to appear where it would¡¯ve been on the rest of the missing parchment, floating as blue magical letters for Quinn to read. Once she finished reading it, the words vanished and Trexon pulled the parchment away. Quinn then looked up and glanced between the two angry parties - the Black Lions and Artaphernes¡¯ guild were still exchanging nasty looks with one another.
Miranda had gone quiet with a dejected stare, watching the scene unfold alongside Sapphire, Yuki and Yorgi.
¡°Aw man, seriously?¡± Herilon¡¯s voice called out from atop Ren as Ren¡¯s eagle form soared through the sky, arriving at the edge of the Skyport. As his talons dug into the tower, Baffo and Herilon hopped off his back and he shifted back into his humanoid form.
¡°What happened to the ship?¡± Ren cried out.
¡°It was sabotaged, by someone here.¡± Quinn declared coldly.
¡°Heh?¡± Baffo asked.
¡°You¡¯re sure? It wasn¡¯t something the pirates did?¡± Sapphire confirmed.
¡°I¡¯m positive.¡± Quinn nodded back. Tense silence immediately filled the air, and Quinn could see the bodies of the players around her getting stiff.
¡°It must¡¯ve been the Black Lions, then, right? They¡¯re the only ones who went to the lower deck.¡± Anazia suggested nonchalantly.
¡°How would you even know that? You didn¡¯t join in the attack. You conveniently stayed behind.¡± Garrick shouted back at her.
¡°It¡¯s obvious, isn¡¯t it? Who else would do it?¡± Anazia snapped back at him.
¡°Your guild.¡± Quinn answered, crossing her arms and laying her eyes upon Artaphernes with disappointment.
¡°What?¡± Artaphernes looked at her with a bewildered expression. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious right now, Quinn.¡±
¡°We all acted under the assumption that this attack was due to revenge. You, however, have been speaking definitely that the parties involved were paid to act. Most likely, it¡¯s because you too, were paid.¡± Quinn¡¯s words stirred up Herilon and Sapphire first, but others were expressing doubt on the situation.
¡°Quinn, he¡¯s been with us on Kalmoore since the beginning¡¡± Baffo mumbled to her weakly.
¡°You¡¯re damn right I have. I helped you make this island what it is today.¡± Artaphernes snapped back at her, drawing his spear out as several of his guild members began to gather at his back.
¡°Did you really?¡± Quinn shouted at him. ¡°You¡¯ve been leisuring hanging back enjoying the work that I¡¯ve put into keeping Kalmoore safe, but your contributions have always been minimal. You and Christoph.¡± She shouted angrily.
¡°Whoa, now you¡¯re blaming Christoph too?¡± Anazia scoffed with a huff of forced laughter to follow it. ¡°The big streamer boy is really getting to your head, huh?¡±
¡°Quinn, these are serious accusations you¡¯re throwing at our allied guilds¡¡± Yorgi replied nervously, trying to calm her down.
¡°They¡¯re not accusations. I don¡¯t betray people randomly, for fame or gold. I stick to my morals and beliefs, and when I say I¡¯m going to do something, I do it. No matter what is offered to me to waiver.¡± Quinn yelled loudly, barely unable to keep her cool as tears began to swell up in her eyes. The seriousness of her expression, and the emotion on her face caused everyone to fall silent.
¡°The document Trexon just showed me was a list of players that entered the Shipyard. Trellin and his pirates couldn¡¯t have done it, given his detection magic¡¯s implications. He shouldn¡¯t have even known the layout of the city enough to know where the Shipyard was. But you did. And Trexon¡¯s magic had you and your members recorded entering the shipyard immediately after you lost your preliminaries. You wanted us to see you in the preliminaries, but you never got defeated by Seraxus. We confirmed it on his stream. You lost on purpose, all so you could assist in destroying the Shipyard. So tell me, Artaphernes.¡± Quinn stomped forward, drew her longbow and nocked an arrow, pointing at his head.
He didn¡¯t react, he simply glared back at her silently, as did Anazia and his other guild members.
¡°After all we¡¯ve been through, how much did your loyalty cost?¡± Quinn hissed through her teeth.
¡°Loyalty?¡± Artaphernes shook his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t betray you. I betrayed the kid, sure, but you? No.¡± Artaphernes added, but Quinn didn¡¯t reply. ¡°Enough money to live easily. At least for a bit. And all for what? To stop a kid from fighting in a tournament? That was the only condition - make sure he can¡¯t reach the island the tournament is hosted on. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s game over for him, isn¡¯t it? He¡¯ll find other opportunities to accomplish his goals, won¡¯t he?¡± Artaphernes said while gesturing to the surrounding crowd, as if attempting to get support from them.
¡°Oh come on.¡± He shouted angrily. ¡°He¡¯s been nothing but a plague on Kalmoore. We had an easy going, peaceful life before he arrived. Even you have had your hands full since he got here. If you were offered a lot of money to turn on him, you would do it too, wouldn¡¯t you? Think of your real life, and Ren-¡±
¡°Leave me out of this, scumbag.¡± Ren replied, followed by him spitting on the ground at his own feet.
¡°Whatever. I didn¡¯t do anything wrong. It¡¯s just some airships. We can build new ones. I¡¯ll even help pay for it with the money we got for this job. Forget about this tournament, and taking on these big streamers and their daunting network. Let¡¯s go back to living easy and peaceful.¡± Artaphernes said as he locked eyes with Quinn.
¡°There¡¯s no peaceful life left here, for you. You misunderstood what we were hoping to do with Kalmoore. It was to keep the integrity of the game intact, in the face of all the elitists and power gamers. But you never cared about that, you just wanted to be the big fish in a small pond. Aegis, and his party, and my guild¡ and the people of Kalmoore. We¡¯ve kept our integrity, so much that we¡¯re willing to hold it up even in the face of invading forces. You, on the other hand¡¡± Quinn shook her head and looked down at her feet for a moment. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I thought we were a team in all of this.¡± She mumbled to herself before lifting her head back up. She began fidgeting with her interface as Artaphernes¡¯ opened his mouth to reply.
¡°Don¡¯t be so dramatic about this, Quinn, I-¡±
¡°Royal Banishment.¡± Quinn spoke coldly, utilizing a skill that she¡¯d never used before. A bright golden flash of light shot down from the sky, surrounding Artaphernes and causing his body to disintegrate into golden light. When the light was gone, so was he.
¡°Heh?¡± Christoph shouted in disbelief as he suddenly appeared atop the tower, looking out of breath as his guild members arrived behind him. ¡°What just happened?¡±
¡°What did you do?!¡± Anazia shouted angrily at Quinn, preparing to lunge at her with her daggers. Artaphernes¡¯ other guild members too began posturing to attack her, but the Black Lions and Night Hunter¡¯s quickly drew their weapons.
¡°What¡¯s going on up here?¡± Christoph asked in disbelief. ¡°Did you just¡?¡±
¡°ROYAL BANISHMENT!¡± Quinn shouted again, casting the ability a second time. This time, it was targeted onto Christoph, taking everyone by surprise.
¡°What?!¡± Miranda screamed in shock, panning her livestream around to watch as Christoph was removed completely from the island of Kalmoore.
¡°Quinn, using it in quick succession like that has a hefty fine. Anymore, and you¡¯ll completely drain the Kordas treasury¡¡± Trexon warned her.
¡°Forget the treasury, why¡¯d you banish Christoph?!¡± Sapphire asked her in disbelief. Before Quinn could reply, though, a blast of green smoke erupted from a tiny rat that was scurrying around the top of the tower. The rat quickly morphed into the form of Kayliera, and she moved to stand by Quinn¡¯s side.
¡°Because I had Kayliera use her weaker beast shifting skill to hide below the deck after we¡¯d captured it. She watched as Christoph and two of his guild members snuck aboard using invisibility, and set off a warlock enchanted item to destroy the ship.¡± Quinn explained.
¡°They both immediately turned on me the second that money was involved. After all the shit I¡¯ve put up with for them. After everything I¡¯ve done - and Aegis has done.¡± Quinn shouted angrily at the remaining guild members of the Blades of Kalmoore, and Artaphernes¡¯ guild. ¡°Who would¡¯ve thought that the only actual companions we have with integrity, are a bunch of bandits from Kalmoore.¡±
¡°What do we do with the rest of them?¡± Trexon asked, as the Black Lions, Night Hunters and Kordas guards remained on edge, weapons drawn and pointed at their now perceived enemies. Quinn took a moment to ponder her response as she glared at them, until finally clearing her throat.
¡°You have three options.¡± She began pacing around them, walking amongst her companions while keeping her arrow drawn and aimed at Anazia in particular. ¡°You quit your guilds, and continue living on my island. You¡¯ll be under a watchful eye and no longer allowed to participate in any major events, or join any of the allied guilds that remain members of our council.¡± Quinn said, pausing briefly before continuing. ¡°Two, you go to jail, remain locked up until we can rebuild our airships. After which, you¡¯ll be ferried off to join your guild leader on whichever island they chose after their banishment.¡±
¡°And the third option?¡± Anazia asked.
¡°You try to run, or fight back. And I will make it my personal mission to make sure you spend the rest of your time in this game world either dead, or locked up.¡±
¡°But we haven¡¯t committed any crimes. Arresting us, that¡¯s corruption!¡± A Blades of Kalmoore member shouted at her.
¡°I¡¯m the leading guild of Kalmoore. I make the laws, and I¡¯m feeling a little bit corrupt right now.¡± Quinn roared back at him. ¡°Decide now.¡± She demanded, before turning to Herilon. ¡°Round up every member of their guild and give them this ultimatum. Show no mercy.¡± She said, and Herilon nodded before jumping away. ¡°Deconstruct their guild halls and donate the parts to the NPCs of Kordas.¡± She told Trexon, and he nodded as well.
Quinn then stood back and watched as her guild members and the Black Lions managed the traitorous guild members on her behalf, giving her a moment to sit back and watch. She was interrupted, however, as Miranda rushed past the others to approach Quinn.
¡°Wait, I¡ I didn¡¯t know anything about what they were doing. I swear!¡± Miranda called out to get her attention. ¡°They knew better, because I never would¡¯ve turned on Aegis. He¡¯s a classmate from school.¡±
¡°You¡¯re still a member of their guild, though.¡± Quinn shook her head at Miranda. ¡°What do you want to do?¡±
¡°I want to stay. I want to help Aegis, and keep having fun with everyone on Kalmoore. Can I join the Night Hunters?¡± Miranda pleaded, desperation on her face. Quinn looked deep into her eyes as Yuki remained the only player still standing nearby, not assisting in the round up of the other players. Quinn looked to Yuki and saw her smiling weakly at Miranda, and eventually let out an elongated sigh.
¡°Fine. But we¡¯ll have a close eye on you. Head to our guild hall to begin the registration process.¡±
¡°Yes!¡± Miranda cheered out excitedly, pumping her fist into the air. ¡°We¡¯ve saved.¡± She said to her audience. ¡°Night Hunters were always cooler anyway. From here on, the adventures are going to get way more exciting!¡± Her voice trailed off as she turned from Quinn and began skipping towards the stairs that lead off the Skyport.
¡°I might regret that.¡± Quinn huffed, causing Yuki to chuckle briefly. It was a short lived moment of joy, though, as the pair slowly turned to look at the destruction that had befallen Kordas¡¯ Skyport.
¡°How¡¯re we going to help Aegis now?¡± Yuki asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know¡¡± Quinn mumbled back.
Chapter 267: Preliminary Results
Chapter 267: Preliminary Results
Arms crossed, standing shoulder to shoulder at the back of the arena. Aegis, Lina, Darkshot, and Rakkan held their poses unflinching, watching Pyri manipulate her Cinderbolts rapidly around the battle arena. Darkshot was putting a much greater effort into trying to look as cool as possible, while the others kept blank, emotionless stares at their opponents anytime their eyes happened to meet.
Pyri stood at the center of the arena, waving her hands around in all directions. Her feet remained planted firmly on the sandy tiled floor of the arena, but her head and eyes continued to turn and dart in various directions, keeping track of the movements of her opponents as best she could. The Vindicators utilized formidable formations and strategies, attempting to break through Pyri¡¯s defenses by making use of various combinations of their class abilities.
It wasn¡¯t that the Vindicator¡¯s party was weak, it was that they had no direct answer to Pyri¡¯s spell control given their party composition, and that was enough of a weakness for Pyri to exploit. Starting with the healer, she eliminated them one by one while Aegis watched every movement made by both her and her opponents.
In truth, despite keeping a straight face, Aegis became nervous after seeing how skilled these opponents were. In the back of his mind, he worried that they¡¯d have lost without Pyri on their team.
¡°Stupid bitch.¡± The final opponent, Xiao Bai Mao the Bloodletter, shouted angrily as he gave up trying to attack her, watching his 4th companion fall to Pyri¡¯s burning flames. He had several cinders already glued to his body, dealing a constant stream of damage, and accepted his fate. He instead took the time to stare her down and point his weapons at her.
¡°You should control that mouth of yours. Learn to mind your own business more. It¡¯s unsightly.¡± Pyri smirked. Xiao Bai Mao answered by letting out a mocking laugh.
¡°You are lucky to face us. We are the only team you could have faced that does not prepare for this style of play. You will not be so lucky in the finals. If you even make it there.¡± He said with a smile growing from behind Pyri¡¯s blazing cinders.
¡°We¡¯ll see.¡± She answered with a glare. Xiao returned it in kind for a moment, before eying his health bar as it diminished and neared empty. He then took a moment to step forward and look over Pyri¡¯s shoulder, to the line of her party members standing behind her.
¡°You won¡¯t be able to hide behind your mommy much longer.¡± Xiao¡¯s final words before his body began to disintegrate.
Aegis¡¯ team has won the match. Now exiting the arena¡
¡°Yes! Don¡¯t mess with momma bear!¡± Hae-won squealed from her broadcasting simulation. She could see the cheers flowing by in Aegis¡¯ livestream chat, mixed with emotes of bears and hearts as a tribute to Pyri¡¯s performance. ¡°With that, Aegis and his party are guaranteed a spot in the finals of this month¡¯s Gladiator tournament. Since that was the only match still in progress, the brackets will be forming shortly¡¡± Hae-won said as she began manipulating the interface of her broadcasting simulation.
She had a menu floating above her face, transparent and only visible to her as she began navigating through it to get at the information she was seeking - an updated listing of the brackets for the upcoming tournament. More importantly, though, she sought information on where the tournament would be hosted. She wasn¡¯t able to immediately find anything, though. She glanced between her interface and the chatlog of Aegis¡¯ livestream floating past, all of the chatters eagerly awaiting Hae-won to inform them of the bracket information. In the background, Aegis¡¯ live stream showed him and his party warping out of the Preliminary arena and reappearing in the entrance hall of the Kordas Arena. They started out cheering and congratulating Pyri, but that only lasted for a bit before they curiously looked around for Quinn - noticing that not just her but the other onlookers were all missing.
Hae-won paid no mind to this, she instead desperately tapped her ear implant to connect a call with Tommy and Shinji, and muted herself on the broadcast.
¡°Tommy, I¡¯m not finding anything. Have you got information for me yet?¡± Hae-won spoke on the call once she confirmed it¡¯d connected.
¡°VGN is broadcasting it now. The bracket won¡¯t be decided until the location of the tournament has been chosen. There seems to be some dispute on where it should take place.¡± Tommy replied as he, too, was in a simulation, though his was very different than Hae-won¡¯s. In his, he had dozens of floating screens in front of him in an otherwise dark open space with distant dull gray walls. Some of the screens were showing livestream broadcasts, and others had graphs, charts, and open conversations with various contacts.
He focused on several broadcasts which he was able to manipulate to the center of the other screens - focusing on a VGN news broadcast, Makaroth, Feng, and Seraxus¡¯ livestreams.
The audio from the broadcasts was jumbled, overlapping in some cases, forcing Tommy to mute some of them to get a clear idea of what was happening.
¡°It¡¯s a pain, right¡¡± Seraxis smirked at his camera, with Hajax and Zuon standing on either side of him with their own devious smiles. ¡°Just ¡®cause we¡¯re a part of the same network, you think you¡¯re gonna boss me around and tell me where to host the tournament?¡± Seraxus spoke to his camera, and it was clear to Tommy immediately that his voice was being sent to the VGN News broadcast, which was holding a shared call between Feng, Makaroth, and Seraxus. The news broadcasters themselves were staying quiet, sitting in their chairs with anxious faces - expressions one might have when they felt they were at risk of losing their job on live television.
¡°We both agreed to this showdown, did we not? Or are you backing out, afraid?¡± Makaroth answered in a less patient-than-usual tone than his viewers were accustomed to hearing.
¡°Oh, I ain¡¯t backin¡¯ out. I¡¯ll crush your guild''s best PvPer, but does the venue really need to be the one you chose?¡± Seraxus raised his eyebrows. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Just cause you got a cute lil¡¯ bard en-route, don¡¯t mean she and all your buddies can¡¯t just make a few left turns. The island I got in mind ain''t much of a detour, don¡¯t worry.¡±
¡°You wanted an audience for our showdown, didn¡¯t you? If you host it in Puagas, no one¡¯s gonna show up. You destroyed that island and drove everyone away.¡± Feng sighed back at him.
¡°Oh nah, nah, you misunderstandin¡¯.¡± Seraxus shook his head. ¡°Not Puagas. But, also, not Savringard, or Lanusk. I ain''t stupid.¡±
¡°Yeah, no thanks to walkin¡¯ straight into your territories. You PvE players don¡¯t respect honorable PvP.¡± Hajax joined in.
¡°We¡¯ve got more honor than you do.¡± Feng snapped back at him. Makaroth took a deep breath and let out an elongated sigh, pondering for a moment.
¡°What island did you have in mind, then?¡± Makaroth asked.
¡°Tarolas.¡± Seraxus answered him quickly, with excitement in his voice that he attempted to hold back, but failed. Feng and Makaroth both went silent for another few moments, Makaroth looking away from his own live streaming camera to someone or something out of view of his livestream. After another few moments, he looked straight back at his camera again as if to stare at Seraxus.
¡°Fine. Tarolas it is. We¡¯ll be there, ready to put an end to you and your sword of hatred.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll try.¡± Seraxus replied coldly, before pressing a few buttons in his interface. The moment he had finished interacting with his interface, he¡¯d locked in the location of the finals for the gladiator tournament, and notifications were sent to all 16 participating team¡¯s leaders - including Aegis. In addition, a listing of the brackets that was accessible online through the Shattered World¡¯s database was immediately updated with the first round matchups.
The news broadcasters, sensing the tension growing from the three big VGN streamers, quickly cut off the call and leaned forward in their chairs.
¡°There we have it, the location of the tournament is decided. And with it, the brackets are now available for our viewing.¡± The broadcaster spoke as a transparent screen appeared in their studio, floating behind them.
Tommy eyed it quickly and carefully, taking in all the information that it provided. He began waving his fingers around to capture the source of their display, then quickly sent the information over to Shinji.
¡°Got the bracket. Get it over to Hae-won, Shinji.¡± Tommy said into the call.
¡°Done,¡± Shinji replied a few seconds later.
¡°Thanks, guys,¡± Hae-won said once she¡¯d gotten the information and was able to set up a transparent screen of the bracket behind her. Shinji edited Aegis¡¯ footage to put a bigger focus on Hae-won and the bracket than was on Aegis¡¯ actual livestream as they had begun wandering around the empty streets outside of the Kordas arena, just now spotting the rising smoke from both the Kordas Shipyard and the Skyport tower.
Hae-won began going into a detailed discussion about the bracket placement that Aegis was given, while Tommy went back to paying attention to what VGN and several other networks were saying about the situation. A few moments passed before he realized they¡¯d completely blurred out the section of the bracket that showed Aegis and his opponent.
¡°They¡¯re still really trying to shut him out? He¡¯s in the finals. How are they planning to keep their broadcasts relevant? We¡¯ve got 2 million fucking viewers. Fuck this network, I dunno how you ever worked for them.¡± Tommy shouted angrily into the call.
¡°They¡¯re gonna keep trying to suffocate us out of relevancy like this. They¡¯re most likely not done trying to stop Aegis from participating.¡± Shinji replied with a pondering tone. ¡°We¡¯re not the first network they¡¯ve done this to. Bigger ones than us have been put under this pressure. Somehow, VGN kept coming out on top. That¡¯s why they¡¯re number one.¡± Shinji shrugged.
¡°Yeah. Well¡¡± Tommy leaned back from the screens directly before him, turning his head to Aegis¡¯ broadcast, where Hae-won was shown talking about the brackets. ¡°They haven¡¯t faced us before. We aren¡¯t folding under pressure.¡± Tommy locked his fingers together and cracked them. ¡°Hae-won, you¡¯re still on the call, right? Listen up. They can edit out Aegis¡¯ matches by not displaying them, but they can¡¯t ignore you if you¡¯re live in the arena, shoutcasting all of the matches. You can do it, can¡¯t you?¡±
¡°Do what?¡± Hae-won stopped talking to Aegis¡¯ livestream to answer him by tapping her ear-implant.
¡°Make sure everyone notices him? Outshine the VGN shoutcasters?¡±
¡°Who do you think you¡¯re talking to?¡± Hae-won smirked in response.
¡°Good. Log in, and hitch a ride to Tarolas with Aegis. We¡¯re going to live report the tournament ourselves.¡± Tommy said.
¡°Yes, sir,¡± Hae-won replied before exiting the call.
¡°That¡¯s not looking good,¡± Darkshot said as Aegis and his companions stood side by side in the streets of Kordas, their heads craned to look upwards at the destroyed Kordas Skyport, which was lacking any Airships.
¡°Come on, let¡¯s see what happened,¡± Aegis said before sprinting. The others quickly ran behind him, arriving at the tower''s base within a few moments to see cleric players tending to wounded NPCs as they stood amongst broken fragments of multiple airships. Large chunks of wood, destroyed hulls infused with island stone, and other discarded crates and barrels that had been shattered and scorched black. The scent of sulfur and burnt wood filled their noses, and the air was heavy and thick to breathe.
They continued past to enter the tower and ascended up the long winding ramp to the top, coming up onto the main floor to see Yuki, Tullan, and Quinn standing around with a few others, looking on at the destruction.
¡°What happened?¡± Aegis asked her worriedly, rushing over to stand closer to the three.
¡°A lot.¡± Tullan sighed.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Aegis.¡± Yuki apologized with a look of regretful sadness in her eyes. She could only bear to meet Aegis¡¯ eyes briefly before glancing away.
¡°Even though you made it through the preliminaries¡¡± Quinn sighed, staring at her feet.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Aegis saw their reactions and took one more long look around at the destruction. Even without them properly explaining it, he already had an idea of what transpired.
¡°They destroyed the Sky Darling? Who?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Shattered Pirates.¡±
¡°They got through Kordas¡¯ defenses by themselves?¡± Rakkan asked in disbelief.
¡°No, not by themselves. They had help. Christoph and Artaphernes. Both their guilds helped ¡®em.¡± Tullan explained.
¡°What? What the hell? Seriously?¡± Darkshot shouted. Tullan only gave a slight nod in response. ¡°But why? I thought we were friends. Weren¡¯t we?¡±
¡°Not enough to refuse the sum of money that was thrown at ¡®em, apparently.¡± Tullan shrugged.
¡°Where are they now?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°Gone. I banished the leaders and arrested the remaining members.¡± Quinn replied coldly as she looked up to meet Aegis¡¯ eyes for the first time.
¡°I can¡¯t believe this¡¡± Lina mumbled to herself, looking to see Aegis¡¯ reaction with worried eyes.
¡°I can,¡± Pyri replied calmly, drawing attention to herself. ¡°What?¡± She shrugged at their stares. ¡°Many people give into the temptation of money. I almost don¡¯t even blame them for doing it¡ the only pathetic one in this scenario is the one who bribed them in the first place.¡± She continued with a blank stare.
¡°What are our options? Can we build another one in time?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°I doubt it.¡± Tullan sighed.
¡°But you¡¯re not sure?¡±
¡°Well¡ the leader of the carpenter¡¯s guild is online. We could get a better idea of what¡¯s possible by talkin¡¯ to him. Want me to tell ¡®em to meet us at our guild hall?¡± Tullan asked.
¡°Yeah, as soon as possible.¡± Aegis nodded back. Tullan immediately began fidgeting with his interface to send the needed messages, and not more than a minute later did he have a response.
¡°Alright, he¡¯s on the way. Let¡¯s go.¡± Tullan motioned the others towards the ramp leading down from the tower.
Together, the group quickly traveled through the city to arrive at the Night Hunter¡¯s guild hall, all remaining relatively silent. The frustration that they all held was palpable, but they were all holding onto the small hope. By the time they reached the gate leading into the garden surrounding the Night Hunter¡¯s guild hall, there were two other players already waiting for them. Hae-won, and Jorik.
¡°Aegis, it¡¯s a pleasure to see you again.¡± Jorik smiled and reached his hand out to shake his. Aegis responded in kind.
¡°How is the mithral hacksaw working out for you?¡± Aegis replied politely, remembering Jorik as the number one contributor to defending Kordas during the invasion, thanks to the rapid construction of siege weaponry near the walls.
¡°It¡¯s wonderful. But I suppose we ought to skip the small talk. Tullan has informed me we¡¯re limited in time.¡±
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right.¡±
¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s use our crafting hall and figure out what we can do.¡± Tullan motioned them all through the gates towards the double doors, and everyone quickly moved behind him.
¡°Oi.¡± Hae-won shouted angrily after having been completely ignored. ¡°I come all the way here in-game just to see how you¡¯re doing, and not even a hello?¡± She hissed while stomping behind the others.
¡°Hi, Hae-won,¡± Lina said politely.
¡°Hi, Lina.¡± Hae-won changed her tone briefly before turning her attention back to Aegis and growling. ¡°What¡¯s limited in time? What¡¯s going on? Did you even look at the bracket yet?¡±
¡°Nope. The bracket¡¯s not important right now. Did you?¡± Aegis answered her without turning back around to look in her direction, which annoyed her further.
¡°Of course I did.¡± She grumbled back at him.
¡°Which island is the tournament being hosted on?¡± Jorik asked as they entered the building and began walking through the marble halls. Their shoes echoed off the floors and walls around them as the atmosphere shifted from the cool night air to a warmer, calmer interior.
¡°Tarolas. You didn¡¯t even know that yet?¡± Hae-won huffed back at him. ¡°It¡¯s pretty far away. Shouldn¡¯t we be getting ready to leave?¡±
¡°We can¡¯t. Sky pirates destroyed our airship.¡± Darkshot replied.
¡°WHAT?¡± Hae-won shouted angrily, her voice carrying through the building with an echo. ¡°Are you shitting me? You mean you can¡¯t get to the finals even after you qualify?¡±
¡°That¡¯s the situation,¡± Pyri smirked at her, enjoying her over-reactions.
¡°Why¡¯d I even bother logging in and dressing up?¡± Hae-won sighed, which prompted Aegis to glance back and see her wearing her red V-neck dress, as she always did.
¡°You call that dressing up?¡± Aegis scrunched his eyebrows at her, causing her to throw him a death stare.
¡°I don¡¯t want to be told that by you.¡± She snapped back at him. ¡°I assume you¡¯ve got a plan, though, right?¡±
¡°We¡¯re workin¡¯ on one now,¡± Tullan said as he pushed open the doors leading into the crafting hall. There were several Night Hunters already inside, making use of the crafting stations, but they were left to their business as Tullan, Jorik, Aegis, and Yuki all quickly approached a large workbench in the center of the room, and Tullan pulled out a large crude scroll that he quickly unrolled out over the table. The four crafters leaned over the table while Quinn, Pyri, Hae-won, Rakkan, Lina, and Darkshot hung back, with Darkwing curiously cooing from his shoulder.
¡°Alrighty.¡± Tullan traced his finger over the parchment which was revealed to be a map of the known Shattered World islands, each labeled. He traced his finger between Kalmoore on the far western side of the map, a good distance from all the others. He then made a line towards an island labelled Tarolas, floating in a cluster of islands to the northeast. Among the cluster was Savringard, and Lanusk - both of which dwarfed Tarolas in size.
Aegis looked at the island in question curiously, noting that it was almost purely mountainous, with depictions of snow and ice on the areas not marked as mountains.
¡°It¡¯s an arctic island?¡± Aegis asked.
¡°I think so, mostly mountains and caves. Homeland of the dwarves.¡± Tullan nodded back at him.
¡°It¡¯s the most popular crafting island. Almost all the big-name crafters are there, including the number one blacksmith player.¡± Darkshot explained proudly.
¡°He¡¯s only number one for now.¡± Tullan scoffed at this.
¡°Based on Leonard¡¯s top speed, using Airburst on cooldown, it¡¯s possible he could get to Tarolas in 2 and ? days,¡± Aegis said while tracing the distance and doing quick math in his head.
¡°That¡¯ll depend on the size of the ship. How much time do we have before the final rounds start?¡±
¡°Check-in is exactly 72 hours after the final preliminary match,¡± Hae-won answered.
¡°That gives us 12 hours to build an airship,¡± Tullan said.
¡°Can it be done?¡± Aegis asked as all eyes fell on Jorik.
¡°I¡¯ve looked at the plans given by Leonard, thanks to his newfound knowledge on building ships without island stones¡ but, truthfully, we¡¯ve never built one to completion yet, so there aren¡¯t any direct crafting recipes to follow. Until we¡¯ve built one successfully, the process will involve a lot of experimenting and trial and error. It¡¯ll slow the process down.¡± Jorik explained as he, too, pulled out several parchments from his inventory and unrolled them atop the map.
The parchments he displayed for the others to see were blueprints of various ship designs, with detailed measurements of parts and raw material requirements.
¡°What about this small one?¡± Aegis pointed at one of the designs.
¡°It¡¯s possible, but it''d be using sails too small to achieve the speeds you¡¯d need to reach Tarolas in time. Even with an airburst spamming pilot.¡± Jorik shook his head and crossed his arms. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but¡ this time frame, it¡¯s just too small. There¡¯s no way.¡± He sighed.
His words brought silence to the room, and as all heads turned downward, an aura of defeat filled the air, which was carried on to Aegis¡¯ viewers, who now number 1.8 million and was dropping.
¡°There¡¯s another way,¡± Quinn said, breaking the silence. ¡°I could banish you all using Royal Banishment.¡±
¡°Quinn¡¡± Tullan looked at her with eyes of concern.
¡°You¡¯d be removed from Kalmoore permanently, unable to return ever, but, simultaneously, be forced to choose a new island to start playing on. If I banished all five of you, you could restart in Tarolas.¡±
¡°That¡¯d bankrupt us completely, though,¡± Tullan replied.
¡°So what? The gold is only here because of all of Aegis¡¯ mithral, right? It¡¯s the least I can do.¡± Quinn replied to him, then turned to Aegis as he looked at her intently. ¡°This is our fault anyway. There was only one airship here because Kalmoore is a poor unpopular island. And I failed to protect it.¡±
¡°It wasn¡¯t just you¡¡± Yuki tried to reassure her, but Quinn shook her head at her.
¡°It was. It¡¯s been me from the beginning.¡± Quinn replied quickly. ¡°I¡ I¡¯ve played plenty of MMORPGs before. Even VRMMO-RPG¡¯s. I¡¯ve seen the paths they go down, everyone who plays always ends up following the top streamers, or the elitists. The ¡®right¡¯ way to play each game. But I wanted something different with this game. I knew it¡¯d be something special, so I tried to make an island free of this mindset.¡± Quinn said as she pointed out Kalmoore¡¯s isolation on the map.
¡°A place where people can just play freely and enjoy the game. Without having to worry about elitists and the sort coming in and taking over, pressuring them to play the way the streamers play. I thought that Christoph and Artaphernes were on the same page as me, but I was wrong.¡± She began fidgeting with her fingers as everyone listened silently.
¡°Christoph just wanted to be the biggest, toughest raiding guild on an island where he had no competition. Artaphernes wanted to run all the gambling and black market business of a guild where it was easy to keep a handle on it all. They didn¡¯t share my mindset, they just used me to have it easy, and barely stepped up to help unless they absolutely had to. The only people who truly were with me were my guildmates. And, you.¡± Quinn pointed at Aegis, causing him to look at her confused.
¡°Without even trying, probably unintentionally, you inspired so many people to play in a way that they embrace the world to get stronger. Follow in the footsteps of the divine gods, stand up for the NPCs, and push away everyone who thinks they know best because they¡¯re following a ¡®Meta.¡¯ You stood for exactly what I wanted Kalmoore to stand for and made it grow, unwavering in your beliefs the entire time.¡± As Quinn explained this, Aegis looked to his companions with a confused expression, to which he got shrugs and smiles in return.
¡°But, I can¡¯t keep depending on you or being naive. Now, for the first time, the rest of the player base feels threatened by you and Kalmoore¡¯s actions, and they¡¯ve started attacking us. Trying to sink our island, burn Rene, and destroy our Airship. And I can¡¯t just be complacent and rely on you to protect it. I¡¯ve got to step up myself. So, we¡¯ll be okay without you. I promise.¡± She took a deep breath, and tears built up in her eyes. ¡°Let me banish you so you can destroy that sword of Hatred. It¡¯s the only way you¡¯ll make it to that tournament.¡± She finished.
All eyes fell on Aegis as he looked intently back at Quinn, pondering her words. He knew she was right, that her method would guarantee that they could make the tournament in time¡ but¡
¡°No,¡± Aegis answered after a long silence. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be banished. I like Kalmoore.¡± Aegis shrugged and smiled at her. ¡°You forget how much you helped us out as well, right? I wouldn¡¯t have gotten very far without you. We¡¯re sticking together.¡± Aegis said, causing Yuki to let an excited whimper while Tullan let out a sigh of relief.
¡°But what about the tournament?¡± Quinn asked worriedly.
¡°Forget about it. There¡¯ll be other opportunities to take out the sword.¡± Aegis shrugged. ¡°Let''s first focus on building up Kalmoore¡¯s defenses so we¡¯re prepared for whatever the rest of the islands bring.¡±
¡°You¡¯re sure about this?¡± Pyri asked.
¡°What the hell? You¡¯re just giving up!?¡± Rakkan shouted at him. ¡°What about Seraxus?!¡±
¡°We¡¯re not giving up. We¡¯re just delaying our plans.¡± Aegis tried to calm down.
¡°He¡¯s about to step foot on a new island, thanks to your dad. He¡¯s gonna destroy that one, too, if we don¡¯t stop him!¡± Rakkan shouted.
¡°What choice do we have?¡± Darkshot stepped in on Aegis¡¯ behalf.
¡°Makaroth and Feng want to stop him by themselves so badly. They can handle it.¡±
¡°THEY CAN¡¯T HANDLE SHIT!¡± Rakkan shouted and stomped his foot down. ¡°I told you, didn¡¯t I? It ain''t just the sword. They just toyed with us in Rene. And forget hoping that those Vindicator idiots zerg him down, he¡¯s got warpstones out his ass. Anytime he¡¯s outnumbered, he¡¯ll just teleport away. The only way to stop him is in those tournaments, in a fair fight where he can¡¯t flee. The only way is that shield. It HAS to be US!¡± Rakkan roared.
¡°Then it will be, but I¡¯m not abandoning everyone on Kalmoore for it, using banishment. What happens if we go to Tarolas, and he decides to skip the tournament to attack Kalmoore? We won¡¯t be able to do shit about it anymore because we¡¯re banished.¡± Aegis shouted back. Rakkan¡¯s expression made it obvious that this was a scenario he hadn¡¯t considered, and he slowly quieted down.
¡°Whatever happens in Tarolas, it¡¯s not something we can help with now. We lost this round.¡± Aegis shouted while clenching his fists, tears building up in his eyes as well. ¡°I don¡¯t like losing either, but I underestimated the power of VGN, and what they were willing to do to stop us. I thought playing the game would be enough, but I was wrong.¡± Aegis slowly calmed himself down.
¡°It¡¯s disgusting, honestly. I wouldn¡¯t feel too bad about it.¡± Hae-won mumbled.
¡°Yeah, can¡¯t believe he¡¯s gone from bribin¡¯ Finley, to pirates, to our own companions.¡± Tullan sighed.
¡°Yumily is very disappointed with the Network,¡± Yuki added.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We¡¯ll prepare and make sure we¡¯re ready for next time.¡± Aegis sighed. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a break. Sorry, you came for nothing, Hae-won.¡± Aegis added while fidgeting with his interface and closing off his livestream.
¡°It¡¯s okay. We¡¯ll figure out ho-¡± Hae-won began to reply, but Aegis cut her off.
¡°Good acting. That was convincing stuff.¡± Aegis turned to Rakkan and smiled.
¡°Huh?¡± Rakkan looked at him, confused.
¡°Mom, can you protect us from scrying?¡± Aegis asked, and without replying, Pyri began to cast a spell that promptly formed a transparent dome around them.
¡°Done,¡± Pyri said once the spell had finished casting.
¡°Good,¡± Aegis smirked.
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Quinn looked on in confusion.
¡°You¡¯ve got a construction plan?¡± Jorik asked excitedly, seeing the enthusiasm on Aegis¡¯ face.
¡°No, you¡¯re right. We can¡¯t build an airship in time to get to Tarolas.¡± Aegis shook his head at him. ¡°But there¡¯s one more way that might work that doesn¡¯t involve banishment. We¡¯re still going to Tarolas, but we can¡¯t let them know we¡¯re coming, or it''d be too easy for them to interfere.¡± Aegis explained.
¡°How?¡± Darkshot asked eagerly. Aegis didn¡¯t answer at first but instead just grinned mischievously at Darkshot.
¡°You¡¯re not gonna like it.¡±
Chapter 268: Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 268: Down the Rabbit Hole
Several Real World Months Earlier¡
An older gentleman was sitting calmly in a large, deep brown chair with a tall backing and deep blue cushions sewn into it, located inside a rectangular office room. His chair pulled up to a long rectangular table that matched the room''s shape and went down the center. Many less prestigious chairs lined the table in front of him. All seats were occupied by individuals of various ethnicities and genders, wearing formal business attire.
Behind him, several screens could be seen floating in the air, partially transparent. They displayed all manner of numbers, charts, and graphs¡ªstatistics centered around the profits, player base, and performance of Shattered World Online and the company that ran it, Averon.
The man himself was in his mid-40s. He had short dark brown hair with strands of gray sneaking in near the front and sides. He was clean-shaven and fit, with broad shoulders that filled out his black-and-white suit and tie. His head was tilted slightly downwards towards the table, where his fingers were interlocked to form a single fist as he listened intently to another individual speaking at the table.
¡°The fact is, if you cannot guarantee the safety of our investments in your virtual game world, there¡¯s no way we can consider it. We¡¯re demanding that any virtual establishments we choose to open in your world¡¯s major hubs be protected by your game rules so that they cannot be laid to waste by any players seeking to do evil. It¡¯s not an unreasonable request to make.¡± The man, a few seats away, finished speaking to the gentlemen at the end of the table.
Once he was sure he¡¯d finished speaking, the older gentleman, who went by the name of Nicholas, looked up to meet his eyes and gave him a momentary deadpan stare.
¡°If you want protection for your virtual establishments, you must acquire it yourself. Hire bodyguards or mercenaries. That is the cost of doing business within the Shattered World. I will not modify the rules of my game and sacrifice its integrity to accommodate corporate interests. If you cannot establish yourselves within the Shattered World by adhering to the harsh realities of it, then it simply isn¡¯t a place for you. There are plenty of other businesses who have transitioned to opening shops and selling relevant goods and have had great success, without any intervention by any Game Masters.¡± Nicholas replied as calmly and politely as possible.
¡°I¡¯m sure there are, but I¡¯ve seen the numbers - more than half fail. Their supply chains, or the establishments themselves, fall victim to what you would call ¡®bandit¡¯ players. You allow these players to run rampant in your game world, and if you aren¡¯t willing to do something about them on our behalf, we can¡¯t possibly consider investing in growing your virtual economy.¡± The man replied.
¡°Yes, he¡¯s right.¡± A businesswoman from another investment company chimed in, motioning to several of the floating monitors behind Nicholas. ¡°Look at this, this island has had almost every player-owned business wiped out. All due to a single player who has come into the possession of a powerful artifact. Puagas, they call it.¡± She explained while pointing out the graphs and charts that supported what she was saying.
¡°It¡¯s all part of the game world¡¯s design. Where there is light, there will always be darkness. As I explained initially, this all falls within our player behavior model. Nothing has gone out of our expected range.¡± Nicholas replied while using his wrist implant to move several screens forward and enlarge them for all to see.
¡°On average, we anticipated that 30 to 40% of the player base would align themselves with light-based forces and play within the confines of the laws of the Kingdoms they choose to reside in. That number currently sits at 42%. Our predicted 10% of players leaning towards the dark gods and evil forces currently sits at 6%. The remainder, a section of the player base that leans towards neutral by committing minor crimes while simultaneously doing good and, therefore, not leaning heavily in either direction, sits at 50%. With 2% of the player base unable to be properly categorized yet by our systems due to their lack of interactions within the game world thus far.¡± Nicholas explained. He then waved a few more screens around.
¡°What transpired within Puagas, while unfortunate, is still well within our projected numbers. In a way, we can be thankful, as the dark aligned players are being drawn towards that island, leaving the other islands relatively free from their destruction. You¡¯d only need to worry about petty crimes, something you have to manage in the real world as well. I think it¡¯s well within your capabilities to handle them yourself.¡±
¡°But this isn¡¯t the real world.¡± The original man spoke up once more. ¡°It¡¯s your virtual world. You can take away those threats and let our businesses thrive. It¡¯s profitable for b-¡±
¡°I will not give you an unfair advantage. I will not compromise the integrity of the game world. Everyone plays by the same rules. The AI that handled the main design of the world has followed the parameters we set for it nearly perfectly, and has done so in a way to keep the world balanced to our liking. The intricacies behind its decisions are, in some situations, far beyond even my comprehension. Going in personally and tweaking values to rebalance the game world is irresponsible at best and catastrophic at worst, as we wouldn¡¯t know just how far-reaching such changes would be. We will not modify the game rules unless it is related to an exploit, bug, or malfunction. That¡¯s my final decision on the matter.¡± Nicholas replied, his voice slowly getting louder and more authoritative.
¡°Sure, a hands-off approach is nice and all, but¡ I¡¯ve seen how that goes in the long term. You¡¯ve let one dark group of players completely take over an island. What¡¯s to stop them from going to take over the next one? And the next?¡±
¡°Other good players, obviously.¡± Another man in a business suit chimed in on Nicholas¡¯ behalf.
¡°Hah. You overestimate gamers.¡± The businesswoman scoffed.
¡°I agree. If this is your approach, I predict that anyone who''s invested in your virtual world will lose their investments in due time. And with that in mind, we¡¯ll not be opening any virtual establishments within your major hubs in Savringard, Lanusk, and Arallia.¡±
¡°So be it. I¡¯m sorry you feel that way. Any other questions?¡± Nicholas shrugged nonchalantly and stood up from his chair. He got no response, so promptly bowed as politely as he could to the group. ¡°Very well. Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen. I must be on my way.¡± He added, then hit a few buttons on his wrist implant. Once he had, the office simulation that he¡¯d been in ended, revealing him to have been sitting in a smooth, slick silver Simbox that opened up.
In the real world, he wore an all-white, form-fitting Simulation suit that showed off his fit, muscular form. Impressive, given his older age of 49. He swung his legs over the side of his Simbox inside his real-world office. His box was set to the side beside a large wooden desk with a huge shelf built into the wall behind it. The shelf was filled with gaming paraphernalia of all sorts. Miniatures, consoles, and game boxes, with posters lining the empty walls to the left and right of all manner of creatures. Some 3d, some 2d - some monstrous, some muscular, and plenty of beautiful female characters in questionably revealing outfits. The room was dimly lit, as he liked it, giving a nice cozy feeling.
He¡¯d hoped to get up and head over to his desk, where multiple computer monitors were waiting for him, their screens lit up and illuminating the shelf behind the desk. Instead, though, he saw two eager young men waiting for him, wearing casual attire and standing with their backs straight across the room from his Simbox.
He¡¯d recognized one of them as his Chief Offensive Security Specialist, Mike. He was on the larger side with a receding gray hairline. The other, a much younger employee with short spiky black hair and a scrawny build, he¡¯d never seen before in his life, though.
¡°Damn investors, like parasites. I have to play nice and pretend I actually care if they try to play our game. They really think they deserve some special treatment.¡± Nicholas grumbled as he stood up and walked towards his desk. Neither Mike nor the young man replied but just listened. ¡°They still don¡¯t realize I made this game world to escape that mentality.¡± He shook his head to himself, taking off his Simulation suit¡¯s gloves and setting them down on his desk before turning to face the two men. ¡°What is it, Mike?¡±
¡°We¡¯ve got a problem,¡± Mike replied, giving Nicholas a serious stare.
¡°How bad?¡± Nicholas asked.
¡°I¡¯ll let this young man explain. He¡¯s the one who discovered it.¡± Mike motioned to the younger boy beside him, no older than 25 years old. With both Nicholas and Mike¡¯s eyes falling on him, he suddenly got very anxious. ¡°Just tell him what you told me and how you found it.¡± Despite this prompt, the young man remained frozen with wide, glistening eyes as he stared at Nicholas.
¡°Uh, sorry. Sorry sir, it¡¯s just¡ I¡¯ve studied your work in school. It¡¯s, well, I never imagined meeting you.¡± He quickly became flustered. ¡°I mean, the world you created with Samantha, it¡¯s just¡ it¡¯s so incredible. I¡¯m such a huge fan!¡±
¡°What¡¯s your name, son?¡± Nicholas asked him politely with a forced smile.
¡°Uh, me? I¡¯m Ryan.¡±
¡°Alright, Ryan. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± Nicholas stepped forward and shook Ryan¡¯s hand, who complied excitedly with glowing eyes. ¡°Now, tell me what it is you discovered.¡±
¡°Right, okay, sorry, sir.¡± Ryan nodded back at him furiously. ¡°Do you mind?¡± He then motioned to the computer screens on Nicholas¡¯ desk.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°Go ahead.¡± Nicholas welcomed him to them with a hand gesture.
¡°Okay, so¡¡± Ryan rushed over to the monitors and connected his wrist implant to them with a few taps, then made sure 6 of the 9 screens rotated to face the three men in the room. He focused on his implant for a bit, mumbling to himself as he carefully put various information and in-game footage from the Shattered World on display.
¡°The first thing that set me off was this.¡± He motioned to the center screen, where a clip of Makaroth was paused. ¡°I¡¯ll play the clip so that you can understand it fully. Honestly, I¡¯m not surprised no one else caught it¡¡± Ryan explained as he hit the play button.
A clip began to play of Makaroth battling a raid boss alongside several of his guild members. The boss, a giant scorpion with glowing red skin, was enraged and frantically stabbing its stinger around within a confined beige-walled cavern. The sound of the clip overtook the room as all three men watched it intently, observing the battle unfold.
Makaroth¡¯s group, at the time level 50¡¯s, was struggling to handle the boss and were losing members one by one as the guardian class player of Makaroth¡¯s guild had gotten taken out, leaving no one to take control of the creature¡¯s behavior. It wasn¡¯t long before everyone had been killed except Makaroth.
¡°You¡¯re not winning that easily.¡± Makaroth gritted his teeth and drew out his greatsword, glowing with blue magical energy. The scorpion let out a violent hiss and roared at Makaroth, and Makaroth eyed his health bar to see that he was one hit from dying to the boss. Makaroth carefully dodged the scorpion¡¯s stinger, charged past it, and slashed his sword into the boss''s head, landing the finishing blow and killing it with him, the only player still standing.
¡°Quite an epic moment,¡± Nicholas commented as Ryan paused the clip. Nicholas turned from the screen to look at Ryan carefully.
¡°A little bit too on the nose, don¡¯t you think? Something felt off about it, but as no one else had fought this boss, it was hard for me to say anything was wrong with just the footage. So¡¡± Ryan waved his fingers around and drew attention to several other screens, where raw text data and game log information began zooming past. A secondary view of the battle was then pulled up using the AI¡¯s perspective of the Elite Scorpion.
¡°I looked into the boss''s Elite behavior and found this.¡± Ryan pulled up what he was getting at. A line of code that stood out from the standard AI¡¯s protocols in controlling an AI elite monster, which blocked the boss from dropping below 1 health.
¡°The hell is that?¡± Nicholas squinted at it. ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be in there.¡±
¡°No. Someone put it in there, but look¡¡± Ryan then ran the AI¡¯s point of view of the encounter backward, and the line of code vanished from the boss''s protocol. ¡°It wasn¡¯t there before the boss got enraged. And, when we go further¡¡± Ryan fast-forwarded the encounter until the last moment after Makaroth¡¯s last allied member died. Immediately after, the protocol was removed, unlocking the scorpion¡¯s health and allowing it to die.
¡°Someone added a protocol into that raid boss so that it couldn¡¯t be killed until only Makaroth was left alive to kill it on his own,¡± Ryan explained.
¡°I couldn¡¯t really understand why someone might want to do that, but then Ryan said¡¡± Mike began to explain, but Nicholas needed no further explanation.
¡°They manufactured a theatrical moment,¡± Nicholas said, scratching his chin. ¡°That¡¯s the number one streamer, right?¡±
¡°Right.¡± Ryan nodded.
¡°Alright. You¡¯ve got my attention, Ryan.¡± Nicholas said as he took over the displays with his wrist implant and gathered information. ¡°The only people who could have made direct modifications to the AI code on the fly like that are our employees. We could isolate our search to determine who worked during this event, but that still leaves us in the hundreds. Regardless, a change like this is forbidden for Game Masters. Samantha should have caught it.¡± Nicholas hit his wrist implant a few more times until a floating white holographic head of a beautiful female appeared above all of the screens.
¡°Samantha, somebody modified the AI behavior of one of your Elite Boss NPCs. You didn¡¯t flag this or detect it?¡± Nicholas asked the floating head.
¡°I did not,¡± Samantha replied in a robotic female voice.
¡°They managed to do it without you noticing. I want you to figure out how they did it.¡± Nicholas asked her.
¡°Yes, sir, I¡¯ll begin computing possibilities right away,¡± Samantha replied before the floating head vanished from the office. This drew the three men''s attention back to the list of employees that Nicholas had pulled up.
¡°It¡¯s also possible they did it while off work, without being clocked in, so long as they were still working from this building where the mainframe is located,¡± Ryan explained, which gave pause to Nicholas¡¯ search.
¡°If we want to find out who did it, we¡¯re going to need to be able to narrow our search parameters,¡± Mike said.
¡°You¡¯ve got a way to do that?¡± Nicholas raised his eyebrow at the pair.
¡°Well, I dug into it further after I found this event and have made quite a few connections. This isn¡¯t the first time it¡¯s happened, and there is a pattern. It¡¯s not always Makaroth, but it is always one of the VGN streamers.¡±
¡°VGN?¡± Nicholas asked.
¡°Virtual Gaming Network. It¡¯s a newer network that began rising in popularity with the launch of our game. They picked up several unknown names and have been managing to dwarf the popularity of other previously well-known networks and streamers due to the performance of their contracted players.¡± Mike explained.
¡°The more I looked into it, the more suspicious it all became,¡± Ryan said as he began pulling up information on two screens. ¡°On each island, VGN contracted a player with an incredibly high play time, a streamer with low popularity but high activity. Look at Feng on Lanusk, Yumily on Arallia, Makaroth on Savringard, and even the Hatred wielder Seraxus from Puagas. There¡¯s at least one on each of the major islands, except for Kalmoore, which lacks any major Great Prophets or Landmarks.¡± Ryan explained while fidgeting with his implant and pulling up a few more screens.
¡°Once contracted, soon after, the players began growing at an accelerated rate. They somehow acquired information on the most efficient leveling methods on each of their respective islands.¡± Ryan said as he pulled up charts of the viewership growth of multiple VGN streams.
¡°It¡¯s possible the network bought that information through some of the dark gaming networks. That¡¯s not that uncommon¡¡± Mike suggested.
¡°Yeah, I looked into that too. I¡¯m a part of a few of the networks myself, just to keep track of their activity. Nothing about their grinding locations was ever mentioned on those networks. They just, somehow, knew how to level extremely fast on every island. This shot them ahead of all of the competition. Pairing that with random theatrical moments like the one I showed you, of which I found numerous - VGN is now the leading network for the Shattered World Online.¡±
¡°So whoever¡¯s making these modifications and leaking this information is clearly doing it on behalf of the network.¡± Nicholas began scratching his chin with a worried look on his face.
¡°Even if they are, they¡¯ve already shot up in the hundreds of millions of profits due to the popularity of all of their streamers. If we want to go after them, we will need rock-solid evidence that they¡¯re the ones behind it.¡± Mike explained to the two.
¡°Do you have that?¡± Nicholas turned to Ryan.
¡°No. Unfortunately, we need to first find out which person in our company is the one behind the AI protocol alterations. They¡¯re also likely the ones leaking gameplay information to the VGN streamers. Once we find them, if we can link them to VGN, we¡¯d have something.¡±
¡°Right. But if they know that we¡¯re onto them, things will be more difficult.¡± Nicholas sighed as he pulled up a list of his offensive security specialists and game masters. Before he could go further, though, Samantha¡¯s head reappeared above the monitors.
¡°I have discovered how the modifications were made.¡± Samantha declared.
¡°Explain,¡± Nicholas answered.
¡°Elite NPCs are run from a separate server than the game world. An Elite NPC''s personality is based on their experiences and thus allows them to have realistic behavioral growth and change on their own. These changes do not flag my system, as all Elite NPCs experience them regularly. The personality of the Scorpion was altered so that it would refuse to die unless slain by a specific person, as a characteristic of who the Scorpion was. A modification was made to the Scorpion¡¯s experience through the server that specifically controlled its Elite personality so that I did not notice the change.¡±
¡°Can you tell me who made the changes?¡±
¡°No. The information on the Elite Bosses'' personalities are wiped and reset whenever they are killed, including who or what influenced them to change.¡± Samantha explained.
¡°Clever.¡± Nicholas shook his head towards his feet briefly.
¡°Can you set up a system to detect further changes like this?¡±
¡°No need. I¡¯ve already corrected the security flaw. No Game Masters will be able to modify the behavior of elite NPCs anymore.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t correct it yet,¡± Nicholas replied. ¡°Let the flaw remain, but set up detection for it. I want you to catch the person who is responsible for making these changes. Alert me when you catch another person making changes like this, alright?¡±
¡°Yes, sir. Is there anything else you¡¯d like me to do?¡± Samantha asked.
¡°Can you tell me if these AI modifications will have any lasting impact on the balance of your world design?¡±
¡°At the moment, no. But player behavior is still something very difficult for me to anticipate.¡±
¡°Okay. That¡¯ll be all then.¡± Nicholas said, prompting her floating head to disappear. Once it had, Nicholas turned back to Mike and Ryan, and saw Ryan staring at where Samantha¡¯s head had been with glowing eyes of amazement.
¡°Wow¡ that¡¯s her? The AI that runs the Shattered World Online? There¡¯s a rumor going around that she¡¯ll show up in person whenever a player interacts with a god. Is that true?¡± Ryan asked Nicholas excitedly.
¡°You play the game yourself?¡± Nicholas smiled at him, avoiding the question.
¡°Yeah, of course! I love it! I mean, I¡¯m only level 28, but anytime I¡¯m not working, I¡¯m playing.¡± Ryan replied.
¡°Great. I guess if you want that question answered, you¡¯ll have to meet a god, huh?¡± Nicholas grinned ear to ear, happy to see someone so enthusiastic about his game.
¡°Yeah, yeah. Of course. Wouldn¡¯t want spoilers.¡± Ryan nodded back at him.
¡°Thanks for bringing this to my attention. For now, all we can do is wait until Samantha catches their next attempt. I¡¯ll let you both know when that happens.¡±
¡°Right. Yes, of course. It was an honor, sir.¡± Ryan bowed respectfully.
¡°Keep me updated. I want to fire the punk who did it myself.¡± Mike also bowed, and the two quickly left the office, leaving Nicholas alone with the screens. The list of employees remained floating in front of him.
¡°Someone¡¯s trying to mess with my world.¡± He grumbled to himself, angrily clenching his fists - an anger he was keeping hidden while his employees were still in the office with him.
Chapter 269: Offensive Security
Chapter 269: Offensive Security
One Real World Month Later¡
Nicholas was sitting in an office simulation with hundreds of screens all around him. Some showed moving text logs, and others live streams of players playing his game. Conversations with employees and other information filled out on charts and graphs all jumbled around him. Also standing nearby, like a statue, was the full-body form of Samantha. She had no clothing nor any human features outside of a plain female body silhouette. Her face was pretty, but she had no eyebrows or hair, just wide, pure white eyes that blinked on occasion.
Eventually, he pulled forward a screen that displayed the current alignment of the player base. It had shifted greatly from one month prior, now displaying 34% alignment for Light, 11% for Dark, and 53% Neutral, with 2% undetermined. He briefly turned from the screen to reply to several messages sent to him on other screens, using a floating virtual keyboard. Once he¡¯d finished, he switched to a collection of livestreams on display, particularly of Seraxus, who he enlarged and pulled front and center. He watched with a serious expression as Seraxus spoke to his audience and cut down several fleeing farmers as he was in the process of raiding a small hamlet in a burning forest to which he had set fire to himself.
¡°That doesn¡¯t look good.¡± A voice commented, taking Nicholas away from his focus on the stream. He hadn¡¯t realized that two people materialized within his office simulation behind him. One of the people was Mike, who gave Nicholas a nod as their eyes met. The other wore a plain white dress shirt tucked into black dress pants and shoes with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
¡°Andrew, Mike.¡± Nicholas nodded back at them, respectively. ¡°What can I do for you two?¡± he asked in a formal, polite voice, which irked Andrew somewhat.
¡°Knock it off. We can speak freely here. It¡¯s us. The heart,¡± Andrew motioned to Nicholas, ¡°the muscle,¡± he motioned to Mike, ¡°and the Brains of Averon.¡± He smirked while motioning to himself with a wave of his hands. Nicholas simply rolled his eyes at this. ¡°Mike tells me you¡¯ve got a problem?¡±
¡°Had,¡± Nicholas replied coolly, with the VGN streamers still playing behind him. He was looking at Mike and Andrew, but it was clear they were paying more attention to the streams on display on the floating screens behind him. ¡°Since one of our Junior Offensive Security team members spotted a vulnerability, we set up a trap to try and catch the culprit, but they haven¡¯t tried it again. We must¡¯ve tipped them off somehow.¡± Nicholas sighed.
¡°Or, they just don¡¯t need to do it anymore,¡± Mike suggested. ¡°That network has more or less taken over the top 10, with very few exceptions.¡± He waved his hand in the direction of the streams.
¡°Nah. They definitely knew we caught them. I¡¯ve got a list of all of the AI protocol changes that Ryan found. They were regularly making 5 to 10 of them daily but suddenly stopped the moment his report came in. So¡¡± Nicholas pulled up several other screens and drew the other¡¯s attention to them. ¡°VGN is public and was founded during our second closed beta test. I¡¯m willing to bet that the culprit discovered the vulnerability there and worked with an outsider to establish VGN with plans to take advantage of it. Someone with extreme faith that Averon and our game would succeed.¡±
¡°Have you cross-referenced VGN employees with our security team?¡± Andrew asked.
¡°Yes. There were a few hits in other departments but nothing in our security team. Everyone here is vetted personally by me for anything that might compromise their loyalty to our company before being hired.¡± Mike replied.
¡°Just old classmates, cousins, etc. Mostly in the art departments or customer support that connect to people in VGN. None that link anyone directly to the VGN founder.¡± Nicholas added.
¡°Hm.¡± Andrew began scratching his chin. ¡°So, what do we do, Mr. Heart and Mr. Muscle?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. Why don¡¯t you tell us, Mr. Brains?¡± Nicholas replied in a sarcastic tone.
¡°It sounds like, unless they act again, you can¡¯t catch them. And they have no reason to act again, as they¡¯ve already accomplished their goal. So, how much damage did they cause to Samantha¡¯s design?¡± Andrew asked. Nicholas didn¡¯t answer but instead avoided eye contact with Andrew by turning around to face the screens again, pulling up the live streams of the VGN streamers, mainly Seraxus.
¡°That is one deranged kid.¡± Andrew shook his head in disbelief as Seraxus cut down several elven children cowering in one of the farmhouses of the hamlet, then cheering as the strength of his sword increased as their bodies disintegrated, their souls were absorbed by the sword, and their simple common children¡¯s clothes fell to the ground where they¡¯d been a moment¡¯s before.
¡°Well.¡± Nicholas took a deep breath, briefly looked at the still Samantha, then pulled up several more screens. ¡°Samantha¡¯s initial game design parameters were based on studying all of this genre''s predecessors. She determined that with specific incentives and punishments for various types of player actions, she could encourage immersion and maintain a peaceful balance of the player base¡¯s good behavior and bad behavior. This meant that we could permit the gameworld to be fully PvP-enabled without worrying about it devolving into chaos. As long as she could maintain balance long-term using her carefully crafted system, we could give our players absolute freedom.¡±
¡°I know all of that. It¡¯s part of our investment deal. I gave you loads of money to build your dream game and experiment with your AI,¡± Andrew motioned to Samantha, ¡°And so long as she is able to successfully keep the chaotic behavior to a minimum of 20% or lower, I am able to safely guarantee that to our investors and everyone is happy.¡± Andrew smiled, motioning to the alignment screen that showed Dark Alignment at an all-time high of 11%.
¡°You both agreed to not interfere with her world so long as she could maintain that balance, right?¡± Mike clarified.
¡°Right.¡± Nicholas nodded. ¡°While we set the initial parameters of how she should design the world and tweaked minor details during the beta testing phase and end phases of development, the complexity of her world is too easily disrupted by outside interference. That¡¯s why I am unwilling to go in and start nerfing, buffing, deleting, or modifying anything outside of obvious glitches and bugs.¡±
¡°That, and if you do, the deal is off, and we get to modify the game to be more befitting to investors.¡± Andrew shrugged.
¡°That short-sighted decision-making is what killed a lot of the predecessors. Aren¡¯t we making enough money as it is?¡± Nicholas grumbled at him.
¡°We are. That¡¯s why I¡¯m sticking with our deal. But, we could be making more.¡± Andrew smiled playfully.
¡°Well, I¡¯m not making any changes,¡± Nicholas replied coldly.
¡°You sure? That sword looks like it could use a nerf. What could Samantha possibly be planning by giving something like that out to an evil player?¡± Andrew motioned to Seraxus¡¯ livestream once more.
¡°The problem isn¡¯t the sword or the player. It¡¯s the Network as a whole.¡± Nicholas sighed as he pulled up the other streamers belonging to VGN.
¡°Explain?¡± Mike asked curiously.
¡°I¡¯ve been observing the threads of Samantha¡¯s design since beta, and I¡¯ve somewhat come to understand her process and how it¡¯s been so successful up until this point¡¡± Nicholas pulled up several more screens until there was a total display of 20 in front of them. Some were of VGN streamers, some not. ¡°To gain power and knowledge within the Shattered World - it¡¯s done primarily through immersing yourself in the world. The best information is from getting to know the inhabitants of the virtual world, which, in most cases, has the players grow attached to the NPCs and civilization around them. Players regularly return to the same cities and call them home, and become very protective of these areas and any NPCs that have ever helped them on their journey¡¡± Nicholas pulled up several clips demonstrating this.
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¡°In return, these players who are more involved in the game world quickly figure out things that others who don¡¯t show the same care for it do. Hiring loggers to work in your logging company turns out much better if you pay your NPCs well and train them personally.¡± Nicholas pulled up a stream specifically of a player cutting wood alongside several NPCs, all of them wearing matching uniforms and talking cheerfully with one another as they worked.
¡°Get to the point¡¡± Andrew said impatiently.
¡°The problem with VGN is that they have gained power within the Shattered World Online very quickly. It shot them to the top of progression charts on various islands, and there are many of them.¡± He pulled back and revealed a 10 by 10 grid of VGN livestreams. ¡°They have not earned this power. It was given to them. Therefore, they¡¯ve been acting outside of Samantha¡¯s behavior controls. Worse yet, the most charismatic of the bunch are influencing many players to follow in their footsteps. And they do so for the benefit of each other, despite being on separate islands with separate goals in alignments.¡± Nicholas said while turning to Andrew and Mike, expecting them to understand what he was saying. Instead, though, they had blank stares on their faces, causing him to groan.
¡°Look. Samantha¡¯s got the Great Prophet of Zeus sending all Zeus Clerics, Crusaders, and Paladins on missions to slay the Sword of Hatred wielder. Crusader-class players who follow Zeus cannot get their advanced class without first destroying that sword. In turn, the Sword has given a quest to Seraxus to kill the Great Prophet of Zeus in order to gain more power.¡±
¡°So it should resolve itself, right?¡± Mike asked.
¡°That¡¯s just it. Makaroth, Feng, Deahyun, and several other VGN streamers have since had all of their Zeus crusaders switch who they worshiped to avoid any conflict with Seraxus. It¡¯s now established to be too troublesome to try and stop him because none of the ¡®big¡¯ streamers are willing to do it. Worse yet, a team of players went to Puagas a while back and tried and lost horribly.¡±
¡°Just ban them all.¡± Andrew shook his head.
¡°There¡¯s a good chance they don¡¯t even realize someone cheated for them. They have plausible deniability. With money now involved, you¡¯d most likely be looking at crippling lawsuits, as we¡¯d have no clear violations to our user agreement that the bans would be based on.¡± Mike raised his eyebrows at Andrew.
¡°Oooh. I don¡¯t like the sound of that. Scratch that idea.¡± Andrew began rubbing his chin. ¡°Really puts you into a corner, doesn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°She designed a great conflict between good and evil, which under normal circumstances would be interesting. The problem is, no one is stepping up to stop him.¡± Nicholas said while pulling the stream of Seraxus back to the forefront of the others.
¡°Whelp. No choice then, right? You¡¯re going to have to intervene. If you don¡¯t do something about that sword, the alignments are definitely going to get out of hand.¡± Andrew replied calmly.
¡°You¡¯d like that wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Mike grumbled at him.
¡°Hey, I¡¯m not the one who left the vulnerability in,¡± Andrew answered defensively.
¡°No, you¡¯re the one doing nothing but counting the 0s in your bank account.¡±
¡°You two had no 0¡¯s in your accounts before I came along.¡±
¡°Knock it off,¡± Nicholas shouted, breaking up their small argument. ¡°We do nothing. We¡¯ve closed up the vulnerability. We¡¯ll let Samantha clean up the mess. Her AI is made specifically to keep the world in balance. She¡¯ll be able to handle it.¡± He added as they all turned their attention to Seraxus¡¯ stream and watched him and his party march proudly through the village, now devoid of all life save for themselves.
¡°Are you sure about that?¡± Andrew asked him with a hint of anxiety in his voice.
¡°Yeah. It¡¯ll be fine.¡±
¡°Alright. But remember, 20% and hands-off time is over.¡± Andrew replied.
¡°I won¡¯t forget.¡± Nicholas sighed. ¡°Now, leave me to it. I¡¯ve got actual work to do. Keep me updated on finding the culprit.¡± He said dismissively, without turning from the screens to look at the two behind him.
¡°You got it,¡± Mike said.
¡°Good luck,¡± Andrew said, and with that, they both vanished from his office simulation, leaving him in peace. Nicholas silently watched the VGN streamers, mainly Seraxus, and witnessed the alignment shift from 11% to 12%.
¡°Samantha, are there any live streams of Zeus Crusaders left?¡±
¡°Several.¡± Samantha replied robotically.
¡°Show me the highest level Zeus Crusader,¡± Nicholas asked, and she replied in kind by pulling up a livestream of the Crusader in question. [Mikael - Level 83] was floating above his head. He was wearing heavy iron armor that had the symbol of Zeus etched on the front. He was not alone and had several similarly dressed companions surrounding him. Short blonde hair with a chiseled jawline and dark brown eyes, his cloak flapping in the wind as he stood on a wooden pier.
The pier was built into the side of a mountain, with a grandiose walled city behind him and an open gate leading inside. Large structures of various heights made of dark gray stone blocks and bricks could be seen reaching towards the clouds, and some successfully touching them.
As his camera panned around, it revealed that dozens of large wooden piers extending out into the open air were built off of the tall mountain¡¯s wall just outside the cities¡¯ gates. The drop below the wooden piers was massive, and the bottom wasn¡¯t visible due to the clouds surrounding the mountain''s high peaks¡ªgiving a sense that this mountain was already high enough to be in the clouds.
Nearly all of the many piers had a docked Airship of varying sizes. There were dozens of NPCs moving about, loading and unloading cargo onto the ships. Some ships had strange looking player-made banners, but most of them bore the mark of Kingdom behind it, of which the wall around the city had several matching banners draped on them, waving in the winds.
¡°Which island is this?¡± Nicholas asked as he took it all in.
¡°Tarolas. Home of the Great Prophet of Zeus. This is the Capital City of the Kingdom Olympiod. The city¡¯s name is Stormtop.¡± Samantha explained robotically.
¡°Come on, one trip. You don¡¯t even need to get close, we¡¯ll bring winged beasts to take us the final few hundred meters.¡± Mikael pleaded with another player who was somewhat ignoring him, focused on directing NPC¡¯s to load cargo onto his Airship.
¡°I told you guys already, I can¡¯t. Daehyun¡¯s orders.¡±
¡°Just ignore his orders. It¡¯s your Airship, not his, right?¡± Mikael replied.
¡°He¡¯s the Master of the leading guild of Olympiod. He¡¯s not gonna let me dock in Stormtop if I don¡¯t follow his rules.¡±
¡°Who¡¯s going to tell him?¡± Mikael suggested with a devious tone.
¡°Bro, for real? You¡¯re livestreaming.¡±
¡°I can turn it off though.¡±
¡°Bit late for that, ain¡¯t it?¡± The pilot rolled his eyes at him.
¡°Tch, man.¡± Mikael gave up, turning to his companions.
¡°You¡¯re an idiot.¡± A female companion teased him.
¡°Buncha cowards.¡± Another shook his head disapprovingly at the Pilot. Following this, Nicholas muted their livestream and leaned back, pondering for a moment.
¡°If that¡¯s the situation¡¡± He mumbled to himself, followed by a few more moments of thinking. ¡°Maybe we can correct it using the good ol¡¯ fashion way. Samantha, summon the security officer Ryan I spoke with a few weeks ago.¡±
¡°Very well,¡± Samantha replied. A few moments later, Ryan materialized inside Nicholas¡¯ office simulation wearing his casual attire, looking dumbfounded. When he saw Nicholas, he straightened his back and slapped his hands to his sides.
¡°You called, sir?¡± Ryan asked as he became as stiff as a board. He had to resist the urge to look away from Nicholas to stare at Samantha¡¯s avatar standing off the side.
¡°Yeah. The person behind the AI modifications hasn¡¯t acted again, so it¡¯s not about that. But I¡¯ve got a question for you¡ How¡¯d you pick up on that change in Makaroth¡¯s footage when no one else on the security team did?¡± Nicholas looked at him curiously.
¡°Well¡ Like I said, it felt off.¡±
¡°Off, how?¡±
¡°I dunno¡ the damage should¡¯ve been enough to kill the scorpion way earlier, based on the time it took to enrage, coupled with the health of the other enemies in that dungeon leading up to the boss encounter.¡± Ryan shrugged.
¡°You play a lot yourself, right?¡±
¡°Well, yeah.¡± Ryan shrugged. ¡°I love it. If it weren¡¯t for being able to work my dream job here, I¡¯d probably try to take up a job in the game world and make a living that way, if I¡¯m being honest.¡± He chuckled awkwardly.
¡°So, you just used game sense to detect something that felt off¡¡± Nicholas eyed him carefully once more. ¡°Good. How would you feel about a special assignment?¡±
¡°A special assignment? Sure! Anything you need, sir.¡± Ryan replied excitedly.
¡°Thanks to you, the attacks on AI protocols stopped, but I¡¯m afraid they may have already done a bit too much damage in influencing the game world. I would like for you to assist in correcting it as a player.¡±
¡°You want me to fix something by playing the game?¡± Ryan asked with glowing, wide eyes.
¡°More or less.¡± Nicholas cleared his throat.
Chapter 270: Schadenfreude
Chapter 270: Schadenfreude
¡°Round ¡®em up quick!¡± Mikael shouted to his guildmates as they ran around him frantically within a large dark cavern. The stalagmites and stalactites of the cavern were shimmering with electrical energy. They constantly shot off random streaks of lighting between one another, illuminating the cave and outlining the players and monsters running about.
All of his guildmates wore the same symbol of a simple, sad face emoji embroidered onto their cloaks, but apart from this, they wore various armor types and were wielding different weapons. Mikael himself had a gigantic greatsword in the shape of a jagged lightning bolt that, too, was giving off light sparks of static electricity from its edges.
What he was telling his group to round up were strange enemy NPCs in the shape of small furry light blue balls floating around with puffy green and purple eyes visible beneath their fluff - no bigger than basketballs. Their levitation method was the continuous pulses of electricity they were releasing, which also propelled them in random directions at incredible speeds. They were darting around through the air of the cavern, attempting to ram their bodies into Mikael¡¯s guild mates.
After hearing his instruction, each party member worked to lure the dozens of creatures, with [Bolt Lindarei - Level 89] floating above their heads (Levels varying), into a central section of the cavern. Seeing one of the other clerics get hit by a stray bolt from the cavern¡¯s natural lightning, Mikael quickly ran to them and cast a heal to mend up their wounds. This allowed the cleric, [Mightymira - Level 80], to focus her healing magic on their other guildmates who were taking damage from the Lindarei. Eventually, they successfully rounded up the many monsters in a singular area.
¡°Alright, Melee, form a line and hold them in the area. Everyone else, start attacks on my call!¡± Mikael shouted, charging forward alongside other monk, rogue, and fighter class players. Shields, mauls, swords, daggers, and fists were raised and swung out at the creatures, gaining their attention despite the rapid movements of the creatures. Through great effort, they were able to get the creatures under control. ¡°Now!¡± Mikael shouted, and following this, blasts of magic and barrages of arrows were unleashed, combined with broad cleaving melee attacks from the weapons the close-range fighters were wielding.
Clerics continued to heal up any damage taken, and eventually, the red damage numbers from Mikael and his guildmates were enough to dispatch all of the Lindarei.
| Level Up! You¡¯ve reached Level 86! |
The message popped up for him as small loot orbs began to roll out of the many dying Lindaraei.
¡°Nice. Great work, guys.¡± Mikael cheered as the others began resting, some grabbing their knees to catch their breath. ¡°This should be enough Lindarei sparks to complete the quest for everyone. Jeremax, you handle the harvesting.¡± Mikael motioned to an exhausted-looking Ranger.
¡°Right, on it.¡± The player nodded back to him.
¡°Are we pulling anymore tonight?¡± Mightymira asked as she pulled out a toasted bread from her inventory and ate it.
¡°Nope, that¡¯s it for tonight. A few people said they needed to head out. But we¡¯ll pick up again tomorrow. At 15:00 server time. We want to take advantage of this cave before others figure out how to grind here.¡± Mikael replied. From these words, he got a few nods of acknowledgment.
¡°I¡¯ll open up a portal to Stormtop.¡± A wizard player declared, dusting himself off and beginning the spell cast.
¡°Please keep it open until I¡¯m done creature harvesting. Don¡¯t leave me behind like last time.¡± Jeremax groaned at him.
¡°I told you, my dad was rushing me out of my Simbox. It wasn¡¯t on purpose.¡± The wizard replied apologetically during his cast as others began to gather around him.
¡°Yeah, right,¡± Jeremax grumbled back at him.
¡°I would have done it on purpose.¡± Mightymira teased, causing a few others to laugh.
¡°I¡¯ll stay behind with you to ensure you¡¯re fine.¡± Mikael reassured him. ¡°I¡¯ll sort out the quest items to divide them up for everyone before the next grind session.¡± He added as he began picking up all the items the creatures dropped, and no one in the guild seemed to mind this - as if it was the usual procedure.
Once the portal from Jeremax finished casting, the small blue magical doorway revealed the portal altar of Stormtop, built into the city''s town square and surrounded by other players who were curiously looking into the portal in an attempt to catch a glimpse at who¡¯d be stepping through.
A few of the players started walking through, including Mightymira, but after a few moments, she pushed her way back into the portal to stand in the lightning cavern once more.
¡°Hey, Mikael! Apparently, there¡¯s a new airship that just docked at the Skyport. No sails, player-owned. From that Jungle island.¡± She called out to him, drawing his attention away from picking up items around Jeremax as he worked on using his knife to harvest the monsters'' bodies. Mikael immediately jerked his head to look at her with sparkling wide eyes. He then glanced at Jeremax and the wizard, who rolled their eyes at him.
¡°Just go, I got this.¡± Jeremax sighed, seeing the eager, childlike expression on his guild leader¡¯s face.
¡°Thanks!¡± Mikael patted Jeremax on the shoulder, then the wizard as he ran past him to get through the portal. The moment he was through and in the city of Stormtop, he took off at top speed towards the western walls where he knew the Skyport to be. Mightymira rushed to keep up with him as they pushed through the crowds of NPCs and Players that filled the streets of the old medieval city.
Many quadrupedal beasts were pulling along carts and wagons that were not present in Kalmoore. Some resembled fluffy dogs with big floppy ears, others like sheep with hardened wool shells instead of wool. The city guards wore Iron armor with bright yellow and deep blue capes hanging off their backs, wielding large spears as their weapons. Racial diversity was not as present here as in Kordas, as almost all of the guards were stout dwarves with long bears of varying colors sticking out of the bottom of their helmets.
It wasn¡¯t long before Mikael and Mightymira made it to the large open gates leading out of the city on the west end, opening up immediately into the Skyport built into the side of the mountain, overlooking a huge drop down to the ground below. This day provided much clearer weather, allowing them to look at the sea of mountaintops across the landscape in front of them, all much shorter than the mountain the city was built atop.
They were not interested in taking in the view, though. Instead, they glanced around the various piers where airships were docked, spotting out the new ship they had never seen before. Immediately after spotting it, Mikael calmly power-walked toward the dock, trying to look as presentable as possible and hide his excitement. He spotted the Captain standing awkwardly at the end of the dock, talking with a player.
The Captain, [Ryner - Level 30], looked disinterested in the player talking to him and instead kept looking over his shoulder at the other players and NPCs moving about the Stormtop Skyport. The moment he spotted Mikael approaching, he suddenly got highly nervous.
¡°Are you even listening to me?¡± The player in front of him groaned as he spotted Ryner looking away.
¡°Huh? Uh, sorry, I missed that.¡± Ryner replied awkwardly as Mikael and Mightymira stepped onto the pier and approached slowly, pretending to be interested in the NPCs carrying various crates past them.
¡°I said, this city is under the control of the Karnage Guild. As your ship is not currently registered to any Kingdom that Olympiod is in an alliance with, you¡¯ll need to sign a few documents if you wish to do trade here.¡± The player sighed as he pulled out several parchments from his inventory.
¡°Oh. Right. Sure.¡± Ryner awkwardly took the items.
¡°Once you¡¯ve filled them out, deliver them to the Karnage Guildhall. Any guard will be able to give you directions.¡±
¡°Okay. Got it. Will do.¡± Ryner nodded. The player let out an annoyed huff of air before turning and marching away, passing Mikael in the process.
¡°Don¡¯t even think about it. This guy¡¯s gonna lose this airship within a week. You board him. You¡¯ll end up losing all your gear.¡± The leaving player shook his head at Mikael with wide eyes of disbelief. ¡°Stupid rich kids.¡± He added in a whisper to himself. Mikael did not heed this warning and eagerly approached Ryner.
¡°Hi there.¡± Mikael waved.
¡°Hello.¡± Ryner cleared his throat and replied awkwardly.
¡°So, you¡¯re an Airship Pilot?¡±
¡°Yup.¡± Ryner nodded.
¡°How¡¯d you afford an Airship? Are you some old billionaire investor? Or some rich kid who¡¯s using daddy¡¯s credit card?¡± Mightymira asked jokingly.
¡°Huh? Well, uh, definitely not an old billionaire investor.¡± Ryner laughed awkwardly, avoiding eye contact with them.
¡°So, you¡¯re a rich kid then?¡± She raised her eyebrows at him, noting his strange response.
¡°Uh-huh. Yup. I¡¯m that one. Definitely, I¡¯m a rich kid. Daddy bought me an airship.¡± Ryner replied hastily.
Nicholas, tuning in to Mikael¡¯s livestream to watch the meeting unfold, couldn¡¯t help but slap his palm to his forehead.
¡°You¡¯d think someone trained in dealing with social engineering would have some social skills,¡± Nicholas grumbled.
¡°Eh, we don¡¯t train that part.¡± Mike shrugged, watching the same live stream over Nicholas¡¯ shoulder as they sat inside Nicholas¡¯ office simulation.
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Ryner¡¯s response caused Mikael and Mightymira to give each other strange looks before turning their attention back to him.
¡°So, we¡¯ve been looking for a pilot to take us on an adventure. The leading guild keeps refusing us bec-¡±
¡°I¡¯m in! Let¡¯s do it!¡± Ryner cheered excitedly, clapping his hands together and hopping on his feet slightly.
¡°We didn¡¯t even tell you where we wanted to go yet.¡± Mightymira tilted her head to look at him as a curious dog would.
¡°Oh. Right. Of course.¡± Ryner laughed to himself awkwardly. ¡°It¡¯s just, you know, I love adventure. That¡¯s, well¡ My dad, he said, son, you take this airship, you go into the Shattered World Online, and you have some great adventures. So, I¡¯m just, you know, I¡¯m looking for that.¡± Ryner lost enthusiasm slowly as Mikael¡¯s looks of confusion began to bore into his soul.
¡°Right, but, where we want to go is ver-¡± Mightymira began to explain, but Mikael quickly slapped his hand over her mouth to stop her from talking.
¡°Very exciting. Tons of adventures. I actually have a quest to go there. A few people on this island do.¡± Mikael spoke over her.
¡°Great. Sounds great. Perfect. When should we leave?¡±
¡°We still didn¡¯t say where we¡¯re going.¡± Mightymira squinted at him.
¡°Puagas, right?¡± Ryner asked.
¡°Yeah¡ How¡¯d you guess that?¡± Mikael asked him curiously.
¡°It¡¯s, you know¡ ¡¯s just the most exciting island I could think of.¡±
¡°Right. You¡¯re okay with that? I mean, you must know that island¡¯s being called the PvP island, right?¡±
¡°Uh uh. No problem.¡± Ryner gave him a thumbs up. ¡°I love PvP. Action, adventure, excitement. Let¡¯s do it.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Mikael asked, still not quite believing his ears.
¡°Hell yeah!¡± Ryner cheered awkwardly.
¡°Okay¡¡± Mikael turned to look at Mightymira once more and saw the skepticism on her face, but just shrugged at her. ¡°Well, we won¡¯t have everyone ready to go until tomorrow. You think you could wait for us to make some preparations?¡±
¡°Yahuh. Absolutely!¡± Ryner smiled.
¡°Okay. We¡¯ll be here tomorrow at 15:00, in-game time. Sound good?¡±
¡°Perfect. I¡¯ll have the ship and crew ready for you.¡±
¡°Great¡ then¡ see you tomorrow.¡± Mikael smiled and shook his hand.
¡°See you!¡± Ryner replied, keeping his forced smile and shaking Mikael¡¯s hand a bit too long. Eventually, Mikael pulled away and left the pier with Mightymira at his side. The two waited until they were out of earshot of Ryner before speaking though.
¡°That dude is creeping me out. Acting super weird.¡± Mightymira said.
¡°Who cares, he¡¯s going to take us to Puagas! We can finally get that crusader quest done!¡± Mikael whispered under his breath, barely able to prevent himself from squeaking with excitement.
5 In-game days later¡
The large merchant vessel soared above the sea of black mist in the open air, its mast and wing sails catching the wind as Ryner stood at the stern holding the wheel. The upper deck and lower deck were jam-packed with players chatting with one another, some having pulled out dice or cards and gambling gold coins.
Many of the players aboard the vessel were members of Mikael¡¯s guild, which Ryner now knew to be named Schadenfreude. Still, many players from various other groups had joined the journey once word had gotten around Stormtop that an Airship was heading to Puagas. This also resulted in Ryner¡¯s ship being banned from ever landing at the Stormtop Skyport, but he didn¡¯t mind.
There were also several NPCs, mostly ranging between levels 30 and 50, that Ryner had hired to help him protect and take care of the ship. Some were deckhands, busy scrubbing the deck carefully around the player passengers without disturbing them. Others were guards, making sure no problems arose and no theft occurred. He also brought along two chef NPCs who¡¯d become elite due to the interactions with other players on the journey and managing their hectic, constant orders.
Due to food supplies beginning to dwindle much faster than Ryner had anticipated, he was greatly relieved when the giant landmass floating above the abyss came into view that morning, appearing with the rising sun.
¡°Land ho!¡± Ryner called out excitedly the moment he spotted it. This stirred up the players aboard the ship and got them all talking, ceasing their current activities. In addition, many of the players who¡¯d logged out aboard his ship began logging back in as they got word that Puagas was finally near.
The closer the Airship got to the island, the more mundane it looked. From the side of the large land, they could see it was covered to its very edge with gigantic pine and fir trees, towering high up into the sky. The only thing odd about it was the sheer size of the trees¡ªthey were massive and made Ryner¡¯s Airship look like a toy boat.
There were no signs of fires or burning villages, as Ryner had anticipated. The chaotic nature of Puagas, ¡®the PvP island,¡¯ was, at the very least, not visible from this distance.
Ryner began angling the sails to soar closer to a location where the trees looked less dense as all other players eagerly awaited their arrival above land, equipping their weapons and stretching their bodies out. All but one, that is, as Mikael noticed Ryner¡¯s ship not slowing down and quickly turned towards him, pushing through the crowds of other players aboard the merchant vessel.
¡°Halt!¡± He shouted at Ryner in German before quickly correcting himself to English. ¡°Stop! Do not fly any closer to the island!¡± Mikael ordered him, much to the annoyance of the other players surrounding him.
¡°Why not? I thought you wanted to land here?¡± Ryner asked him, confused.
¡°If you bring your Airship any closer, you will lose it. The Skyport of Puagas is not friendly. The only players who remain on this island are thieves and murderers.¡± Mikael explained.
¡°What¡¯re we supposed to do, then?¡±
¡°Yeah? We didn¡¯t come all this way for sightseeing.¡± The players around him began to complain.
¡°Do not worry. My guild has several wizards who will gladly fly you all to the island from here. It is only a few hundred meters. It will be slower, but you will be glad I did it when it comes time that you wish to leave, and we still have a friendly airship in the air.¡± Mikael replied to them, getting a few annoyed shrugs of compliance from the nearby players.
¡°My Airship will need supplies, though,¡± Ryner answered skeptically.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll procure some to repay you for your kindness before we head inland for our quest.¡± Mightymira smiled.
¡°Alright.¡± Ryner nodded hesitantly as he began waving his fingers, yellow glows surrounding the tips. Within seconds, the wing sails folded in, and the mast sail rolled itself up, slowing the Airship to a crawl and eventually stopping approximately 200 meters from the edge of Puagas.
Keeping his word, Mikael organized the wizards in his guilds to help fly each passenger off the ship individually. By the time they¡¯d finished, the first ones to be ferried had already begun setting up a small basecamp at the island''s edge, complete with a campfire and tents. Ryner could feel the sense of adventure filling the air as the last few players spoke in excitement about what sort of creatures would be in the forest ahead of them and how far away the nearest civilization would be. Various passengers who had been traveling separately began organizing groups to travel together through the forest, and Ryner felt an overwhelming urge to join them but resisted it.
Eventually, he was left on his own as the sole player remaining aboard his Airship. The NPCs continued to go about their jobs, but they couldn¡¯t distract him from the longing to explore Puagas with the others. He watched from a distance as the small campsite at the landing location was emptied of players - they packed up their things until all that remained was the remnants of the campfire they set up. No player was in sight.
A full day went by with Ryner by himself, pacing around the ship idly and striking up conversations with the only elite NPCs aboard - the two cooks. They only cared to talk about Shattered World cuisine, though, which Ryner knew very little of. During one of these conversations below deck, he was startled by a loud thud on the upper deck above.
¡°Ryner!?¡± An unfamiliar voice shouted out to him from above. Ryner quickly rushed to the upper deck to see a short, distraught player looking exhausted and out of breath. Above his head, he quickly saw the name [Renault - Level 60] - an unfamiliar gnome wielding a staff and wearing tattered blue robes.
¡°Y-yeah?¡± Ryner looked at him in confusion.
¡°Prepare to sail away from the island. Fast. All soldiers, ready your bows and crossbows!¡± Renault ordered Ryner¡¯s NPC guards, who replied quickly to his commands.
¡°H-how?¡± Ryner mumbled to himself as Renault ignored the question and leaped off the deck once more using a fly spell, and quickly soared back towards the Island of Puagas. Ryner didn¡¯t need the question answered, he knew enough about the game to figure out why this Renault player could immediately give orders to the NPCs - it meant his leadership skill was very high level.
Ryner was hesitant to comply with the stranger¡¯s requests until he spotted a strange flood of darkness mixing in with the canopy of the Pine and Fir trees on the island. Simultaneously, he spotted several frantic players at the edge of the island where Renault landed. He recognized them from this distance only by their tabards, bearing the symbol of Mikael¡¯s guild. The moment Renault landed, he cast several spells behind and on the players, creating a transparent dome covering their backs and enabling several of them to fly alongside him.
Once all 6 of the players were airborne, they began soaring towards Ryner¡¯s vessel, and the shell that Renault had cast behind them began to make crackling and slamming noises due to a mass of Abyssal Reapers soaring out of the forest and crashing into it, screeching furiously.
¡°Oh shit,¡± Ryner said anxiously as he stopped observing and quickly rushed to the stern, anxiously casting his pilot skills to get the aircraft ready to sail. The mast lowered, and the wing sails spread, and the ship began to turn to face away from Puagas.
¡°GO GO GO GO!¡± Mikael shouted as he landed on the deck alongside the others.
¡°Get us the fuck out of here!¡± Mightymira yelled amongst the players who¡¯d been flown over.
¡°You can¡¯t let him get this ship. The sword lets him control the reapers! He wants the ship!¡± Renault shouted as well. It was a jumble of words as all three players started yelling at him simultaneously. In the distance, the shell that Renault had created to block the swarm of reapers shattered, and they all began flooding through the air towards them.
Ryner hurriedly sped up the ship''s rotation as the Reapers swarmed closer. The guards he had hired didn¡¯t hesitate to begin unleashing barrages of attacks on the incoming swarm alongside the Schadenfreude members and Renault, who used the little resources they had left to help out.
They didn¡¯t need to fend them off for very long, though. Once Ryner had the ship angled properly, he used the Airburst skill to launch it forward and send it barreling through the open air a great distance from Puagas. It took a few moments for everyone to realize that they were out of harm''s way and finally safe.
¡°What happened?¡± Ryner asked the players worriedly, watching as they collapsed on their bottoms or grabbed their knees to catch their breath.
¡°They knew we were coming. Musta been because of my livestream.¡± Mikael sighed in frustration.
¡°Barely got half a kilometer into the forest before Seraxus showed up. We tried to take him on, all the players worked together. It was a slaughter.¡±
¡°Lost my damn Thunderblade,¡± Mikael shouted in annoyance, to which Ryner noticed he no longer had his two-handed sword strapped on his back.
¡°You¡¯re lucky that¡¯s all you lost.¡± Renault sighed at them.
¡°What happened to everyone else?¡± Ryner asked.
¡°Well, we respawned 24 hours later. Only Seraxus and his buddies were waiting for us at the respawn location, surrounded by reapers. We were safe in the respawn area but basically trapped until¡¡± Mightymira motioned to Renault.
¡°This guy helped us get through. There were more of us, but everyone else scattered or got killed during the escape. They¡¯ll be respawning somewhere else on the island.¡± Mikael explained as he stood up. ¡°This quest will be a lot harder than I thought.¡± He began cracking his knuckles and glaring in the direction that Puagas had been.
¡°You shouldn¡¯t go back. In the best case, you get stuck being corpse-camped again. Worse, you lose more gear, and Seraxus steals this Airship.¡± Renault explained to them. ¡°It took me a lot of work to destroy all the Airships on Puagas to ensure he couldn¡¯t leave. All he wants to do is consume souls and strengthen his sword - if you let him off the island, he¡¯s just gonna go on a Rampage somewhere else.¡±
¡°Yeah, well¡ I¡¯m not leaving my guildmates behind. I¡¯ll stop streaming¡¡± Mikael turned off his livestream. ¡°I don¡¯t care about that right now. We¡¯re getting everyone back aboard this ship. If that¡¯s alright with you, Captain?¡± Mikael turned to Ryner, who glanced nervously at Renault and Mikael.
Chapter 271: Intercept
Chapter 271: Intercept
¡°This is insane¡¡± Mikael said with wide eyes, standing atop the stone walls of a small keep. Several days had passed since he¡¯d arrived in Puagas, and a battle was unfolding before him. Tall pine and fir trees surrounded them, but a small clearing stood between their large gray brick Keep and the tree line. What had his eyes wide was the black mass of reapers soaring towards them in the distance.
¡°Do we open the gate?¡± Mightymira asked from across the wall. Hundreds of NPC guards stood amongst them, armed with bows, crossbows, and spears. Their weapons were readied and aimed at the approaching mass. The keep itself was simple, with a fortified wall built in a pentagonal shape around the central castle-like building, basic crafting stations, and resting areas in the space between the wall and the structure. Aside from the walls being manned, no additional soldiers were waiting in the wings behind the walls.
¡°No. He said don¡¯t open the gates until he gives the command.¡± Mikael replied, and she nodded back anxiously. The trees began to rustle and teeter violently with the approaching winds caused by the mass of reapers. An ominous, gusting silence fell over the keep, broken only by the movement of NPC soldiers as they adjusted their poses slightly.
Knowing it was just a game didn¡¯t help Mikael calm his nerves. He knew he was seconds away from a battle with an extremely deadly foe¡ªtruthfully, though, excitement was his dominant emotion.
Then, a stampede of hoofs could be heard in the distance. A small dirt road leading out of the treeline towards the Keep¡¯s main gate was suddenly alive with movement. Many horses galloped out of the forest and towards the keep, with Renault leading the charge. Mikael recognized the others on horseback immediately - some were NPCs wearing the same yellow Puagas symbolism as the ones on the walls alongside him, but most were his missing guild mates and the other fallen players that had arrived on the airship with them.
¡°That kid really did it. He got them all out of the corpse camping nightmare!¡± Mightymira cheered excitedly as she saw this.
¡°We¡¯re not out of the woods yet,¡± Mikael smirked.
¡°OPEN THE GATE!¡± Renault shouted as he led the charge. Mightymira didn¡¯t hesitate; she quickly shouted, and the NPCs complied by pulling a wheel mechanism beside the gate to lift the iron portcullis while the doors swung open slowly.
As if timed perfectly, the horseback players and NPCs slipped under the rising portcullis and into the Keep, spreading out around the interior. Once inside, they all quickly began to dismount, and Renault watched the gate tensely for the last horse to get through.
¡°Alright, shut it. Everyone into the keep, take the underground pass to the eastern fields where your Airship will be waiting for you.¡± Renault shouted to everyone. The players and NPCs dismounted, and many rushed into the large central structure. Simultaneously, Mikael and Mightymira hopped off the wall to join him.
¡°Have fun?¡± Migthymira asked mockingly to Jeremax.
¡°Yeah. Loads. Lost all my high-level accessories. This place sucks, I won¡¯t be buying a t-shirt.¡± Jeremax rolled his eyes at her.
¡°Let¡¯s bail.¡± Another guild member hastily said as he began heading into the keep alongside the others. Mikael was preparing to thank Renault, but Renault was already not paying attention to them. He started giving orders to the NPCs who¡¯d arrived with him to assist in manning the walls, which caused Mikael to turn his attention back to the swarm of approaching reapers.
¡°What about you, you coming with us? We can get you out of Puagas.¡± Mikael called out to Renault, barely getting his attention.
¡°I have to hold back Seraxus here, or you won¡¯t be able to escape,¡± Renault said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
¡°You¡¯re going to sacrifice yourself? What about your gear?¡±
¡°My gear is all basic crafted crap at this point. I don¡¯t care about it.¡± Renault snapped at him.
¡°Why are you sounding so pissed off then? If you don¡¯t want to die, just come with us.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t care about dying!¡± Renault sighed. ¡°It¡¯s them I¡¯m pissed off about. They¡¯re all probably going to die. I wasn¡¯t done training them to fight him yet. But you idiots showed up out of nowhere and got yourselves all killed, making him stronger.¡± Renault finally turned his full attention to Mikael to explain the situation briefly before returning to the approaching swarm.
¡°You don¡¯t have to stay here and fight that guy, right? I mean, that sword is stupidly broken. A sage class player isn¡¯t goi-¡± Mightymira started to reply but was cut short.
¡°If I don¡¯t, who will? No one is coming. None of you stupid streamers give a shit.¡± Renault replied coldly. ¡°It¡¯s my fault he got the sword. It¡¯s my job to stop him.¡± Renault added after a brief pause, calming down somewhat.
Mikael went quiet, turning from Renault to see most of his guild members had already headed inside the Keep with the other fleeing players. Only Jeremax and Mightymira remained and exchanged looks with one another as if talking with just their eyes.
¡°We caused that kid a lot of trouble, huh?¡± Mightymira sighed.
¡°You haven¡¯t completed your quest yet, right? None of the Zeus players who came with us did.¡± Jeremax mumbled.
¡°Nope.¡±
¡°Ah¡¡± Mikael shook his head to himself with a grin. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s time we earn our guild name.¡± He turned towards the last players visible through the Keep¡¯s main building gate. ¡°Schadenfreude, stop running. We¡¯re not going anywhere.¡± Mikael shouted to get their attention. There was a lot of hesitation, but several players stopped inside and turned, including none guild members. ¡°We came here to destroy a sword, and we¡¯re not about to leave with our tails between our legs. If this guy is brave enough to stay and fight them, so are we.¡± Mikael spoke loudly so that all could hear him.
With some reluctance, all of his guildmates slowly made their way back out of the Keep¡¯s main structure. Surprisingly, alongside them came all of the Zeus crusaders and other players who¡¯d joined on their journey despite not being members of their guild.
¡°What are you guys doing?¡± Renault looked down at them with disbelief.
¡°What do you mean what¡¯re we doin¡¯? We¡¯re doin¡¯ what you¡¯re doin¡¯.¡± Mightymira smirked as she hopped back up onto the walls of the Keep, and shortly after, so did all the others. Not a moment too soon, either, as the Reapers broke through the tree line and began diving down at them in droves.
¡°FIRE!¡± Renault shouted, causing the NPCs to release a volley of bolts and arrows that killed the first wave. Mixed in were large explosions of divine energy and magical fire from the players from Tarolas, helping to clear the skies and hold off the swarm.
¡°At least these things give experience. It¡¯s not a bad way to grind if Seraxus is just going to send them to us mindlessly like this.¡± Jeremax shrugged as he shot down several and saw the experience numbers flying through his interface.
¡°The problem was never the low-level abyssal creatures¡¡± Mikael mumbled as he saw four players riding on horseback towards the Keep from the treeline, wearing fancy high level armor and one of them wielding a large black sword. ¡°It¡¯s Seraxus himself.¡±
Tension filled the air as Seraxus nonchalantly hopped off his horse alongside Hajax, Zuon, and Gambit. They had big dumb grins on their faces despite several NPCs turning their crossbows onto them. Gambit used his monk reflexes and stepped out front, catching and deflecting the shots with his fist with incredible accuracy.
¡°What¡¯s this, another one of your hidden military forces?¡± Seraxus asked Renault mockingly. ¡°They¡¯re weaker than the last one.¡±
¡°They¡¯re good enough to stop a piece of shit like you,¡± Renault shouted at him.
¡°Haha, jeez, so much hate.¡± Hajax laughed condescendingly. Mikael, unnerved by their interaction, decided to break it up by leaping down off of the Keep walls onto the small dirt road in front of it, standing between the Keep¡¯s main gate and Seraxus¡¯ group.
¡°Who the hell¡¯s this guy?¡± Hajax motioned to him with a confused expression.
¡°I think that¡¯s the guild leader of these Tarolas dudes.¡± Zuon shrugged.
¡°That true? You are the leader of these clowns that I slaughtered?¡± Seraxus asked, eying Mikael¡¯s livestream number of only 2000 compared to Seraxus¡¯ 25,000.
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¡°The only clown here I see is you,¡± Mikael replied while drawing out a large iron greatsword and enhancing it with holy energy so that it gave off a light glow.
¡°Look at this 2k viewer nobody tryin¡¯ to act all tough,¡± Seraxus said mockingly to his viewers.
¡°Mikael?¡± Mightymira asked worriedly.
¡°I can take him. He¡¯s just a battlemaster with a cute toy.¡± Mikael replied to her calmly.
¡°Yo, he says he can take me?¡± Seraxus laughed, and his other party members joined in. At this point, the swarm of reapers were on the Keep, distracting the NPCs and other players greatly. Renault was paying attention to the encounter but was forced to use his spells to protect the NPCs on the walls from several dive attacks coming from the Reapers. The sky itself was barely visible due to the sheer number of them.
¡°You afraid of a one-on-one?¡± Mikael smirked.
¡°I ain''t afraid of no scrub crusaders. Bring it.¡± Seraxus returned the smile, then lunged forward towards Mikael with no hesitation while simultaneously causing his 5 weapons to appear floating behind him, with only his black sword of hatred held in his hands.
As he approached Mikael, he swung the black blade downward, forcing Mikael to jump to the side to avoid it. Then, he took a wide swing with his greatsword to deflect the attacks of Seraxus¡¯ other weapons.
Just the swing of the black sword through the air released a strange holding whisper as it cut past Mikael, releasing a dreadful aura that sent chills down Mikael¡¯s spine and made his hairs stand on end. The virtual world was able to accurately simulate the fear caused by just being near something that powerful, and despite not hitting the ground the blade left a scratch in the dirt where Mikael had been standing just moments before.
¡°They¡¯re mocking you. They don¡¯t respect you. Make them fear you. Kill them. Show them who is the strongest.¡± Several voices whispered, overlapping each other and carrying on the wind. Mikael barely heard them, all at once, in the moment that the sword had narrowly missed him.
He hadn¡¯t time to process it, though, as Seraxus wasn¡¯t one to idle in the middle of a duel and quickly turned to continue striking at Mikael.
24 Hours later¡
The same Keep now stood in ruins. The gate had been utterly destroyed, the portcullis lying flat on the ground. The walls were broken through and the main structure had holes blown in its walls. Smoke was still rising from the interior with black scorch marks staining the walls, showing signs of a recent violent fire. Not a single soul was left alive, though some items dropped by the fallen NPCs and players were left on the ground.
Dark gray clouds hovered overhead, and heavy rainfall poured down on the surrounding landscape. Aside from the pitter-patter of raindrops on the stone, sizzling on the glowing embers that remained from the great fire, there was silence.
The silence was broken inside the Keep, at a statue of Freyja built near one of the back walls that was now missing its head. Mikael had logged back into the gameworld after having been forced out by Seraxus. He was the first, and one by one the others slowly logged in after him to look upon the destroyed Keep, until finally Renault was able to log back in.
The players didn¡¯t talk with one another, but all had their heads hung low as they began scavenging through debris for any items that might still be there that they¡¯d dropped when they died.
¡°Sorry. I wasn¡¯t strong enough.¡± Mikael apologized to Renault who paid no mind to this and began lifting up some scorched wooden planks to retrieve his simple wooden staff that¡¯d dropped.
¡°Neither was I.¡± Renault sighed before walking towards the gate leading out of the Keep.
¡°What are you going to do now?¡± Mikael asked him.
¡°Find more survivors. Protect and train them, then kill Seraxus.¡±
¡°You¡¯re going to try again? That was a massacre.¡± Jeremax asked him in disbelief, but Renault paid no mind to this and kept walking in silence.
¡°Would you like some help?¡± Mikael asked, which caused Renault to pause, turn and face him.
¡°Why would you help? Is it good content?¡± Renault asked coldly, eying the livestreaming icon above Mikael¡¯s head.
¡°Kind of, but that¡¯s not the reason. That guy pisses me off, and I won¡¯t be able to reach my advanced class if I don¡¯t stop him. No point leaving till the quest is complete.¡± Mikael shrugged.
¡°Oh.¡± Renault replied slowly, scratching his chin as if pondering something. ¡°What about your Airship?¡± Renault asked.
¡°What about it?¡±
¡°Will it stay too?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. I think so? The pilot is a bit eccentric.¡±
¡°Then¡ maybe there¡¯s a chance¡¡± Renault continued pondering.
¡°A chance at what?¡± Mightymira asked curiously.
¡°To remove the time limit¡¡± Renault replied as if this explained something, but the others only continued to look confused.
One week later¡
Renault and the others were all aboard the Airship with Ryner at the helm. The Ship was sailing along the outskirts of Puagas. It was visible, but they were far enough away that they were not under any threat.
Jeremax and a wizard player had just returned to the deck from Puagas and began unloading supplies for the NPC crew members of the Airship, of which several more had now become Elite due to the constant interactions by Mikael¡¯s guild as they used the Airship as their base of operations.
Renault, too, was onboard the ship, looking over the sides while squinting his eyes. He was not staring in the direction of Puagas, though¡ªrather, he was looking to the open skies to the northeast, where nothing but black mist was visible at first.
¡°There, I see one. The first one is coming.¡± Renault shouted excitedly as he saw a small speck approaching on the horizon.
¡°What should I do?¡± Ryner asked as he squinted to see it, hands still on the ship¡¯s wheel.
¡°Just like we planned. Intercept the ship.¡± Mikael instructed him, to which Ryner nodded anxiously. He began using several Airship pilot abilities to steer the ship in the direction the approaching vessel was coming from. As it came more clearly into view, an unfamiliar blue banner with a white wolf¡¯s head could be seen on the main sail - the vessel was visibly larger than Ryner¡¯s even from a distance.
¡°That¡¯s from Lanusk.¡± Jeremax commented as they closed in on it. Once the ships neared each other, they both slowed to a halt and veered to fly side by side.
¡°You¡¯re not pirates, are you?¡± The captain shouted to Mikael and the others once they were in earshot. ¡°Because you picked the worst possible ship to raid if that¡¯s the case. I¡¯m ferrying Gladiators for the monthly tournament. It¡¯s hosted in Puagas, of all places. You don¡¯t want to pick a fight with these guys.¡± The captain explained as Mikael eyed the many players aboard the deck of the Lanusk Airship.
They were all well-geared, high-level players standing in groups of five with eager expressions as if they were all hoping for a fight.
¡°No, we¡¯re not pirates.¡± Mikael shook his head.
¡°We¡¯re here to protect you,¡± Renault added.
¡°Protect us?¡± The captain raised an eyebrow at them before looking at the players on his ship, who some began to chuckle.
¡°Yeah. Seraxus goaded the first gladiator winner into hosting the tournament on Puagas because he wanted to bait Airships to Puagas so he could leave on one of your vessels. If he does that, he¡¯ll destroy another island and get even stronger.¡±
¡°Seraxus, that¡¯s the guy with the artifact sword, right?¡±
¡°Yeah I saw his stream a few times, he¡¯s crazy.¡±
¡°I heard he¡¯s good at PvP..¡± Several players aboard the Lanusk ship began to mumble amongst themselves.
¡°I think we¡¯ll be able to handle ourselves.¡± Another player added calmly.
¡°Maybe. But maybe not. We can¡¯t take the risk. He can control swarms of Abyssal creatures that¡¯ll easily take this thing down from the skies. So, this is as close to Puagas as you should get.¡± Mikael replied to them.
¡°We¡¯ll use our wizards to fly all of you to the island safely and provide supplies to your Airship to make sure you can hover here and make your return journey.
¡°Are these guys serious?¡±
¡°That¡¯s way too much trouble.¡±
¡°We¡¯re supposed to walk to the gladiator arena from here?¡± More players mumbled in disbelief from the neighboring vessel. Mikael ignored their mutterings and turned his attention to the captain.
¡°We¡¯re doing this as a favor to you. We¡¯ve been here awhile. We¡¯ve seen how dangerous things get on Puagas.¡±
¡°You can, of course, ignore our warnings. But there¡¯s a good chance you¡¯ll be saying bye-bye to that big expensive Airship.¡± Mightymira smirked at the captain, who locked eyes with her and went deep in thought for a moment.
¡°Alright.¡± The captain cleared his throat. ¡°We¡¯ll do as they say¡¡± this was immediately met with groans. ¡°I¡¯ll remain on the outskirts of Puagas until the tournament has ended so I can fly you all back to Lanusk. But I won¡¯t be getting any closer to the island. Coordinate with these players to be flown to Puagas and back.¡± The captain spoke firmly. Immediately following this, murmurs and discussion broke out between players on both ships, and Mikael took this time to walk over to Renault and see a relieved expression on his face.
¡°Good, it worked. If we can convince all the ships ferrying gladiators to follow this procedure, it¡¯ll keep Seraxus trapped on Puagas indefinitely.¡± Renault said to Mikael, still sounding somewhat worried about the situation.
¡°That¡¯ll give us all the time in the world to kill him.¡± Mikael grinned at Renault.
¡°Won¡¯t he just try and find another way off the island?¡± Migthymira asked as she joined the conversation atop the stern, near Ryner, who was listening.
¡°No, I don¡¯t think so. His sword is powerful, but this game still has absolute forms of damage and death. One of them is falling damage¡ I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll risk leaving the island unless he¡¯s sure his transport is secure. One defeat is all it takes for him to lose the souls in the sword.¡± Renault explained while motioning to the black abyssal sea of clouds below their Airship.
¡°A defeat is enough? Not even needing to kill him?¡± Mikael confirmed.
¡°Yeah, so if he loses one of his gladiator matches to one of these teams, it could all be over.¡± Renault nodded.
¡°That¡¯s why you wanted to make sure they safely arrived on Puagas without outright stopping them,¡± Ryner mumbled to himself as he understood the situation.
¡°Well, then maybe we ought to start training up too and enter the next one. ¡®Cause we¡¯re not leaving Puagas until that sword is destroyed.¡± Mikael declared, which caused an ever so slight smile to appear on Renault¡¯s face.
Chapter 272: Unsung Heroes
Chapter 272: Unsung Heroes
Two in-game months later¡
Ryan walked through a large dimly lit room with several monitors on the far wall displaying a mix of livestream broadcasts, graphics, and other lists of information including several counters. He had bags under his eyes and lazily glanced up at them, processing the information as he calmly moved through the room with a cup of coffee in his hand, taking a sip from it.
The room also contained rows upon rows of state-of-the-art Simboxes, most of which had green lights glowing from the top to indicate they were currently in use. He wasn¡¯t the only person moving about the room outside of their Simbox, as another young lady in casual clothes similar to Ryan saw him walking and hastily moved to catch him just as he was about to enter his Simbox once more.
¡°Ryan? You¡¯re still working? You were here when I got here.¡± She asked curiously. Ryan turned and smiled weakly at her, glancing from her name badge pinned to her shirt before looking up at her familiar face. Linda, one of the few coworkers who¡¯d talked to him since he¡¯d started working at Averon.
¡°Yup. Overtime, I guess.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve been working almost nonstop, you look absolutely exhausted.¡±
¡°Heh, well¡¡± Ryan shrugged awkwardly, unsure of how to respond while simultaneously being too tired to come up with anything. He instead took another sip of his coffee, or at least attempted to until discovering the cup was empty. He then calmly dropped it into a nearby recycling bin beside his Simbox.
¡°Still that special assignment from Nicholas?¡±
¡°Yep.¡± Ryan nodded.
¡°Can¡¯t talk about it?¡±
¡°Nope.¡±
¡°Jeez.¡± Linda sighed. ¡°I wish I could get a special assignment that paid that much overtime.¡±
¡°Trust me.¡± Ryan took a deep breath as he began settling into his Simbox. ¡°You really don¡¯t.¡± He finished with, and she caught a final glimpse as his expression changed completely to a serious glare as the Simbox shut, and he logged into the Shattered World simulation as the character Ryner, standing at the stern of his Airship.
It was exactly where he¡¯d left it, floating above the abyss some distance away from Puagas.
¡°Good, you¡¯re back.¡± Mikael smiled at him from the lower deck, where his guildmates all stood around him. Their numbers had grown, and now included nearly all of the crusader, cleric and paladin players who worshiped Zeus that had initially ventured to Puagas with them aboard the ship. Some had left on the other ships that arrived monthly to transport gladiator participants, but most remained. The Iconography of Zeus¡¯ thunderbolt was present on nearly all of their equipment, and many of the NPC crew members that Ryner had initially brought with him had too been converted to worship Zeus, and become elite due to the constant interactions by the Schadenfreude guild members aboard his vessel.
¡°We¡¯ve located a good grind spot near the edge of the Island, should give us a chance to resupply and gain some more levels. For the time being, Seraxus is focused on finding his advanced battlemaster quest.¡± Mikael explained, and as he said this, Ryner eyed the levels of 114 floating above Mikael. He was the highest of the bunch, but most others were not trailing far behind.
¡°Renault will be meeting us there to grind with us.¡± Mightymira said with an excited tone, directing her words towards Mikael¡¯s livestream as she spoke in a direction above his head.
¡°I thought he was training the soldiers in Bashriok?¡± Ryner asked. His words were met by a depressing expression, Mikael and others suddenly avoiding his gaze. ¡°Seriously? I was only logged out for four hours¡¡± Ryner shook his head in disbelief.
¡°The sword¡¯s getting stronger, as are the creatures he can control.¡± Jeremax shrugged.
¡°That poor kid really didn¡¯t stand a chance.¡± Mikael shook his head. An ominous silence was broken by the sound of Ryner using his skills to begin steering the Airship in the direction Mikael had pointed. They soared with the wingsails open through the skies, flying wide around the outskirts of Puagas until they arrived at the designated location. Before any action could be taken by the players to begin their transit to the edge of the land, Renault could be seen soaring towards them through the sky using his fly spell, and landed softly on the deck.
¡°Hey, are you guys ready? This grind spot should be really good for us, I got some information from the last of the local NPCs still hiding in the area.¡± Renault said with a forced smile on his gnomish avatar, but the frustration behind his eyes were clearly visible.
¡°Sorry, we couldn¡¯t help.¡± Mikael replied first.
¡°I was offline¡¡± Ryner apologized to Renault.
¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s my fault, I didn¡¯t hide the NPCs better. Reapers scouted us during a training mission.¡±
¡°Not everything is your fault, you know?¡± Mightymira sighed at him.
¡°Well¡ it doesn¡¯t matter now.¡± Renault continued with his forced positivity. It was obvious that he was ignoring Mira¡¯s words to everyone around them.
¡°What¡¯re you going to do now, then?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll find another group. There are plenty of forces of good still hiding on the island. They¡¯ll stand up to him, and fight back him and his sword. I just need to be more careful, train them to be stronger.¡± Renault replied calmly.
¡°It¡¯s pointless, isn¡¯t it?¡± Jeremax shook his head at him, causing Renault to glare in his direction. ¡°I mean, you¡¯ve been trying nonstop, since before we got here. NPCs trained on Puagas aren¡¯t going to be able to stop him.¡±
¡°What else am I supposed to do?¡± Renault shouted in frustration, showing his true feelings finally. ¡°A sage can¡¯t do anything. He¡¯s even burned all the Wizard towers and killed all the wizard class trainers on the island. And you guys, none of you can beat him. You¡¯ve all tried, even in the gladiator tournaments!¡± He shouted, then pointed at the livestreaming icon above Mikael¡¯s name. ¡°None of the people strong enough to stop him are going to help. No one cares about everyone who is suffering because of him! It¡¯s up to me to stop him! I CAUSED IT!¡± Renault shouted.
¡°It¡¯s not just up to you.¡± Mikael shouted back in kind. ¡°We¡¯re here, and are holding him back. We¡¯re forced to do so, to progress our quests, and I¡¯m not about to back down from this fight. None of us are. But you¡¯re smart enough to know that what you are doing is completely pointless. Jeremax is right.¡±
¡°It¡¯s just a game, in the end.¡± Mightymira added weakly.
¡°It¡¯s not anymore, not between me and him. Not after what he did.¡± Renault replied while clenching his fists. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you say, you won¡¯t talk me out of trying to stop him.¡±
¡°If you really want to stop him, then you need to switch classes.¡± Ryner spoke up, drawing all eyes unto himself. The stares were unwelcome, and he quickly cleared his throat awkwardly. ¡°I mean, a sage is a support class. The magic is unique and unrivaled in that regard¡ but¡¡± Ryner¡¯s voice weakened as his sentence went on.
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¡°I can¡¯t rely on other people to beat someone like him.¡± Renault finished Ryner¡¯s thoughts for him, not completely accurately. ¡°But starting from level 1, there¡¯s no chance I¡¯ll be able to catch up and compete with them on Puagas. There¡¯s barely any low level quest givers left for light-aligned players.¡±
¡°There¡¯s other islands.¡± Jeremax shrugged.
¡°I can¡¯t just leave. What¡¯ll happen to Puagas without me?¡±
¡°We¡¯ll still be here.¡± Mikael smiled, as if everyone in Schadenfreude came into an agreement without speaking, several other members gave words of encouragement to Renault.
¡°You¡¯re really going to stay here while I reroll to a class, to try and beat him? Even you?¡± Renault looked to Ryner. ¡°Why?¡±
¡°It¡¯s my job.¡± Ryner replied without thinking, but was lucky enough that no one thought more about what these words meant.
¡°But, you guys¡¡±
¡°Listen.¡± Mikael interrupted him. ¡°I get it, we¡¯ve failed so far. We suck. Your old pal is incredibly good at fighting, even without that sword. But, he has to win everytime.¡± A large grin grew across his face. ¡°We only gotta win once. And we don¡¯t mind a little suffering, our guild name ain¡¯t just for show.¡± A few members chuckled with Mikael¡¯s statement. Renault didn¡¯t immediately reply, but instead glanced between the many players aboard the ship staring at him with smiles, including multiple elite NPCs who he¡¯d come to know.
¡°You guys are sure you¡¯ll be okay without me?¡±
¡°Yeah. You¡¯ve done enough. Go play the game.¡± Mikael nodded along with several others.
¡°Alright¡¡± Renault replied weakly. The hesitation on his face was visible, but after a brief moment of contemplation, a resolute expression could be seen on his face in the last moment that his gnomish character existed within the gameworld.
¡°Whew, I¡¯m glad. I felt so bad for him.¡± Mightymira sighed with relief as he disappeared. Several others shared her sentiment.
¡°Alright then, boys.¡± Mikael began addressing his guild. ¡°By the time Renault is strong enough to defeat Seraxus, we¡¯ll have already taken the glory for ourselves. A storm is brewing. The raging thunder of Zeus will crash over Puagas and strike down all who worship the abyss.¡± Mikael shouted excitedly, lifting his iron greatsword into the air. ¡°Let us begin the age of lightning!¡± He added, and following these words, loud cheers erupted from the deck of the ship - Ryner couldn¡¯t help but cheering along.
Present day¡
¡°What do you guys want? I was already nice enough to forgive your Captain and allow you guys to land at the Tarolas Skyport.¡± [Daehyun - Level 166] Spoke down from a large stone throne atop a staircase, in a wide hall lined with decorative pillars holding up the tall ceiling. The throne room had a long yellow and blue carpet stretching from the double doors leading inside, up to the stairs that ascended to the throne. Beautiful tapestries hung from the walls with symbols depicting both Zeus, and the leading guild¡¯s emblem of a ring of daggers with their blades pointing inward. This same symbol was present on Daehyun¡¯s tabard that he wore above his high level, enchanted leather armor. He himself was a medium built half elf with normal sized, pointed ears. He had a stylized black haircut with pointed bangs hanging over the left side of his face which he made a point to lightly brush to the side as he¡¯d finished his sentence.
¡°Me and my leading guild, Daggerstorm, have been more than accommodating to you guys despite how you¡¯ve disrespected our authority.¡± He added coldly.
He had two, non elite, Royal guards of level 100 flanking him, wearing heavy plate armor. His head was tilted downward to look at the audience he was brought to converse with. Mikael, Mightymira, Jeremax and Ryner all stood before him. Their levels were all 150, save for Ryner still at level 30, and they had angry glares meeting Daehyun¡¯s gaze.
¡°You must prevent Seraxus from landing in Tarolas. Whichever member of your streaming network is ferrying him around, I do not care¡± Mikael motioned half-heartedly to Daehyun¡¯s live streaming icon above his head, displaying viewership numbers of 30,000. ¡°. You must refuse to let them enter Tarolas skies, and instruct all of the forces of Olympiod to shoot them down the moment they reach here.¡± Mikael instructed him.
¡°Hah. Quite the order you¡¯re giving me. Why should I listen to you, though?¡± Daehyun scoffed while eying Mikael¡¯s lower viewership numbers of 10,000. ¡°You of all people should want him to come - the only time you get decent views is when you¡¯re fighting him.¡±
¡°He¡¯s coming here to kill the Great Prophet of Zeus. He has a quest to do it, and we¡¯ve stopped him for months through great effort. If you let him in, that¡¯s exactly what he¡¯s going to do.¡± Mikael explained.
¡°You really think a group of 5 players are going to be able to march through our capital and kill a Great Prophet in the middle of Stormtop?¡± Daehyun shook his head dismissively at them. ¡°I¡¯ve been told he¡¯ll be on his best behavior, so there¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡±
¡°He¡¯s not going to play nice, no matter what he says. That kid is a psychopath.¡± Mightymira jumped in with urgency in her voice. ¡°Your only chance is to shoot him out of the sky before he gets here.¡±
¡°And it¡¯s not just five, the sword lets him order around abysslings.¡± Jeremax added.
¡°Guys. Relax.¡± Daehyun smiled condescendingly. ¡°He¡¯d be stupid to try something. Makaroth and Feng are on their way here as well, or did you forget? They¡¯ll be arriving before he does. If he tries anything, they¡¯ll stop him. There¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡± Daehyun replied dismissively.
¡°If they wanted to stop him, they would¡¯ve done it months ago.¡± Ryner joined in.
¡°Look. There¡¯s a lot going on behind the scenes to make sure this event is one of the biggest gladiator tournaments to ever take place in this game. We¡¯re blessed to have it hosted on our island - the benefits to the people of our kingdom will be immense.¡±
¡°You¡¯re not being blessed, you¡¯re being cursed!¡± Mikael shouted at him angrily. ¡°I¡¯ve been fighting against that kid nonstop, I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt that you are making a huge mistake. If you let him into Tarolas, this island will fall to chaos just like Puagas did.¡±
¡°Let me worry about that. You focus on winning your first round match. If you¡¯re good enough, you¡¯ll be able to stop his sword of hatred in the arena, won¡¯t you?¡±
¡°Bu-¡±
¡°Leave now, I¡¯ve got preparations to make. Makaroth¡¯s ship is arriving soon.¡± Daehyun waved them off and headed towards the exit of the throne room through a door behind the throne.
¡°Idiot!¡± Mikael shouted at him, but was ignored.
¡°Maybe he¡¯s right?¡± Jeremax suggested weakly as the group of four turned and began marching out of the throne room through the main entrance. ¡°Maybe he¡¯ll play nice with all of his network buddies around?¡±
¡°Fat chance.¡± Mightymira shook her head at this.
¡°They even went so far as to stop Renault¡¯s group from competing.¡± Ryner sighed.
¡°That kid made the mistake of teaming up with Makaroth¡¯s son. They were never gonna compete seriously, anyway. It¡¯s all just a show to these guys.¡± Mikael sighed. ¡°We¡¯re all that¡¯s left. Plan the city''s defenses, and alert the Great Prophet.¡± Mikael quickly ordered his companions.
Makaroth was standing on the deck of a large Airship, soaring through the cloudy skies of Tarolas. The tallest mountain came into view, with the walls of Stormtop visible at its peak. Makaroth was not watching it, though, but rather glancing at the final clip of Aegis¡¯ livestream before he shut it off.
¡°You can stop looking into it. All sources point to them being out of the competition. We can focus on putting on a good show, now.¡± Lilya smiled while placing her hand softly on Makaroth¡¯s shoulder. Without being able to see his interface personally, she still knew what Makaroth was looking at. ¡°Look, the beautiful city of Stormtop.¡± Lilya motioned her free hand out towards the view in front of them. ¡°I hear recently they¡¯ve finally discovered the secret to finding Mithral.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Calikgos asked curiously, moving to stand beside the pair.
¡°Mhm.¡± Lilya smiled.
¡°If that¡¯s the case, we ought to find out if the rumors are true, and acquire some for your team, Synopse.¡± Makaroth spoke in his normal, boisterous voice as he addressed his livestream viewers. ¡°We want to guarantee your victory over that Sword of Hatred, don¡¯t we?¡±
¡°Yeah, it¡¯d help. I mean, I think my artifact staff oughta be enough, but mithral wouldn¡¯t hurt.¡± Synopse forced a smile.
¡°How¡¯d they suddenly discover it?¡± Calikgos asked curiously.
¡°Apparently, some recently banished player from Kalmoore had loose lips.¡± Lilya smiled deviously.
¡°Lucky for us, huh?¡± Makaroth grinned back at her. ¡°The crafting capital of the Shattered World, filled with thousands of skilled dwarven craftsmen, will undoubtedly be able to make mithral weapons far greater than any the world has seen thus far.¡± Makaroth declared. ¡°Look!¡± He added with excitement, motioning to the Skyport as it came more clearly into view. ¡°Yumily¡¯s airship has already arrived, and she¡¯s promised to put on a grand opening performance for the tournament. Only 30 hours away, now.¡±
¡°Ooh, maybe she¡¯ll sing a personalized song for the victor?¡± Lilya added excitedly, gently patting Synopse on the back.
¡°Heh. Yeah, maybe.¡± He replied.
Chapter 273: Welcome to Stormtop
Chapter 273: Welcome to Stormtop
Makaroth¡¯s airship had arrived at the Stormtop Skyport - their airship bearing the banners of the Sages of Destiny guild had been tied off to a pier, and the members of his guild began funneling down it towards a welcoming party consisting of Yumily and her companions, and Daehyun and his highest level guild members.
Before words were even exchanged with Daehyun and Makaroth, Makaroth could see him smiling excitedly in his direction at the end of the pier, anticipating their first words with one another. Both of them and Yumily, had their live streams active. Yumily¡¯s viewership was sitting at 7 million, while Makaroth¡¯s at 18, both dwarfing Daehyun completely.
¡°Welcome to Stormtop. It¡¯s a pleasure to have you here!¡± Daehyun cheered excitedly at him once he¡¯d got into earshot.
¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to be here. I never imagined the city would look like this¡¡± Makaroth motioned to the walls and buildings beyond Daehyun. ¡°The top of a mountain¡ absolutely incredible.¡± He said with wide eyes of genuine amazement. ¡°What¡¯s it like? Is the air thin up here?¡±
¡°No, we¡¯re protected by the god of thunder himself.¡± Daehyun smiled back. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve seen plenty of amazing sights like this already though, in your vast travels and many adventures¡¡±
¡°This game never ceases to amaze. Always new places to discover.¡±
¡°I agree. This city looks beautiful.¡± Lilya smiled.
¡°Oh, I believe this is the first time you are meeting as well. Is that right, Yumily?¡± Daehyun motioned to her as she stood in a beautiful pink and white traditional Japanese kimono with flower petals - no doubt made personally for her by Yuki. She turned to look at Makaroth for the first time, and he looked upon her beautiful smile.
¡°Yes. It''s nice to meet you.¡± Yumily smiled and bowed politely towards him, signaling her two companions at her side Kenji and Kaito to do the same which they promptly did.
¡°You as well. You¡¯re a huge hit among our guildmates. Lilya listens to your music all the time.¡± Makaroth smiled.
¡°I love it. I¡¯m a huge fan!¡± Lilya squeaked excitedly.
¡°Thank you for your support.¡± Yumily bowed again.
¡°So.¡± Calikgos cleared his throat. ¡°There¡¯s a rumor your forges are starting to fill with Mithral?¡±
¡°You¡¯ve heard, huh?¡± Daehyun grinned deviously, causing Yumily, Kaito and Kenji to have alarmed expressions.
¡°You discovered how to find it like Aegis?¡± Kenji asked curiously, but the simple mention of his name caused Calikgos to wince and Makaroth to squint.
¡°Turns out that several of their guild leaders had a falling one. One of them by the name of Artaphernes was banished, and relocated here. He told us the secret to Mithral that he¡¯d learned.¡±
¡°What? Why would he do that?¡± Yumily asked worriedly.
¡°I wonder.¡± Lilya smirked. Yumily didn¡¯t bother asking further, she could tell by the reactions of everyone present that some form of foul play was involved.
¡°Well, nevermind that. Our famous number one blacksmith is already expecting you guys, but we oughta wait until Feng arrives. In the meantime,¡± Daehyun eagerly motioned towards the gates leading into the city from the Skyport, where crowds of players were being held back by a line of guards and eagerly calling out at Makaroth, waving their hands excitedly, ¡°A lot of your fans have been eagerly awaiting your arrival.¡±
¡°Of course! It¡¯s my first time visiting this city, so I¡¯m excited to meet all sorts of new people! Hi everyone!¡± Makaroth cheered in a friendly voice, speaking loud enough that he could be heard by the crowd of onlookers. This caused them to scream even louder, though some were audibly calling out for Yumily as well. Yumily hesitantly turned to face them alongside Makaroth and put on her best smile, waving politely alongside him.
With this, Daehyun took the lead and marched them towards the gates, having his guards part the crowds so that both Yumily and Makaroth could make their way through. The cheers became deafening, and Kenji and Kaito made sure to stand close behind Yumily and keep an eye on anyone reaching out to shake her hand. Makaroth on the other side had Synopse, Lilya and Calikgos watching his back while the rest of his guild members hung back near the Airship.
For Synopse, though, he had other things on his mind. The gladiator arena, a large grand structure with gigantic walls, towered over the other immediate structures upon entering the city. It caught his eye immediately, and the daunting task he had set before him in just under 2 days time was the only thing he could think about. He tuned out the sound of the cheering and without realizing it, walked slower than the others and slowly fell behind.
The crowds of fans barely paid mind to this, though. All of their focus was on the stars Makaroth and Yumily, and they moved along with them as the entourage led by Daehyun moved further into the city.
The arena was beautiful, it reminded Synopse of ancient greece architecture, something only seen in history books or other games themed around such things. It was very different from the European styled structures he was used to in Savringard which he spent most of his time, or even the Eastern style architecture within Lanusk. He found himself playing out scenarios that he¡¯d practiced of upcoming matchups, considering his bracket opponents, and continued to walk slower and slower.
He was only knocked out of his trance when suddenly he felt a light tugging on the back of his deep blue, high quality void silk robes. He quickly turned to see a young human girl, player, staring up at him with big glowing eyes. On her back she was wielding a staff, with [Cinderella - Level 13] floating above her head.
¡°Yes?¡± Synopse asked politely as he smiled down at the little girl, seeing her basic beginner equipment.
¡°Hi Mr. Synopse!¡± She smiled shyly. ¡°Could I¡¡± awkwardly breaking eye contact with him, ¡°could I have an autograph?¡±
¡°Oh. Yes, of course.¡± Synopse turned to look ahead and saw how far behind he¡¯d fallen from Makaroth¡¯s entourage. ¡°I will ask Makaroth for one right away.¡± He quickly said, preparing to march forward and watch up.
¡°Oh, no sir.¡± A man spoke up, stepping out from under the overhanging of a nearby building. [Jekro - Level 30] stood above his head. ¡°Sorry, this is my daughter. She¡¯s been a huge fan of you, she¡¯s shy but was hoping to have an autograph of yours.¡± The man explained politely.
¡°Ah, I see.¡± Synopse smiled. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m not used to people wanting autographs from me.¡± He turned to smile at the little girl once more. ¡°Absolutely. You¡¯re a fan of mine?¡± He added in surprise.
¡°Mhm. I like the colors of your magic! They¡¯re really pretty!¡± She added.
¡°Aha.¡± He smirked as he pulled out a parchment of a low level spell scroll that the girl could use. ¡°Here, this scroll will let you cast an incantation of the Fireball spell. I¡¯ll sign it for you, but if you ever get in trouble, don¡¯t be afraid to use it to blow up some bad monsters with pretty colors, okay?¡± Synopse explained as he pulled out a magic quill and quickly scrawled his signature over the scroll casing, then handed it out to the little girl.
She took it from his hands with large glowing eyes, twinkles in them as she pulled it into her chest and hugged it tightly. She quickly turned from him and ran towards her dad, who Synopse noticed had two Thunderhounds seated on either side of him, both NPC dogs with yellow spiky fur. A rare breed of dog that Synopse knew only could be found on Tarolas, but were such good pets for beast taming classes that they were sold to players on other islands at a high price.
¡°Impressive pets.¡± Synopse motioned to them, turning his attention back to the father.
¡°Yup. I¡¯ve made quite a pretty penny raising them, but these two are my best boys. Make more money from this shop than I did from my real job, so, doing this full time.¡± Jekro explained proudly as he ruffled the heads of the two NPC dogs who barked proudly from his side.
¡°Do you mind?¡± Synopse excitedly stepped forward.
¡°Go ahead.¡± Jekro grinned as he saw the eager look on Synopse¡¯s face to pet them. Seeing that both hounds were elite, he was a bit anxious on how they¡¯d react, but both remained seated obediently as Synopse began scratching around their ears. He could feel them start leaning into his hand as he continued, and couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
¡°Y¡¯know, I think I mighta picked the Beastmaster class if I didn¡¯t go to wizard as my starter class. I love the animals in this game.¡±
¡°They¡¯re great. I¡¯m hoping to start taming some of the more exotic ones after I reach intermediate.¡±
¡°If you¡¯ve got these guys this well trained, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to wrangle some tougher beasts. I hear gryphons are becoming quite popular, due to a certain streamer.¡±
¡°Hah. Yep. Bit too low level to raise them yet, though. If you ever want to buy a pup to just have as a companion, let me know. I¡¯ve got a batch who are almost ready for adoption.¡±
¡°I might take you up on-¡± Synopse was interrupted by the blowing of a loud stretched out horn coming from the skies to the west, over the Skyport. He, the girl, the hounds and the man all turned to look up and see five Airships soaring through the skies towards the Skyport, parting the clouds. The large red symbol of the Vindicators guild was visibly painted on the mast of all five ships.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
¡°Jeez, he always has to make an entrance.¡± Synopse sighed as the sound cleared from the warhorn of the Vindicators.
¡°Did he bring his entire guild?¡± Jekro asked in disbelief at the number of Airships arriving.
¡°Believe it or not, that¡¯s less than half of them.¡± Synopse smirked, causing Jerko to chuckle.
¡°Damn zerg guilds.¡± Jerko laughed.
¡°I better go. Nice meeting you.¡± Synopse waved to the man and little girl, then gave the hounds one last head scratch.
¡°Thanks for being so kind, she¡¯ll cherish that autograph more than you¡¯ll ever know.¡± Jerko smiled and waved as Synopse turned to head towards Makaroth¡¯s group, only to see Calikgos approaching.
¡°There you are. Worried you got lost.¡± Calikgos smiled at him, eying the shop with the dogs sitting out front. He immediately gave a knowing eye roll. ¡°Come on. With Feng showing up, it¡¯s time to visit the smiths. Daehyun¡¯s gonna take us to the city under the mountain where all the forges are.¡±
¡°You need me to join in on that?¡± Synopse asked hesitantly. ¡°I¡¯d like to run a bit more practice with my team before the matches tomorrow.¡±
¡°We need you to give specifications to the smiths on what mithral equipment your party will need. Some last minute upgrades wouldn¡¯t hurt, right?¡±
¡°I suppose.¡± Synopse shrugged.
¡°Come, let¡¯s not get left behind. Don¡¯t wanna get lost in this place.¡± Calikgos rushed Synopse to follow behind him as he quickly walked ahead. Synopse stopped to give one more long look up at the visible Gladiator arena before following behind him.
¡°All major players are here.¡± Mikael declared as he watched his livestream viewer to see Feng¡¯s Airship reaching the Stormtop Skyport. The players wearing uniform matching Vindicator outfits began funneling off of the ships and into the port and city. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of vindicators.¡±
¡°It is.¡± Jeremax commented as he too was watching the livestream. They, alongside all Schadenfreude guild members and Ryner, were standing within the Temple of Zeus, alongside many high level Zeus worshiping NPCs. The temple had an open ceiling, it was a large flat white tiled floor stretched out in a rectangular shape with two rows of pillars going from one end to the other.
One end of the open-aired temple held a large throne, with a shrine in front of it. On the throne sat the [Great Prophet of Zeus(Elite) - Level 150]. He wore white and yellow robes and had so much white hair on his dwarven face that the only thing visible were his eyes and wrinkly nose.
All of the players were on edge, as were the NPCs, standing around the edge of the temple looking down at the surrounding city streets. The temple, despite having no walls or roof, was built up on an elevated chunk of rocky land, making it a decent vantage point to see over the surrounding city buildings. It wasn¡¯t tall enough to see over the western walls leading to the Skyport, but they could still see the tops of the Vindicator masts as they arrived at the port.
¡°With that many players, I really think we¡¯ll be fine.¡± Jeremax let out a sigh of relief.
¡°Speak honestly with yourself, Jeremax.¡± Mikael turned to him and gave him a serious glare. ¡°We¡¯ve fought against Seraxus nonstop and seen the atrocities he was willing to commit against NPCs over the last few months. He¡¯s done everything possible just to get his hand on more souls for that sword.¡±
¡°Yeah, but, attacking here is basically suicide, right?¡± Jeremax replied. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t risk losing the sword.¡±
¡°I think it¡¯s the sword that¡¯s going to make him attack, regardless. I told you before, right? Everytime I get close to that thing, I can hear it whispering shit into his ears. It¡¯s manipulating him and egging him on.¡±
¡°So it¡¯s the sword that¡¯s making him evil?¡± Mightymira confirmed.
¡°No.¡± Ryner replied on Mikael¡¯s behalf. ¡°Sure, the Sword is programmed to egg him on and make him evil, but in the end, it¡¯s just a game. He could put the sword down at any time. He¡¯s making these choices.¡± Ryner clenched his fists. ¡°I can¡¯t accept this¡¡± He shook his head to himself.
¡°What?¡± Mikael asked.
¡°This outcome. After all our effort, it just goes to waste due to the same people that caused the issue in the first place.¡± Ryner replied.
¡°What issue? What do you mean?¡± Mikael asked for confirmation as the others looked at him confused. Ryner, realizing he was speaking a little too heatedly, quickly broke himself out of his angered trance to meet their eyes.
¡°Nothing. Nevermind, I¡¯m just frustrated. You¡¯re right. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s going to do anything but attack¡¡±
¡°We¡¯re at least ready.¡± Mightymira tried to reassure him.
¡°Yeah¡¡± Ryner nodded hesitantly, deep in thought for a moment. ¡°I¡¯ll go check on my Airship really quickly. Be back in a bit.¡±
¡°Okay.¡± Mikael nodded. Ryner then hastily headed out of the temple, as Mikael turned to the Great Prophet and the two exchanged anxious looks with one another briefly. Mikael wasn¡¯t sure how long he¡¯d need to wait for Ryner to return, but as the Vindicators flooded into the city, the Skyport became calm.
Watching the live streams of Yumily, Daehyun, Makaroth, and Feng allowed Mikael to track the movement of the major players within Tarolas. After greeting all of their fans, Daehyun escorted them using the dwarven rail system into the lower city of the Iron Pillars, a large underground cavern held up by 12 pillars made of pure iron built around the outskirts of it. At the very center, Mikael knew the greatest forges in all of the Shattered World to exist, where Daehyun was to be escorting the players to meet with the world famous blacksmiths.
Along the way, Makaroth was speaking excitedly with Synopse about what sort of Mithral equipment they should request, while Feng was showing similar levels of excitement. Mikael almost got caught up in the flow of their streams completely as he watched, completely neglecting his own.
¡°Hey, we¡¯ve got arrivals.¡± Migthymira broke him out of watching the stream by gesturing to the stairs leading into the temple. Mikael quickly closed out of his livestream viewer to see several familiar Elite NPCs climbing up the staircase. ¡°
¡°Those are the elite NPC mercenaries from Ryner¡¯s Airship. I guess he sent them here to help defend Zeus?¡± Jeremax said as he recognized them. The NPCs quickly began greeting the Schadenfreude members they recognized, mixing in with the guild of holy players like long lost friends.
¡°Hm¡¡± Mikael pondered for a moment as he saw the NPCs mingling, until he spotted the elite Chef NPCs arriving as well. ¡°No, that¡¯s not what¡¯s happening.¡± Mikael¡¯s eyes went wide with realization.
¡°Linda, I need a favor.¡± Ryan was leaning over his co-workers Simbox with the greenlight on top lit. He was pressing her Simbox communicator to speak with her as she was currently in a simulation.
¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Linda replied from inside
¡°You got any active tickets at the moment?¡±
¡°None that are urgent. I can pause. You need a GM¡¯s assistance on a cybersecurity matter?¡±
¡°Yeah. I think a certain player might be exploiting something in regards to transport speed on an Airship.¡±
¡°Okay, I can locate them and confirm¡¡± Linda replied.
¡°I need to track some things on their movement from my Simbox. Can you relay the location to me in my simulation?¡± Ryan explained.
¡°Sure, just log in and we¡¯ll link up.¡±
¡°Okay, but I¡¯ll need to be logged in to my game character to track them. Can you link it up to my game character, Ryner?¡± Ryan explained. Linda hesitated at this.
¡°Huh? I don¡¯t get it.¡± Linda asked after a pause.
¡°It¡¯s urgent.¡±
¡°You want me to give you information on another players co-ordinates from my GM account to an in-game player account? I could get into a lot of trouble for that.¡±
¡°You won¡¯t get in trouble, I promise. It¡¯s part of my special assignment.¡± Ryan replied quickly. ¡°If anything comes back to you, just point them to me. It¡¯ll be fine.¡± Ryan reassured her.
¡°Alright¡¡± Linda replied slowly.
¡°Great, I¡¯ll log into my character Ryner now. Link up immediately.¡± Ryner pulled away from her Simbox and quickly hopped back into his own. Once inside, he logged into his character aboard his Airship, pulling out from the Tarolas Skyport amongst the large Vindicator ships.
¡°Okay, can you hear me?¡± Linda¡¯s voice entered his ears.
¡°Yep, loud and clear.¡± Ryan replied.
¡°What¡¯s the name of the player you¡¯re suspecting of using the exploit to increase their speed?¡± Linda asked curiously. Ryan paused in his response, not wanting to sound too suspicious at what he was trying to make Linda do.
¡°Hajax.¡±
¡°Hajax. Okay.¡± Linda sounded strained for a moment in her voice as she focused on something. ¡°Got it, I¡¯ve located the player Hajax. They¡¯re approaching Tarolas in an unmarked Airship from the south, currently about 100 kilometers out from reaching the island. There¡¯s a total of 8 players aboard the Airship. No livestreamers. I¡¯m not tracking any irregular movement, though. Their pilot is utilizing Airburst on cooldown, but that¡¯s pretty standard for long range travel.¡±
¡°That¡¯s fine, what they¡¯re doing is much more subtle.¡± Ryner replied to her through his mind, using the GM communications which Linda was speaking to him through. He began using his Airship pilot skills to steer his own Airship to face southward. ¡°In order to confirm whether or not they¡¯re exploiting, I¡¯m going to need their exact coordinates, update it in real time for me for a few seconds.
¡°That¡¯s a bunch of numbers, you want me to repeat them to you every second?¡± Linda asked him in annoyance.
¡°Anyway you can just send them to me every few seconds?¡±
¡°I guess¡¡± Linda hesitated again. ¡°Are you sure this is allowed?¡±
¡°It¡¯s for an important investigation.¡± Ryner assured her.
¡°Alright.¡± Linda replied, then hit a few buttons in her GM simulation. Following her actions, co-ordinates for Hajax in the Shattered World online appeared in Ryner¡¯s peripheral vision, updating in realtime. Despite him being such a great distance away, Ryner could use his interface to pinpoint his exact direction from Ryner¡¯s.
¡°Got him. Okay, thanks.¡± Ryner said as he faced his Airship to line up perfectly with the location of Hajax, adjusting his trajectory slightly to aim ahead of them based on the speed of their movement. Once he was sure he¡¯d aimed his ship properly, he took a deep anxious breath.
¡°Linda.¡± Ryner spoke in a whisper. ¡°It was nice working with you. You¡¯re my favorite co-worker.¡±
¡°What? Oh no. Don¡¯t you dare bring me into this.¡± Linda suddenly realized what was happening and shouted at him angrily. Ryner ignored her and waved his fingers through the air.
¡°Someone¡¯s gotta stop this asshole, and Nicholas can¡¯t do it. I¡¯ll take the fall. I¡¯ll make the world better.¡± Ryner then quickly whipped his glowing yellow fingers through the air. ¡°Airburst.¡± He cast, blasting a gust of wind into the sails of his ship, soaring it forward at incredible speeds towards the unmarked ship that he knew Seraxus was on, thanks to Linda¡¯s GM coordination.
Within seconds, despite the unmarked Airship being so far out from Tarolas, Ryner¡¯s airship was able to get to it. Seraxus, Zuon, Hajax, Gambit, who were all on the deck of the ship looking eagerly at the continent of Tarolas on the horizon, were completely caught off guard. A ship ramming into them with Airburst from such a far distance away, at such an incredible speed, was not something anyone could anticipate or react to.
¡°The fu-?¡± Seraxus barely got the words out before Ryner¡¯s ship crashed into his, causing both Airships to shatter into thousands of pieces, destroying them both. Ryner was killed immediately on impact, forcing him to log out from the gameworld.
The moment his Simbox opened, an angrily looking Mike was standing over him, glaring down at him. Linda stood behind him, staring over Mike¡¯s shoulder with a worried expression.
¡°What the hell did you just do?¡± Mike asked in an infuriated tone.
Chapter 274: The Calm
Chapter 274: The Calm
Broken fragments of two Airships exploded outward into the skies above the abyss, still several hundred meters out from the edge of the island of Tarolas. Amidst the debris were several players, loots of fear painted on their faces as they found their footing taken from them.
Several players were blasted outward, dying from the damage of the impact. Their bodies could be seen disintegrating as they were flung off and forced to log out. Namely, the pilot and crew members of Seraxus¡¯ unmarked vessel - not a single one survived. Seraxus and his party of five, however, had the equipment, levels, and stats to survive the damage from the impact, and all began free-falling downwards towards the black mist below, with an unknown distance between them and the ground of the gameworld beneath them.
¡°Mother fucker!¡± Seraxus shouted angrily, audible to his party.
¡°Grace of Sloth!¡± Sylvia, the warlock player of Seraxus¡¯ group, shouted. Her demi-human leopard tail whipped around in the air as she made a quick hand gesture and caused black runes to start glowing along the back of her hands, up her arm under her black robes until re-emerging out the collar of them up her neck and creating rune symbols on her cheek that gave off a deep black light. Following this, a magical glow of deep purple energy encapsulated her and the others, slowing their falling speed massively to the point where it almost looked like they were hovering. This contrasted heavily with the scattered fragments of wood falling out of the skies all around them, with a mixture of torn sails and iron plates flying about and dropping down to the abyss below ahead of the group.
This caused all of them to take in their situation, and all eyes arrived at the black abyss awaiting them below.
¡°Aint no way I¡¯m boutta get off screened like this.¡± Seraxus shouted, looking at his companions anxiously. ¡°Can you fly us out of here with this spell?¡± He looked to Sylvia.
¡°No, Warlocks can¡¯t fly like Wizards. I learned this spell ¡®cause of that Pyri bitch, but it isn¡¯t leveled up yet - I can¡¯t hold us for long. We got about one minute.¡± Sylvia quickly explained.
¡°I thought you said Makaroth was cool? VGN was gonna roll out the red carpet for us?¡± Gambit asked.
¡°That wasn¡¯t VGN, idiot.¡± Hajax groaned at him. ¡°Didn¡¯t you recognize the airship?¡±
¡°No.¡± Gambit sighed back.
¡°It was that ship that was blockading us in Puagas. Those Schadenfreude guys.¡± Zuon explained.
¡°Fuckin¡¯ pains in the ass. Like cockroaches, man.¡± Gambit complained.
¡°They¡¯re the only ones smart enough to try and stop us.¡± Sylvia sighed in annoyance.
¡°Guys, what we got? Any way out of this?¡± Seraxus. ¡°Fly potions, portal stones? Anything?¡±
¡°We¡¯re not close enough to the island yet for portal stones to work,¡± Zuon replied.
¡°No high-level alchemists on Puagas, so no fly potions. We killed ¡®em all.¡± Gambit chuckled.
¡°What about you, Hajax?¡±
¡°What about me? I¡¯m a High Priest. We don¡¯t have flying magic.¡± Hajax shrugged.
¡°You¡¯re a high priest of the abyss or some shit, ain''t you? Can¡¯t you pray or somethin?¡±
¡°I can try calling for help, but usually, they just send reapers. And we already tried using them to fly, they¡¯re unco-ordinated as all hell, remember?¡±
¡°Yeah, well, just try it. Call for somethin¡¯. I ain''t about to die to fall damage. Do a big prayer, some roleplay lore shit. You know, like Renault used to do.¡± Seraxus ordered him.
¡°Alright, I¡¯ll try, I guess¡¡± Hajax hesitantly pulled out a dark holy symbol hanging from a chain around his neck that had been tucked under his high level plate armor. Once he had it clasped in his hands, he closed his eyes and began a quick spell incantation.
¡°Lord of Darkness, your champion of hatred requires aid from the abyss. We¡¯re falling and we can¡¯t get up.¡± Hajax mumbled, somewhat serious and somewhat sarcastic. Once he¡¯d finished speaking, a spell completed and released a black shockwave of magical energy outward from the holy symbol, spreading out in a large wave in all directions several dozen meters. ¡°There. I asked for help.¡±
¡°Good, let¡¯s hope somethin¡¯ c-¡± Seraxus'' voice was interrupted by the sound of a low, rumbling roar coming from the black mist below.
Feng, Makaroth, Daehyun, Lilya, and several other high-level members of their guilds were being led along a large stone bridge in a huge underground cavern, giant dwarven stone homes carved into the walls and built up as towers all around them. The bridge they stood on was crafted over a large chasm, and on the other side, they could see a gigantic glowing red forge built into the shape of a dwarf wielding a blacksmithing hammer, sitting atop a black iron throne. The forge''s flame erupted from small chambers around the base of the statue¡¯s throne.
From it, the sound of hammers hitting anvils echoed outward, carrying through the gigantic dwarven city that had an ever-present red glow from the thousands of lanterns lining its streets. Despite no sunlight coming in from the sky, there was plenty of light from the windows of the many homes around the city, but none overshadowed the deep red glow from the forge at its center of which Makaroth¡¯s entourage was approaching.
The most distinct feature of the city, though, were eight gigantic pillars made of pure Iron that extended from the base of the cavern and reached up to its ceiling, built in a perfect circle around the forge at the center of the city. A large chasm was located on the city''s western end, separating the west half from the central and eastern sides of the city, with several large bridges extending over it.
As Feng began to speak, Synopse found himself walking close to the bridge''s railing and looking over the side to try and see what was below, but he found himself looking down into a bottomless pit whose depth was hidden by the darkness.
¡°Careful, don¡¯t want our gladiator to fall off.¡± Calikgos joked as he walked alongside Synopse, the two trailing a good distance behind the entourage of other players.
¡°Wonder if it would''ve been fun starting on this dwarven island. I kinda like cavern exploration adventures.¡± Synopse replied as he pondered the view.
¡°We¡¯ve had plenty of cavern exploration adventures anyway, though, haven¡¯t we?¡± Calikgos asked.
¡°Eh, yeah. I guess. Not recently, though.¡± Synopse replied as his eyes wandered to the back of Makaroth¡¯s head as he conversed with his viewers.
It was chaotic to watch, at best. Feng was talking with his viewers, while Makaroth spoke with his and Daehyun his. Like three people having separate conversations with different invisible people, ignoring the presence of each other while simultaneously walking side by side as if companions. Synopse could barely keep up with what was being said.
To make matters worse, it wasn¡¯t just them - several other gladiator teams had joined them to visit the forges, hoping to get their hands on some Mithral equipment at the last minute. Synopse recognized some of them as his potential competition as they walked together, huddled in groups of five. Amongst these players, too, were streamers, so the end result was just noise.
¡°I¡¯ve just been informed,¡± Feng spoke loudly, so that he could be heard over all of the chatter. ¡°Seraxus¡¯ ship will be arriving soon. With him, all competitors will have arrived.
¡°Good. I¡¯m glad he didn¡¯t back down, I was worried he might.¡± Makaroth chuckled, causing several others to laugh alongside him.
¡°Uh, actually¡¡± Daehyun turned nervously to Feng and Makaroth, who followed behind him. ¡°About Seraxus¡¡±
¡°Yeah?¡± Makaroth asked as they stopped moving forward across the bridge.
¡°I¡¯ve got this guild on this island. They¡¯re competing in the tournament. Schadenfreude, have you heard of them?¡±
¡°I have. Those guys are very just and heroic. They¡¯ve been fighting valiantly to hold back Seraxus for a long while. I¡¯ll be sure to thank them and relieve them of this duty. Well, Synopse will be relieving them.¡± Makaroth smiled, motioning to Synopse, who was a good distance behind them on the bridge.
¡°Well, here¡¯s the thing. They think letting Seraxus enter Stormtop for the tournament is a mistake. They seem convinced that if we let him in, he will go on some rampage or something.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Feng chuckled with a forced smile. ¡°You needn¡¯t worry about something like that. I left our third gladiator team at the docks with many of our highest-level players.¡± Feng assured him.
¡°He¡¯d have to be an absolute idiot to try anything. It¡¯s not just the Vindicators, this entire island is filled with high level, highly geared and skilled gladiators.¡± Lilya rolled her eyes at Daehyun.
¡°Yes, I know, but Seraxus has fought most of them in past tournaments and always wins¡¡± Daehyun responded.
¡°Relax. Nothing will happen. This showdown will take place in the arena. We¡¯ll be sure to protect Stormtop. You can let him in without a worry.¡± Makaroth replied.
¡°Right¡ okay¡¡± Daehyun mumbled back weakly as he turned to look forward once more. As he did, though, he saw a dwarven player approaching them with a short, scruffy black beard and a shaved head, wearing multicolored leather armor and wielding a smithing hammer. [Jensora - Level 183] was floating above his head, and he had an eager expression on his face as he eyed Feng and Makaroth.
¡°There he is. The man himself!¡± Makaroth cheered excitedly after spotting him. ¡°Everyone, let''s meet the number one Blacksmith player in all of the Shattered World Online. He¡¯s forged this legendary spellblade - ordered specially from him. The most reliable weapon I¡¯ve ever wielded in any game!¡± Makaroth drew out his strangely curved longsword covered in deep lines that went around the blade''s edge, giving off a deep blue glow.
¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that.¡± Jensora smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you all after doing so many orders for you. I can see my handiwork is still being put to work.¡± He motioned to not just the sword Makaroth was showing off, but the weapons that Feng, Lilya, and several others were all carrying in their sheaths on their belts.
¡°Jensora, rumors have reached their ears about your recent acquisition of Mithral. They¡¯re hoping that you may arm them with the high level material before their battles in the upcoming tournament.¡± Daehyun explained on there behalf.
¡°Oh, yeh, I know.¡± Jensora suddenly lost the excitement on his face. ¡°Thing is, I¡¯m not thinkin¡¯ thats gonna be a possible.¡±
¡°Why not?¡± Lilya asked with a dejected expression. ¡°You don¡¯t have enough mithral?¡±
¡°No, that ain''t it. Once we were told where to find it, we went swimmin¡¯ in lavapools and started findin¡¯ loads of the stuff. Plenty o¡¯ volunteer miners have been sellin¡¯ their ore to us in bulk. Nah, the problem is workin¡¯ the mithral itself.¡± Jensora shrugged.
¡°What do you mean?¡± Feng asked with scrunched eyebrows, as everyone else around them who had been engaging with their streams went quiet to listen to every word Jensora spoke.
¡°It¡¯s no ordinary metal. We got a forge hot enough to melt it down, but the process seems to be a complicated one.¡±
¡°I thought you had an informant telling you how to do it all?¡±
¡°Aye, he could tell us where to find it, but that was it.¡± Jensora shrugged.
¡°Can¡¯t you just figure it out? That Aegis boy and his dwarven friend on Kalmoore were able to do it.¡±
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¡°It aint that easy.¡± Jensora sighed. ¡°O¡¯ course I studied their footage to learn what I could, but, they had access to ancient dwarven tablets that explained the process in detail. Without that information, we¡¯re gonna have to learn to forge mithral weapons ourselves, through trial and error. Me and my team of smith¡¯s are workin¡¯ on it. We¡¯ve got a few prototypes done¡¡± Jensora pulled out a long mithral sword from his inventory to show it off. The deep purple hue in the metal was a bit darker than anything that Aegis had ever crafted.
Feng was the first to step forward and inspect the sword in Jensora¡¯s hand, pulling up the item card.
¡°Wow¡ it¡¯s incredible.¡± Feng commented.
¡°It looks fine to me, this is far superior to any iron weapon.¡± Makaroth nodded in agreement with Feng.
¡°Aye, it looks good, but the craftsmanship is weak. Outside of itemcards, I can tell the metal hasn¡¯t been worked properly. I¡¯m worried if I make weapons using these pre-mature methods, they¡¯ll be faulty and fail you all. I can¡¯t have that.¡±
¡°That¡¯s nonsense.¡± Feng shook his head. ¡°I would pay a great deal of gold to have you craft me a Katana using this method, ready for the tournament tomorrow.¡± He asked with an excited sparkle in his eyes.
¡°I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s wise¡¡± Jensora hesitated at hearing this request.
¡°I need to have something of this metal. It¡¯s incredible!¡± Feng pleaded.
¡°What about you, Synopse?¡± Makaroth turned to see Synopse had walked forward to inspect the item card himself.
¡°Mithral certainly is impressive. Iron doesn¡¯t compare¡¡± Synopse eyed it carefully, ¡°However, I trust Jensora¡¯s judgment. It¡¯s unfortunate, but if he says it isn¡¯t ready, we shouldn¡¯t try to use it.¡± Synopse shrugged.
¡°Ah.¡± Makaroth sighed. ¡°Pity, but well put. We¡¯ll have to go into this tournament with regular ol¡¯ iron.¡±
¡°Regular?¡± Jensora smirked at him.
¡°Aha, I suppose it''s not regular. Your iron hasn¡¯t let us down before.¡± Makaroth winked at him, followed by the two chuckling.
¡°Not me. I don¡¯t want Iron. I want this.¡± Feng insisted.
¡°Ah¡¡± Jensora shook his head disappointedly at Feng. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll forge you some weapons, but I won¡¯t but my quality guarantee on it. If yer fine with that¡¡± Jensora shrugged.
¡°I¡¯m fine with it. Forge me the mithral.¡±
¡°Aye, aye. Come with me, then, let¡¯s show the world what we¡¯ve learned so far. I¡¯m sure they¡¯d all be interested to see what it looks like to work the most powerful metal in this world, in the greatest forge in existence!¡± Jensora cheered excitedly, speaking towards the livestreaming icons above Daehyun, Makaroth and Feng¡¯s heads. He followed this up by motioning everyone to follow them, then turned to lead them towards the forges ahead.
Ryan was standing still, arms tightly at his side with his back straight, head tilted downward as he looked at his feet. Standing beside him was Linda, throwing nasty gestures at Ryan. He could feel her eyes burning into his soul without needing to look, and did his best to stay silent and avoid her gaze.
They were both waiting inside Nicholas¡¯ office as Mike had led them there and was standing over Nicholas¡¯ Simbox, using the Simbox communicator to speak with him as he was currently in a simulation. The far wall of the office which normally had shelves of old gaming collectibles instead was now covered in dozens of screens playing out various livestreams of players all around the Shattered World Online. Among them were Makaroth, Feng, Daehyun and Yumily¡¯s streams.
Ryan could hear Mike speaking, but the words were murmurs - he himself was in somewhat of a daze. A combination of his lack of sleep, the stress and anxiety of constantly trying to hold back Seraxus, and the weight of the drastic actions he had just taken were all weighing on him. He still felt a small rush of adrenaline trickling through his body, though he was slowly coming down from it. His knees were shaking and arms feeling weak - he already knew he was likely finished.
The sound of Nicholas¡¯ Simbox opening up was ominous. Both Mike and Nicholas were silent as they made their way across the office to approach Linda and Ryan, but before they could speak a word the office door swung open. An anxious Andrew stepped inside and looked at the scene.
¡°Mike told me what happened. One of your GMs did what exactly?¡± Andrew asked as he quickly glanced between the four others in the room.
¡°It wasn¡¯t Linda¡¯s fault, I tricked her into doing it.¡± Ryan quickly spoke up in her defense.
¡°You¡¯re damn right you did. How could you do that?!¡± Linda snapped at him.
¡°Great question.¡± Mike cleared his throat obnoxiously loud. ¡°You made use of a GM¡¯s player tracking system to locate several high profile players outside of your normal in-game capabilities, then took advantage of this information to crash an Airship into them. That is the Airship that Nicholace paid for, was it not?¡± Mike asked.
¡°Yes, but¡¡± Ryan lifted his head slowly. ¡°You told me to hold back the player that was throwing off the alignment balance, and, well, look,¡± Ryan frustrately motioned to the livestreams on the wall. ¡°Even after doing it for so long, it didn¡¯t matter. The same guys that cheated the system set him loose. I didn¡¯t want to risk letting the imbalance grow further.¡± Ryan explained anxiously. Nicholas said nothing, but crossed his arms and looked at Ryan.
¡°Wait, am I understanding this correctly?¡± Andrew turned to Nicholas with a look of disbelief. ¡°To avoid altering Samantha¡¯s world, you sent an employee in specifically to interfere with the imbalance?¡± Andrew asked.
¡°That¡¯s what he did. It doesn¡¯t break the agreement.¡± Mike replied on Nicholas¡¯ behalf.
¡°You gotta be kidding me. If the problem is getting that out of hand, just nerf it already.¡± Andrew let out an exasperated sigh.
¡°Samantha¡¯s plan is obvious.¡± Ryan cleared his throat to get their attention. ¡°Keep the evil threat growing, until it can¡¯t be ignored. She wants a force so evil, that it forces good to unite and fight against it. But, there¡¯s two problems with her plan.¡± Ryan motioned to the livestreams on the wall. ¡°The forces of good are best friends with the forces of evil, and that sword has gotten so strong I don¡¯t even think anyone can kill that guy anymore. I had to do it.¡± Ryan finished before tilting his head back down.
¡°That abuse of power is strictly prohibited. It¡¯s just as bad as hacking, cheating, or exploiting.¡± Mike shook his head disapprovingly at Ryan.
¡°It¡¯s no different than if you interfered manually, in my opinion.¡± Andrew replied.
¡°Oh piss off, Samantha¡¯s world wasn¡¯t directly altered. It¡¯s not the same at all.¡± Mike snapped back at him.
¡°I disagree. It¡¯s a shame you guys had to take drastic measures to correct the imbalance in the gameworld, but ultimately it¡¯s your fault your security sucked, isn¡¯t it?¡± Andrew glared at him.
¡°I¡¯d like to see you a more intricate and complex system to protect everything Samantha created. I¡¯d be amazed if you could even turn on your own Autopod to get to work.¡± Mike retaliated.
¡°Enough.¡± Nicholas finally spoke in a deep, firm voice. This prompted silence from everyone in the room. ¡°I appreciate you taking your assignment seriously. Thanks to your hardwork and dedication, we were able to contain the problem players caused by the security breach several months ago.¡± Nicholas spoke to Ryan calmly. ¡°I value your assessment of the situation, however¡ using GM powers in this way is unacceptable.¡± Nicholas shook his head.
¡°Absolutely.¡± Mike nodded in agreement.
¡°Linda, you¡¯re innocent and you will receive no punishment, but please do not be so trusting in the future. If you think something is wrong, trust your gut.¡± Nicholas turned to her.
¡°Thank you sir.¡± She let out a sigh of relief. ¡°I will, sir.¡±
¡°Ryan, your skills are valued at this company, and I take partial blame for your actions due to the pressure I put on you with this assignment. I cannot allow you to enter the Shattered World again as a player. You will be permanently banned from logging in. But I will allow you to return to your normal role as an offensive security specialist.¡± Nicholas explained.Ryan let out an elongated sigh of relief, but it was somewhat bittersweet.
¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Andrew asked in annoyance.
¡°Sir, he attacked and killed a very high profile player.¡± Mike replied disapprovingly, sounding oddly in agreement with Andrew for once.
¡°Samantha?¡± Nicholas turned to the monitors on the far wall.
¡°The wielder of the sword of hatred has not yet been defeated.¡± Samantha replied in her robotic female voice, which came out of several speakers built into the walls around the office.
¡°What? How?¡± Ryan asked in complete disbelief. ¡°I¡¯m sure I hit him!¡±
¡°You should be glad. As bad as the situation is, it can go by unnoticed because it didn¡¯t work.¡± Nicholas groaned.
¡°Wait, so it''s not over? That crazy guy with the sword is still rampaging through your game?¡± Andrew asked in confusion.
¡°It would seem so.¡± Nicholas closed his eyes for a few seconds as he said this.
¡°Sir, you gotta stop him from getting to Tarolas. You gotta do something.¡± Ryan pleaded. ¡°I know it seems unfair, but, if you let him on that island he¡¯s gonna destroy it all. So many people are playing there, most of them haven¡¯t even touched PvP. Shop owners, roleplayers, kids, families, I¡¯ve met a lot of them. It¡¯ll destroy the game for so many people.¡±
¡°He¡¯s right¡¡± Andrew nodded along with this.
¡°If you step in now, with this many eyes on this event¡¡± Mike mumbled.
¡°We won¡¯t recover our image. The integrity of Samantha¡¯s gameworld must remain intact. We will not interfere. If she fails to balance out the gameworld''s alignment, then this game is a failure.¡±
¡°You¡¯re seriously pulling this ¡®captain goes down with the ship¡¯ bullshit?¡± Andrew asked in anger. Nicholas didn¡¯t reply, though. Instead, he opened his eyes and slowly looked to the wall of livestreams on display.
¡°It¡¯s up to the players now, to correct their mistakes. She still thinks they can wise up, so I won¡¯t give up hope. Let¡¯s get back to work - we¡¯ll likely see the largest viewership numbers on our game that we¡¯ve ever had.¡± He took a deep breath, prompting everyone to turn and look at the many live streams on display.
¡°You¡¯re not joining the other streamers?¡± [Xiao Bai Mao - Level 161] asked Yumily as he and his party of five walked along the Skyport pier of Stormtop. He was watching as Yumily was helping the crewmates of her Airship unload large crates from the cargo and carry them into carts waiting for them at the end of the pier.
¡°No, I already have mithral weapons.¡± Yumily smiled politely in response, briefly glancing over to see Xiao Bai Mao¡¯s entire party watching her unload crates with the NPCs. Beyond them, she saw hundreds of other Vindicators swarming the Skyport, unloading their own five Airships that had recently docked. It was a sea of red tabards mixed in with dozens of Stormtop guards trying to make sure order was being kept.
¡°Yeah, but that¡¯s made by that Kalmoore kid. Won¡¯t be as good as the stuff from this island.¡± Xiao Bai Mao shrugged.
¡°Mm, maybe¡¡± Yumily dropped a crate into the cart then stopped to talk to him properly. ¡°But, they are special to me. Made with a lot of care¡¡± She explained while pulling out a mithral flute that Aegis had crafted for her.
¡°Yeah. It¡¯s good enough for me.¡± Kenji said as he approached, also carrying a crate alongside the NPCs from their Airship. He gestured lightly to his sheathed mithral weapon as well, that Aegis had made for him. He let out a huff of air at this motion, then rolled his eyes as he saw Kaito also unloading crates.
¡°You know you don¡¯t need to help them unload, ri-¡± Xiao Bai Mao was interrupted by the sound of a loud, ominous roar in the distant skies.
Everyone present on the Skyport heard the roar clearly, prompting a nearly complete halt in all movement. The NPCs froze where they stood, some idle and some still holding crates. Guards and Vindicators alike all turned to look in the direction they believed the roar to have come from, but saw nothing.
It went deathly silent from there, despite the great number of players and NPCs present at the Stormtop Skyport.
¡°What was that?¡± Yumily asked worriedly.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Kaito replied as he put down his crate and drew out his weapon. Kenji saw this and did the same, while Xiao Bai Mai and his party watched them do this then turned back to the direction of the sound.
The silence carried for a long few seconds, broken only by the sound of rain fall as droplets of water began to trickle down out of the dark gray clouds hovering above Stormtop. Within seconds, the light trickle grew into a downpour of rain, quickly drenching Yumily¡¯s hair and Kimono alongside the armor of all other players present.
¡°It was probably nothing,¡± Kenji suggested after no further roars were heard, but he was quickly proven wrong as a second roar, much closer and louder, suddenly erupted out of the skies.
From the dark gray rain clouds above, a large black abyssal dragon soared down out of the skies. Its form was almost skeletal, with tainted black scales and an aura of dark black mist trailing behind it as it flapped its wings. The roar gurgled out from its long neck as it opened its mouth to reveal its black fangs. The glowing red eyes of the creature guided it down to the only remaining free pier in the Skyport, and as if attempting to dock, it crashed its large talons into the pier and shattered it, instead stomping forward to land on the small space of mountain outside of the walls of Stormtop. The dragon was too large to not be seen over the city''s walls, however, as it extended its neck upwards to peer over them and look upon the city.
[Kelik¡¯radanir, The Corrupted Silver Dragon(ELITE) - ??] could be seen in dark red letters floating above the Dragon¡¯s head.
¡°A fucking Dragon?¡± Xiao shouted at his party, and all of the vindicators drew out their weapons, as did the guards.
¡°Yo, relax, relax!¡± A voice called out from the back of the beast, and shortly after, several players could be seen climbing off its back.
Seraxus, Gambit, Zuon, Sylvia, and Hajax landed on the ground before the somewhat tame beast as it peered its intimidatingly large head around, taking in the scenery before it.
The voice had belonged to Seraxus, and he grinned ear to ear as he saw the terrified looks on everyone''s faces.
¡°Ah, I see. Quite the entrance.¡± Xaio laughed as he realized the situation.
¡°Thanks, I like to come in with style,¡± Seraxus said as he fidgeted around with his interface for a moment, turning on his live stream. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen. The wait is over. We¡¯ve arrived at Stormtop!¡± Seraxus called out excitedly to his viewers, and his numbers quickly shot up from 0 to 1 million in seconds.
¡°Feng and their boys have come to greet us. Isn¡¯t that nice?¡± Seraxus motioned to Xaio. ¡°Even Yumily¡¯s here! Holy shit, she¡¯s a babe. Hotter in person, am I right guys?¡± He said crudely while motioning across the port at her, and she returned a glare. ¡°Now, Makaroth made me promise not to wreck the place, but¡¡± A devious grin began to grow across his face. Following this, Hajax waved his hands around with a dark spell being cast from his fingertips. The other players nearby did not know the spell he cast, but the results were visible to everyone - swarms of black reapers began to descend out of the rain clouds above.
¡°My sword can¡¯t resist. There¡¯s just so many fresh souls to feast on.¡± Seraxus finished, followed by another deafening roar from Kelik¡¯radanir.
Chapter 275: The Storm
Chapter 275: The Storm
The reapers descended on Stormtop amongst the rainfall, darkening the already cloudy skies with their black wings. Before they first reached the walls, alarm bells rang throughout the city, emanating from several towers further within the walls. The sound of the bells caused Kelik¡¯radanir to shoot its neck straight up to peer over the city walls and glare toward the nearest bell tower.
He then extended his monstrous black wings, which emanated dark mist from their edges. Their sheer size knocked several Stormtop guards off the top of the walls that were anxiously watching with crossbows drawn and causing more destruction to the nearest pier on the Skyport by which Seraxus and his companions stood.
Kelik¡¯radanir then let out a ferocious roar and launched himself up off the edge of the mountain¡¯s Skyport and flapped his wings, causing powerful gusts of winds to blow outward onto Yumily as both Kaito and Kenji ran to her sides.
¡°Run into the city, find shelter!¡± Yumily ordered the NPCs from her ship, some of which were crewmembers of the ship and others members of her musical group. They didn¡¯t need to be told twice - they began fleeing frantically towards the open gates leading into the city from the Skyport.
¡°Yo, Seraxus, you serious?¡± Xiao said with wide eyes as he watched the dragon take off. ¡°Call that thing off, man. You ain¡¯t supposed to be starting shit here.¡±
Seraxus didn¡¯t reply but smiled smugly at Xaio as his full party gathered around him, and the large number of Vindicators that crowded the Skyport opposite Seraxus looked on nervously.
¡°You realize we¡¯re gonna have to kill you if you don¡¯t stop, right?¡± Xaio warned him, but the nervousness in Xaio¡¯s voice was audible by even Yumily. Unlike her NPCs, she remained standing near Xaio, and drew out all of her instruments from her inventory. They began glowing pink and hovering around her.
¡°He¡¯s already planning to kill us all,¡± Yumily explained to Xaio as she saw the look in Seraxus¡¯ eyes and his party. Hajax, Zuon, Gambit, and Sylvie shared his devilish grin.
¡°Hah. You¡¯re underestimating us a lot. You¡¯re pissing off the top players in the vindicator¡¯s guild. You realize that, right? Hundreds of us, five of you, plus some reapers.¡± Xaio motioned half-heartedly up towards the swarms descending on them. At this time, the soldiers manning the walls were already firing their crossbows up at the swarm, but they were vastly outnumbered. Many reapers fell, but many got through and began swooping down, grabbing the guards off the walls, and then flying them up into the sky to drop them from fatal heights.
Xaio watched this briefly out of the corner of his eye, but the tipping point was another bellowing roar from Kelik¡¯radanir as he flew over the city and unleashed a wave of powerful black magical breath from his mouth down on the buildings below him. The breath attack looked like mist, but it packed enough pressure behind it to destroy the structures it hit, sending chunks of debris flying outward in all directions from the impact point. The sound of horrified screams began to cry out from inside the city - a mixture of both NPCs and players.
¡°Let¡¯s start the show, boys.¡± Seraxus declared after watching the breath attack end, speaking to his audience rather than replying to Xaio. He then instantly drew out all 7 of his battlemaster weapons and dashed with incredible speed toward him.
Xaio reacted by drawing his weapons and jumping backward, but his retreat was stopped by a shield projection by Hajax, causing Xaio to bump his back into it and move nowhere. He was caught off guard by this, and fear took him as he watched the black blade of Seraxus close in on him in an instant, striking him down and killing him instantly.
This action infuriated Xaio¡¯s party members, who jumped into action, but Sylvie¡¯s magic absorbed the spells they cast while a volley of arrows rained down on them from Zuon.
¡°GRAND MASQUERADE!¡± Kenji shouted, creating a hazy mass of illusionary Yumilys all over the Skyport. The other vindicators were running to join in the fray, but the swarm of reapers began intercepting them. Despite their low levels, the numbers were terrifying, and their swooping attacks managed to grab a couple of members before they properly began defending themselves. Yumily watched the Vindicators get swept up by the reapers, but knew where her focus needed to be.
¡°Siren¡¯s Symphony!¡± Yumily screeched in a high-pitched scream, followed by violently loud notes from her floating instruments all around her, the pink glowing magic surrounding them intensifying. The deafening loud sounds from her began doing indiscriminate damage to everything nearby, including herself and her allies but namely the swarms of reapers.
The sound began to disorient them and cause them to crash into each other, falling out of the skies as they dropped the players they had picked up. Seraxus identified her as a threat immediately due to her actions and lunged forward towards where Yumily was, cutting through her with his blacksword only to realize he had targeted one of Kenji¡¯s illusions - her familiarity with Kenji¡¯s magic allowed her to easily slip away and hide herself amongst his grand masquerade spell.
¡°Sylvie!¡± Seraxus tried to shout at her, but he couldn¡¯t even hear his own voice due to the loud sounds from Yumily. He planned to tell her directly, but Xaio¡¯s party furiously engaged him. He took two hits that only dealt hundreds of damage, but it still annoyed him, and he instead turned to focus on parrying their strikes and retaliating against their strikes. The moment he began putting effort in, he made it look easy. His style focused on using his floating weapons to create openings for the Sword of Hatred he wielded in his hands, then using it to kill anything it touched in a single hit.
Unfortunately for Yumily, though, Sylvie knew what to do in this situation without being told by Seraxus. She quickly enchanted her eyes with true sight warlock magic, causing her eyes to glow a bright purple. She then began rapidly glancing around the Skyport to identify where the real Yumily was standing. Once she¡¯d spotted her, she tapped Zuon¡¯s shoulder, who stood beside her, and pointed Yumily out to him, not bothering to use words due to the loud screeching sound still emanating from her weapons.
The time Yumily¡¯s attack bought was significant. It allowed the Vindicators to orient themselves and prepare appropriately for the oncoming swarm of Reapers as they flew back towards the clouds to escape the sound. Several large explosions of magic and volleys of arrows shot up from the group of them, destroying large numbers of reapers.
¡°Ballad of Silence!¡± Zuon shouted, aiming an arrow at Yumily as he drew out 7 of his own instruments that began floating behind him with a pink glow. He released a pink glowing arrow that exploded a dome of pink energy from its tip. The dome followed the arrow through the sky, but the dome didn¡¯t affect anything that entered or exited it physically - instead, it removed all sound from within the dome.
Yumily saw the arrow coming at her and prepared to dodge out of the way, but a shield projection from Hajax appeared to limit her movements at the last second. Instead, Kaito appeared with his katana drawn and cut down the arrow to prevent it from hitting her, allowing the sound to persist. The failed shot caused Seraxus to sigh in annoyance.
¡°Ya¡¯ll really think you can stop us? I¡¯mma have to shut this bitch up myself.¡± Seraxus groaned and began stomping away from Xaio¡¯s party, of which now only 3 members remained. As a show of strength, or mockery, Seraxus completely ignored them as he stomped towards Yumily.
Yumily took a few anxious steps backward while Kaito positioned himself between Yumily and Seraxus. Kaito watched as the many attacks landed on Seraxus¡¯ back from Xaio¡¯s party, doing less than 100 damage per hit - some even doing only 1.
Kaito took an aggressive stance as Seraxus¡¯ casual walk closed in, showing openings over his whole body as he held his sword of hatred limp at his side and made his other weapons hover passively behind him. Kaito was taken aback by how this behavior continued right up until when Seraxus entered the reach of his sword. Seraxus then taunted Kaito by wiggling his fingers to gesture to him to bring it on.
Kaito gritted his teeth and caused his sword to glow a deep teal tint as his ability began to empower it.
¡°Dragon Slash!¡± Kaito shouted, using one of his more powerful advanced attack skills. He swung his Katana down on Seraxus with incredible speed, leaving a streak of teal magical energy in the air where the sword had traveled. The glowing remnants of the slash remained briefly before shooting forward at Seraxus with a powerful blast of magical energy, hitting not just Seraxus but the pier of the Skyport behind him, shattering the wooden planks and destroying it completely with the force of the attack.
For all appearances'' sake, the powerful looked devastating, but the red number that appeared above Seraxus¡¯ head was insignificant, [152]. A look of disbelief fell on Kaito¡¯s face - one that Seraxus¡¯ enjoyed seeing. A look of hopelessness followed, and Seraxus nonchalantly stepped forward as if to walk past Kaito to ignore him completely so that he could get to the real Yumily. Once Seraxus had walked past him, Kaito snapped out of it and struck out at Seraxus a second time from behind. This time, though, Seraxus turned and grabbed Kaito¡¯s katana with his freehand, taking minor damage as he blocked the blade with his palm. He then held onto the Mithral blade tightly to prevent Kaito from pulling it back, whilst swinging his black sword of hatred out at the Samurai class player, killing him instantly.
Yumily looked on in horrified shock as Kaito¡¯s body began to disappear from the gameworld, not prepared to defend herself from Seraxus as he continued walking towards her. She anxiously stumbled backward away from him until her instruments and her back bumped up against the outer walls of Stormtop, leaving her nowhere left to go.
Kenji jumped forward and released several bursts of magic. His incantations were muted due to the continued screeching coming from Yumily¡¯s instruments. Despite this, though, Sylvie was able to easily cancel out his attacks while Zuon landed several deadly arrows on Kenji from behind, killing him as well.
Meanwhile, Gambit and Hajax worked together to finish off the remnants of Xiao¡¯s party. Yumily could do nothing but watch as Seraxus¡¯ group took out all of the other capable players around her, then saw the devilish grin on Seraxus¡¯ face grow as he approached. He mouthed words to her, but Yumily couldn¡¯t hear it over the sound of her own spell. Instead, she quickly drew out her longbow, which she rarely used, and nocked an arrow, firing it point blank at Seraxus¡¯ face and dealing 1 point of damage. Seraxus retaliated by cutting down Yumily with his black sword, killing her in a single hit and causing the horrifyingly loud screeching to stop.
¡°I don¡¯t think she liked you very much,¡± Hajax said mockingly, rubbing his ears.
¡°Wasn¡¯t her music supposed to be better than mine?¡± Zuon chuckled and shook his head.
¡°Unfortunately, guys,¡± Seraxus began speaking to his audience, ¡°I don¡¯t think Yumily¡¯s gonna be able to play us some background music as we collect souls. Sucks, I was hoping she¡¯d make me a theme song or something.¡±
¡°I can make you a theme song, you know. I¡¯m a bard, too.¡±
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¡°Barely.¡± Sylvie rolled her eyes at him.
¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± Zuon grumbled at her.
¡°You know exactly what she means.¡± Gambit laughed, causing Hajax and Seraxus to chuckle as well. The lightheartedness of their interactions was a stark juxtaposition to the sound of screams that could now be heard coming from the city as Kelik¡¯radanir continued to release torrents of abyssal black breath down on the city, causing massive amounts of destruction and killing countless players and NPCs.
The reapers, who¡¯d been fleeing while disoriented, began to regain their confidence and veered back down from the rain clouds towards the swamps of Vindicators.
Within a few seconds, they were ripping through the sails of the dozens of Airships on the Skyport and grabbing any straggling players or NPCs that stood away from the others. They then proceeded to either feast on them with their large gnawing white fangs or grab them in their claws and fly them up into the sky to drop them and deal fatal falling damage.
Despite their numbers and levels, the vindicators lacked leadership with Xiao gone. Several players were yelling orders in Mandarin and talking over one another. No one was listening, and Seraxus reveled in it. They were surviving the onslaught of reapers for a short while until Seraxus and his group began marching on the gates and cutting through them en masse.
¡°Xaio¡¯s group sent me a message. They said Seraxus arrived in Stormtop.¡± Feng spoke up as he walked alongside Makaroth and others. The group was standing around a large blacksmith crafting station as Jensora worked on a mithral blade schematic - namely, a katana.
¡°Good, then everyone is here.¡± Makaroth smiled, turning to Synopse. ¡°We¡¯ll have our opportunity to put an end to his destruction once and for all, and we won¡¯t waste it. Right?¡±
¡°Right¡¡± Synopse nodded back hesitantly.
¡°Apparently, he rode in on a dragon.¡± Feng added while leaning in over the schematic Jensora was working on. ¡°Ah, I prefer the hilt to be angled in this spot¡¡± Feng pointed out the parchment around the hilt.
¡°Aye, I can change that¡¡± Jensora replied as he began making the change to the parchment quickly.
¡°A dragon?¡± Synopse asked in disbelief.
¡°Yes¡ I heard the report too from my guild members.¡± Daehyun confirmed.
¡°He¡¯s not causing any trouble with that, right?¡± Makaroth tried to confirm.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. Xiao will inform me if he tries anything.¡± Feng reassured Makaroth.
¡°Uh¡ Sorry to bother you guys, but Xiao says nothing is wrong?¡± Daehyun replied nervously.
¡°Nothing so far, why?¡± Feng asked curiously.
¡°My guild members say Stormtop is under attack. They¡¯re destroying the city¡¡± Daehyun replied.
¡°What?¡± Jensora stopped what he was doing to straighten himself out.
¡°He¡¯s right,¡± Lilya commented as she fidgeted with her interface, pulling up Seraxus¡¯ livestream in her livestream viewer. ¡°Seraxus just killed Yumily. The dragon is attacking the city.¡± Lilya said nonchalantly.
¡°Where¡¯s Xiao?¡± Feng asked.
¡°Dead already. He¡¯s killing all your Vindicators on the Skyport.¡± Lilya explained as she watched the stream.
¡°That kid is taking his villain role a little bit too seriously.¡± Makaroth sighed in frustration. ¡°Synopse?¡±
¡°On it,¡± Synopse replied as he began his incantation. Blue magic appeared on his fingertips, quickly forming a portal that opened on the Portal Altar of Stormtop. Synopse was the first to rush through it, and the moment he had, he looked up to see Kelik¡¯radanir eying his magical blue portal in the middle of the city - the glow of magic drawing his attention. Makaroth peered through the portal to pass behind Synopse, but Synopse saw the breath attack winding up from Kelik¡¯radanir¡¯s mouth and quickly pushed Makaroth back through the portal just in time.
¡°SINGULARITY!¡± Synopse then waved his artifact staff, causing it to shoot out a burst of yellow stars that rapidly imprinted themself on his body. The breath of the raid boss rained down on Synopse as he closed the portal to prevent it from passing through and killing everyone on the other side of it.
The black abyssal magic was deflected upward off of Synopse¡¯s body due to the spell he¡¯d cast, but the surrounding area on which he stood was not so lucky, including the portal altar. With it destroyed, there was no way for any wizard to portal back to the city, leaving Synopse on his own and separated from his guild and the other gladiators of the tournament who were left behind.
¡°Shit.¡± Synopse sighed as the abyssal magic cleared away from him, leaving nothing but a crater of destruction on all sides. Kelik¡¯radanir let out another ferocious roar as it soared past Synopse, looking to other buildings in the distance to destroy and unleashing more torrents of destructive breath down on the helpless players and NPCs.
He glanced around frantically, spotting guards who¡¯d avoided the attack. Some were running in fear, but others had crossbows out and were shooting bolts up at the beast. Synopse followed their shots to see most were missing, but the ones that hit were doing very insignificant amounts of damage to the flying raid boss.
¡°Open another portal for us.¡± Makaroth messaged Synopse through the party interface.
¡°I can¡¯t. The dragon destroyed the portal altar. You guys need to get back up here on foot and fast. It¡¯s bad.¡± Synopse followed the dragon¡¯s destruction with his eyes, seeing how much damage had already been done. ¡°Really bad.¡±
¡°Alright, we¡¯re on our way. Don¡¯t do anything until we get there.¡± Makaroth replied.
¡°I have to do something. If I don¡¯t, then¡¡±
¡°If you try to stop them alone, he¡¯ll make a fool of you,¡± Calikgos replied through the party interface.
¡°I don¡¯t care how he makes me look.¡± Synopse snapped back in annoyance.
¡°He¡¯s right, Synopse. Stand down until we get there.¡± Makaroth ordered.
¡°You¡¯re asking me just to sit here and do nothing? Seconds count right now.¡±
¡°Your gladiator team isn¡¯t even with you.¡± Lilya joined in.
¡°We¡¯re moving quickly. Daehyun is leading us. Don¡¯t worry.¡± Makaroth tried to reassure Synopse.
¡°Alright¡¡± Synopse replied hesitantly, watching another blast shoot out from the dragon''s mouth, destroying several more buildings. He then moved away from the crater of destruction that was once the portal altar towards several NPCs he saw cowering and hiding in an alleyway.
¡°Come, move from here to that keep. It should be safer.¡± Synopse motioned to a large stone structure in the distance. ¡°Move, all of you, to the safety of the Stormtop Keep!¡± Synopse shouted as loud as he could to get the attention of the others. His voice caused several other NPCs, and players, to come out of hiding.
Amongst them, he recognized the little girl whose autograph he¡¯d signed and her father. He led a group of 4 tamed adult beasts and multiple pups and kits he was raising behind him. Most of them were elite and obediently followed him without leashes.
¡°What¡¯s happening, Synopse?¡± The little girl asked him worriedly.
¡°A bad player showed up, but don¡¯t worry, we will protect everyone. Makaroth is on the way.¡± Synopse replied, motioning them to continue moving forward alongside the other fleeing NPCs.
¡°What should we do?¡± Her father asked him worriedly.
¡°The safest building will be the Keep, for now. Hurry there and keep your heads down.¡±
¡°Got it. Thank you.¡± The father nodded before leading his animals and daughter away. Synopse then turned to other NPCs and directed them similarly, but a loud screech from the dragon closing in on him got his attention.
¡°HIDE, TAKE COVER!¡± Synopse warned them as it neared, his voice barely audible over the sound of another roar that echoed through the streets from the dragon. It was too late - it¡¯d spotted them out and began veering its wings to soar towards the people moving through the streets. ¡°No chance I¡¯m doing nothing.¡± Synopse shouted angrily as he slammed the base of his staff into the ground, releasing a blast of astral magic outward - a mix of yellow and white stars shooting out in a dome around him.
¡°ASTRAL ENTROPY!¡± Synopse shouted, casting a powerful spell that warped and distorted the space within the dome as magic gathered at the end of his staff and shot out in a beam upwards toward the dragon. It hit the underside of the raid boss, causing it to roar in annoyance but nothing more.
¡°No, look at me, you stupid¡¡± Synopse watched in horror as Kelik¡¯radanir soared past him and pulled back its neck, preparing a breath attack for the fleeing players and NPCs and ignoring Synopse despite having taken damage from him. As the breath shot from its mouth, Synopse desperately waved out his staff in the direction of the fleeing man and his animals.
¡°Singularity!¡± He cast, and a barrage of stars shot outward towards them just as the breath attack hit, smothering the streets and nearby buildings in black abyssal breath magic. Stones from the street and nearby buildings, as well as broken roof tiles and wooden beam fragments were sent flying in all directions, blocking Synopse¡¯s view of what had happened.
The dragon soared onward, and a few moments later the black mist from the attack cleared out, revealing the extent of the destruction.
Synopsis last-minute casting of Singularity was only enough to protect a single creature - one of the adult elite Bolthounds had his stars imprinted over its body so that it took no damage.
Surrounding the Bolthound were the disintegrating bodies of all the young animals, the other adult, and the other players and NPCs as they were forced to log out from the attack. They sat in the crater left behind by the dragon¡¯s attack, and Synopse could see the panicked look on the surviving hound''s face as it watched its mate disappear, then its owner. A distant roar from Kelik¡¯radanir was followed by desperate whimpering from the hound as it started sniffing and patting its front paws at the final remnants of its mate and master until it was left alone.
Only Synopse and the hound remained alive nearby, and the streets fell silent save for the distant roaring of the dragon. The silence was broken when the hound let out a pitiful howl towards the sky.
At first, it was disbelief. But it quickly turned to anger as Synopse looked toward an explosion that erupted at the Skyport in the distance - an explosion not caused by the dragon but rather by the swarms of reapers descending on the city.
¡°Do nothing, my ass.¡± Synopse gritted his teeth. ¡°I¡¯m gonna do something about that fucking drag-¡± He prepared to march forward but stopped as a sudden blindingly bright flash of lightning shot out through the sky, shimmering through the storm clouds above.
A gigantic bolt of lightning formed up from the mass of clouds spread out above the city of Stormtop, converging on a single point and then shooting out into a gigantic spear of electrical energy that lit up the entirety of the city as it pierced through the sky and crashed into the body of Kelik¡¯radanir, causing the dragon to let out a horrendous roar of pain from the attack.
The initial blow was powerful on its own, but it continued to surge with electrical energy after that, releasing bursts of static electricity from its body that caused it to struggle flapping its wings. The dragon began to lose its orientation and swerved downward out of the sky, dragging half of its body along the ground briefly and knocking over several more buildings before it launched itself up off the ground again.
However, the moment it managed to orient itself, another lightning bolt pierced through the clouds toward it. This time, Kelik¡¯radanir was ready and managed to swerve to dodge the bolt - but the damage had been done. The dragon swerved around and began flying away from the city in fear as several more massive bolts of lightning formed up and fired at its tail, forcing it to maneuver around them.
¡°Who the hell?¡± Synopse watched in disbelief as the powerful lightning magic forced the dragon to flee.
¡°I hate being right,¡± Mikael said as he stood guard in front of the Great Prophet of Zeus, who was focused on a powerful incantation that allowed him to control the lightning. ¡°Keep focusing the storm¡¯s energy on the dragon. If we can get it out of the city, we might stand a chance against Seraxus and his reapers.¡± He instructed the elite NPC, who could only nod back at him as he was deep in focus on the spell.
¡°You really think we can take em?¡± Jeremax asked worriedly.
¡°We better.¡± Mikael cleared his throat, eying his guildmates and the NPCs from Ryner¡¯s airship who were present in the temple of Zeus. From his vantage point he had a good view of the destruction being wrought across the city - smoke rising from several locations in the distance with multiple towers missing their upper halves.
¡°Schadenfreude. We make our stand here. There¡¯s no running away this time. We fight until we win, or die.¡± Mikael spoke, and following his words his guild let out a loud battlecry of enthusiasm whilst drawing out their weapons.
Chapter 276: Hubris
Chapter 276: Hubris
¡°Detect magic.¡± Synopse cast as he ran through the ruined streets, eyes upon the clouds above. A blue set of magical runes formed a circle around the rims of his eyes, causing the pupils to glow. Using the spell''s effects, he carefully looked at the lightning being shot out of the clouds like a spear at the fleeing Abyssal dragon.
The game gave him item cards for the spell, including the caster - The Great Prophet of Zeus. With this information in mind, Synopse cast Fly on himself and levitated up into the air to get a better view of the city. Once above the rooftops of the nearby buildings, he could locate the Temple of Zeus easily. With no roof and just pillars on the flat, open structure built elevated above the nearby buildings, Synopse could easily see all of the players standing within - including Mikael and his guildmates standing guard around the chanting Great Prophet.
Synopse glanced from this scene to the scene of the Skyport, where Reapers were overrunning the walls and swooping down into the city streets just inside the walls, quickly spreading to move further inside. He soared out of the sky to land on the ground at the altar''s base where Mikael, the Great Prophet, Jeremax, and Mightymira stood.
¡°Oh, look who it is. The cavalry has arrived.¡± Mikael commented sarcastically as they all watched him land.
¡°Your Great Prophet drove the dragon off?¡± Synopse asked to confirm.
¡°Someone¡¯s gotta do something to protect this island from that walking apocalypse you brought here.¡± Mightymira replied while crossing her arms and glaring down at him.
¡°He¡¯s under contract, it was just for the tournament¡¡±
¡°We told you idiots he wasn¡¯t going to play nice. Maybe next time, listen to the guys who¡¯ve been containing him for you the past few months while you were prancing around playing hero on your streams.¡± Migthymira retorted with elevating hostility.
¡°Alright. Then, let¡¯s stop him.¡± Synopse nodded at them anxiously, sensing the hostility coming from not just Mira, but every member of the guild surrounding him as well as the Zeus NPCs and Ryner¡¯s former Airship NPCs.
¡°Knock yourselves out. Your boy Makaroth and all you other streamers said you¡¯d handle him if he stepped out of line, didn¡¯t you? So handle him.¡± Mikael replied, motioning in the direction of the swarms of reapers descending on the city, slowing making their way closer to the temple.
¡°The portal altar was destroyed. Only I was able to get through. They¡¯re on their way from the dwarven city under the mountain.¡± Synopse replied as warmly as he could, trying not to anger them more than they already were.
¡°Of course it was.¡± Jeremax sighed, rolling his eyes.
¡°But, they¡¯ll be here, don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll put a stop to this.¡± Synopse tried to reassure them over this sigh.
¡°It¡¯ll be too late.¡± Mikael shook his head at him.
¡°Too late? What do you mean?¡± Synopse replied, confused, glancing back at the swarm over the city once more to gauge the destruction. ¡°Once he¡¯s defeated a single time, it¡¯s over, isn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°Just like Zeus'' priests were given a quest to destroy his sword for our advanced class, his sword gave him a quest to kill the Great Prophet of Zeus. That¡¯s exactly what he¡¯s planning to do, and why he wanted to have the tournament on Tarolas. It wasn¡¯t an issue until you guys rolled out the red carpet for him to come here.¡± Mikael explained coldly.
¡°This is our fault, then?¡± Synopse asked quietly, pondering their words as he looked away from them to the destruction caused by the dragon.
¡°No shit.¡± Mightymira groaned.
¡°I¡¯ll make sure nothing happens to the prophet, then. Until Makaroth and the others arrive.¡± Synopse decided as he turned to face the entrance of the temple.
¡°Just don¡¯t get in our way,¡± Jeremax responded.
¡°They¡¯re coming. Almost here.¡± A ranger player spoke as his familiar, a black eagle, soared down out of the sky to land on his shoulder, drenched from the rain - as we all of them now.
¡°Focus on protecting yourself above all else. You are his target.¡± Mikael turned to the Great Prophet, who finished his incantation and nodded back at him.
¡°The Dragon has fled the island. The thunder of Zeus is mighty, and it was no match for it. We will weather this storm and defy this sword of hatred.¡± The Great Prophet replied confidently. Not long after these words, a group of five players wearing primarily black armor and clothing could be seen walking quickly towards the staircase that lead up from the city streets below into the temple.
Synopse felt the tensions rise as everyone tightly gripped their weapons and aimed them toward the top of the stairs. Arrows were nocked, spells were charged, and blades were unsheathed.
¡°Aura of Thunder,¡± Mikael mumbled, chanting an aura that erupted outward from him, enhancing everyone''s nearby weapons with bonus lightning damage. Following this, the other players cast several other buffs and auras, including Synopse in the aura, so he could also benefit from their effects.
Synopse was relieved to see that, at the very least, they were treating him as an ally. That relief didn¡¯t last long as he watched Seraxus reach the top of the staircase and step onto the large, rectangular platform of the Temple of Zeus. Behind him came Hajax, Sylvie, Zuon, and Gambit, who all looked relatively unscathed.
¡°Yo, long time no see!¡± Seraxus cheered excitedly upon spotting Mikael. ¡°Guys, our wardens from Puagas are here to take us back to our cells.¡± He chuckled, and his party members laughed along with him. ¡°Yo Synopse, these guys ain''t VGN. You probably don¡¯t wanna be associated with ¡®em.¡± Seraxus turned his attention from Mikael to Synopse, who stood at the center of the Temple between the two.
¡°What¡¯re you doing? You said you¡¯d play along until the tournament. But you¡¯re destroying everything.¡± Synopse motioned to the ruins, and smoke rose nearby from the dragon¡¯s destruction.
¡°What, that? That wasn¡¯t us. A dragon did that.¡± Hajax replied jokingly.
¡°Yeah, we¡¯re totally innocent on that one.¡± Gambit laughed.
¡°This is a joke to you? Do you not comprehend the consequences of your actions?¡± Synopse snapped back at them.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
¡°Relax, bro, it¡¯s just a game. We¡¯re just playin¡¯ it.¡± Hajax shook his head at him with a condescending tone.
¡°Ain''t our fault that everyone else in this game is so weak.¡± Sylvie shrugged.
¡°Listen. Synopse.¡± Seraxus cleared his throat and stepped forward, brandishing his black sword as he did so. ¡°Ya¡¯ll wanted a bad guy. Right? To put on a big show? That¡¯s what I¡¯m doin¡¯ here. This is what your boy Makkie wanted, so you have no right to complain.¡± He then pointed the tip of the blade forward in Synopse¡¯s direction. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to have our big showdown in the tournament. So, I suggest you get outta the way. It¡¯ll be bad if you make me kill you early.¡±
¡°Yeah, buzz off. We¡¯re trying to do something here.¡± Hajax joined in. Synopse eyed the desperate faces of Schadenfreude all around him without directly breaking eye contact with his opponents ahead of him. Rather than reply, Synopse moved his hands to hold his artifact staff out in front of his body, the head of the staff giving off a bright blue glow.
¡°Aint no way¡¡± Zuon whispered mockingly as they all watched Synopse take a fighting stance.
¡°Aight, have it your way.¡± Seraxus shrugged.
Makaroth and the others rushed out through a large stone staircase and found themselves standing in the middle of Stormtop. The rain continued to pour down, and the sound of rabid, screeching reapers could be heard as they took over the skies above.
¡°Damn, what the hell happened?¡± Calikgos said in disbelief as they took in the destruction.
¡°Where¡¯s Synopse?¡± Lilya asked.
¡°He¡¯s not replying.¡±
¡°Seraxus¡¯ livestream¡ he went to the Temple of Zeus.¡± Daehyun commented as he had his livestream viewer open, but his eyes were wide and jaw was dropped as he saw the destroyed buildings and rising smoke all over the city.
¡°Alright.¡± Makaroth took a deep breath. ¡°Feng, can your guild secure the Skyport and wipe out the reapers?¡±
¡°Easily.¡± Feng replied in annoyance. ¡°But I don¡¯t take orders from you.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s just work together to sort this out quickly, alright?¡±
¡°Fine.¡± Feng sighed, then motioned to his nearby guildmates to follow him as he ran in the direction of the port. They immediately began firing off spells and ranged attacks up at the skies, taking out the swarming reapers en-masse.
¡°Everyone else,¡± Makaroth turned to look at his guildmates, as well as all of the other gladiator participants that¡¯d accompanied them down to the dwarven city, ¡°Let¡¯s head to the temple and put a stop to this.¡± Makaroth finished by taking off sprinting in the direction of the temple of Zeus. An army of gladiators followed behind him - all manor of player races and classes, all high level, and all very well equipped for PvP combat. Each of them had fought their way through the preliminaries for the right to participate in the tournament, and were eager to prove themselves against Seraxus while being shown on Makaroth¡¯s stream, in front of millions of viewers.
Within moments, Makaroth arrived at the stairs up to the Temple of Zeus to hear the sound of strained shouting. He rushed up the stairs and when he arrived at the top, he saw only 6 players standing there. The temple itself was in ruins, with several pillars destroyed and laying on their side.
Hajax was standing over Mikael, with his foot on his back pressing him down onto the temple''s ground - the source of the angry shouting. Sylvie stood bewildered, eying the artifact staff in her hands that Synopse had been wielding as he inspected its item card.
¡°Hey, this staff is pretty neat,¡± Sylvie commented as she read through it, not noticing Makaroth and the others'' arrival. Within seconds, the temple was filled with gladiators and high end players from Sages of Destiny, including the rest of Synopse¡¯s gladiator team.
¡°Yo, Seraxus, we got company,¡± Zuon called up to base of the altar at the far end of the temple, where Seraxus stood, curiously looking around himself. The blacksword in his hands was now glowing with a deep purple hue, and a pair of black wings made of abyssal mist were extending out of Seraxus back. He was spinning around, eying the wings and moving them around curiously.
The sound of the many footsteps from approaching players took a bit to reach him due to the heavy rainfall, but once it had, he stopped fiddling with his new wings and turned to look at them and saw Makaroth¡¯s glare.
¡°Oi, listen, about the wizard guy. We told him to leave, but he wouldn¡¯t listen.¡± Seraxus apologized insincerely, motioning to the staff in Sylvie¡¯s hand.
¡°I can keep the staff though, right?¡± Sylvie asked with a hopeful gaze.
¡°I mean, he dropped it, so¡¡± Gambit shrugged.
¡°You¡¯ll be returning that staff to us.¡± Makaroth said in a deep, angry tone that he scarcely used on the stream. Millions of viewers were now watching them as all eyes followed the many streamers present inside the temple.
¡°Whoa, whoa, whoa¡¡± Seraxus raised his hands in his direction. ¡°You threatenin¡¯ me? You wanna have this showdown now? All gladiators fight against me at the same time? S¡¯abit unfair, don¡¯t you think?¡±
¡°Do it. Kill him, put an end to this shit.¡± Mikael shouted out from under Hajax¡¯ foot.
¡°Why¡¯re you holding him like that?¡± Lilya asked with a worried look.
¡°Oh, this guy? He¡¯s been such a pain in our ass these past few months. I wanted to make sure he watched as I killed his stupid ass prophet. He was tryin¡¯ so hard to protect him.¡± Seraxus explained.
¡°So he completed his quest¡¡± Daehyun mumbled, worried.
¡°That¡¯s pretty twisted¡¡± Calikgos replied to Seraxus.
¡°It¡¯s ¡®cause he¡¯s a fucking psycho. Kill him and destroy the sword right now. You¡¯re all gladiators, aren¡¯t you?¡±
¡°Tchaa, so noisy.¡± Seraxus sighed before jumping down from the altar, gliding somewhat due to his wings, and landing beside where Mikael was being held. He quickly stabbed his sword of hatred downward nonchalantly into Mikael¡¯s back, killing him immediately with an insanely large red damage number. ¡°I¡¯m down to brawl, but I think a showdown in the arena would still be more interestin¡¯, don¡¯t you?¡±
¡°I can¡¯t let you walk around this city anymore. You¡¯re too dangerous. Look at what you did.¡± Makaroth motioned to the ruins surrounding them.
¡°S¡¯all good. Promise not to do anything else. Look, Hajax, call off the reapers.¡±
¡°Alright.¡± Hajax shrugged, quickly waving his scepter through the air with dark magic emitting from the end of it.
¡°See? No problem. The city is saved thanks to your heroic arrival.¡± Seraxus smirked, causing his group members to chuckle along with him. ¡°Sylvie, give ¡®em the staff back.¡±
¡°Huh? Why?¡± Sylvie pouted.
¡°¡®Cause they need it.¡± Seraxus shrugged.
¡°But, it¡¯s pretty cool. I kinda wanna keep it.¡±
¡°Just give it back.¡± Seraxus sighed in annoyance.
¡°Fine.¡± Sylvie huffed, then chucked the staff towards Makaroth, causing it to land on the temple floor at his feet after rolling along a bit. Watching this disrespectful act made it hard for Makaroth to hold back, and he refused to lean down and pick up the staff himself. Thankfully, Liyla stepped forward to grab it on his behalf and added it to her inventory while Makaroth remained glaring at Seraxus, and the other players began to slowly spread out over the temple around him, preparing for a fight.
¡°There. All good, right?¡± Seraxus asked with a shrug, locking eyes with Makaroth. Anger got the best of him, and he quickly moved his hand to the hilt of his blade preparing to draw it out, but he was stopped by Calikgos who quickly shot his hand up and grabbed Makaroth¡¯s to prevent him from unsheathing his weapon.
¡°This is a lose-lose situation.¡± Calikgos spoke up as he stepped forward. ¡°He only wants to make us look bad. If we don¡¯t fight, we look like cowards who allowed the destruction of Stormtop. But, if we do fight, he¡¯ll mock us for teaming up on him, and his warlock and bard have already been preparing spells for them to escape. Most likely portal stones, linked up to a portal altar from one of the surrounding villages on the island.¡± Calikgos explained.
¡°Oooh, smart cookie.¡± Gambit looked at Calikgos, impressed. Makaroth took this all in and pondered for a moment, briefly eying his massive livestream viewership as he tried to consider the best course of action.
¡°I prefer the second option.¡± Makaroth tilted his head to the side and drew out his blade, dashing forward with incredible speed as blue magic erupted around it, while simultaneously, 3 cinderbolts appeared all around him.
Seraxus reacted by aiming a sword swing down at where Makaroth was dashing, but Makaroth easily sidestepped the swing and cut outwards at him, slashing his sword through Seraxus¡¯ body and causing it to pass through, dealing 2,035 damage. The damage put a look of shock on Seraxus¡¯ face and caused him to jump backward while Zuon fired arrows at Makaroth, but all arrows were deflected by his cinderbolts.
¡°Spellblade, really interesting class. Never fought one before.¡± Seraxus said with eyes of excitement, drawing out the rest of his weapons as if preparing to fight. He quickly changed his mind when he saw the army of other players rushing towards him up from behind Makaroth.
¡°We bailin?¡± Gambit asked.
¡°Yep.¡± Seraxus nodded back, and as Makaroth dashed forward again to strike Seraxus again, 5 black domes of magic quickly appeared around each of them, compliments of a spell cast by Sylvie. A second later, the domes disappeared, taking Seraxus and his party away from the temple to an unknown location.
Their disappearance caused the charging players to halt, allowing Makaroth to turn around and meet eyes with Calikgos and Lilya, who returned stares of concern.
Chapter 277: Integrity
Chapter 277: Integrity
¡°They¡¯re out for blood.¡± Andrew spoke with his eyes glazed over, due to several calls being put on hold through his ear implant. Both the implant in his ear, and his wrists, were illuminated by several green and yellow lights. He was standing just inside Nicholas¡¯ office as he and Mike stood side by side in the middle of the room, staring forward at the wall of various screens displaying live streams of Tarolas.
¡°Nearly all major streamers from every network are present in Tarolas. They all just watched Seraxus fly in on the back of a dragon and have his way with the place. I don¡¯t know how you expect me to convince anyone to invest into your gameworld when a young kid is given control of something so destructive. I think it¡¯s time to admit that Samantha¡¯s world needs tweaking.¡± Andrew crossed his arms.
¡°It¡¯s because of the breach a few months back. His power should¡¯ve never grown this much, or gotten this far.¡± Mike mumbled back weakly.
¡°They¡¯re waiting to interview you.¡± Andrew ignored Mike¡¯s response and motioned towards Nicholas¡¯ Simbox in the corner of the room. ¡°They¡¯re going to ambush you, tear you to shreds.¡±
¡°They¡¯ll blame the person who made the game instead of the users playing it.¡± Mike shook his head in disbelief as he said this to himself. Nicholas didn¡¯t reply, but instead took in a deep breath and released it slowly, watching as Seraxus terrorized a smaller Tarolas village, far off from Stormtop. He was gleefully killing all of the dwarf NPCs living in it, while mocking their beards and height. No one was showing up to stop him, due to them all being gathered in Stormtop and having no easy way to reach his location.
¡°Unbelievable¡¡± Andrew watched it with disbelief, turning to the viewership count. ¡°He¡¯s the top streamer, currently. He passed Makaroth and Feng.¡± Andrew pointed out, as Seraxus was now being watched by 20 million people.
¡°They are hate-watching him.¡± Mike replied.
¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. This¡¯ll be the image associated with our game, now. Nicholas. You have to put a stop to this. Nerf the sword. I¡¯ll give you a freebie, alright? I¡¯ll admit, this one wasn¡¯t actually a fault of Samantha, but some outside entities. You nerf this thing and fix this problem, and I won¡¯t consider it a part of our agreement.¡± Andrew pleaded with him.
Nicholas didn¡¯t immediately reply, but instead turned towards a screen that was displaying Samantha, standing idly with her head tilted downward.
¡°No.¡± Nicholas answered after a long moment of deep thought. He then turned and began marching across the room towards his Simbox.
¡°No? What do you mean, no?¡± Andrew asked in disbelief. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious? You can¡¯t seriously think it¡¯s okay to leave something like that alone, can you?¡±
¡°He¡¯s got a point¡¡± Mike sided with Andrew.
¡°I¡¯m not changing anything about Samantha''s design.¡±
¡°You¡¯re just being stubborn. You¡¯re really going to throw away everything, just on principle?¡± Andrew asked while grabbing Nicholas¡¯ shoulder to stop him from walking away. Nicholas turned around with an angry glare, glancing between the two.
¡°I¡¯m not throwing anything away.¡± He said coldly, before turning his glare down to Andrew¡¯s hand on his shoulder. Andrew quickly pulled it back to let him go, and Nicholas climbed into the Simbox, shutting it.
¡°Oooh boy.¡± Mike took a deep breath as the two exchanged worried looks, then turned their attention to the wall of livestream displays. Andrew quickly fidgeted with his wrist implant to pull up a news broadcast of a news network where an interviewer was eagerly standing by.
¡°We¡¯ve just gotten the news that Nicholas, the lead designer and mastermind behind the Shattered World Online has agreed to do an interview with us, in regards to the recent events that have transpired in Tarolas.¡± The interviewer, a younger man wearing a black suit and tie, said excitedly. He quickly adjusted his tie and ran his fingers through his short black hair, while shifting his weight in his armless black chair in the midst of a studio adorned by Shattered World Online imagery.
Then, spotting someone approaching off camera, the young man stood up and extended his hand in the direction he was looking.
¡°Nicholas, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± The interviewer said excitedly, while the viewership on this news broadcast suddenly shot up into the millions, rivaling Seraxus¡¯ livestream.
¡°You as well, I¡¯m a fan of your unbiased coverage. You¡¯re a favorite in the office.¡± Nicholas appeared from offscreen and shook his hand, smiling.
¡°Wow, that¡¯s quite the honor to hear.¡± The interviewer replied while motioning Nicholas to take a seat in a chair across from him. The two then both promptly sat down across from each other and locked eyes. ¡°So, I think we both know what everyone wants to hear about from you right now. Everyone in the world is tuned in to the upcoming Gladiator tournament taking place on Tarolas, as well as the destruction being wrought by the Sword of Hatred wielding player, Seraxus.¡±
¡°Yes, of course.¡± Nicholas nodded back at him.
¡°With his recent attack on the city, many players have become outraged that something like that could be possible - to allow another player to have such an overpowered weapon AND control a dragon. What are your thoughts on this?¡±
¡°It¡¯s unfortunate that so much destruction is being caused by Seraxus, I know it doesn¡¯t feel good to lose things that you¡¯ve worked hard for, but¡¡± Nicholas was cut off by the eager interviewer, leaning forward.
¡°So are you considering nerfing the power of the sword? Because as it seems right now, it¡¯s unbeatable.¡± The interviewer asked with wide eyes of excitement.
¡°No.¡± Nicholas replied coldly. ¡°No, we won¡¯t be interfering. Like it or not, Seraxus earned the power of that sword. Just like everyone else has played the game and earned what they have, so has he. He¡¯s done so at great risk - the world has deemed such a power to be fleeting, and should he ever be defeated, it will all be taken from him.¡± Nicholas replied.
¡°But, by the looks of things, no one¡¯s going to be able to beat him. I mean, we just watched him wipe the floor with Makaroth¡¯s number one PvP player¡¡±
¡°There are ways to win. No one is undefeatable.¡±
¡°But, well, he now has the employ of a dragon. The very same dragon we were introduced to during the Shattered Healer advancement quest, brought back from ancient times, flying around and burning cities to the ground. Surely you can¡¯t think that something like that is good for the gameplay experience of others, right? I mean, not everyone wishes to opt into the PvP side of the game.¡±
¡°There is no PvP side to the game.¡± Nicholas cleared his throat. ¡°There is just a world. Look¡¡± He turned from the interviewer to face the camera. ¡°The Shattered World online was made for a very specific purpose in mind. Our world, the one that we live in¡ It¡¯s solved. If you wish to become a woodcutter, there¡¯s machines that can do it better than you. Want to be a chef? Machines can do it better. An architect? Machines will do it better. We, as a species, have managed to develop ourselves out of basic conflicts, but¡ Humans are not so simple.¡± He paused to stare at the interviewer for a brief moment.
¡°We still have the desire to solve problems. To face conflict. To explore unknown worlds, to discover unknown things. To be challenged, and overcome those challenges. And it needs to feel like it has meaning, like there¡¯s a purpose behind it. This can only be achieved inside a virtual world, where its integrity is held in tact by never bending the rules of that world. The Shattered World is what it is, and what it always will be. It will continue to hold dangers, mysteries, and the unknown, so that everyone has an equal chance to do what they wish in that gameworld. I will never impede on that, or alter it, to cheapen what the world actually is. That includes taking away threats that¡¯ve been allowed to grow unchecked, out of control, due to the inaction of other players despite knowing the existence of the threat.¡± Nicholas finished coldly.
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¡°So, you¡¯re saving the destruction being caused by Seraxus is the fault of the players, and not the fault of his weapon being overpowered?¡± The interviewer asked curiously.
¡°I¡¯m saying that, if you care about the Shattered World as much as I do¡ If you love the immersion and realistic gameplay that you can experience in our world, then I urge you to take up arms, and fight for it. By any means necessary. Because like in our world, evil exists, and it will only be defeated by good that does not stand idly by.¡± Nicholas finished before standing up from his chair and quickly exchanging pleasantries with the interviewer before leaving.
While this happened, Andrew and Mike were able to view the chat log of viewers watching the stream, seeing nothing but obscenities and enraged messages being sent in Nicholas¡¯ direction.
¡°Whelp, guess that¡¯s that.¡± Andrew shrugged.
¡°There¡¯s still a good chance Seraxus is defeated in this tournament. Hope isn¡¯t all lost.¡± Mike shrugged as he used his wrist implant to change the livestreams on display, pulling up Feng.
¡°Do not worry, everyone. Makaroth¡¯s champion may have fallen, but he was fighting alone. His team is still strong. And besides, it¡¯s unlikely Synopse¡¯s team will even be given a chance to fight Seraxus.¡± Feng smiled while surrounded by crowds of his guildmates outside the Tarolas arena. He then drew out his mithral katana and held it up towards the sky, so that all could see the faint purple glow of its metal blade.
¡°My team is on Seraxus¡¯ side of the bracket, and I don¡¯t intend to let him pass us.¡± Feng spoke proudly, which was followed by loud cheers coming from all the players surrounding him.
The stream continued on talking up Feng, with VGN broadcasters shifting their narrative away from Makaroth¡¯s guild taking on Seraxus, to Feng taking him on. Andrew and Mike were far from the only ones watching this unfold, however. Synopse, a scrawny young man with short brown hair wearing plain clothes, watched from his couch, eying a timer counting down on his wall that was tracking how long his logout time was.
He tuned out the sounds of Feng¡¯s livestream as it played out on a large screen mounted on his wall, and instead stared intensely as the timer ticked down its final moments from the 6 hours it began at. The moment it hit 0, he took a deep breath and slowly walked to his Simbox, climbing inside.
After logging in, Synopse found himself at the revival shrine of Stormtop. He wasn¡¯t the only one who¡¯d logged in recently, as countless players were appearing from the shrine and stepping off of it to make room for more. Amongst them, Synopse spotted a large number of Schadenfreude members who were throwing him nasty looks, but he did his best to ignore this.
¡°Synopse. Over here.¡± Makaroth called out to him from outside the small shrine, which was built in an elevated stone platform in the middle of a small town center. Synopse looked over the crowds of other players to see his smiling face, and noticed that not just Makaroth was there, but his four team members for the upcoming gladiator match.
Synopse forced a smile in the direction of Makaroth, who wasn¡¯t currently live streaming, then began making his way through the crowds of other players to get to him.
¡°Here. Your staff.¡± Makaroth held out the Astral staff to Synopse, who slowly took it from him and looked at the staff intensely.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, man. No way you were going to win 5 vs 1. We got him in the tournament.¡± One of Synopse team-mates said encouragingly, patting him on the shoulder.
¡°It wasn¡¯t 5 vs 1. I fought with Schadenfreude backing me up.¡±
¡°Heh, yeah, but those guys kinda suck.¡± Another member said mockingly while motioning to Mikael as he had just appeared atop the shrine behind them. Mikael panned his eyes around briefly before spotting out Makaroth, and glaring down at him.
¡°I hope you¡¯re happy, Makaroth. I hope you¡¯re enjoying the show that our city is putting on for you. Because all this blood, death and destruction is on your hands.¡± Mikael shouted out at him angrily, but before he could say more he was pulled away by Mightymira and Jeremax. Makaroth didn¡¯t reply, but instead glared up at where Mikael had been standing before shaking his head dismissively.
¡°Your team has already checked in for your first match that starts in a few hours. Come, let¡¯s have a chat in private.¡± Makaroth said to Synopse, before giving a nod to Synopse¡¯s team.
¡°We¡¯ll be waiting at the arena.¡± One explained.
¡°Okay, I¡¯ll see you guys there.¡± Synopse smiled at them and watched as they headed off, disappearing into the crowded streets. As he watched them leave, he caught a glimpse of the tamer player, consoling his lone surviving bolt hound, with his crying daughter hugging his leg. The trio were standing off to the side, being ignored by the many other players still logging back in after having been killed in the attack on Stormtop. Synopse took a deep breath then reluctantly followed Makaroth as he was led away from the crowds, and eventually finding their way into a small shop that had been partially destroyed by the attack, with the back wall of the structure missing and black smoke still rising up from the embers.
Makaroth paid no mind to this, nor did he pay attention to the non-elite NPC who was trying to clean up the shop, as most of the wares of the pottery shop had been destroyed and were in broken pieces scattered about the floor.
Once inside, Makaroth shut the door behind Synopse and glared at him.
¡°I told you not to try and fight him alone.¡± Makaroth said coldly.
¡°He was destroying the city.¡± Synopse replied defensively.
¡°So? What good did you do by intervening?¡± Makaroth snapped back. ¡°All you managed to do was die, embarrass yourself, and embarrass me. Now they¡¯re ignoring us, and just talking about Feng like he¡¯s going to be some hero.¡± Makaroth began pacing frustratedly.
¡°That¡¯s all you care about?¡± Synopse asked with a raised eyebrow.
¡°Of course that¡¯s all I care about. That¡¯s all that matters. That¡¯s the point of all this. I set up this event, the biggest event in Shattered World¡¯s history. I¡¯m not about to have all the spotlight taken away from me by Feng. I¡¯m not going to lose my number one spot to this bullshit zerg guild or this crazy power tripping kid.¡±
¡°This power tripping kid just destroyed this city, killing thousands of NPCs and destroying lives, and you¡¯re still just focused on being the top streamer?¡± Synopse asked in disbelief while Makaroth stared back at him plainly. ¡°Hell, he¡¯s still destroying cities and killing NPCs. All over this island. And we brought him here.¡±
¡°It¡¯s necessary to have a great bad guy, to put on a good show.¡± Makaroth answered nonchalantly. To this, Synopse pulled back his fist and thrust it with all his might into Makaroth¡¯s face. It caught Makaroth off guard, but there wasn¡¯t enough power behind the punch to even move Makaroth¡¯s face, due the differences in the two players'' Strength stats. Synopse saw this, and quickly corrected it by casting an empowerment spell on his fist, then punching Makaroth again before he could react. The second time knocked Makaroth back off his feet and sent him flying into a nearby store shelf, causing the shopkeeper to grunt angrily at them.
¡°What the hell is your problem?¡± Makaroth slowly stood back up, glaring furiously at Synopse.
¡°You.¡± Synopse replied with equal ferocity. ¡°I¡¯ve been playing games with you for years now, and you were never like this. When you signed that VGN contract, and threw away your marriage for it despite Jillian telling you not to, all because of some forced virtual marriage for your image, I stayed with you. I¡¯m not here to get the most viewers, I¡¯m not trying to become popular like Lilya, nor do I care about your image like Calikgos. I followed you because I¡¯m your friend. And you told me if the fame from VGN ever changed you for the worst that I had permission to knock some sense back into you. So here I am. Knocking the sense into you. Because of this?¡± Synopse swung open the door to the shop so that the city of Stormtop was more clearly visible. He then motioned to several nearby toppled buildings with scorched wood and scattered debris all about them.
¡°This has gone too far.¡± Synopse finished with a deep breath as Makaroth rubbed his cheek where he¡¯d been hit and looked from Synopse to the destruction brought to the city.
¡°It¡¯s necessary. If I don¡¯t do something drastic like this to stay on top, that kid¡¯s going to march up here and take it from me. All because of a stupid bet. All because he¡¯s a spiteful little shit, and all becau-¡±
¡°Because he wants to be noticed by his father?¡± Synopse cut him off. ¡°Jee, I wonder what that feels like, being ignored and going along unnoticed.¡± Synopse shook his head at him. ¡°I¡¯d think that someone like you, who struggled to make a name for himself, would understand the feelings of his ignored son more than anyone.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t talk about my family like you understand anything about it.¡± Makaroth roared with rage back at him.
¡°I might just understand your family better than you do, from all the time I¡¯ve spent playing with you and Jillian. I still can¡¯t believe it ended up like this.¡±
¡°I did what I did because I had no choice. No one was going to watch us, right? All these big networks and streamers just cast a shadow down on me. You sound just like her. You don¡¯t get it, right? But I know I made the right call by signing the VGN contract. Thanks to that, I was finally able to reach the top, and I have the money to do whatever I want. Whatever we want, even.¡±
¡°And what did it cost you?¡± Synopse replied.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, there was no other way.¡± Makaroth replied with his head down.
¡°Are you sure about that? Because Aegis, your own son, found another way. And it didn¡¯t involve him signing a contract with a soulsucking network.¡± Synopse crossed his arms. ¡°Maybe if you¡¯d spent more time with your family, you¡¯d be by his side at the top, with Jillian. Instead of alone, destroying cities and gameplay of thousands of others just to put on a good show.¡± Synopse added, but the moment the words left his mouth he could tell he went too far, and Makaroth stomped forward and thrust his fist into Synopse¡¯s face, knocking him back into the wall behind him with great force without the assistance of any spells.
Breathing heavily and staring angrily, Makaroth watched as Synopse slowly stood back up and rubbed his chin where he¡¯d been punched, shaking his head to himself.
¡°Heh¡¡± Synopse mumbled before turning to walk out the door of the shop.
¡°Where the hell are you going?¡± Makaroth called out after him.
¡°To the tournament. Trying to clean up your fucking mess. You can turn your livestream back on, don¡¯t worry. I promise not to ruin your ¡®image¡¯.¡± Synopse replied dismissively while walking down the street, away from Makaroth.
Before Makaroth could think of anything to reply with, too many other players and NPCs had got between himself and Synopse on the streets outside the shop to make it worth calling out after him. Thus, Makaroth sighed to himself in frustration, and looked down at his feet as Synopse¡¯ words sunk in.
Chapter 278: Failsafe
Chapter 278: Failsafe
¡°There are big names everywhere you look, in every direction.¡± A VGN News caster shouted with excitement from within his broadcasting studio. He was referring to a wide shot view of the Tarolas Arena grounds, with players and NPCs funneling inside the main entrance. The assortment of races, armor types, and sheathed weapons gave an incredibly colorful display.
As he spoke, the view of the wideshot grew and moved forward, due to creative editing, and slowly overtook him so that his studio was no longer visible, only the shot of the arena. His voice continued to speak over the footage, however.
¡°Down there, to the left, we see Makaroth and the Sages of Destiny, next to Feng, Daehyun, Mikael, Emparak, Challenger. Then on the other side¡¡± he continued to list off the names of visible streamers in the shot, most of which were not trying to enter the arena but rather gathering with each other in a large huddle off to the side of the swarms of players and NPCs.
¡°Man¡¡± Andrew took a deep breath as he, Mike and Nicholas were all standing side by side within Nicholas¡¯ office, watching the VGN broadcast. The collective viewership on Tarolas gameplay was also on display, on a small monitor off to the side that had other infographics added to it. 216 million viewers, and rising. ¡°That¡¯s our highest, peak viewership. Higher than launch day.¡±
¡°It¡¯s going to keep going up. This tournament has representation from every major region across the world.¡± Mike added.
¡°All of them hoping to watch Seraxus get defeated.¡± Andrew nodded. ¡°But if he kills them all¡¡±
¡°It¡¯s going to be bad. People are going to start looking up to him, rather than despising him. This is our last chance, Nicholas.¡± Mike added as he and Andrew turned to face Nicholas, who stood silently staring at the screens in front of them.
¡°I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re on his side now, Mike.¡± Nicholas replied with a slight head shake.
¡°I¡¯m on the side of the gameworld.¡± Mike shrugged.
¡°The gameworld hasn¡¯t given up. Samantha¡¯s still fighting back.¡± Nicholas replied while crossing his arms.
¡°Really? How¡¯s she doing that? She gave that kid a raid boss dragon to ride in on.¡±
¡°Yeah. Exactly. I was confused by her actions at first too, but then I looked at it more closely¡¡± Nicholas replied as a slight grin began to creep up on his face.
¡°What?¡± Andrew looked confused.
¡°What¡¯re you on about?¡± Mike asked curiously.
¡°She¡¯s responding in kind. Her plan - I see it now. All you have to do is ask yourself the simple question¡ if Seraxus can escape all unfavorable combat encounters in the open world, then the only way he can now be defeated is by being put in an arena match where only victory or defeat are options. So why in the hell would he repeatedly put himself in the only situation he can lose in?¡±
¡°Ego?¡±
¡°No.¡± Nicholas replied while pointing at the broadcast, that now was showing Seraxus¡¯ arrival at the Tarolas arena. He swooped down with his large black wings of hatred, causing all NPCs to begin screaming and fleeing in terror from around him. The players, too, backed away and kept their distance as he strutted forward with a giant smile, escorted by his 4 party members. ¡°It¡¯s the sword. It¡¯s egging him on, convincing him to do it. Samantha, she¡¯s putting him in this vulnerable position, month after month, in the hopes that someone steps in and defeats him.¡±
¡°Okay¡¡± Andrew nodded along as he processed this for a moment. ¡°Okay, I''ll buy that. But, that still doesn¡¯t explain why she gave him a dragon.¡±
¡°It does.¡± Mike nods. ¡°If Samantha knows that he won¡¯t ever be defeated outside of the arena, then all she can do is make sure people start taking him seriously. The dragon was used to make everyone pay attention.¡±
¡°Yeah, that could be it. But, I¡¯ve got another theory on why she did it¡¡± Nicholas added with a rare smile growing on his face.
¡°Everyone is checked in, ready for their matches?¡± Makaroth asked in his usual, upbeat and boisterous voice. The gathering of other contenders were all around him, with the exception of Seraxus who was walking alone into the Arena, some distance away.
¡°You should kill him now, and we will be done with it.¡± Mikael shouted angrily, changing the mood of the conversation very quickly.
¡°As much as I agree with you, I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll work out like that. I¡¯ve studied his and his party''s gameplay, and they specialize in escaping from unfavorable encounters.¡± Synopse explained calmly. ¡°We rush him now, and he¡¯ll most likely flee and not enter the tournament at all. We¡¯ll lose our opportunity to stop him, and with his newfound powers there''s no telling how much destruction he¡¯ll bring until the next opportunity arises to defeat him.¡±
¡°Newfound powers that you spoonfed to him by allowing him to come here. I warned you not to let him dock at the Skyport.¡± Mikael turned his anger on Daehyun.
¡°It wouldn¡¯t have mattered whether we allowed him or not. He rode in on a dragon.¡± Xaio jumped into the conversation.
¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Makaroth nodded at Xaio. ¡°I¡¯ll admit my mistake. I underestimated Seraxus, and thought he could be reasoned with. I see now that he truly is a force of evil that must be stopped, so that is exactly what we will do.¡± Makaroth moved to the center of the group as all eyes fell on him. ¡°We may not all have the opportunity to face him, and instead will need to face each other. Even though we are all united in our desire to stop him, I urge you to not hold back in fighting each other, as we must only allow the strongest of us to challenge him, so that we do not waste this opportunity.¡±
¡°And what happens if we all fail?¡± Mightymira asked.
¡°Which we will.¡± Jeremax scoffed.
¡°The only weapon able to handle that sword, you made sure you couldn''t even attend this tournament.¡± Mikael added.
¡°Guys, calm down. I understand you are angry, but throwing tantrums solves nothing.¡± Feng stepped in on Makaroth¡¯s behalf.
¡°Exactly.¡± Makaroth nodded at Feng. ¡°Should we fail, then I will make it my personal mission to hunt him down and prevent him from causing any more destruction.
¡°Right. Like that¡¯s going to do anything.¡± Mikael rolled his eyes.
¡°Do you hear that?¡± Lilya asked curiously as she turned towards the arena behind them. There was nothing, almost dead silence.
¡°No?¡± Calikgos replied curiously, as everyone else went silent and looked where Lilya was looking.
¡°Didn¡¯t Yumily¡¯s opening performance start already?¡± Lilya replied to him. ¡°Yet, there¡¯s no music.¡±
¡°Fucking hell.¡± Makaroth sighed in frustration before quickly turning away from the group and rushing in the direction of the arena¡¯s entrance. The group of gladiators followed behind him urgently, pushing past the crowds of players and NPCs of which some were attempting to flee the arena rather than enter.
After making it through the long entry hall, they stepped out into the wide arena with a design nearly identical to that of the arena within Kordas. The oval shaped arena had rows upon rows of seats on all sides, extending upwards and outwards several stories. Many of the seats had already been filled, and all audience members were silently staring at the scene in the center of the arena.
The sandy, tile floored arena held a ring of pillars, and sections of terrain where rocks and small plateaus were placed to give it unique variations of terrain in different sections. The main focus currently, however, was a large wooden stage that¡¯d been constructed at the center, decorated beautifully with magical enchantments and colorful flowers and banners.
On the stage stood Yumily, Kaito and Kenji, along with several other NPCs that belonged to Yumily¡¯s band. There were a mix of dancers who all wore matching uniforms that went nicely with Yumily¡¯s Kimono, and several musicians and backup singers. All of them were silently glaring at Seraxus as he and his companions climbed up onto the stage.
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¡°Oh, sorry, sorry everyone.¡± Seraxus called out, drawing all eyes onto himself as he made sure to speak into Yumily¡¯s microphone, - a staff with a voice amplification enchantment on it. ¡°It¡¯s just, we¡¯re such big fans of Yumily. We were hoping you could play us a song.¡± Seraxus asked her, and his party members chuckled.
¡°I am obligated by my VGN contract to play your introduction music before each of your matches.¡± Yumily replied coldly.
¡°Yeah, yeah¡.¡± Seraxus began pacing around her, while Kenji and Kaito had their hands on their weapons and Yumily stood tense.
¡°Makaroth¡¡± Synopse looked at him anxiously.
¡°I know.¡± Makaroth took a deep breath, preparing to draw his blade and jump down into the confrontation.
¡°Stop.¡± Calikgos quickly threw his hand out and grabbed Makaroth¡¯s shoulder to stop him. ¡°He¡¯ll only make a fool out of you. You can¡¯t do anything.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t? Or won¡¯t?¡± Mikael shouted as he too prepared to march forward towards the scene. Similarly, Mightymira threw her hand on his shoulder to stop him as well.
¡°He kills you, and we lose our chance to beat him in the tournament. That¡¯s the best case scenario.¡± Mightymira spoke with no emotion.
¡°I¡¯m not in the tournament, so¡¡± Makaroth brushed off Calikgos¡¯ hand.
¡°Which makes it worse for you. He¡¯ll destroy your image and make a fool out of you.¡± Calikgos explained. These words caused Makaroth to hesitate, turning to look back at Synopse who stared knowingly into his eyes. He then turned to look at Calikgos and Lilya, seeing their worried expressions.
¡°Relax. Yumily is able to handle this herself. Don¡¯t underestimate her.¡± Feng tried to reassure them. ¡°There are only 15 minutes remaining before the first match starts. She just has to play along with him for a bit, and she¡¯ll be fine.¡±
¡°15 Minutes is a long time.¡± Synopse replied anxiously.
Yumily, from atop the stage, glanced from Seraxus pacing around her, to the audience in the stands on all sides. She saw the look of fear on the faces of the audience members, then spotted the gathering of gladiators who¡¯d just entered the arena. Briefly, she had a glimmer of hope fill her upon seeing them, but quickly saw that they were not moving. They were not going to enter the arena to help her - they didn¡¯t want to risk dying before their matches.
As this sunk in, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves and turned to glare at Seraxus.
¡°I was hoping you could write a more personal song for us, though. You know, you do that sometimes, right?¡±
¡°Yeah, you wrote that beautiful song for Kalmoore and Arallia, didn¡¯t you?¡± Zuon joined in.
¡°That is because I had them in my heart. I feel nothing for you, you disgust me.¡± Yumily replied, which prompted Kaito to begin drawing his katana, but Yumily quickly held out her hand to signal him to stop.
¡°Hah, I wouldn¡¯t bother, Samurai. We already know how that ends.¡± Seraxus smirked at the aggressive gesture by him. ¡°Look, ok, I get it. I killed you, and my sword ate your soul. Now you¡¯ve got a debuff. It sucks.¡± Seraxus continued to pace around her. ¡°So why not a song of hatred, then?¡±
¡°Hah, yeah. Like one of those heavy metal songs. That''d be pretty cool.¡± Hajax nodded along.
¡°Exactly, that¡¯d be perfect. You could do something like that for us, right?¡± Seraxus asked.
¡°I refuse to make any music for you.¡± Yumily replied firmly, maintaining eye contact with him.
¡°Oh really? Then, I¡¯ll just have to cut this performance short.¡± Seraxus said, suddenly drawing out his black sword of hatred and swinging it down at Yumily with incredible speed - so fast that neither Kaito or Kenji could react. He did not follow through, however, and stopped the blade mere millimeters from Yumily¡¯s neck. Simultaneously, though, Yumily did not flinch in the slightest - she didn¡¯t even blink and instead continued to glare at him.
¡°Tch. She¡¯s pretty cool.¡± Seraxus sighed as he pulled his sword back.
¡°You will lose your contract if you kill me. You were warned after doing it the first time. I am not someone you can harm without consequences. I am not afraid of you.¡± Yumily declared.
¡°Yeah¡. Yeah¡.¡± Seraxus side as he started walking away from her. ¡°Your NPC¡¯s, on the other hand,¡± He added with a sudden quick spinning motion, swinging his sword out towards one of her dancers. This time, Kaito was quick enough to react by pushing the dancer out of the way, but he instead took the strike and was killed, being forced out of the gameworld.
¡°Makaroth.¡± Synopse urged him, and Makaroth remained frozen with indecision, watching from a distance as Kaito¡¯s body dissipated and was forced to log out of the gameworld.
¡°Don¡¯t.¡± Calikgos urged him.
The dancer who¡¯d been pushed out of the way was helped back to her feet by the other 4 dancers present. They then began cowering away from Seraxus as he started slowly pacing towards them.
¡°Okay, wait! Fine. Stop!¡± Yumily shouted at him, causing him to stop walking forward, turn, and grin at her.
¡°Good choice, I heard these elite NPCs are hard to wrangle up.¡± Seraxus replied mockingly, while crossing his arms and wait expectantly.
¡°Nice, this is gonna be sick.¡± Gambit added excitedly.
¡°I hope she mentions me in her song.¡± Sylvie added as they all moved to stand beside Seraxus, and watched Yumily intently.
¡°Ahem¡¡± Yumily began speaking into her voice-amplified staff, addressing the silent crowds around the stadium that were watching the scene unfold. ¡°I will be playing a special request song, for the evil people that have attacked this land.¡± Yumily struggled to get the words out.
¡°Anaxar? Can you start off with the beat from our song Collapse?¡± Yumily turned and smiled at her drummer. Kenji looked at her and saw the tears welling up in her eyes, then turned with his staff drawn to face Seraxus and his party, but Yumily quickly stepped forward and pulled his staff down.
¡°No, stop. It¡¯s pointless.¡± Yumily urged him. ¡°Please, Anaxar.¡± She turned to the drummer again. He sat behind his drumset on the back of the stage, drumsets in hand, staring back at Yumily before glancing towards Seraxus.
¡°No.¡± Anaxar, the elite NPC replied. ¡°I won¡¯t play music for this demon.¡±
¡°Please, he¡¯ll kill you. We respawn, but you do not.¡± Yumily urged him.
¡°I don¡¯t care. We¡¯d rather die then allow him to bring you shame.¡± Anaxar answered her firmly, while dropping his drumsticks. Following this, the dancers who were showing fear on their faces all moved to stand shoulder to shoulder and glared at Seraxus.
¡°Us too. We won¡¯t preform for him. Don¡¯t let him boss you around for us.¡±
¡°That can be arranged.¡± Seraxus grinned as he started marching forward towards the dancers with his sword out.
¡°No. PLEASE! Stop this! They aren¡¯t serious!¡± Yumily shouted at him in desperation.
¡°They look pretty serious.¡± Hajax shrugged.
¡°Pesky lil¡¯ AI¡¯s thinkin¡¯ they¡¯re hot shit.¡± Gambit shook his head disapprovingly at them.
¡°SOMEONE?! DO SOMETHING PLEASE?!¡± Yumily shouted out into her microphone, looking in the direction of the gladiators, including Makaroth. Makaroth reached his breaking point with this, and was preparing to dash across the arena to intervene, but the distance was too great - the black sword of hatred swung down on the nearest of Yumily¡¯s NPC dancers.
However, it was blocked.
A deafening clash of metal erupted from the stage, as a blinding flash of pure white light erupted from one side of the clash, and pitch black abyssal mist erupted from the Sword of Hatred.
So powerful was the clash that both black mist overtook one side of the arena, and bright white light took over the other side, piercing up into the sky and becoming visible from at least a kilometer away. The clouds cleared in the sky above as the light began to fade, as did the black mist from Seraxus¡¯ sword.
It was from there, revealed underneath the light, that a 10-pointed, star shaped shield had blocked Seraxus¡¯ sword of hatred.
Behind the shield, a grinning Aegis stood. Darkshot stood beside him with an arrow knocked, pointed at Seraxus'' head. On his other side, Rakkan stood with his echoes all armed, blades pointed at Seraxus. Pyri, on the other hand, was behind Aegis and ushering the dancers away from danger, towards Yumily who was standing off to the side.
¡°No fucking way.¡± Makaroth stopped his forward charge, jaw dropped as he saw Aegis standing on Yumily¡¯s stage with all of his companions but Lina.
¡°How the fuck did he get here?¡± Calikgos asked in disbelief.
¡°Hoooooo?¡± Seraxus looked on in disbelief as Sylvie drew out her weapon, as did Zuon, Gambit, and Hajax.
¡°The bitch.¡± Sylvie hissed in Pyri¡¯s direction.
¡°Ay yo, Renault,¡± Hajax commented mockingly.
¡°Aegis¡¡± Yumily whimpered, tears flowing down her cheeks from joy at seeing him.
¡°Nice job, savin¡¯ the useless bard. She ain''t gonna help you with nothin¡¯. You wasted your flashy entrance.¡± Seraxus replied mockingly, without moving his sword from Aegis shield as he eyed the weapons of Aegis¡¯ companions pointed at him. Very quickly, though, Seraxus¡¯ party did the same thing and pointed their weapons at Aegis¡¯ group.
¡°Useless?¡± Aegis turned his head curiously. ¡°Oh, right. I forgot. Since you lost Renault, you don¡¯t get how things work in this game, right? You just brute force through everything with that sword.¡±
¡°So? The lore in this game is shit. It ain''t gonna save you.¡± Seraxus replied mockingly.
¡°Oh I disagree. And also¡¡± Aegis suddenly forced his shield into Seraxus'' sword to knock it away and lunged at him, unarmed. Seraxus was taken aback and attempted to jump backward to avoid Aegis, but Aegis quickly projected a shield behind Seraxus to stop his backward jump, allowing Aegis to tackle him.
At least - that¡¯s what Aegis looked like he was trying to do initially, until the action had been completed and ended with Aegis¡¯ arms thrown around Seraxus, holding him tightly in a hug.
Chapter 279: Desperate Counter
¡°I forgive you. I know it¡¯s not your fault. The sword is making you act like this.¡± Aegis whispered into Seraxus'' ear as he leaned in and gently nestled his chin on his shoulder.
¡°What the fuck? Let go of me.¡± Seraxus freaked out at Aegis¡¯ embrace and frantically lost his composure, struggling free and pushing Aegis back. He managed to do so, though, then looked on at Aegis in disgust.
¡°Did he just hug you?¡± Zuon laughed mockingly.
¡°He hugged you, man.¡± Hajax joined in.
¡°Are you gay or something? I ain''t gay, bro. Nothin wrong with that but, c¡¯mon what the fuck?¡± Seraxus blurted out in disbelief, trying to recompose himself as everyone nearby watched with wide eyes of confusion, save for Aegis companions who seemed to be aware of what was going on.
¡°Yumily,¡± Aegis turned to face her. ¡°I know it doesn¡¯t make a lot of sense, but you¡¯re his hard counter, it¡¯s why he¡¯s harassing you. You¡¯re the only one that¡¯s going to be able to stop him.¡± He explained quickly.
¡°Tch.¡± Seraxus sucked his teeth at this comment.
¡°Huh?¡± Yumily was dumbfounded by the scene unfolding before her.
¡°Allow me to explain.¡± Aegis quickly walked over to her voice-amplified microphone, but he was stopped by Seraxus as he dashed forward with weapons drawn.
¡°Don¡¯t go thinkin¡¯ ya¡¯ll can ignore me just because you got a shield.¡± Seraxus growled, forcing Aegis to quickly spin around and throw up his shield and block a strike from the black sword. Another shockwave of black and white erupted from the point of impact, sending a forceful gust of air outward that made it difficult for those nearby to remain composed.
The sudden desperation on Seraxus¡¯ face was unnerving to most - particularly Mikael who was watching the fight from a distance.
¡°He¡¯s afraid? What¡¯s he afraid of? I¡¯ve never seen him fight like this.¡± Mikael said with wide eyes.
¡°Then let''s go, eh?¡± Mightymira grinned before releasing her hand, which had been on his shoulder, to dash forward. Following her, all of Schadenfreude¡¯s gladiator team leapt down from the stands and into the arena, charging across it to reach Yumily¡¯s stage. Makaroth, however, hesitated upon seeing Aegis and his group appear and instead turned to Calikgos.
¡°They¡¯ve only got a few minutes to check-in. Send the rest of our guild to block off the check-in NPCs around the arena¡¡± Makaroth whispered to him so that only he, Synopse and Liyla could hear.
¡°No, don¡¯t. Stop this stupid shit, man.¡± Synopse shouted back in annoyance, grabbing Calikgos¡¯ to stop him from carrying out Makaroth¡¯s instruction. ¡°First of all, look,¡± Synopse pointed at Aegis across the arena in front of them as he blocked several more strikes from Seraxus, and Pyri, Rakkan and Darkshot jumped in to deflect and block attacks from Seraxus¡¯ companions. ¡°He¡¯s already predicted you would try to do that, that¡¯s why his Shadow Dancer isn¡¯t there. Most likely, she¡¯s already checking them in¡¡± Synopse explained, and as he did, Lina suddenly appeared through several shadow steps, using the shadows of the pillars in the arena to quickly move from the lower arena entryway to reach the stage where Aegis was, so that she could join in and start helping them out.
¡°Did you check us in?¡± Aegis asked her.
¡°Yup.¡± Lina smiled proudly before drawing out daggers and warping behind Hajax, but was intercepted by a quickly moving Gambit.
Seeing and hearing this exchange from a distance, Makaroth clenched his fists angrily and glared at the stage.
¡°See?¡± Synopse sighed and shook his head.
The exchange between Aegis¡¯ group and Seraxus¡¯ group was chaotic, as it was clear Seraxus was acting frantic, having lost his cool at the appearance of Aegis¡¯ shield and knowing what Aegis was trying to do. When Mikael¡¯s group arrived, the battle quickly turned in favor of Aegis¡¯ group. Mikael timed a large swing of his greatsword to hit Seraxus¡¯ back just as Aegis had blocked one of his strikes, followed by Jeremax sending several ice lances at Seraxus and Mightymira hitting him with a smite - all of their attacks were focused on Seraxus and ignored his party members entirely.
¡°Hah,¡± Seraxus shouted triumphantly as he saw the minuscule damage numbers appearing around his body as a result of the attacks. He stopped charging aggressively at Aegis and just stood mockingly, glaring at him. ¡°So what? You can block my attacks. That don¡¯t mean shit. Ya¡¯ll still can¡¯t hurt me.¡±
¡°He¡¯s right.¡± Aegis shouted loudly, waving his companions to cease their attacks. Rakkan promptly disengaged his echoes, Pyri pulled back her cinderbolts, Lina shadowstepped behind him, and Darkshot lowered his bow. With these actions, Mikael¡¯s group also stepped back, but kept their weapons drawn.
¡°Like I said. You wasted your flashy entrance for nothin¡¯. I dunno how you got here, but it doesn¡¯t matter. That shield ain''t gonna save you, carebear.¡± Seraxus crossed his arms and smirked smugly at Aegis and his companions.
¡°Well, hold on now¡¡± Aegis shook his head. ¡°I haven¡¯t even finished my flashy entrance yet. You¡¯re right that we can¡¯t hurt you, but¡¡± Aegis snapped his fingers and pointed upwards as a large shadow was cast over the stage suddenly, which grew rapidly in size. Everyone in the arena looked up and saw what it was - a Large, silver dragon whose scales shimmered in the sunlight, with a strange-looking, oversized saddle fastened to her back around her wings.
[Ysil¡¯mareina, The Silver Dragon(Elite) - ??] was hovering above her head, her wings pulled into a dive but spreading out at the last minute to slow herself down as she crashed her gigantic talons into the tiled floor of the arena in front of Yumily¡¯s stage. Her impact caused a great explosion of dust and smoke to fly outward, shaking the very ground they stood on as the sand cleared out. Her front and back legs created four giant imprint craters on the arena floor.
Immediately upon landing, she spread her wings wide and extended her long, scaly neck upwards, angling her jaw down towards Seraxus and opening it wide to show her many razor-sharp fangs, then released a deafening roar that drowned out all other sounds in the immediate vicinity. The roar itself had such a force behind it that it too created a gust of wind that caused everyone on the stage¡¯s clothes and hair to flap violently.
¡°She can.¡± Aegis pointed at Ysil¡¯mareina with a big dumb grin.
¡°You¡¯re not the only one that can ride a dragon,¡± Darkshot added in his deepest, most theatrical voice ever.
¡°LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!¡± Hae-won called out from atop the saddle on Ysil¡¯mareina¡¯s back. In Hae-won¡¯s hand was a staff with a voice amplification enchantment on it, causing her voice to echo out across the entire arena. ¡°What a surprise¡¡± She waved her hands out and paused briefly, allowing everyone to spot her and turn their eyes onto her.
¡°After putting in so much effort to stop us from participating in this tournament, I can hardly believe how happy you all seem to see us arrive here. I see nothing but smiles on the faces of even our greatest enemies!¡± Hae-won motioned towards the gathering of Gladiators on the far side of the arena, where Feng, Makaroth, Daehyun and the others all stood. ¡°My my my, Seraxus, you¡¯ve been quite the naughty boy. Everyone truly hates you, even your VGN buddies.¡± Hae-won spoke condescendingly down to him.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
¡°But, have no fear, everyone. The Savior of Arallia, the Protector of Kalmoore, the Harbinger of Light, and Champion of Eirene has arrived!¡± Hae-won cheered out excitedly at the top of her lungs causing many of the audience members to suddenly erupt into cheers - primarily the Tarolas NPCs, but many players as well.
As she spoke, Aegis turned his attention back to Yumily, doing his best to capitalize on the distraction that Hae-won was providing him.
¡°Yumily, list-¡±
Seraxus was having none of it, and prepared to charge at him again, forcing Aegis to turn around with his shield drawn defensively.
¡°Hae-won, I need you to explain it, he¡¯s not going to let me.¡± Aegis shouted up to her as she stood on the dragon¡¯s back, while Ysil¡¯mareina didn¡¯t hesitate in swiping one of her talons down at Seraxus and his party, forcing them to jump backwards to avoid the strike as it crashed through the section of the wooden stage they¡¯d been standing on.
¡°Of course, you always need me, don¡¯t you?¡± Hae-won replied playfully, her voice still obnoxiously louder than anything else. ¡°Alright everyone, you may have come here expecting to just witness a gladiator tournament, but instead, believe it or not, you¡¯ll all need to be participants. Because in order to stop Seraxus, we have to work together.¡± Hae-won cleared her throat and turned to look at Yumily, but couldn¡¯t stare at her for long as her face blushed red with excitement.
¡°Like the Avatar of Jealousy whose power grows in the presence of those who are jealous and envious - so too does the power of Seraxus¡¯ sword grow the more you hate him. When he awaked his sword by killing the Great Prophet of Zeus, this power growth became exponential. In his current state, he truly will be unbeatable, especially with those extra wings. But, all of us,¡± Hae-won flinched briefly as a black wave of dark abyssal magic shot out at her, fired off from Seraxus¡¯ sword - luckily it was blocked at the last moment from a projection of Aegis¡¯ shield.
¡°Whew, he¡¯s pissed.¡± Hae-won chuckled nervously as Ysil¡¯mareina took a few steps back from the encounter to keep Hae-won safe. ¡°As I was saying¡ He¡¯s not a psycho. He¡¯s never been one. He kills NPCs, children, and all players he encounters on purpose, to make us all hate him. As he says, he¡¯s just playing the game - the more we hate him, the stronger he gets. So, I¡¯m going to have to ask you all the impossible. Despite the destruction he brought upon Tarolas, and the pain he has caused the hundreds and thousands of players he has attacked, I need you all to forgive him. Stop the hatred. Because if you can¡¯t do that, no one will ever possibly stand a chance at beating that sword.¡±
¡°Hah.¡± Seraxus stopped attacking and jumped back away from Aegis and Mikael¡¯s groups, gathering with his companions a few meters away off the stage. ¡°Hahahaha!¡± Seraxus laughed as loudly and condescending as he could. ¡°That¡¯s yer plan? Seriously? Get a load of this clown.¡± Seraxus spoke to his audience now. ¡°He¡¯s gonna beat me by huggin¡¯ me, and makin¡¯ you all forgive me?¡±
¡°Yep. Because let¡¯s be honest, we shouldn¡¯t hate you. We should feel sorry for you. You¡¯re just a kid being manipulated by an evil sword.¡± Aegis shrugged.
¡°Mhm.¡± Darkshot nodded in agreement. They both saw how effective their words were as Seraxus¡¯ forced smile broke with a twitch of his eye.
¡°I wrecked all those vindicator scrubs by myself. Stomped that idiot Synopse, and waltzed through this shitty down just like I did Puagas. Hugs and kisses ain''t gonna stop shit. This moron is supposed to be the hero? What a joke.¡± Seraxus replied, addressing the audience around them while motioning to Aegis.
¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯re needed.¡± Aegis turned to Yumily. ¡°I need your help to stop him.¡± He spoke to her sincerely, staring deep into her eyes. His wording, and the way he looked at her caused her to blush briefly, much to Lina¡¯s dismay as she looked nervously at the exchange.
¡°Okay.¡± Yumily turned to Kenji. ¡°We need to get rid of all this hatred. It¡¯s up to us.¡± Yumily moved to start looking at her dancers, and other musicians. The stage had taken pretty hefty amounts of damage now, but there was still enough room left for a performance. ¡°5, 6, 7, 8.¡± She flicked her hands out, drawing out her floating pink instruments from her inventory and causing music to blair out of them, filling the stadium with a wondrous sound. Kenji followed it up with bright magic, and an illusionary projection of Yumily that made her appear much bigger, so that she could easily be seen by everyone present.
¡°This is a story of a sword, who corrupted a boy once pure of heart¡
This is a story of tragedy, to understand we must begin from the start¡
Tricked by power, and manipulated by the darkness of the abyss,
He was led astray¡ something on his path was amiss¡¡±
¡°Shut that bitch up,¡± Seraxus growled with rage as Yumily¡¯s voice overtook the stadium. He was preparing to charge towards her, seeing Aegis and his group position themselves to stand in the way was not deterring him, nor was the Silver Dragon. What finally deterred him and stopped his charge was the appearance of Makaroth, Feng, Daehyun, and numerous other members of their guilds, crowding the space between Seraxus and Yumily.
¡°The contract is unambiguous. Attacking Yumily after you¡¯ve already been warned will have serious consequences. Both out of game, and in.¡± Feng explained while brandishing his Mithral katana in Seraxus¡¯ direction. The conversation was now inaudible to anyone not in the immediate vicinity, due to the loud performance of Yumily.
¡°Aw, this is really cute.¡± Seraxus snarled at them. ¡°Suddenly, yall tough guys, just cause someone can block my sword?¡± He roared.
¡°It¡¯s more like, suddenly you have to accept no as an answer, because something has shown up to counter your bullshit sword.¡± Mikael replied. Seraxus held his aggressive stance with his 4 companions standing behind him anxiously, staring down the now several dozen high level players glaring at him.
¡°Hah. Aite. Fine. 5 Minutes till the first match starts. Play your shitty music all you want. You still aint gonna be able to stop m-...¡± Seraxus stopped as he watched the black wings on his back slowly begin to fade away as the audience started cheering along with Yumily¡¯s song.
¡°You were saying?¡± Aegis smirked.
¡°I¡¯m gonna enjoy stompin¡¯ you into the ground. If you even make it to the finals. Shame we''re on different sides of the bracket.¡± Seraxus replied before turning to walk away, towards a nearby door leading out of the arena grounds. No one dared block his path, Aegis could tell that despite their numbers and his shield, everyone was still afraid to go near him and his sword - Aegis included. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, his hands shaking slightly from behind his shield due to him knowing how easily he could¡¯ve been killed by one slip up, and how many eyes were currently on him.
Pyri, standing behind him, noticed this and gently put her hand on Aegis¡¯ shoulder to reassure him and calm him down, and he turned to look at her and see her smiling back at him warmly. Rakkan, on the other hand, did not for a single moment take his eyes off of Seraxus as he walked out of the arena, as if he was trying to burn a hole in the back of his head with his gaze.
¡°Thank you for stepping in on behalf of our city¡¡± Daehyun politely walked up to Aegis to shake his hand. Aegis looked at the hand for longer than he should have before moving his head up to look Daehyun in the eyes, noticing that all VGN members were currently staring at him.
¡°No problem. We all have to do our part and work together to keep all hatred to a minimum, so let¡¯s remember we¡¯re all on the same team, alright guys?¡± Aegis forced a smile, which looked visibly painful for him to maintain as he panned his eyes around to look at Feng, Calikgos, Synopse, and finally landing on Makaroth.
¡°That¡¯s the most poorly veiled hate-smile I¡¯ve ever seen. He looks like his head is going to explode.¡± Lilya whispered to Synopse as Synopse awkwardly glanced between Makaroth and Aegis, seeing that Makaroth too was struggling to force out a smile that looked like an ogre choking on a drumstick. There were other murmurs and comments on this exchange, but thankfully Yumily¡¯s music made it so that no one¡¯s livestream was picking up anything they were saying.
After having taken it for as long as he could, Aegis swiftly turned and began heading to another door leading out of the arena, motioning his party to follow behind him which they complied.
¡°Come on, let¡¯s prepare for the first round. We¡¯re the last match of round one, but that¡¯ll give us a chance to observe all of our future potential opponents.¡± Aegis said to them.
¡°Remind me¡ who are we facing first again?¡± Darkshot asked him, speaking loud enough to be heard over Yumily¡¯s music.
¡°Our first match is against Schadenfreude.¡± Rakkan answered on Aegis¡¯ behalf.
Chapter 280: Gladiator Tournament Begins
Chapter 280: Gladiator Tournament Begins
¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, gamers and watchers,¡± A VGN Broadcaster began speaking proudly as he stood in his studio, behind him a wide shot of the gladiator arena within Tarolas. ¡°Dwarves, Elves, Lizardfolk, demihumans, and humans alike have all gathered in masses to witness this monumental event.¡± He motioned to the screen more clearly, ¡°Representatives from all of the strongest guilds, biggest streamers, and every island have come together to compete, with the unified goal of putting a stop to the Sword of Hatred¡¯s reign of terror¡¡±
As the caster continued to babble on, Nicholas waved his fingers to take it off of his screen. He was sitting inside his own office simulation with dozens of livestream feeds on display ahead of him, while his ear implant was glowing green.
¡°How¡¯re we looking?¡± He asked into his implant, talking to Mike on the other side of his call.
¡°All hands on deck. System engineers and maintenance are on standby in case anything goes wrong, with this many players on one island with so much attention, it¡¯s gonna be rough but we should manage.¡± Mike replied confidently.
¡°Good,¡± Nicholas replied, then took a deep breath as he eyed a numbered graph on the top right most screen of his multiple displays. The number showed the collective viewership of all live stream broadcasts coming from The Shattered World Online, and below that number was how many concurrent users were logged in. Both numbers were staggeringly high, and had ¡®New Record!¡¯ in a small font next to them. ¡°Good¡¡± He mumbled a second time to himself, much more worriedly.
Aegis, Lina, Darkshot, Rakkan, Hae-won, and Pyri stepped out of a large pair of wooden doors reinforced with iron. The doors lead into the gladiator arena, where loud cheers were still roaring along with Yumily¡¯s performance, which she was quickly wrapping up.
¡°Thank you all for coming and your warm welcome. Remember, we mustn¡¯t spread hatred! I¡¯ll continue to sing along as the tournament goes on to keep the spirits up, but it¡¯s time now for me to introduce all of the competitors participating in the tournament, as the opening ceremony for the 39th monthly Gladiator tournament is about to begin!¡± Yumily called out with enthusiasm, her demeanor having completely shifted from how it was just minutes ago.
Aegis didn¡¯t pay much mind to what Yumily was doing, though, and instead turned to Hae-won as she followed behind the group.
¡°Where¡¯s Ysil?¡±
¡°She¡¯s flying around the skies up there, like you told me to tell her to do.¡± Hae-won replied matter-of-factly.
¡°Okay, good.¡± Aegis nodded. ¡°Incase that other dragon comes back, we¡¯re going to need her help.¡±
¡°You really think that abyss dragon¡¯s gonna come back?¡± Darkshot asked him worriedly. ¡°Winning a 5v5 is hard enough as it is¡¡±
¡°Once a match starts, nothing can enter or exit the arena, so we don¡¯t need to worry about something like that.¡± Lina explained.
¡°It¡¯s not our match I¡¯m worried about.¡± Aegis replied as the group continued to walk slowly forward. To his left and right, other doors into the arena had opened, and the other teams of 5 competitors were all walking out towards the center just as Aegis¡¯ group was. ¡°We don¡¯t know what Avatar of Hatred abilities he unlocked when he killed the Great Prophet of Zeus, so we need to do our best to disable his power. Him having the dragon start burning down the city while we¡¯re fighting would make that difficult.¡±
¡°Oh, yeah. Right, good point.¡± Darkshot nodded while Darkwing cooed in agreement from atop his shoulder.
¡°Well, you guys just need to focus on putting on a good performance, and I¡¯ll handle our public image. I was born for stuff like this.¡± Hae-won smirked ear-to-ear as she walked proudly behind the five. ¡°By the time this tournament is over, you¡¯ll definitely be the number one streamer.¡±
As she said this, Aegis turned to look at her, and she responded with a wink which Aegis couldn¡¯t help but smile slightly at.
¡°Only if we stop Seraxus, though.¡±
¡°Whaddya mean? You¡¯re gonna stop him, right? You¡¯ve got a plan, don¡¯t you?¡± Hae-won raised her eyebrows at him. Aegis responded not by words, but by looking away from her and taking a deep anxious breath. ¡°Right?!¡± Hae-won said louder, but still got no response.
¡°Our biggest challenge is going to be holding back hatred for him.¡± Aegis said while turning to look at Rakkan, and Rakkan immediately knew what Aegis meant.
¡°Imma try.¡± Rakkan nodded back.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, whatever happens, we¡¯re going to get through it together, okay?¡± Pyri tried to reassure them all. ¡°Tournaments, under normal circumstances, are actually really fun. Structured PvP with even teams brings out some really exciting and interesting tactics and playstyles, usually consisting of strange skill combinations and interactions that you would¡¯ve never thought of before.¡± She said cheerfully as they stopped walking forward due to a blue wall appearing in front of them, then surrounding them in a box of blue light signifying they¡¯d arrived at their position in the arena for the opening ceremony. ¡°It¡¯s just a shame how much of a problem that sword is. Turns all the fun into mounting pressure.¡± Pyri shrugged as if it was not as big of a deal as she implied it to be.
¡°Our first competitor, hailing from the Island of Puagas - the previous winner of all tournaments in recent history¡¡± Yumily¡¯s voice rose up louder, to quiet down the sounds of the audience''s chatter and cheers. It worked quickly, so that very soon it was only her that was making audible noise within the large arena. ¡°Seraxus.¡± Yumily announced with very clearly forced enthusiasm.
Despite all that had happened, though, cheers still erupted from the stands for him, surprising Aegis.
¡°WE HATE YOU SERAXUS!¡±
¡°YEAH, GO DIE! Hahaha!¡± The audience members shouted hateful comments, but in jest. Some roared at them with anger, others with pure sarcasm.
¡°Ahaha!¡± Seraxus laughed loudly as he spun around to look at them. ¡°Thanks guys, thanks. I appreciate all the hatred. No need to force yourselves, though, I know you all actually love me. I¡¯ll get all the hatred I need from these clowns.¡± Seraxus motioned towards the other 15 teams standing around the arena, all in their respective blue boxes of light.
¡°Hailing from Lanusk, one of two teams to represent the guild The Vindicators, they are competing in the gladiator tournament for the very first time. Please give a warm welcome for Starcry!¡± Yumily cheered as she motioned to a beautiful, tall female demi-human with pointed orange fox ears protruding out of her long black hair. She stood wearing Vindicator garbs, as did the 4 team members that stood behind her. Once she heard her name, she smiled and politely bowed as the stands erupted in cheers, revealing just how many vindicators and their fans were in the audience.
¡°That¡¯s the Vindicator¡¯s second string team, right?¡± Darkshot asked to confirm.
¡°Yes, that¡¯s not Feng¡¯s group. They are also on the other side of the bracket, though.¡± Lina replied as she pointed upwards to a very hard to see, angled transparent display floating above the center of the arena. The display was made in a way for audience members to easily view it from the stands, thus forcing Aegis and the others to crane their necks to look at it properly.
As the cheers died down and Yumily continued down the line in her announcements, Aegis checked the bracket more closely once again. He¡¯d already looked at it carefully during the flight from Kalmoore to Tarolas, but having their first match being so immediate made him want to remind himself which opponents they¡¯d potentially need to look out for.
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¡°We¡¯re on the right side of the bracket with 8 other teams. First we face the German guild, Schadenfreude. You said you know them, right?¡± Aegis turned to Rakkan.
¡°Yeah. It¡¯s been awhile though. I don¡¯t know what it''ll be like to face them, but I know that their leader Mikael won¡¯t have his advanced class yet, since he needs to beat Seraxus for it.¡±
¡°Maybe he¡¯ll just forfeit so we can do that for him?¡± Darkshot suggested.
¡°Doubt it.¡± Rakkan replied quickly. ¡°They¡¯re the only ones in this tournament that I can guarantee are as serious about stopping Seraxus as we are. And they don¡¯t get to this final round of the tournament every month for nothing - they¡¯re really good at PvP.¡±
¡°Great¡¡± Pyri rubbed her hands together excitedly. ¡°Best of 5 format, right?¡±
¡°Right.¡± Lina nodded back at her, catching some of her excitement while Aegis turned to his left and saw Mikael, Mightymira, Jeremax and two other Schadenfreude members standing there, staring back at them with emotionless faces.
As this exchange happened, Yumily continued to go around the arena introducing more teams one at a time.
¡°If we beat them¡¡± Aegis broke eye contact to look back up at the bracket, ¡°We¡¯ll face the winner of the matches between Skar¡¯s team, and Eerie¡¯s team.¡± Aegis pointed at the neighboring match to theirs on the bracket. Once he had, he started looking around the arena to spot these two teams. First, he¡¯d spotted Eerie¡¯s team wearing white tabards with a deep violet ghost on the front of it.
¡°Eerie¡¯s team is good. They are also regulars. I¡¯ve watched them before. They¡¯ve fought Seraxus twice already in previous tournaments.¡± Lina explained.
¡°Do you watch these tournaments?¡± Aegis asked to confirm.
¡°Mhm.¡± Lina nodded.
¡°You don¡¯t?¡± Darkshot asked him, but then remembered who he was talking to. ¡°They¡¯re pretty fun, outside of Seraxus¡¯ matches which are always one-sided.¡± Darkshot shrugged.
¡°Skar¡¯s a newcomer, though. One of the big VGN streamers in the top 25, from the Jungle island.¡±
¡°We¡¯ll need to watch their match closely, then, so we¡¯re ready for them once we get past our first round.¡± Aegis said, and the others nodded along while all turning to look at Skar¡¯s team, standing opposite to Aegis¡¯ in the arena with Yumily¡¯s stage between them, somewhat obscuring their view.
¡°After that, if all goes well, our semifinals are most likely going to be them.¡± Hae-won joined in,pointing at Synopse¡¯s team as they were just now being introduced by Yumily. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone else on our side of the bracket will stop them, so it¡¯ll be up to you guys. And if you beat Synopse, you¡¯ll be in the finals, most likely against either Seraxus, or perhaps Feng, or Starcry, if they somehow manage to take out Seraxus.¡±
¡°If the vindicators on the other side of the bracket take out Seraxus before the finals, we¡¯ve got no reason to be here¡ really¡¡± Aegis shrugged as he looked at the standings once more. ¡°Fighting two artifact weapon wielders back to back is gonna suck though.¡±
¡°Uhm. We might want to try to win the whole tournament, even if Seraxus loses early¡¡± Lina replied to him while fidgeting with her interface.
¡°Why?¡±
¡°Look¡¡± She quickly shared what she was looking at with the others. ¡°The prize for winning first place lets you choose from a few rewards for your group. One of the prizes, which Seraxus has never taken, is that¡¡± Lina pointed the itemcard out from a list that was hanging in front of the group, shared to all of them through the party interface.
|
Name: Soul Dust
Type: Crafting Material / Spell Reagent
Option 1: Improves Mana Regeneration
Option 2: Increases Magic Resistance
Option 3: Grants the wielder the passive ability [Soul Vision]
Quality: 75%
|
¡°Soul vision? What¡¯s that?¡± Aegis asked curiously as he read the item card.
¡°Dunno, it¡¯s not in the database.¡± Rakkan quickly answered as he¡¯d run a search for it through his interface.
¡°Interesting¡¡± Aegis pondered.
¡°But, you wouldn¡¯t use it to craft, would you? That¡¯s the reagent you need to revive NPCs.¡± Darkshot asked him curiously.
¡°Yeah¡ maybe. I was hoping to find a more readily available method to obtain the dust, but if it can only be earned like this, I might have to plan more carefully on how to use it.¡±
¡°Right.¡± Darkshot nodded in agreement.
¡°Guys, stop talking, pay attention¡¡± Hae-won nudged them all violently and pointed up to Yumily, who was now looking over at them.
¡°And finally, hailing from my new home Island of Kalmoore,¡± Yumily smiled at Aegis¡¯ group as she drew the attention of the entire audience towards them. Aegis and the others quickly did their best to straighten their backs and look presentable - save for Darkshot who suddenly knocked an arrow and crouched, pulling his hood up and aiming his arrow towards the audience.
¡°The hell are you doing?¡± Aegis whispered to him.
¡°Looking badass, obviously.¡± Darkshot replied, causing Lina and Pyri to giggle at him while Rakkan rolled his eyes.
¡°You look like an idiot.¡± Aegis sighed.
¡°I disagree, I''m a badass.¡± Darkshot replied confidently as he started shifting where he was pointing his arrow slowly, and Darkwing cooed excitedly from his shoulder.
¡°Aegis, the Harbinger of Light, and his party members Lina, Pyri, Darkshot and Rakkan!¡± Yumily cheered, and her cheer was followed by a joyous roar from the audience in the stands. Much to Aegis surprise, it was unquestionably the loudest cheer that the audience had mustered up until this point, dwarfing that of what Feng, Seraxus and Synopse got. This caused Makaroth and his fellow guild members, who sat silently in the stands, to glare down in Aegis¡¯ direction. Their silence had no effect on how welcoming the crowd was to the Harbinger of Light, however.
¡°Oh this is gonna be great. They already love us.¡± Hae-won squealed with joy, only audible to Aegis and his group.
¡°And with that, we will begin with our first match of the tournament. All competitors, please return to your waiting arenas inside the arena where you will be able to view the current ongoing matches, until it is your turn to compete.¡± Yumily explained, turning her attention from Aegis¡¯ group and back towards the audience. ¡°The first teams competing, please remain in the arena as your match will begin shortly. Remember that the arena will reset to its original state at the beginning of every round, so don¡¯t worry about holding back! And everyone in the audience, you¡¯ll be perfectly safe - nothing can enter or exit the arena once a match has begun.¡± Yumily reassured them.
¡°That¡¯s us, time to go.¡± Aegis shrugged as he turned to start heading back towards the door that they¡¯d come from.
¡°Okay. Good luck guys. I¡¯ll be broadcasting your matches live from the stands, using my very expensive staff. Put on a good show, and I¡¯ll be your ultimate hype-woman. Got it?¡± Hae-won said, padding them all on the backs as they walked past her.
¡°Just don¡¯t say anything weird, alright?¡± Aegis asked her worriedly.
¡°Psh. Me? Weird? Come on. Have more faith in your broadcaster! You know me!¡±
¡°That¡¯s exactly why he said it.¡± Pyri gave her a look.
¡°Ehehe¡¡± Hae-won grinned deviously. With these final words, they walked too far away to be able to speak without screaming, due to the loud cheers and chatter of the audience. One by one, each team left the arena, and Yumily¡¯s group headed out as well as a blue wave of magical energy rolled over her stage and removed it completely from the battle field.
As Aegis¡¯ party stepped through the door, it shut behind them with a loud bang leaving them in a darkened corridor lit only by dim torches that were bolted to the gray stone brick walls. The last glimpse they¡¯d seen inside the arena was that of Hae-won struggling to climb up the walls of the arena to get up into the audience stands with the other on-lookers.
Aegis led the party down the corridor until it opened up into a small, square chamber decorated with multiple weapon racks, banners of various guilds within Tarolas, and several benches in the center. On one wall, though, were three video feeds from inside the arena, allowing it to be viewed from three separate angles. Aegis looked at them to ascertain that these displays were not of any livestream but something the game provided for contestants in waiting rooms.
¡°If it¡¯s like this always, we¡¯re pretty lucky that we¡¯re going last. It lets us watch all of our opponents beforehand.¡± Aegis commented.
¡°It kinda wasn¡¯t luck. We¡¯re at the end of the bracket because we''re the last to win our final preliminary. Sometimes, people time their preliminary match victories to control where in the bracket they get placed, so that they can dodge Seraxus and get to the finals.¡± Rakkan explained.
¡°Oh, that¡¯s smart. That makes sense.¡± Pyri nodded as he explained, and their entire party moved to sit on benches and look toward the three screens on display.
¡°That also explains why Seraxus was in the first slot and is competing first,¡± Darkshot said as he pointed out the two teams of competitors who¡¯d remained in the arena.
¡°Seraxus versus Starcry, the second string Vindicators.¡± Aegis clarified.
Chapter 281: Opening Act
Chapter 281: Opening Act
¡°Okay¡¡± Aegis let out a gasp of air, sitting on the bench in front of the multiple livestream disys of the diator arena. The tournament''s first match was beginning, and thepetitors had already been instructed to exit their waiting rooms and enter the arena.
From the left side of the oval arena, Seraxus and his party stepped out, walking slow and proud as the audience erupted in boos and angry shouts. This did nothing to wipe the smug smile off of his face.
Opposite his party, Starcry¡¯s team entered the arena. Her demeanor varied drastically as she looked up with a warm smile to the audience members in the stands nearest, waving and bowing to them and thanking them for their support. Their cheers were of encouragement and pride, most of which came from the Vindicators in the stands who were sporting their red guild tabards proudly.
¡°How bad do you think this is going to be?¡± Aegis asked as he tilted his head to look at Pyri, standing at the end of the bench that he sat on, with Lina at his side, leaning forward towards the disys and watching them intently. Rakkan was pacing behind them, eyes glued to the screen. At the same time, Darkshot leaned up against the back wall and tended to Darkwing on his shoulder, who was looking anxious and jittery due to the sounds of the loud crowd cheers reverberating the walls of the chamber around them.
¡°Pretty bad.¡± Pyri shrugged with an apologetic look as she nced back at Aegis briefly. ¡°I mean, in terms of video game opponents, these avatars of darkness are deceptively difficult. The Simbox technology allows the game to read our emotions somewhat¡ So, using those emotions as a power source for the bad guys would mean that arge portion of the yer base would need to be able to control their emotions tobat them. If you can''t do that, you need to be able to overpower the dark emotions with positive ones at least, and¡ well¡ frankly¡¡± Pyri hesitated to say it, but Aegis already knew it himself.
¡°It¡¯s a lot easier to spread negativity than positivity.¡± Aegis finished her sentence.
¡°Yep.¡± She nodded. "It worked for a bit, but, look,¡± she motioned to the disy where Seraxus entered the arena. "His wings are already starting to retake form. You might¡¯ve given Yumily an impossible task.¡±
¡°Maybe.¡± Aegis agreed.
¡°Have a lil faith, guys, she¡¯s the number one bard for a reason right?¡± Darkshot asked. ¡°Her music is really good,¡± Lina added encouragingly.
¡°We don¡¯t need someone who releases hit music. We need a strong yer.¡± Rakkan replied with a grumble. ¡°I don¡¯t think she¡¯s gonna be able to handle it. She might not even try, she¡¯s with those VGN guys.¡±
¡°Well¡ if she doesn¡¯t, we¡¯ll have to figure out how to deal with his Avatar of Hatred abilities.¡± Aegis tried to remain optimistic.
¡°On top of his party¡¯s PvP dynamic. And the overpowered sword.¡± Pyri replied discouragingly.
¡°Yeah. On top of those things.¡± Aegis leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his sped hands, locking his eyes onto the screens.
Hae-won was pacing around the lowest row of the diator arena, eying a faintly glowing blue wall of magical energy that had risen up around the arena, preventing her from re-entering it. Curiosity got the better of her regardless, and she lightly tapped the blue wall of magic to confirm she couldn¡¯t pass anything through it. On contact, a ripple effect of magic began flowing out from the impact point of her enchanted staff that she¡¯d touched it with, making the wall temporarily easier to see.
From then, she continued pacing along, eying thepetitors in the arena below as Yumily began introducing them to hype up the match. Hae-won quickly turned her attention to Yumily as she stood up on a raised tform on the far side of the arena, opposite the main entrance of the arena. Itsyout was surprisingly simr to the Odin arena back in Kordas, but rather than any religious figures sitting on the raised tform, it was outfitted with decorations and stationary instruments for Yumily¡¯s band and dancers to work from.
¡°The first team to reach three victories will be the winners, while the other team will be eliminated from the tournament¡¡± Yumily calmly exined the tournament rules to her audience, and the audience in the arena. It felt stiff, as though she was reading from a script, and Hae-won quickly lost interest and instead looked more carefully at Seraxus¡¯ and Starcry¡¯s teams inside the battle arena.
Despite Aegis¡¯ entrance and exining to everyone in the world how they needed tobat Seraxus, his smug smile remained. It sent a chill down Hae-won¡¯s spine as she saw it - his confidence unshaken.
¡°This is going to be bad,¡± Hae-won mumbled to herself nervously, quickly hitting a button in her interface to log herself out of the Shattered World simtion, and swapped over to her office simtion. Once in the office simtion, she pressed a few buttons on her wrist imnt to open a call with Tommy and Shinji.
¡°Guys. I think what we did is going to make this situation way worse. They¡¯re all going to turn on Aegis. I need to take over as his broadcaster as soon as possible.¡± Hae-won exined anxiously while opening up Aegis¡¯ livestream on a viewer in her office simtion to see another female broadcaster standing in front of Aegis¡¯ stream. ¡°I need to take over for Alicia.¡±
¡°No, you need to be in the game and shoutcasting his matches,¡± Tommy replied.
¡°His matches aren¡¯t gonna matter. His image is gonna get thrown into the dumpster when they me him for what¡¯s about to happen.¡± Hae-won angrily retorted.
¡°How do you know what¡¯s going to happen?¡± Shinji asked curiously, his hands somewhat idle due to the very little action taking ce on Aegis¡¯ stream.
¡°Because I¡¯ve been Aegis¡¯ broadcaster from the beginning, and before that, I broadcasted for other streamers. I know how yers act and react to these sorts of situations. VGN is about to have all the ammunition in the world to take him down.¡±
¡°If you know what¡¯s going to happen, why not stop it?¡± Tommy asked.
¡°What do you mean, stop it?¡± Hae-won snapped back as though he¡¯d said something absurd.
¡°You¡¯re in the arena with your in-game character, aren¡¯t you?¡±
¡°Well, yeah, but I¡¯m a broadcaster.¡±
¡°Not right now, you¡¯re not.¡± Tommy shrugged.
¡°What, you want me to y the game?¡± Hae-won scoffed at this suggestion.
¡°Your livestreamer needs your help, doesn¡¯t he?¡± Tommy replied quickly.
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¡°I¡¯m only level 10!¡± She shouted in annoyance.
¡°You are the best broadcaster I¡¯ve ever seen, evenpared to those I worked with in VGN. You don¡¯t want them to best you just because they might have some ammunition, right?¡± Shinji replied, causing Hae-won to pause.
¡°Appealing to my ego isn¡¯t going to work¡ I don¡¯t get paid enough to be a caster and a yer.¡± Hae-won replied with less aggression and more hesitation.
¡°You get paid plenty.¡± Tommy sighed. ¡°We¡¯ve relied on Aegis to prop us up and put our studio on the map. You¡¯ll regret it if you don¡¯t do everything you can to support him. We all will.¡± He added in a severe tone, which brought the three of them to a moment of silence.
¡°Ahhhhhhhhh¡¡± Hae-won shouted in frustration before angrily ending the call and hitting her wrist imnt to re-enter the Shattered World Simtion. It took her a second to regain her bearings as the lighting shifted and the loud audience cheers once again filled her ears.
¡°Remember everyone, no matter what happens, the sword is at fault. Seraxus is a victim!¡± Yumily called out to the crowds as the match below had already begun.
It was a ughter - Seraxus¡¯ party hung back while he alone charged forward and, within a few moments, cut through two of Starcry¡¯s party members, killing them in single hits despite them making several attempts at effective countermeasures to his attacks.
The Vindicators began booing and shouting angrily down at him, and the ck, misty wings on Seraxus¡¯ back gained more and more substance.
Starcry shifted into a druidic beast form while her two remaining party members began bombarding Seraxus with ranged attacks, utilizing crowd control effects to try and slow him down. A few spells hit, binding Seraxus¡¯ feet and causing his floating weapons to freeze in blocks of ice. This prompted Hajax to step forward to get into Seraxus''s range and cast several spells to remove the bindings on Seraxus'' feet while the rest of Seraxus¡¯ party remained hanging back and watching smugly.
¡°It looks like Starcry¡¯s team has managed to lock down Seraxus¡¯ weapons - forcing the advanced cleric yer Hajax to step forward and remove the crowd control. Seraxus remains confident in his approach, though - he feels no need to involve the rest of his party members.¡± A VGN broadcaster began shouting out from a voice-amplified staff. He was standing adjacent to Yumily on her raised tform, which gave Yumily a break from her speaking.
¡°With her druidic skills, her transformation into that ck-furred lynx beast grants her potent status effects that may allow her to contest Seraxus. She¡¯s able to keep up with his speed, and with his weapons locked up in ice, as long as she¡¯s able to avoid his sword, she might be able to deal some serious damage.¡± The caster continued.
¡°It¡¯s so one-sided and hopeless it¡¯s not even funny. No caster can spin it any other way.¡± Hae-won shook her head at the match disapprovingly. ¡°Three people aren¡¯t even fighting, and he¡¯s won the match.¡±
Hae-won was correct in her assessment, as within the next 30 seconds, Seraxus had killed Starcry¡¯sst two party members, resulting in the ice spell on his floating weapons disappearing. Instead, though, he didn¡¯t bother controlling them and let them fall to the ground.
In her Lynx form, Starcry squared off with Seraxus, growling menacingly and baring her fangs as she began pacing around to get a better angle of attack.
¡°Come on. Really? A Beastshift Druid?¡± Seraxus shouted mockingly, speaking as loudly as possible so the entire arena could hear him. ¡°How¡¯d you even get to the finals? Did your zerg guild just pay off all of your opponents? Or did they simp for you ¡®cause you look a little cute?¡± Seraxus asked, followed by a condescendingugh.
This provoked Starcry into lunging forward at him, but rather than take a fighting stance, Seraxus surprisingly sheathed his sword of hatred on his back and sidestepped the pounce attack. While sidestepping, he raised his hand and pulled it back, then whipped it out at Starcry¡¯s Lynx form as it crashed into the tiled ground of the arena where he¡¯d been standing. His open hand impacted the side of her Lynx¡¯s face, making a loud pping sound as the force from the strike was enough to throw her off bnce somewhat.
¡°Hahaha!¡± Seraxusughed while jumping backward to dodge a retaliatory swipe attack from her ws. ¡°Imma beat you with ps, just to prove how much you don¡¯t belong here. You¡¯re gonna be the first yer to ever be pped to death in a diator tournament.¡± Seraxus exined while dodging another swipe, andnding another open-handed strike on her Lynx form, causing her to wince - the damage being dealt was very minor.
¡°I.. uhh..¡± The caster anxiously tried to react to these words as the crowds of Vindicators erupted in roars of rage. ¡°If Seraxus refuses to use the sword of hatred to finish off Starcry, then she might have a chance. A beast-shift druid will borrow the health pool of the beast they shift into, and his unarmed strikes are not doing very much damage. This will grant her many opportunities to adjust to his fighting style, as she¡¯ll die very¡ uh¡ slowly at this rate.¡± The broadcaster announced hesitantly, clearly regretting the final words of his sentence.
¡°At least think about what you¡¯re saying first,¡± Hae-won grumbled to herself in frustration, once again looking away from the match-up at Yumily on the stage.
¡°Don¡¯t mind, Starcry, you can do it!¡± Yumily tried encouraging her, but her voice was drowned out by the shouts of booing and anger as Seraxusnded several more ps on Starcry.
¡°Just forfeit, you idiot,¡± Hae-won growled towards the arena.
¡°Hahaha!¡± Seraxus continued tough as his ck wings solidified more and more, and a dark, misty aura began to emanate from the sword. The final tipping point for Hae-won, though, was as Seraxus jumped over a pounce attack from Starcry andnded on her back, grabbing onto her fur and mockingly mounting her beast form. ¡°Yee-haw! Giddy up horsey!¡± Heughed as his wings hardened. Within a few seconds of this, his wings and aura had reverted to the state they had been in before Aegis arrived in Tars - he had everyone absolutely hating him.
The hatred in the arena made the game world air heavy, almost weighing down on Hae-won.
¡°Okay.¡± Hae-won tweaked her neck. ¡°That¡¯s enough. Time to take over this show.¡± She huffed out in frustration before taking off towards the raised tform Yumily stood on.
It took a few moments for Hae-won to make her way around therge arena to reach the bottom of the stone stairs that lead up to Yumily¡¯s tform. At the base of it stood Kenji, keeping guard to prevent any unwanted guests from disturbing Yumily and her band. At this time, Starcry had taken Hae-won¡¯s advice despite not hearing it and had forfeited the first round, prompting the VGN caster to announce the winner and begin talking of ways for Starcry¡¯s group toe back in the next match.
¡°Hold on. No one is allowed up here at the moment.¡± Kenji held out his hand to stop Hae-won.
¡°You recognize me, don¡¯t you? I¡¯m from Kalmoore.¡±
¡°Yes, you came in with Aegis, and you saved our dancers¡ but currently, Yumily is working¡¡± Kenji replied hesitantly.
¡°You gotta let me talk to her before this gets any worse.¡±
¡°I can¡¯t. I¡¯ve been instructed not to let anyone up. I¡¯ve also been specifically instructed not to let your party interact with Yumily anymore, or she might be punished.¡±
¡°Really?¡± Hae-won leaned back and widened her eyes in disbelief. ¡°You¡¯re gonna follow those instructions like a good little dog?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like it, but Yumily''s under contract¡¡± Kenji replied apologetically.
¡°If you let things keep going like this, it¡¯s over. You can¡¯t tell me you¡¯re okay with how things are going, right? Look at her.¡± Hae-won pointed up at the tform at the top of the stairs, where Kenji stood guard, and Yumily was anxiously standing at the edge, looking somewhat lost as the VGN caster had momentarily taken over for her.
¡°It¡¯s only the first match¡¡± Kenji replied.
¡°Really?¡± Hae-won rolled her eyes at him.
¡°If I let you up there, it will be chaos.¡±
¡°It¡¯s already chaos.¡±
¡°I mean, for Yumily, outside of the game.¡±
¡°What is more important to her? Making VGN happy, or spreading happiness and stopping that asshole?¡± Hae-won asked while angrily gesturing down into the arena where Seraxus stood, triumphantly walking back to his side of the arena as Starcry¡¯s party members were returned to life and began reappearing on her side of the arena - the 2nd match beginning shortly. ¡°I¡¯m a huge fan of Yumily. Maybe the hugest. So I know the answer to that question. And as one of her band members and bodyguards, I know goddamn well that you know the answer too. Let me through. I¡¯m here to help.¡± Hae-won dered firmly, locking eyes with Kenji.
Kenji stared back at her with great hesitation but eventually let out a sigh and stepped to the side.
¡°I hope you know what you¡¯re doing.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m a professional,¡± Hae-won replied before marching up the stairs to reach Yumily¡¯s stage.
Chapter 282: No Holding Back
Chapter 282: No Holding Back
¡°Making the world aware of how Seraxus¡¯ sword works was a double-edged sword, and it''s now backfiring in the worst way imaginable.¡± A VGN Newscaster spoke to his audience, seated beside his co-host in the VGN broadcasting studio.
¡°Yes, it was very shortsighted of Aegis, but we can¡¯t expect much else from him as he¡¯s repeatedly shown himself to be hot-headed. He basically just told all of Seraxus¡¯ supporters exactly how they can support them, giving them a method to directly empower his abilities despite not being in the matches with him. No other streamer here has the ability to be empowered by their fans like Seraxus can.¡± The co-host replied, alternating between talking to his co-host and talking to the camera.
¡°All we can do is hope that Synopse or Feng will be strong enough to stand up against a fully empowered Sword of Hatred.¡±
¡°Yes, let¡¯s hope Aegis hasn¡¯t done permanent damage and doomed our champions of light to defeat.¡±
Nichs stood in his office simtion, watching this broadcast alongside Andrew. They both remained silent as this stream yed out alongside multiple others in the ongoing tournament match.
The second match between Seraxus and Starcry had begun, this time with Seraxus¡¯ wingspletely solidified and a thick dark aura of ck abyssal mist emanating from him. It was worse the second time around as he didn¡¯t just toy with Starcry but his entire party - all the while yelling insults.
¡°This looks bad, but he¡¯s carefully avoiding breaking our terms of service,¡± Andrewmented after Nichs waved his fingers to bring Seraxus¡¯ stream front and center.
¡°He¡¯s been trained by hiswork,¡± Nichs replied while crossing his arms and ring at the disy.
¡°I really don¡¯t like these guys.¡± Andrew sighed. A moment of silence between the two passed with nothing but the sounds of the VGN shoutcaster talking about the match from the tform overlooking the arena, where Yumily stood out of view from the stream. Frustrated, Nichs began to fidget with his office simtion interface to bring up a call with Mike. ¡°How¡¯re we looking, Mike?¡± Nichs asked but was met with no response. ¡°Mike?¡±
¡°Uh, sorry, hang on,¡± Ryan replied, much to Nichs¡¯ surprise. ¡°Mike said he went to check on things with the engineers, but everything security-wise is looking good.¡±
¡°Okay. Thanks for the update.¡± Nichs replied.
¡°Sorry, I couldn¡¯t stop him.¡± Ryan apologized in a much more quiet tone.
¡°You¡¯re not at fault. Don¡¯t worry about it. Whatever happens, happens.¡± Nichs replied before ending the call.
¡°Hae-won¡¯s right. They¡¯re ming it all on Aegis.¡± Tommy sighed into his voice call with both Alicia and Shinji. He, too, was watching the VGN coverage from inside his office simtion. ¡°Do your best to ignore it, Alicia. We¡¯ll see if Hae-won can¡¯t sort it out.¡±
¡°Okay.¡± Alicia nodded, her voice carrying the pressure and anxiety she felt as she eyed the angry messages flooding into Aegis¡¯ Livestream chat window from all of the VGN fans.
Shinji, however, remained silent, watching nothing but Aegis¡¯ stream - the news of what everyone else was saying and doing waspletely cut off from him. Intentionally, he focused on Aegis and Aegis alone, readying himself to edit the footage of his uing match by calmly closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.
Hae-won stepped up onto the raised tform, briefly overwhelmed by the view. From atop the tform, it was much easier to see the thousands of yers and NPCs packed into the arena, all shouting and cheering at the ongoing second match between Seraxus and Starcry. The VGN broadcaster, a level 21 yer, was standing near the front with a staff enchanted with voice amplification, shout casting the match by doing his best to call out all abilities being used by the yers in the arena.
He wasn¡¯t doing a very good job of it, but Hae-won wasn¡¯t in a position to critique him. It was one thing for her to broadcast to an audience through a chat log, but very different to stand in front of so many people.
Worse for her, was that as she panned her eyes away from the audience and towards the tform itself, she saw Yumily standing in front of her, looking on worriedly down at the match while clenching her hands into fists, lightly pacing left and right as if unsure what to do with herself.
¡°The wings are back, we have to do something, right?¡± Yumily asked while turning to her dancers who were standing behind her, looking just as concerned.
¡°What can we do?¡±
¡°There¡¯s nothing to do right now.¡± Another VGN yer replied, stepping from the back of the stage to the front.
[Cybal - Level 19] was floating above his head, and he had short ck hair with a ck and white suit and tie. ¡°Leave the fighting to thebatants participating in the tournament, you just focus on performing between them as per our arrangements.¡± He exined.
¡°But¡¡± Yumily turned to him, then looked to the shoutcaster speaking loudly, then back to her dancers. ¡°If we don¡¯t do anything¡¡± She finallynded her eyes on Seraxus¡¯ solidified wings once more.
¡°It¡¯s not your job to do anything about him. Don¡¯t forget, he¡¯s part of yourwork too - no matter who wins, we still all win.¡±
¡°That¡¯s¡¡± Yumily stopped herself from saying something as she turned to re at Cybal briefly, then looked once more at the match. Until this point, Hae-won had gone unnoticed atop the stage as Kenji ascended the stairs and stopped behind her, standing and watching quietly.
Hae-won froze, staring nkly at Yumily, with the loud sounds of the cheers of the audience around her bing deafening. It took her a moment to muster her courage, but with a deep inhale she stomped her foot down to psyche herself up, then marched forward across the stage.
¡°Oi, you can¡¯t be up here. We have this tform reserved by the royal guard of Tars. Kenji?¡± Cybal spotted Hae-won before anyone else and began motioning her to turn around, looking to Kenji for assistance.
Kenji didn¡¯t reply, but just stared at Cybal while Cybal¡¯s words drew Yumily¡¯s attention away from the match and onto Hae-won. The moment Yumily¡¯s eyes met Hae-won¡¯s, she froze in ce like a stiff statue. Shyness, fear, and anxiety all briefly overwhelmed Hae-won but seeing the look of worry in Yumily¡¯s eyes was enough to snap her out of it.
¡°Okay,e on, you¡¯ve been in front of crowds before. You¡¯ve been around idols before.¡± Hae-won mumbled to herself while tilting her head down to prevent anyone from seeing her mouth movements - her mumbling inaudible due to the loud boos of the crowds directed towards Seraxus.
¡°You¡¯re not okay with things continuing like this, are you?¡± Hae-won asked Yumily. Yumily looked from Hae-won, to Kenji, to Cybal, then back to the match and finallynding back on Hae-won.
¡°No¡ but¡ I can¡¯t do anything to help. I want to, but¡¡± Yumily nced at Cybal once more.
¡°On the contrary, you¡¯re the only one who can do anything to help.¡± Hae-won replied with forced confidence.
¡°Get her off the stage, now.¡± Cybal ordered Kenji, but Kenji responded by simply crossing his arms. ¡°You gotta be kidding me.¡± Cybal sighed in frustration before he began fidgeting with his in-game interface.
¡°I don¡¯t understand how? I tried, but¡ it¡¯s only gotten worse now.¡± Yumily looked to Hae-won with desperation in her eyes.
¡°Aegis exined it to me before wended in Tars¡ how he thought you could manage it.¡± Hae-won stepped closer to her.
¡°Get back.¡± Cybal shouted in anger over his interface, but was ignored.
¡°Simtion boxes are not reading our minds. They don¡¯t know how or what we are feeling or thinking, it''s reading our vital signs and spikes in certain hormones that it has ess to. With this data collected, really, it''s just guessing how we¡¯re feeling and applying those emotions to the gameworld. But we only have one set of vitals to read, so it can only estimate one emotion at a time. Real humans aren¡¯t so simple, but the gameworld can¡¯t know that. Aegis theorized that it''s utilizing the most obvious, current dominant emotion it¡¯s reading from our vitals to influence the avatars. So, therefore¡¡± Hae-won was interrupted by Yumily¡¯s revtion,
¡°We don¡¯t need to stop people from hating Seraxus, we just need to make them feel something else more strongly so the game doesn¡¯t interpret their feelings as hatred anymore?¡± Yumily replied. Hae-won snapped her fingers into a gun shape to point at Yumily while winking.
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¡°Bingo.¡±
¡°But what emotion can Yumily draw out?¡± Kenji asked as he joined into the conversation, stepping up beside Hae-won.
¡°What¡¯s the opposite of hate?¡± Hae-won replied.
¡°Love?¡± One of Yumily¡¯s dancers answered for her on her behalf.
¡°Two for two.¡± Hae-won did the snapping finger-pointing motion again, this time to the dancer.
¡°But¡ Well, how am I going to make everyone love Seraxus? That¡¯s impossible, isn¡¯t it?¡± Yumily replied while alternatingly looking at her dancers and Hae-won.
¡°Not Seraxus.¡± Hae-won shook her head. ¡°Aegis thought, the only one who could do it was you. You make them love you.¡±
¡°Love me?¡± Yumily looked at her with a hint of confusion on her face. ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡ how?¡±
¡°It might require some tweaking to your usual performing style, but if anyone can do it, it¡¯d b-¡±
¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± Calikgos spoke as he suddenly appeared on the tform, no one having seen where he¡¯de from due to his incredibly high movement speed. ¡°Kenji, get this Fanta-See Network caster off of the stage. This is a VGN performance.¡± Calikgos ordered Kenji as Cybal proudly marched up beside him and crossed his arms.
¡°No, she¡¯s helping me. She¡¯s my guest.¡± Yumily quickly moved to stand between Calikgos and Hae-won, spreading her arms as if to protect Hae-won.
¡°She¡¯s a member of Aegis¡¯ entourage. You¡¯ve been forbidden from contacting them for the rest of this tournament lest you risk fines and your contract being terminated.
¡°But I need her help to stop Seraxus. It¡¯s helping Synopse and Feng, so it should be okay, right?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t need to pick favorites between your fellow VGN streamers. Seraxus is just as valuable as Synopse or Feng. Don¡¯t forget that we¡¯re just trying to put on a good show for the fans - it¡¯s not your job to interfere with the matches.¡± Calikgos replied, tilted his head down and ced his hand on the hilts of his sheathed daggers. ¡°Remove yourself from the stage or I¡¯ll remove you forcefully.¡± His voice got deep and dark, causing Kenji to grab his staff from off his back, but this didn¡¯t seem to concern Calikgos whatsoever.
¡°You really expect me to just sit here and do nothing? Aegis asked me for help, he¡¯s counting on me to help take down Seraxus!¡± Yumily shouted back in frustration.
¡°We don¡¯t give a damn what Aegis wants, and neither should you. Yourwork, who has supported you from the beginning and brought you up from nothing, carrying your career from a nobody to who you are today, is demanding something of you. You bestply, as the consequences will be severe if you don¡¯t.¡± Cybal spoke up, stomping forward a few steps.
All of this conversation was being drowned out by the shoutcaster announcing that Seraxus had won the second match against Starcry, in addition to Yumily¡¯s VGN editor forcefully muting her livestream and ying amercial break over her broadcast.
¡°Is that how you see me?¡± Yumily red at Cybal as Calikgos sighed and shook his head disapprovingly at Cybal¡¯s words.
¡°That¡¯s who you are. You¡¯re nothing without ourwork. So fall in line now, and get her off this stage immediately.¡± Cybal snapped back.
¡°No,¡± Yumily replied while crossing her arms. "I am terminating my contract with VGN. I quit.¡± She shouted at them angrily. I no longer give you permission to broadcast my Livestream.¡± She said as she went into her interface and began fidgeting around with the buttons.
¡°What?¡± Cybal asked in disbelief.
¡°Yumily¡¡± Kenji replied worriedly but saw the determination in Yumily¡¯s eyes.
¡°You¡ you can¡¯t just do that¡¡± Cybal said as Calikgos angrily shed his daggers out at Cybal, killing him instantly and removing him from the gameworld.
¡°Yumily, look, sorry for that idiot¡ don¡¯t act so hastily¡¡± Calikgos tried to calm her down.
¡°No. I¡¯m not asking hastily. I¡¯ve been considering this for a while. Lately, I have not felt like I¡¯ve been ying the game the way I want to. I love making music, but I also love this world. I appreciate what VGN has done for me, but I think I¡¯d prefer to be free to y how I like, now.¡± She exined while looking at her interface, and at the end of this sentence, she held her finger out at a button floating on her interface, visible only to her in her peripheral vision. The button was to disable permission for VGN to utilize and manage her broadcasts.
¡°If you do this, you¡¯ll no longer be under our protection.¡±
¡°That¡¯s okay. I have my friends. They¡¯ll protect me.¡± Yumily replied, then pressed the button with a sense of finality. ¡°What is it like at yourwork? Will I be able to y freely like Aegis?¡± Yumily asked while turning to Hae-won, whose jaw had dropped nearly to the floor with her eyes strained wide open.
¡°I¡ uh¡¡± Hae-won had difficulty catching her breath for a moment. ¡°We will give you freedom, yes¡ but VGN is going to own all your merchandising and likeness. You can no longer be Yumily the bard.¡± Hae-won exined as she struggled to rpose herself.
¡°That¡¯s fine. I hope my fans will still support me, even if I have to change my name.¡± Yumily smiled at Hae-won, where Hae-won could see the worry and fear in her eyes that she was holding back. Looking closely, Hae-won could even see Yumily¡¯s hands trembling.
¡°Ahhhh¡¡± Calikgos sighed as he took a fighting stance. ¡°I guess I didn¡¯t say it more clearly. Terminating that contract, you¡¯re not just no longer under our protection, but one of our enemies. I¡¯m not going to let you put on a performance that ruins VGN¡¯s show.¡± The killing intent emanating from Calikgos was sudden, and heavy.
¡°Vada!¡± Kenji was quick to react, creating shifting illusionary forms of Yumily and Hae-won at thest second as Kalikgos dashed forward and swung his daggers towards their throats, but his des passed through the Kenji¡¯s illusions that had somehow taken the ces of the real ones.
¡°You¡¯re serious?¡± Kenji asked in disbelief.
¡°Dead serious,¡± Calikgos replied coldly as he prepared to lunge out at Kenji, but stopped at thest second as a loud voice echoed out from the stage beside him.
¡°LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CAN I PLEASE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?¡± Hae-won shouted into her voice amplification staff, drawing all eyes towards the stage where Calikgos and Kenji were preparing to fight, as was Yumily drawing out her bardic instruments in an offensive stance. ¡°You¡¯ll never believe what the Sages of Destiny are nning to do, because they¡¯re soooooo interested in saving Tars!¡± Hae-won said while doing a waving hand motion, directing the eyes of all the audience members towards Calikgos in his fighting stance. He had no choice but to quickly let up and sheath his daggers.
¡°Ahem.¡± Hae-won cleared her throat while throwing him a devious grin. ¡°They¡¯ve decided that, even though Yumily is departing from VGN, that they will support her in her battle against the sword of hatred. She will be putting on a performance shortly, one that will surely blow you all away! A new side of Yumily you¡¯ve never seen before! So please look forward to it, and thank you for the Sages of Destiny for continuing to support her. Together, we can stop the sword of Hatred!¡± Hae-won cheered while locking eyes with Calikgos, and getting a death stare in return.
Cheers erupted from the audience, from NPCs and yers alike. The side of the arena filled with Sages of Destiny and Vindicators was noticeably quieter than the others, but it was still deafeningly loud despite this. Hae-won then moved her voice amplification staff away from her face and took a step toward Calikgos.
¡°You guys aren¡¯t the only ones that can manipte the truth.¡± Hae-won snarled. ¡°Attack us, and you¡¯ll be drowning in the breath of a silver dragon.¡± She added while motioning up towards the cloudy skies above the arena, where the Silhouette of Yasil¡¯mareina was visible, pping her silver-scaled majestic wings through the sky. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± Hae-won then marched off the tform, motioning Yumily to follow.
¡°What? But we need to stop Seraxus, don¡¯t we?¡±
¡°Yep. Gotta sort some stuff out first, so you don¡¯t get sued for performing as Yumily, which is exactly what VGN will do.¡± Hae-won replied without turning back to Yumily, and rushed down the steps off the tform.
¡°Okay¡ Okay¡¡± Yumily nodded anxiously while turning to her band-members, motioning them to follow. ¡°Come on guys, let''s get off of this tform, we don¡¯t have permission to be here anymore.¡±
¡°Got it.¡± The drummer replied as he and the dangers began quickly packing up items into their inventories, then hurrying off the stage behind her. Kenji was thest to follow, disabling the various Hae-won and Yumily illusions that he¡¯d scattered around the tform to disorient Calikgos.
¡°This isn''t over,¡± Calikgos said threateningly to Kenji. Kenji didn¡¯t reply, but shrugged before turning to follow off the tform behind the others.
¡°You sure it¡¯s okay? I¡¯m not causing too much trouble with this, right? VGN is very litigious, I don¡¯t want to get you into any trouble¡¡± Yumily said apologetically as she followed after Hae-won, who was leading her out of the audience, stood in a long, wide stone hallway, the sounds of the crowds cheering fading out behind them.
¡°No problem, we¡¯ve dealt with them before. More importantly¡¡± Hae-won stopped to turn and face Yumily. ¡°Are you sure about this? I mean, those fines are going to be hefty¡¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure. I have not been having fun for a long time. I don¡¯t need money, I have plenty of it saved up to pay for breaking their contract. I want to help you guys win. I want to y the game.¡± Yumily replied firmly with a nervous nod of her head. Despite her actions, Hae-won could still tell she looked incredibly worried, and her hands were still trembling.
¡°I think you made the right choice. Those VGN guys were starting to drive me crazy.¡± Kenji tried reassuring her.
¡°Me too.¡± One of her dancers chimed in.
¡°Ourwork will be happy to have you.¡± Hae-won gave her a warm smile. ¡°I¡¯ll have Tommy organize all the paperwork for you, but we can worry about that stuffter. First priority is recing the hatred everyone is feeling with love instead. I have an idea how to do it, but we¡¯ll need you to change your in-game name and avatar before we can think of doing any more performances. VGN will still be able to sell all of your old music and merchandise, as they own Yumily. They don¡¯t own you, though.¡±
¡°So, I just need to do a bit of rebranding?¡± Yumily asked as a slightly devious smile began to creep over her face, which Hae-won matched.
¡°What the hell was that about?¡± Makaroth asked as Calikgos had re-appeared in the seats beside him and settled into a section of the arena stands surrounded by other Sages of Destiny guild members, including Lilya.
¡°Your son just convinced Yumily to quit VGN and join hiswork, costing VGN millions,¡± Calikgos replied coldly while settling into the stone seat.
¡°I warned you that it would be chaos if he made it here. He¡¯s just like his mother.¡± Makaroth replied.
¡°This is on you, just as much as it¡¯s on him. You better hope that he isn¡¯t the one to win this tournament, or there¡¯ll be hell to pay.¡± Calikgos growled back at Makaroth.
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