Chapter 123: Wrath

Aegis logged back into the gameworld that evening just as the virtual sun was setting. He was standing near the southern gates of Kordas exactly where he had logged out, but no one of his party was anywhere near him. He saw that they were all online, though, and all still within the city.

He felt the urge to send messages to Rakkan and Darkshot right away about the Dreamstate Simboxes, but decided to put it off and wait until he saw them again in person.

“Right.” He said to himself excitedly, looking down at his destroyed leather armor. “First thing is first.” He headed for the crafting district of Kordas. When he got there, he spotted the standard long line of players eagerly awaiting their turn to utilize the public forge, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved that he’d never have to worry about something like that again. He then made his way to the leatherworking hall and got to work on the lynx leather, while his stream remained steadily at 33 000 viewers.

He couldn’t imagine he was that much fun to watch as he worked the leather, and pondered what Hae-won was doing to keep it entertaining, or how Shinji was editing it. This continued for quite some time as Aegis had a boatload of leather to go through. He thought about putting off crafting the armor until he was back in Rene, but given that the public leatherworking building in Kordas wasn’t that populated and he had little to no competition in using the facilities, he decided to make the most of his time to do it here while he waited on his party members to finish doing whatever it was they were doing.

“Hello there.” A familiar voice spoke to Aegis as he was working on treating his sixth batch of lynx leather. Aegis looked up towards the entrance of the leatherworking hall to see Christoph standing in the doorway alone, walking towards him.

“Ah, you’re the leader of the Blades of Kalmoore, right?” Aegis asked him.

“Oh, you remember me, that’s great.” Christoph smiled, but something about his smile felt fake.

“I’m still not interested in joining.” Aegis replied shortly.

“Of course not, I wasn’t here to talk to you about that.” Christoph said as he continued to walk closer, arms behind his back as he curiously watched Aegis work. “We in the Blades of Kalmoore are all big fans of your stream.”

“Yeah, I got that when I saw your members at the lynx den.” Aegis nodded back at him.

“Yup, we don’t steal grinding spots here in Kalmoore, but it’s a waste to let such a good one go unused, so, we waited until you were done with it.” Christoph shrugged shamelessly. “We also noticed that you had acquired a deed after you defeated the Beastmaster, is that correct?” Christoph asked, causing Aegus to stop what he was doing and look at him curiously. “I can only assume, since you hide your user interface from your stream.” Christoph added.

“Yeah, you’re correct. I was planning on selling it. You interested?” Aegis asked him as he crossed his arms and looked at Christoph curiously.

“Of course. It’s in an interesting area with some decent farming spots nearby.” Christoph responded by crossing his arms as well. “I’m prepared to offer you 20 000 gold for it. It’s the standard price, given that I’ll still have to pay the registration fee myself.” Christoph explained. Aegis suddenly got very nervous, he wasn’t good at bartering or marketing stuff in general, and in fact hated it entirely. Luckily, though, he remembered he had a guy for stuff like this now.

“Give me a moment, let me discuss it with my merchant lead.” Aegis replied.

“Of course.” Christoph nodded. Aegis quickly went to his friends list and was relieved to see that Chax was online, and promptly sent him a message.

“Chax, someone wants to buy a land deed from me in a level 40 to 50 area. They’re offering 20 000 gold for it. Should I take the deal?” Aegis asked him quickly, and it didn’t take long for Chax to reply.

“20,000 is the standard for land that already has some infrastructure on it. Does it?” Chax asked.

“A bit, a poacher camp surrounded by palisades. It's in a level 50 area.” Aegis replied.

“Hm. That doesn’t sound like much, but that level range is pretty high value lately, that’s where the bulk of players are right now.” Chax replied, paused, then sent another message. “If he approached you then he's probably desperate. See what he says about 40,000.” Chax sent the message. Aegis read it, looked at Christoph and took a deep breath.

“My merchant lead informs me that the land is worth 40,000 gold.”

“Hah, your merchant lead’s skills must not be working properly.” Christoph shook his head in disbelief. Aegis just shrugged awkwardly back at him.

“He’s pretty good at his job.” Aegis replied.

“Alright.” Christoph huffed. “I can do 30,000.” Christoph replied. “You won’t get a better deal from anyone else.” He added.

“One second.” Aegis hastily relayed this to Chax.

“Oh, he only went down to 30,000? We can easily get another 5,000 out of him then. Tell him 35,000 to buy it from you now, otherwise he’ll have to wait for you to see what the Night Hunters will offer for it.” Chax replied quickly.

“35,000 if you want it right now. Or, you’ll need to wait for me to get a bid from the Night Hunters on the deed first before I sell it.” Aegis replied, trying to repeat what Chax had said to him in his own words. Christoph didn’t reply at first, instead just curiously eyed Aegis up and down for a moment until he finally relented.

“Okay, deal. 35,000 for the deed.” Christoph said as he sent a trade request. A few moments later, the trade concluded, and Aegis had 35,000 gold added to his inventory. “Pleasure doing business with you, keep up the great stream.” Christoph bowed politely before leaving.

“Thanks.” Aegis waved as he left the hall, then quickly messaged Chax. “Sold it for 35,000, thanks.” Aegis wrote to him.

“Nice. See? Bartering can be pretty fun, right?” Chax replied.

“Nope.” Aegis quickly messaged him back. “By the way, I’m about to make a ton of leather items, any recommendations on what to craft for profits while I level my leather working?”

“Gloves, bags, and shoes are the easiest to sell at lower qualities, NPCs buy those up quick. When you move on to the high quality stuff, go for quivers, armor, leggings and helmets. Leave it in the Kordas storage hall and I’ll sell it for you next time I’m in the city.” Chax replied.

“Gotcha.” Aegis answered him, and with that information he got to work.

Through the night and long into the following day, Aegis made the most of every available crafting station inside the Kordas leatherworking hall to treat the lynx leather and begin making it into bags, gloves, and shoes to sell enmass. He made sure to put off using any leather that came out above 40% quality until he’d finish using up the lower quality stuff to craft gloves, bags, and shoes as Chax suggested. At various times throughout the process, each of his party members had stopped by to drop off their leather. Rakkan was busy trying to read through the Shiva text before they had to turn it in for the quest, Pyri was reading a new spell book on portals, and Darkshot was trying various tricks to help turn Darkwing into a stronger companion before it grew into an adult. Lina, on the other hand, just patiently waited while Aegis worked, watching over him with no complaints.

Level Up!: Tanning has reached Level 57!

Level Up!: Leatherworking has reached Level 55!

Once he’d finished with the low quality stuff, it was time to start making use of the higher quality leather to craft armor, quivers, leggings, and helmets. It took another long 8 hours of work to get through all of that, but Aegis was able to work undisturbed.

Level Up!: Tanning has reached Level 66!

Level Up!: Leatherworking has reached Level 65!

The experience began to slow down significantly once Aegis had reached level 60. He imagined it was due to the fact that most of the leather had come from level 45 beasts, and if he wanted to keep raising these skills he’d need to hunt higher level ones. For now, though, it was certainly paving the way for big upgrades on all of his party’s equipment. He’d saved the highest quality leather for last and got to work on crafting the best leather armor he could for himself and his companions.

By the time he’d finished, he’d ended up with four sets of lynx leather armor, all within the 50% quality range with much higher armor than the direwolf sets, bringing Aegis’ armor reduction up to 43% total once he’d put his set on. He did his best to make all of the sets match in appearance, but he didn’t have the resources needed to dye them presently, so they all looked of a plain tan color. After completing all of them he'd gained another level in each skill as a result, leaving him at 67 Tanning and 66 Leatherworking.

The next step was to make his way to the Enchanting tower to buy enchanting orbs using some of the gold he had gotten from selling the deed, and promptly enchanted his now higher level Healing Wind spell into every piece, granting a 25 health per 5 seconds recovery on each item, and gaining two levels in his enchanting skill in the process.

Level Up!: Enchanting has reached Level 32!

When he stepped out of the enchanting tower he saw that his entire party was waiting outside for him, now the 2nd morning since they’d arrived back in Kordas, and they were all still wearing acid-burned clothing.

“Finally, I’ve been feeling naked walking around like this.” Darkshot said excitedly as Aegis began handing out the armor to everyone but Pyri, and she pouted at him.

“Sorry, we’ll have to wait until we’re back in Rene for yours.” Aegis replied.

“It’s fine, I bought a dress.” Pyri shrugged as she suddenly equipped a bright blue sundress and spun around to show it off.

“It’s really pretty.” Lina smiled at it as she equipped her lynx leather armor.

“This stuff’s good, better than any armor I ever got on my sage.” Rakkan looked down at it, impressed as he checked it out.

“What do you think, Darkwing, you like it?” Darkshot asked the bird that was now sitting perched on his shoulder. Aegis just now noticed that Darkwing was a baby no longer, instead a fully grown pigeon.

“Oh wow, he’s an adult now!” Aegis said enthusiastically as all eyes turned to Darkwing, and it let out an excited coo.

“Did it get any special powers?” Lina asked excitedly.

“Can it breathe fire?” Rakkan asked.

“Guys, guys.” Darkshot shook his head at them. “I’m not someone who needs something silly like a fire-breathing super powered bird. I’ve got all the power I need in my bow.” Darkshot replied with his theatrical voice.

“Huh.” Rakkan made an unimpressed stare at him.

“But, if I had to say his super power, it's probably being cute.” Darkshot replied confidently, to which Lina and Pyri both stared at the bird with blank expressions.

“I guess it’s kind of cute. In a plain, pigeon kind of way.” Pyri shrugged.

“Ah, see?” Darkshot pointed out Pyri to Rakkan, trying to sway his expression, but it didn’t work and Rakkan just shook his head again and looked away. “Just ignore them, Darkwing, we’re going to be awesome together.” Darkshot said to it in a babying voice, and he let out another coo.

“By the way, we all cashed in the treasure we found in Kolz. We were waitin on you to see what we should do with it though. Couple thousand gold per person.” Rakkan explained to Aegis as everyone finished settling into their new armor sets.

“Eh, just keep it for now. I got some gold for selling the deed. Speaking of cashing in though, I'd like to buy you two both Dreamstate Simboxes.” Aegis pointed at Darkshot and Rakkan, and they looked at each other confused for a moment.

“What?” Darkshot asked him in confused disbelief.

“Well, I got my first pay from the Fanta-See Network, so I thought I’d send you guys both a present, so we can keep playing together.” Aegis shrugged. “You know, since you guys were the only ones needing to log out to sleep, it didn’t seem fair.”

“Shut up, no way. How much did they pay you?” Darkshot shouted out excitedly as Rakkan’s eyes went wide with disbelief.

“Enough.” Aegis smiled at their reactions.

“Yo, Aegis, seriously? Those things are crazy expensive though, ain't they?” Rakkan replied apprehensively.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. If we do a trade-in for the Simboxes you guys already have, you can just send me whatever you get for your old ones and we’ll call it even.” Aegis replied as Lina joined in smiling at the two of them.

“That’s great, then we can keep leveling together really fast.” Lina said excitedly.

“Yeah. I mean, assuming it’ll be okay with your parents.” Aegis said to Rakkan.

“Hah, yeah, hell yeah, of course, they won't mind. They said I could play all summer if I aced my classes last semester, and I aced ‘em. Holy shit man, this is huge.” Rakkan said excitedly as he ran forward and gave Aegis a big orcish hug. “Are you sure about this? I mean, I don’t feel like I deserve this, you know. I was such a dick…” Rakkan stepped back and looked at Aegis and the others apologetically.

“Water under the bridge. Don’t worry about it. We’re going together.” Aegis pointed up at the sky, and Rakkan nodded back at him.

“Thanks man.” Rakkan said as he began to tear up a bit, but quickly shook it off.

“Shoot, where were you six months ago, we’d already be at the top.” Darkshot smirked as he gave Aegis a hug as well.

“Let's sort out the details on the way to turn in that book finally, shall we?” Aegis said as he motioned to the book now hanging from Rakkan's belt by leather straps. From there, the party quickly made their way through the streets of Kordas towards the temple district, and into the temple of Shiva. They followed the same process as last time. They waited for Vihaan to finish meditating at the central altar of the temple where they’d found him when he arrived, and once he had, they moved to intercept him as he traveled amongst the pillars surrounding the prayer floor.

“Here it is, the book you requested. We retrieved it, intact, perfectly readable.” Aegis said as he held the book out for Vihaan. Vihaan took the book from Aegis’ hands with a smile

“I am impressed. You are not the first to take on this task, but all those who have attempted it before you have failed. Shiva respects your efforts greatly. You shall have his favor.” Vihaan replied with a polite bow.

Quest completed!

You gain 2500 Favor of Shiva.

You gain 5,000,000 Experience!

Congratulations, you have reached level 53!: 5 attribute points available, +411 health, +103 mana!

“Thank you Vihaan. I was hoping that you would be able to teach me some of Shiva’s divine magic. I’m a priest of Eirene, walking the path of the stars.” Aegis explained.

“Place your hands in mine.” Vihaan said as he carefully tucked the book under his arm and held his palms out. Aegis put his hands in Vihaan’s palms as Darkshot, Lina, Pyri and Rakkan watched excitedly. Vihaan closed his eyes for a moment, his eyes visibly moving under his eyelids.

“I have not heard of a star walker in many centuries. It pleases me to be able to grant you one of Shiva’s divine magics. Which would you like to learn?” Vihaan asked after opening his eyes once more. A big grin grew across Aegis’ face.

“The paladin skill, Virabhadra.” Aegis replied.

Skill Learned: Virabhadra(Path of the Stars)

Virabhadra(Path of the Stars) - Level 1 (Intermediate)

Required Deity: Shiva

Release an explosion of light centering around your shield, damaging all enemies within 2m of the caster. Must have a shield equipped to use this ability. The damage dealt by this skill is based on the amount of damage that the caster has taken in the last 5 minutes. The damage is split among all targets hit by the skill. Damage and mana cost increases with each level.

Cooldown: 5min

Cast Time: Instant

Range: 2m

Manacost: 1500mp [+10mp per level]

Damage: 10% of all damage taken in the last 5 minutes [+0.5% per level]

The moment Aegis had said the name of the skill and he got the notification, Lina, Rakkan and Darkshot all began pressing buttons in their interface to look up the skill in the games database to read what it did.

“Never heard of that skill.” Rakkan commented excitedly.

“Not a lot of Shiva Paladins.” Aegis shrugged. “I took a long time trying to pick which damage skill to go after, there were a lot of good ones to choose from, but this one seemed the best considering our group.” Aegis explained as he watched them.

“I look forward to seeing the world change under your light.” Vihaan bowed politely before walking away from the group. The party made their way back to the streets of Kordas, exiting the temple grounds.

“Anyone need anything else in Kordas?” Aegis asked as he lead them towards the Kordas storage hall.

“Nope, I’m excited to get back to Rene.” Pyri smiled.

“Same, I haven't seen Amlie in awhile.” Rakkan replied. “I mean, not like I miss her or anything, just worried. She’s like a little sister.” Rakkan replied flustered, causing Lina and Aegis to glance at each other and smile.

“I just hope the Arallian’s haven’t trashed the place.” Aegis said. Once they'd arrived at the storage hall, Aegis dropped off his excess leather crafts while instructing the NPCs to allow Chax to take it out on his behalf in the future. Aegis was glad to finally have a much less weighted down inventory. The party then made their way to the southern gate to retrieve Snowflake and Melon from the stables before heading westward, beginning their journey back towards Rene.

"They're gone." Simon said as he sat atop the Skyport, his legs dangling off the side of an empty pier as he looked over the city of Kordas. There was now only one Airship docked, the Sky Darling, as Yumily's ship had departed. The guards stood around the top of the tower as usual, paying no mind to the long haired, oversized robed wearing human boy. As he spoke, his words were directed to his party interface, and not those immediately around him. "On their way to Rene. You didn't need me, he streamed the whole thing." Simon yawned as he leaned back.

"Better safe then sorry. Thanks." A voice replied back to him through the party interface. "It's time to begin step 1." The voice continued, this time speaking less directly to Simon, but rather the other members of the party of which Simon briefly glanced to see there were 6 including himself.

"Sounds fun, will you be needing my services anymore?" Simon asked unenthusiastically.

"Possibly in the future, but not right now." The deep voice answered him.

"Okidoki boss man, I'll stick around. You know where to find me." Simon said with an aloof voice, then promptly left the party to be by himself. He hopped up from his seated position, stretched his arms towards the setting sun, then made his way down the ramp of the Skyport tower. Halfway down the ramp he stopped abruptly, though. "Don't need this thing anymore." He said as he suddenly stuck his finger down his throat, forcing himself to gag a few times, until the gold coin with Aegis' signature came back out and he caught it in his hands. As he did, though, he looked and saw the High Priest of Aphrodite, Sashana, staring at him from below curiously.

"Are you alright, dear?" Sashana asked him worriedly, but Simon looked down at her with disgust.

"Aha, yes, I have to be touching something of his for the spell to work, you see. But I hate having to hold things in my hands." He sighed.

"Oh... okay?" She looked at him anxiously, but seeing her expression, Simon just rolled his eyes.

"Too bad you are elite..." Simon said, as suddenly all 10 of his fingers began to glow various colors from under his elongated sleeves, and multiple high level spells appeared all around Sashana. Before she could even react and draw out her weapon, she was hit by lighting, fire, ice, poison, and various other elements, killing her instantly. "Elite's are too smart to let live. Haha." Simon shrugged as he looked at her lifeless body. He then did a final wave of his hand and a black cloud of mist shot out from it, enveloping her body and disintigrating it into dust over the next few seconds. He then continued down the rest of the ramp, walking out of the tower past the guards and into the streets of Kordas as if nothing had happened, putting Aegis' signed gold coin in his pocket.