“Cheeky lil…” Herilon shook his head in disbelief. “Alright, a deals a deal. I’m heading back to Orm.”

“What a coincidence, me too!” Winter ran to walk beside Herilon, glancing back anxiously at the four who stood dumbfounded at what just happened.

“H-how?” Swiftstar shouted at Winter, who shrugged back nonchalantly.

“He, I think… did he suffocate him? Make his stamina drop?” Vriflow suggested.

“You could do something like that? What kinda messed up tactic is that?” Rocknight mumbled, to this Keldan broke out of his stupor and took a few steps after Herilon and Winter.

“Oi, you still protecting him? The bet’s over right? Come and fight us, Winter!” Keldan shouted out.

“I’m not protecting him, I’m keeping order in Orm.” Herilon replied dismissively. “We just happen to be heading in the same direction. Don’t worry, I won’t attack you, unless you flag hostile.” Herilon grinned mischievously. Winter inched closer to Herilon and walked quickly to keep up with him. As the two got further away, the four of them huddled together.

“What’re we going to do? He was taking hits pretty easy, he might be a bit stronger than we thought.” Swiftstar asked.

“He’s level 6, that means he’ll get full death penalties now. We’ll be fine. Besides, we gotta give the people what they want. You guys want more Winter, right?” Keldan shouted to his audience, noting the viewership was nearing 500 - significantly higher than his 100 average. “He’ll have to leave Orm eventually.”

When Herilon and Winter arrived back in Orm the two parted ways, Winter making his way back to the church while Herilon got back to work patrolling the streets. The moment Winter was out of earshot Herilon hastily opened up his messaging interface with a character of level 134 named Quinn, his friends list denoted the character as the guild leader of the Night Hunters.

“Hey Quinn, I got news from Orm.”

“Oh yeah? Stepped in manure? Or encounter a gang of angry level 5 thieves trying to steal your lunch money?” Quinn replied sarcastically.

“It’s about that Winter kid, Makaroth’s son.”

“The one who couldn’t kill a boar?”

“Yeah, about that…” Herilon smiled.

Winter entered the church of Eirene to see it much in the same state as he had left it, with the exception of Tinsel and Farlian standing inside waiting for him, huddled together.

“Winter! I can’t thank you enough - you saved my wife. Here, it’s not much but, take it as an apology.” Farlian held out a small vial of blue liquid.

Acquired: Minor Mana Potion [Quality: 5%]

“Thanks.” Winter took it and added it to his inventory, moving past them to greet an anxiously approaching Clara.

“You were right, there was foul play. An assassin was poisoning the fountain and eastern well, and having Farlian lock the west well, so anyone who didn’t take water from the river during that time got poisoned.” Winter explained to her.

Quest Complete!

+100 Favor with Goddess Eirene.

Experience Earned.

As the message popped up he watched as Clara materialized a folded cloth from her inventory and handed it to him.

“Thank you, you’ve worked very hard, as I’ve heard from Tinsel. She informed me exactly what you did, but we still don’t understand why, or what creature the poison is based off of.” Clara looked troubled.

Acquired: Vestments of Eirene [Quality: 10%]

Winter took the cloth and put it in his inventory to check later.

“Were there any clues or hints that you found that may lead us to some answers?” Clara asked. Winter thought for a second, then opened his inventory and pulled out the parchment, the cloak, and the empty vial, and handed them all to Clara hoping she’d be able to make something of them.

She unfolded the parchment to reveal a crudely drawn map made with black ink. It had indicators of Orm, the river, the firewood storage, and another structure marked much further away, far to the north of Orm.

“I would wager we may find some answers at this location, though the map is hard to read.” Clara said as she handed it to Winter, next she unfolded the black cloak and examined it. On the inside of the hood she found a skull symbol, however the skull had eye sockets where the jaw should be, and the jaw was on the top where the eyes should be. “The mark of Darxon, the God of Suffering. That would explain everything.” Clara concluded. Winter stared blankly at her, he’d heard of the god by reading the game manual, but didn’t get it. Clara picked up on his blank expression.

“The followers of Darxon grant him power by drawing on the suffering of innocents, typically by absorbing it into a dark magical object. They’re known for using cruel and tortuous poisons that cause suffering over long periods of time.” She paced a few steps around the church before returning to Winter.

“I will send requests to the other Churches within Orm that excel at handling cultists. As followers of Eirene it is only our duty to save the lives of the innocent and keep the peace, so I will not expect more than that of you. That being said, please, I beg you, go to this location and discover what manner of creature’s blood they are using to create this poison. Time is still short, but if you move quickly we may still yet be able to save everyone here.” Clara clasped Winter’s hands with her own.

Quest: Priestess Clara would like you to find the Darxon hideout near Orm and discover what creature is being used to create the poison ailing the villagers of Orm.

Objective: 0/1 Creature’s Identity Discovered

Reward: Priest Class Skill: Cleanse (Beginner).

Difficulty: Very Hard

Restriction: Limited to classes: Priest.

Winter accepted the quest while looking over the sick people still coughing and resting in the church. The little girl that’d been crying over her sick mother was now sleeping on the end of her bed, clutching her mother’s hands tightly with tear marks on her cheeks.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Winter turned and left the building, walking away from the church. He thought it’d be best to update the other priests first and made his way to the job board out front of the town hall.

To his surprise, another priest wearing the mark of Zeus was already in the process of modifying the parchment. When finished, he took a step back and several other Priest players leaned in to read what he had written. Winter did the same, looking over their shoulders to get a glimpse of the parchment on the job board.

POISON SOURCE FOUND - DARXON HIDEOUT RAID TONIGHT

Leaving at Nightfall, meet at northside of Orm village (4:00PM EST REALTIME) All classes welcome, (don’t need to be a priest with quest to join us) Level 5+ Difficulty warning: Very Hard! Come prepared!

“Any idea who found the poison source?” A priest asked, looking at another.

“Dunno. The head Zues priest just told me it was one of the Eirene priests.”

“Heh? Really? Eirene? Not bad. A Darxon raid at level 5 sounds exciting.”

“Yeah no kidding, I thought those guys were only for high level content.”

Winter avoided joining in the conversation. He thought it’d be smarter to go with a group than by himself, and that would give him time to craft some better gear. Firstly though, he opened his inventory to check out the Vestments.

Name: Vestments of Eirene

Slot: Back (Cloak)

Type: Cloth

Armor: 1

Quality: 10%

Durability: 40/40

Requirements: Follower of Eirene

Option 1: Increases mana regeneration by 3/m.

Description: A lightweight white hooded cloak bearing the symbol of Eirene.

An item for a slot he had empty. He gladly pulled it out of his inventory and equipped it on his person. Despite it being called a Vestment, it looked and functioned as a cloak would. Clean white with the symbol of the yellow star of Eirene embroidered on the back and over the right shoulder. It had a small string to tie the cloak closed. With it on, Winter flapped it around a bit and took a moment to get used to it - he was able to pull up the hood, as well as hide his arms under it by pulling it closed, but was also able to pull it open and lower the hood to let it fly behind him like a cape, which he felt more comfortable with. He double checked to make sure he wouldn’t trip over it, seeing that it stopped just above his knees.

Feeling satisfied, it was time to move on to the Craftsman Guildhall. He entered the building and got to work using his spare materials.

Knowing he wouldn’t have time to refine and craft everything he’d gathered he instead focused on creating the most powerful and efficient copper shields he could make. Leveling Blacksmithing and Leatherworking were giving his crafts passive bonuses and boosts and increasing the highest potential craft he could make, but in the end the craft was largely based on own capabilities to use the materials and not entirely the skill level.

He spent 2 hours making shields, and another 2 hours on a set of leather armor. For his shields he focused on making them as durable and defensive as possible so that whatever he came up against, he’d be able to withstand the blows from it.

Name: Reinforced Copper Shield

Slot: Off-hand

Type: Shield

Armor: 30

Quality: 25%

Durability: 85/85

Description: A shield made of Copper, Pine, and Simple Leather. Made by Winter

By adding more copper at the right moments he was able to boost the durability and armor slightly, and the quality of copper he used was on the higher end. He was able to craft roughly 5 shields like that, all while dreaming of the day he’d be able to craft one good enough to be worth repairing instead of discarding when it broke.

The leather he’d made was a bit better than what he had, but nothing to brag about, and once it had completed he stepped out of the guildhall. The sun was now setting over the village of Orm, and Winter took a moment to look over the people and players walking around. What he saw was a peaceful village, one that needed help, protection from a deadly sickness. All the time he’d spent reading and studying to be a doctor, he thought situations like this would be an exciting test of his skill, a chance to be a hero. Experiencing it, though virtually, felt much different than he imagined.

He adjusted his cloak and made one last pitstop at the storage hall, moving his ridiculous amount of ore into it without any attempt to organize, most of it clattered about atop the pine logs and left over boar and rockjaw leather. He was aware that at level 6 he’d have a chance to drop portions of his inventory on death. At the very least, if he died on this quest he’d only lose what was on him.

By the time he’d made it to the north edge of Orm the sun had set and there were quite a few players already gathered around, talking amongst each other. Some were getting to know each other, some standing alone off to the side waiting patiently. He noticed a good amount of the players present were not dressed or equipped like a priest - clearly a wide variety of martial and magic classes present, all waiting with anticipation for the raid party to start.