“Aegis, I dropped off the Dark Elf girl at your church. The Sim center guys are threatening to call security on me, I’ll catch up with you tomorrow. Two more days ‘til I’m sitting in your sweaty Simbox in the comfort of my own home.” Darkshot hummed.

“I can’t tell if you’re excited about that or not. Weird choice of words.” Aegis replied, Darkshot left the party and logged out immediately afterwards as Aegis made it to the outskirts of Orm. He had briefly contacted Hae-won to tell her to not use footage of Rakkan, only to learn that Shinji saw the fight and was already editing Rakkan out of the recordings. Once Aegis reached the main roads within Orm he broke into a sprint to get through the farm fields and into the village proper, passing through the busy market streets until arriving outside of the Church of Eirene. He ran through the doors to enter the old church. As he entered, he was surprised to see the church was back to normal.

There were no longer any beds, the pews were lining the center aisle properly and several NPCs and players were walking about, some in prayer. Aegis walked up to Clara who was mid-conversation with another player, budding in much to their annoyance.

“Excuse me, Clara, I’ve completed the quest - did you learn about the poison source in time?” Aegis asked her.

“Y-yes, an Archer came here just a bit ago and told us the source. Luckily it wasn’t necessary. Good work on your quest nonetheless, now we can be sure that this poison threat is finally over.”

Quest Complete!

Skill Learned: Cleanse (Beginner)

Cleanse - Level 1 (Beginner)

Removes a negative debuff from a creature by touching them with divine light. The negative debuffs that this skill can remove increases based on the level of the skill. The number of debuffs that can be removed at a time increases with level.

Cast Time: 3s

Cost: 55 Mana

Range: Touch

Debuffs Removed: 1

Debuff Types Removed: Poison

“What about the sick people, are they okay?” Aegis asked.

“They’re all fine. No thanks to you.” Another female voice spoke. Aegis turned to see a heavily armored player leaning up against a wall behind him. [Sapphire - Level ??]. Aegis didn’t recognize her, she wore priest vestments that he didn’t recognize either. She was a demi-human player with curly pure white hair and long floppy pink bunny ears sticking out of the top of her head - she was much shorter than he was. The only thing familiar about her was the guild tabard over her breastplate - it was the owl of the Night Hunters. Aegis recalled that Herilon said someone would be coming to replace him, and that he’d called some guild clerics to deal with the poison problem.

“You cleansed them all?” Aegis asked hopefully.

“Yup.” She shrugged. Aegis let out a sigh of relief. “You’re the first priest to come back since the dungeon was cleared. I was expecting a different Eirene priest to show up though...” She looked disappointed. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have seen a player named Winter at the dungeon, did you?” Sapphire asked as she stood up off the wall.

“Uh… n-nope. I mean, y-yup. Yeah, he’s over there in that dungeon. Fighting away.” Aegis mumbled nervously.

“Hm.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Well, in any case, good job. Next time do the quests faster so I don’t have to pick up your slack. I hate being on village watch duty.” Sapphire grumbled in annoyance, her voice trailed off as she headed out of the church. Aegis noticed Clara trying to talk to him for another quest, but he got a sudden idea and rushed out after Sapphire.

“W-wait. Why were you waiting on Winter, did you hear something special about him?” Aegis asked her - he wanted to know if Herilon had kept his promise.

“Hmmm.” Sapphire put her finger to her chin. “Not really, I just felt bad for him because he sucked so hard. As a fellow divine player, I was just going to give him some pointers.” Sapphire shrugged.

“What sort of pointers?” Aegis asked. “I mean, I’m a divine player too, and I’m kind of new, so I could maybe use them. If you don’t mind.” He added nervously as Sapphire turned to look at him curiously.

“Hmm. Well…” She pointed at his sword sheathed on his waist. “You should train in scepters as a cleric or priest player. Unlike martial classes, a lot of your attacks are going to use mana, and scepters are easy to enchant with high levels of mana regeneration and spirit bonuses. That’s usually what options they drop with if you find a scepter in a dungeon. They do a bit less damage than swords, but in the long run you’ll be happier to have more mana for casting smite and radiant strike. I see lots of divine players make the mistake of trying to use swords for some reason. I guess they think they are cool or something.” Sapphire replied

“O-okay. Thanks.” Aegis smiled at her. He was relieved, she was giving advice on attacking, so Aegis could assume she didn’t know about Pacifism if that’s what she wanted to say to Winter. The scepter information wasn’t anything he didn’t already know. As Sapphire disappeared into the busy Orm streets, Aegis went back into the church to meet the overly eager Priestess Clara.

“Aegis, your deeds for Eirene have not gone unnoticed. She wishes to speak with you directly to grant you her blessing, as you have proven yourself worthy of her further guidance. Unfortunately, I don’t hold the power to grant such blessings. Instead you must travel to the Shrine of Eirene within the city of Kordas to the east. When you reach the shrine, say a prayer to Eirene and she will come to you. Will you accept this task?” Clara asked him as the quest card popped up in front of him.

Quest: Priestess Clara has requested that you visit the Shrine of Eirene within the capital city of Kalmoore, Kordas, and pray to Eirene to receive her blessing.

Objective: 0/1 Prayer to Eirene

Reward: Priest Class Skill: Bless (Beginner), Priest Class Skill: Healing Wind (Beginner)

Difficulty: Easy

Restriction: Limited to classes: Priest.

“Two new skills, and all I have to do is visit a shrine?” Aegis looked at Clara distrustingly, she turned her head curiously as if she was confused at his question. He shrugged and hit accept, somewhat relieved that not all of his skills would come from such troublesome quests, but somewhat suspicious of the simplicity of the request.

“I’m happy you’ve accepted, I look forward to more great deeds from you. May Eirene watch over you.” Priestess Clara smiled.

“Ah- wait, there was a Dark Elf, Luryala, is she here?”

“Yes, she is resting in the back, you may speak with her if you like.” Clara replied.

“Thanks.” Aegis nodded politely as he walked past Clara. Stepping through the back door of the church and through a narrow corridor he found another room with beds, all of which were empty save for one that had Luryala. She was sitting upright with bandages on her wrists, slurping a bowl of soup, but as Aegis entered she put it down.

“You’re back… Thank you, thank you so much for saving me. I thought I would die in those chains.”

“Anyone would do the same.” Aegis replied as he stepped in the room.

“N-no, many surface dwellers, well, we are usually hunted by your kind. I should perhaps thank the kindness of Eirene, she is one of the few whose light still reaches my people, even in the dark places of the world.”

“Well, I’m glad you are okay. You’ll be able to live here in Orm, right?” Aegis asked.

“I… I’m not sure. The followers of Eirene are kind, but I’m afraid of what the villagers will do when they learn I am here. It might be best if I flee and live on my own.”

“What about your people? Living in the dark places of the world, you said... you can get back home, right?” Aegis asked.

“M-my people…” Her head tilted downward as tears swelled up in her eyes. “The lower dark caverns of the world are filled with many evils, including my fellow Dark Elves. My tribe hoped to be free from the terrors of the depths and find a safe life on the surface, but when we tried to escape, we were attacked and many of my tribe were taken prisoner by a ruthless Dark Elf Warlord named Kur’aktos. Some of us managed to escape capture and reach the surface, but only to meet a worse fate. We found the Darxon Cultists, mistaking them for friendly villagers as they were dressed as peasants. We’d discovered their true nature too late, and we were all tortured, most of my kin to death… I was the only one left alive, they used me to fuel their dark magics...” As she spoke, the painful memories were visible on her face - Aegis couldn’t tell the difference between her and a real person.

“That sounds really tough… Dark Elf life, I mean. Evil Warlords down below, and other races hunt you if you come up top. Like a vicious cycle of being forced to live underground under the Evil Warlords, which in turn makes the surface races hate you…” Aegis tried to show sympathy as he fumbled around in his inventory to pull out the blue scroll - the main reason he had come to talk to her. Just as he had pulled it out, she continued.

“Y-yes… perhaps… I don’t know who else to ask, and you’ve already done so much… but would you consider helping me, saving my people?”

Quest: Luryala has requested that you defeat the Dark Elf Warlord Kur’aktos in the lower depths of Kalmoore, and free as many of her tribe as possible.

Objective: 0/1 Dark Elf Warlord Kur’aktos Stopped,

Objective: 0/300 Luryala’s Tribe members saved (Optional)

Reward: Unknown

Difficulty: Extreme

“I, uh…” He saw the quest card appear in front of him, the word that stood out most was Extreme. An unknown reward, Aegis felt it’d be a bit above what he could handle, but at the same time he felt it’d be awkward to decline right before asking her to translate something, so he hit accept. “I’ll try my best…” Aegis shrugged nervously. “In the meantime, could you do a favor for me and translate this scroll? One of the Darxon cultists had it.” Aegis held the parchment out to her and she took it.

Her fingers began to glow a light blue as she tapped the parchment, and suddenly all of the words were readable to Aegis. “There you are. It looks like a land deed for the keep I was being kept in.” Luryala smiled as she handed it back to him.

“Okay. thanks. Stay safe and rest well in here.” Aegis politely bowed to her, taking the parchment and leaving the room. He briefly read over the parchment, getting more excited as it went on.

Land Deed

Region: Kalmoore

Land Title: Unnamed

City/Village: None

Assets: Ruined Keep of Jia’nir

Land Size: 4km²

The flat fields that rest at the base of Jia’nir mountain. Once home to the Keep of Jia’nir, a fortification that housed the soldiers of Kalmoore. Their duty was to contain the wild creatures that lurked in the depths of the mountain. The keep was abandoned after the events of the Shattering, as was the land it sat on, and now remains unclaimed and unoccupied.

This land deed is not directly connected to any Kalmoore settlements, thus can only be registered in the Kordas Registry Hall where it will be appraised and assigned a registration fee.

Aegis got overly excited, thinking that he’d suddenly stumbled upon a piece of land for free. The excitement was shot down once he’d read the final sentence - he’d still have to pay to have it registered, and recalling what Ruffily had told him, he’d likely be looking at minimum a cost of 20 000 gold pieces. His bag currently had a measly 621 from all of the money drops in the dungeon.

He put the deed back in his inventory for now and made his way towards the Craftsman Guildhall next, finally returning to the basement floor to speak with a now healthy Belthas. Like a proud child, Aegis held out his 3 copper ore that exceeded 50% quality.

“I dun’ believe it. Ye’ done it. Not many o’ the miners I meet here end up bein’ worth a damn, but ya proved yeh got what it takes. It’s time ye’ moved on from the li’l leagues and started diggin’ for the good stuff.” Belthas grinned as he inspected the copper ore. He began a demonstration on how to carefully dig out iron ore from a rock, using a clumpy boulder as an example. The technique of identifying the coloration of rocks that indicated iron was within, the method of using his pickaxe to extract it without damaging it, and he even went as far as explaining how to process it into ingots. By the time he was done, Aegis felt fully confident in his ability to begin mining Iron. The only problem left was where to find it, he thought.

Quest Completed!

You have unlocked the Mining Proficiency: [Iron Ore]

“Finally.” Aegis smiled to himself as he headed upstairs to the main floor where all the other crafters were working away. He looked to see that Lina was still offline, so he had some time to kill and no pressing matters. More importantly, he had an ungodly amount of pine wood, leather, and ore, all sitting in his storage waiting to be crafted into precious, gold making gear that could go towards his registration fee.

There was something relaxing about the hard work of crafting. Whether sewing threads, tanning leather, smelting ore or hammering ingots, the simplicity of doing hard work and having it reward you felt good to Aegis. For the sake of practice, Aegis began to diversify his weapon crafts. He wanted to be able to make good daggers, bows, and swords, for himself and his companions. By far his biggest focus was improving his shield craftsmanship though.

Any chance he got, he hogged the furnace for smelting his ore, but anytime it got crowded and he was forced to share with other players he began to daydream having his own giant furnace on his own plot of land to expedite the process, just imaging how fast he’d level up his skills and how much money he could make. He had a lot of time to daydream and experiment, as the amount of resources he had gathered kept him busy well over the next 24 in-game hours - he took a break only to stock up on stamina recovery food as his Rockjaw steak supply had been depleted.

He saved his highest quality ore for the end, having leveled up smithing as much as possible first, and used it all in crafting more reinforced copper shields. Lina had logged on sometime before he had finished, but Aegis didn’t notice and she didn’t say anything, she instead checked in on him to see he was busy crafting, then stood watch like a body guard while studying using several interface menus.

Partway through he started to feel bad about having the livestream running, but he’d talked himself out of the guilt of boring gameplay by reminding himself that Shinji said he wanted him to just play as normal. When all was said and done, Aegis was very satisfied with the results.

Level Up!: Refining has reached level 16!

Level Up!: Blacksmithing has reached level 15!

Level Up!: Sewing has reached level 7!

Level Up!: Woodworking has reached level 11!

Level Up!: Tanning has reached level 8!

Level Up!: Leatherworking has reached level 9!

Level Up!: Artistry has reached level 3!

Name: Reinforced Copper Shield

Slot: Off-hand

Type: Shield

Armor: 51

Quality: 42%

Durability: 120/120

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

He happily equipped his new and improved shield, the first green quality item that he’d crafted so far. He used his little bit of artistic talent and the artistry skill to give it a unique shape, a pointed bottom and a curved front to help attacks slide off of it, to hopefully make them less painful. As he proudly headed from the building, he finally spotted Lina sitting at a table near the entrance of the hall as she stood up to smile at him.

“Lina? How long have you been here?” Aegis asked.

“Not long.” She shrugged, he was surprised at her jovial demeanor.

“Sorry about what happened, I let my guard down.” Aegis apologized.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to explain. I saw your stream. If I see that Rakkan guy again, I’m killing him.” She said gleefully. He still wasn’t quite used to how happy she looked when she talked about killing other players. “By the way, you had 29 viewers already!” She cheered.

“Only 29, isn’t that less?” Aegis asked, comparing it to how many viewers he recalled Keldan said he had.

“No way, that’s high for someone who just started out. It’s how it goes for… most people, you know.” Lina shrugged, briefly motioning to the livestream icon above his head.

“Ah, right, okay.” Aegis shrugged. “You probably know about the deed then, right?” He asked, she nodded. “I was going to try selling all this crafted stuff I just made to see how much gold I’d get before heading to Kordas.” Aegis continued speaking as the two stepped out of the hall and onto the busy streets of Orm.

“W-well, since you have to go to Kordas for your quest, and for the deed, you should sell them in Kordas too, you’ll get better prices.” Lina suggested.

“Yeah but… this stuff is heavy. Half of the stuff I made is in storage, my inventory is full.”

“We can rent a wagon, it’s not expensive.” Lina replied.

“Oh, okay, in that case let’s do that. It’s getting late though, we should probably wait until tomorrow for Darkshot anyway so we don’t leave him behind here.”

“Mhm.” Lina nodded in agreement.

“I’ll see you at school, sorry again for what happened…” Aegis apologized once more as he started fidgeting with his menu to log out.

“I-its okay, I’ll get stronger so it doesn’t happen ever again. I had fun going to the dungeon with you, even though we got separated…” She added shyly.

“Y-yeah, me too. I’ll get stronger so no one can hurt you anymore.” Aegis smiled before logging out, his avatar disappeared fast enough that he didn’t see Lina’s face blush bright red before she logged out as well.