Chapter 128: Snowflake's Training

“This thing is fricken awesome. God damn. This might be one of the strongest bows ever crafted.” Darkshot said as he held his new ironwood bow in his hand. It was made of the dark brown wood with a thickly woven bowstring made of Shadowsilk that Aegis had bought from Yuki.

“I asked Trexon to bring some enchanting orbs with him from Kordas, he should be here soon to enchant the portal altar. Once I get them, I’ll enchant the bow with bless.” Aegis watched with a smile as Darkshot continued to fiddle with it. Aegis, Pyri and Darkshot all stood together just outside of the sawmill of Rene that afternoon, and while Darkshot was admiring his new bow, Pyri was waving around her sleek new dark wooden staff.

“This thing is pretty. I like it, it’s really my style.” Pyri nodded at it, impressed.

“I know.” Aegis winked at her, and she rolled her eyes back at him.

“It’s not really magic enhancing. Like Amlie said… but, whew, I bet this thing is great for whacking stuff.” Pyri smirked.

“Glad you guys like it.”

“Imma go test it out. You ready to see me shoot this bad boy?” Darkshot turned to Darkwing on his shoulder, and it cooed back excitedly. “He says hell yeah.” Darkshot said as he strutted towards the training grounds excitedly.

“What about your shield? That one looks the same as your last one.” Pyri motioned to Aegis’ new shield on his left arm.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel like getting too creative with it. I’m hoping to forge a new one after our next adventure. It has higher armor and durability than my last shield though, should be able to take a bit more acid. And, I made a spare just incase.” Aegis replied with a shrug.

“Okay. Well, good job. I’ll go log out and make us some dinner, any special requests?”

“Mac and cheese.” Aegis replied with a childlike grin.

“‘Kay.” Pyri waved as she logged out, leaving Aegis alone on the western end of Rene. He looked further west where he saw Ruffily working with a great number of Arallian architects as they used logs and wooden planks to start building up the framework for the walls of Rene. As he looked on for a bit, he saw himself gaining architecture experience just from being the project lead, without contributing anything himself, and started to feel bad about it.

He was about to step forward to start helping out, but he was stopped by Chax calling out to him from behind.

“Hey, Aegis.” Chax said and he turned to face him. “I got a rough estimate from Ruffily on how much stone we’ll need for the upcoming projects. Currently we don’t have enough gold for it all…” Chax said as he held a stack of parchments in his hand and shuffled through them.

“I’ve still got around 32,000 gold from the deed.” Aegis replied.

“Good, we’ll need all of that, and then a whole lot more. Tullan is willing to sell us all the stone we need in advance, but we’ll need to pay him back over time. He won’t charge us any interest, because the Night Hunters stand to benefit from Rene being more secure, given the resources available here. However, it’ll put us in debt for a while. I wanted to run it by you first.” Chax asked Aegis.

“How long will it take to make enough gold to pay him back?” Aegis asked him hesitantly.

“If we’re just relying on the craftsmanship of Arallians, probably a few months.” Chax replied hesitantly. “Walls require a lot of stone if you want to build a good one.” Chax added as he saw Aegis wince.

“Man, and I was hoping to build a castle or a keep or something after too. If it’s that rough to build a wall…” Aegis sighed as he looked around at the surrounding fields. “A keep would be good for keeping Savika and Clara safe.”

“Well, that’s just with standard crafts. If you were to start outputting high quality stuff, and if I sell that leather you left back in Kordas, it shouldn’t be that bad.” Chax shrugged, and Aegis paused to think for a moment.

“Okay, accept Tullan's offer. It’s more important to get the wall done quickly. We’ll be leaving for the underrealm soon, so hopefully when we come back I’ll have some materials to craft stuff that’ll clear up our debt and buy us the stone for a keep.” Aegis replied.

“Got it.” Chax nodded before turning to head back into the city, and as he did, he saw Lina approaching.

“Hi.” Lina smiled and waved at him.

“How did this happen? I’m running a village now.” Aegis replied to her as he looked on at the land around them in disbelief.

“Hehe.” She giggled. “You’re doing it pretty good, though. Is it at least a bit fun?” She asked him curiously.

“Eh, I guess a little bit.” Aegis smiled back at her.

“I was helping with the portal altar but it's mostly done already. I think I was really just getting in the way though… I’m not really good at crafting stuff.” Lina said as she began fidgeting with her dagger hilts. “So, could I help you with some stuff instead?” She asked as she looked down at her feet shyly.

“Actually, yeah.” Aegis said as he motioned her to follow him and headed towards the stables. “I need to tame Snowflake. He’s a tough level 50 gryphon so I think he’d be a big help if he comes with us on our adventure into the underrealm.” Aegis explained.

“Oh, my taming and riding skills are pretty good!” Lina replied enthusiastically as they stepped into the pasture around the stables and spotted Snowflake laying in the grass on his back. His wings were spread out and his paws and talons were dangling upwards as he slept under the bright sun, enjoying its warmth. When Lina spotted him, she had to hold back a giggle. “He’s really cute.”

“Psst, hey lil guy.” Aegis whispered to Snowflake to wake him up as they approached, but he didn’t react. “Snowflake.” Aegis said at normal volume. “Hey, wakey wakey.” Aegis clapped his hands, and still got ignored. Aegis sighed and opened his inventory to grab a raw lynx steak and pulled it out, then waved it in the air near Snowflake. Snowflake sniffed the air and cautiously opened one eye to look at Aegis, showing that he’d just been pretending to sleep the entire time. Once he spotted the meat, he quickly rolled over and hopped to his feet to snatch the steak out of Aegis’ hand and gulp it down, then let out an excited squawk.

“We’re going to practice flying together, okay?” Aegis said, and Snowflake gave a nodding squawk. “Have you ever flown with anyone on your back before?” Aegis asked him, and he squawked while shaking his head. “Okay, luckily, I practiced really hard with another gryphon before, So I’m going to try and teach you all the important maneuvers, okay? And once I teach them, I want you to practice with Lina too.” Aegis motioned to her.

“Hi Snowflake.” She waved shyly at him, and he squawked back at her, nudging his head into her stomach.

“Okay.” Aegis took a deep breath. “When I did this in Hrath’mir, I had a time loop reset anytime I died. Since we don’t have that here… anytime you are about to fall, just shadowstep to the ground so you don’t die from falling damage, okay?” Aegis said, and Lina nodded back at Aegis with determination. “Okay, good, you guys get acquainted… I…” Aegis said as he started doing pseudo measurements of Snowflake’s wings and the width of his back. “Am going to make my first gryphon saddle, and then we’ll get started.” Aegis turned and left the two alone.

By the time Aegis got back about an hour later, he found Lina snuggling up against Snowflake while scratching his head, Snowflake’s eyes closed as he enjoyed the feeling of fingers reaching under his feathers where his own talons and claws couldn’t get to.

“You guys are getting along well.” Aegis looked at Lina impressed.

“I found his favorite spot to be scratched.” Lina replied excitedly as she continued to scratch a particular spot on his neck, and Snowflake let out a soft squawk of enjoyment. Aegis just rolled his eyes at the two before he got to work. The first ordeal was equipping the saddle. Snowflake immediately became fussy and didn’t like having it on his back. Aegis made sure to craft it so that it perfectly mimicked the saddle that the Hrath’mir gryphon had, but still, Snowflake was having none of it.

It took a long while just to get Snowflake to stop fussing with it and trying to shake it off, and accept that he had to wear it. Aegis sold him on it once he explained that it would also help protect him from attacks. Then, Aegis started with basic movement commands. Aegis would show Lina how to enact the command, and instruct Snowflake what he should perform, then stepped away and allowed Lina to practice it with Snowflake.

The initial results were as bad as Aegis was anticipating, and was glad he had Lina do it rather than himself. Nearly every time that Snowflake took off, a few moments later after he’d gotten about 50 meters into the sky with Lina on his back, something would throw him off balance and Lina would get flung off of his back, plummeting out of the sky. She was forced to smoke bomb herself and shadowstep into the shade of the stables to prevent herself from dying to fall damage on multiple occasions.

“Lunch is ready!” Jillian messaged Aegis through the Simbox communicator.

“Okay.” He replied to Jillian. “You guys keep at it, I’ll be back in a bit, gotta eat lunch!” Aegis called to Lina.

“Okay!” Lina waved. Aegis logged out of the simulation and climbed out of his Simbox as Eli to quickly join Jillian in the kitchen, the smell of cheesy deliciousness filling his nostrils as he sat down to a delectable plate full of homemade mac n cheese. He practically licked his lips as he grabbed his fork and dug in, Jillian sitting across from him.

“So, it’s gonna be quite the journey. But I’m pretty sure it's down there somewhere, in the Underrealm.” Eli said excitedly with a mouthful of food.

“What’s down there?” Jillian asked.

“Mithral. Luryala said the boss Warlord knows how to mine and forge it. So we’re gonna have to find a way to make him teach us.” Eli explained.

“Huh. That’s interesting. So we need to convince a boss enemy to be our friend?” Jillian confirmed as she took a fork full of food into her mouth.

“Yeah, have you ever had to do that in any games before?” Eli asked her eagerly.

“Hm. Nope, not really. But I’m sure you’ll figure it out, right?” Jillian grinned.

“There’s gotta be a way. I figured it out, you know…” He paused to take another mouthful. “These games are just like exams and tests, the people who design them,” He paused to swallow. “They want you to find the solutions, so the answers are always somewhere, hidden in the details. You just gotta find it.” He continued.

“Slow down.” Jillian shook her head in disbelief at how fast he was eating.

“What? It’s really tasty.” He replied back with his voice muffled by food.

“Mhm, you’re not just eager to get back into the game?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well, that too..” He said hesitantly as he slowed down.

“You need to have a shower first though.” She mockingly plugged her nose, causing Eli to smell his armpits.

“Yeah…” He sighed reluctantly. “I should work out a bit first too.” He sighed.

“Don’t start hating the real world.” She rolled her eyes at him. “If I knew you were going to love games so much, I would’ve gotten you your own Simbox sooner.”

“Nah, it’s only fun because I get to play with you, Derrick, Selena and Renault. Wouldn’t have been fun trying to play with you-know-who.” Eli replied dismissively.

“Oh, he’s getting the Voldemort treatment now?” Jillain asked, and Eli just shrugged back at her.

“So, how do those portals work, by the way? Can you portal to other islands and stuff?” Eli asked her.

“No, not quite. It costs this consumable called portal dust to open one. I think you can make it with alchemy but don’t ask me how…” Jillian said.

“I’ll figure that out.” Eli nodded with a mouthful of food as Jillian continued.

“The further you are from the portal altar you want to open a portal to, the more dust it costs. Once it’s open, it's channeled and costs mana to maintain, up to a maximum of 1 minute at level 1.”

“It probably goes up to 5 minutes at higher levels. That’s how long Trexon kept it open.” Eli nodded back at her.

“Yup, probably.” Jillian shrugged. “Only wizards with enchanting can enchant the portal spell into a portal altar. It costs a lot of the portal dust to then infuse the enchantment into the altar.” She continued to explain.

“So how’d the portal altar on their Airship work? Any idea?”

“That wasn’t an altar, that was a portal stone. It’s like a consumable that any wizard can use to cast a specialized portal spell to a specific altar. The altar that it opens the portal to is determined when the stone is created. So, he created a portal stone and linked it to their guild hall’s portal altar. Make sense?” Jillian explained, and Eli nodded. “That’s the jist of it, I think. I didn’t read the finer details in the spell book.” She added.

“So you could do something like that if you learned enchanting?” Eli asked her, and she huffed while shaking her head.

“No, hell no. The reason that the portal stone on that airship you rode on was so big is because it was loaded with portal dust, enough to reach the maximum portal distance in the game.” Jillian replied.

“How much would that cost, in gold?”

“Hah, like, 1 million gold or something ridiculous.” Jillian said, and as she did, Eli had to clutch his mouth to stop him from spitting out food, then finished chewing and swallowed it.

“Hang on, you’re telling me that Leonard paid 10,000$ to open that portal to save the Arallians?” Eli asked and Jillian just shrugged back at him. “Just how rich is that guy…” Eli mumbled in disbelief.

“You just better hope he doesn’t come around asking you to pay him back.” Jillian chuckled as she finished her meal. “I’m heading back in, gotta finish reading my last two spell books before our big adventure.” Jillian said as she stood up from the table and made for her Simbox.

“Which ones?” Eli asked her as he tried to quickly catch up in eating.

“Dispel Magic and Greater Invisibility. Don’t forget to clean the dishes.” She instructed him before climbing into her Simbox and going back into the simulation. Eli rushed to clean up, did a quick workout upstairs, hopped in the shower, then headed back inside. In all, he was out of the Simbox for nearly 2 hours, which equated to 8 hours in the game world.

When he logged back in, his stream automatically turned back on at 0 viewers and quickly started climbing back up to the 10’s of thousands as Aegis stood in the pasture of the Rene stables. It was now evening, and he could see Lina was flying above in circles on Snowflakes. She’d clearly made a lot of progress, because she wasn’t falling off and was gliding through the air with a big smile on her face, not even realizing that Aegis was staring up at her from below.

Aegis decided not to disturb her moment and continued to watch silently as a big dumb smile grew on his face as well, and after a few moments of this Lina spotted Aegis and carefully landed Snowflake in the pasture nearby.

“Hi! He’s doing really good, did you see?” Lina said excitedly as she hopped off his back and scratched his feathers, causing Snowflake to squawk excitedly.

“Yeah! You guys are doing really good.” Aegis smiled back at her, and the two found themself locking eyes for a moment, just staring. It was interrupted by a forceful nudge into Lina’s back, causing her to giggle.

“He doesn’t like the saddle still very much though.” She commented as she gave him another scratch. “I have to log out for a bit now. I’m helping my mom go grocery shopping. So I’ll be back later!” Lina said as she turned to Aegis.

“Okay, see you later.” Aegis waved, and Lina disappeared after a final wave herself.

“Ok, let’s see what’s wrong with this saddle.” Aegis said as he approached Snowflake. He began fiddling with the straps and adjusting how loose and tight it was. “Hows that?” Aegis asked, but Snowflake shook his head and squawked. “Jeez, so fussy.” Aegis sighed in frustration.

“I can help!” Cheryl called out from outside the pasture. She was standing up against the fence looking on at Aegis and Snowflake. Aegis stopped what he was doing to turn and look at her with a surprised expression which didn’t go unnoticed by her. “I used to tame gryphons back on my starting island Alzaera.” Cheryl explained herself.

“Oh, really? Then, please.” Aegis motioned her to come over. “I tried crafting this saddle like the one I saw on another gryphon, but he’s not going for it.” Aegis explained as Cheryl hopped the pasture fence and walked over, then knelt down beside Snowflake to inspect it closely.

“Hm…” She began fidgeting in her interface and pulled out a cotton blanket. “Here, like this.” She began sliding it underneath the saddle. “Leather is okay for the back half of a gryphon, but the front near the wings is feathers, so you need to use something softer that doesn’t pressure them too much, or he won’t like it.” She explained as she carefully adjusted the cloth to protect the feathered part of his body from the saddle. “How’s that lil guy?” Cheryl asked Snowflake once she’d finished, taking a step back to stand beside Aegis.

Snowflake squawked excitedly and began to hop around in the grass playfully, no longer fussing about the saddle.

“Wow, I guess I should’ve figured that out.” Aegis sighed at himself.

“Nah, it’s tricky, he’s a fantasy monster, so…” She shrugged. “The game has a lot of focus on realism even when it comes to the fantasy aspects. Takes a bit to figure it all out.” She added while smiling at him. Aegis found her bright pink eyes odd, and interesting to look at - he found himself being drawn into them and had to force himself to look away.

“Uh, so, you’re from Alzaera? I don’t know much about that island.” Aegis said awkwardly as he turned his eyes forcefully back on the playful Snowflake.

“It’s the jungle island, one of the starter ones. It’s pretty fun there, but I like exploring, so I island hop whenever there’s cheap airship transport available.” She shrugged. “Also, I really hated the mosquitos. Of all the things the designers could bring into this game, they went with giant mosquitos.” She shook her head in disbelief, reminding him somewhat of Darkshot as she did.

“That’s what my friend said about pigeons.” Aegis chuckled.

“Hah, pigeons are funny though, at least.” She smiled back at Aegis with a light laugh. “Kinda cute too.” She added as she thought on it.

“What’s cute about pigeons?” Aegis asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“I dunno.” She giggled with a shrug. “Want some help taming him? I’m pretty good at it.” She offered as she motioned to Snowflake.

“Oh, no it’s okay, I don’t want to trouble you. I’m sorta figuring it out.” Aegis shrugged.

“It’s okay, no trouble! I really like taming gryphons. Animals in general, really. I’m a Veterinarian in the real world.” She explained.

“Oh, you’re a doctor?” Aegis asked her excitedly.

“No, well, yes, but only for animals.” She replied bashfully.

“But that’s still a doctor. Some say animals are harder to treat than people.” Aegis said with an impressed look as he eyed her in a different light.

“Thank you for saying that.” She winked at him. “So, should I?” She motioned to Snowflake again.

“Uhm, yeah, sure.” Aegis shrugged as he stood back to watch.

“Okay!” She cheered. "Let me put on proper gear for taming a gryphon so I’m not so heavy.” She motioned to her bulky iron armor, then began fidgeting with her interface. A few moments later she unequipped her weapons and armor and was wearing underneath a skin-tight sleeveless light purple shirt with straps holding it up over her shoulders, and very tight fitting short blue shorts. Her armor had hid it well, but Aegis could tell that Cheryl hadn’t held back on the breast size slider during character creation, and he had to look away quickly when she caught him staring at her outfit.

“Is something wrong?” Cheryl asked as she saw Aegis looked away embarrassed.

“Nope, nothing wrong.” Aegis replied awkwardly, forcing himself to look back up at her eyes and nowhere else.

“Okay.” She smiled. “What have you taught him so far?” She asked curiously.

“Not much, we were just working on steering him so far. Up, down, left, right, you know.” Aegis shrugged.

“Oh, so just the basics. Then there’s still a lot of work to do, huh lil guy?” She said as she excitedly ruffled his feathers and he squawked back playfully. “Let’s get started.” She climbed onto the saddle and grabbed the reins, then leaned down overtop of him first, before doing a hopping motion to instruct him upwards. He listened obediently, and they then began soaring through the sky together.

“Wait, what if you fall?” Aegis asked worriedly as she shot up into the sky quickly with Snowflake. Aegis only just realized that a cleric likely didn’t have something to stop fall damage like a Shadow Dancer had.

“I’ll be okay, this isn’t my first rode-oh!” Cheryl began to brag, but ate her own words as suddenly Snowflake did an odd spinning motion mid air, very fast, sending Cheryl off of his back.

“Shit!” Aegis saw Cheryl begin to free fall out of the sky. He thought about catching her with guard, but she was facing her back downward and wouldn’t be able to catch herself with it. It was a big drop, if she hit the ground from there he knew she wouldn’t survive. “Guard!” Aegis projected his shield in front of himself so he could jump up onto it and get more height, then lept upward into the sky to intercept Cheryl, catching her in his arms as he continued forward. This helped transfer her downward momentum to the side and lesson it, so that she took minimal fall damage as Aegis landed back on the grassy pasture fields with Cheryl in his arms.

“I guess I’m a bit rusty.” She smiled playfully as she giggled up at him. “Thanks for the save.” She added in a soft whisper as the two locked eyes. Aegis accidentally found himself drawn into her dazzling pink pupils once more as he held her, and she made no effort to climb out of his arms as Snowflake landed nearby and approached them with a Squawk.

“AHEM!” A loud female voice called out suddenly, causing Aegis to hurriedly put Cheryl down and turn around awkwardly, whilst Cheryl embarrassedly adjusted her hair and looked away. Aegis saw that standing outside the pasture, near the fence, stood Yuki.

“Oh, Yuki… is everything okay?” Aegis asked her, surprised to see her there.

“Yes, everything is okay. I’m on my way to help Ruffily design the walls of Rene.” Yuki said in monotone, continuing to stare at Aegis and Cheryl intently, her eyes burning holes in their armor. “You should come.” She said in an oddly commanding tone.

“Yes…. okay.” Aegis replied timidly. “I’m going to go for now, but thanks for the help with the saddle.” Aegis said as politely as he could, and Cheryl smiled back at him shyly.

“No pro-”

“Now.” Yuki interrupted her. Even though she wasn’t shouting, Aegis still felt a little bit afraid of Yuki’s mood, it reminded him of when his mom was angry at him.

“Right. Come on Snowflake.” Aegis motioned Snowflake to follow, and he excitedly squawked and followed after him, hopping over the pasture fence to join Yuki on the road. It was only then that Aegis spotted Princess Savika on the other side of the road, also waiting for him, and also staring at him with a judgemental gaze. Without any further words, Yuki marched forward towards the west end of Rene where Ruffily and the other Arallian builders were working, Savika following closely behind.

Aegis wasn’t exactly sure why Yuki and Savika seemed mad at him, but he reluctantly followed behind them without any complaints, leaving Cheryl to watch them leave from inside the pasture.