Chapter 195: The Eternal Flame

“How long have I been asleep?” Ysil’mareina asked, directing her words to Ysil’atrilios while everyone else became speechless at the sight of the dragon’s jaws opening and shutting with each word. The giant silver scaled beast in front of them was speaking in english, in a soft clear voice, despite its size.

“Several centuries. But not much has changed in regards to the state of the world. It remains shattered, with the darkness of the abyss dominating the surface.” Ysil’atrilios answered.

“I see.” She tilted her head down with a look of disappointment. “I imagine Eirene sent you to me with a purpose, did she not?” She then turned her attention back on Aegis, who was momentarily distracted by the size of the tongue in her mouth that flapped around as she spoke.

“Uh. Ahem.” He paused to clear his throat awkwardly. “Yes. Eirene sent me so that we can unite the forces of light against the darkness.” Aegis answered as he recalled the original quest.

“Hm.” Ysil’mareina paused, eying Aegis up and down. “You carry a noble light, not unlike the High Priest of Hrath’mir. I thank you greatly for using that light to cleanse the fragment of fear from my heart. But, that will not be enough to stand against the darkness of the abyss. The last time my kind entrusted the fate of the world to those claiming to walk in the light, the light faltered and fell to the avatars of Darkness.” Ysil’mareina began to tap one of her front talons as she pondered, looking between all of the players present in her nesting chamber.

“So you won’t help?” Aegis asked.

“Not presently. But, if you can prove to me that there truly is a chance that we can push back the darkness, I will reconsider.” She answered.

“How would I do that?”

“By succeeding where all the avatars of light before you have failed.” She replied while closing her eyes, and following this a quest prompt appeared in front of Aegis’ peripheral vision.

Quest[3/6]: Prove to Ysil’mareina that the forces of light have the strength to triumph over the forces of darkness by destroying one of the thirteen dark avatars.

Objective: 0/1 Dark Avatar destroyed

Quest Giver: Ysil’mareina, The Silver Garden, Kalmoore

Reward: Advanced Class: (Unknown)

Difficulty: Extreme(III)

Restriction: Ysil’mariena must survive.

Seeing the quest, Aegis took a deep breath and hit accept without saying a word to the others.

“I understand, but… currently, Kalmoore is at risk of being invaded by the abyss. Is there anything you can do to help?” Aegis asked.

“Unfortunately, due to my long slumber, my wings and legs have lost their strength. It will take me some time to recover.” She apologized.

“What about yer breath?” Tullan spoke up.

“My breath?” She asked curiously as he stepped forward and fumbled around in his inventory, eventually pulling out from it the base for the eternal flame.

“Aye. We’re forgin’ an eternal flame, so we can make mithral to fight the abyss. But we need the heat from a dragon’s breath to finish the process.” Tullan explained.

“Ah. Yes. I recall something of this nature in the past. This request has been made to me before.” She paused and looked once more at the group. “I suppose there’s no harm in it. It is the least I can do as thanks for saving me from my fate. Have you brought with you the materials required to start the forging process?” Ysil’mariena asked, and this prompted Tullan to look at Aegis.

“Yeah, I’ve got them. The elemental cores and the giant's heart…” Aegis quickly fumbled into his inventory, and as he did he saw out of the corner of his eyes that Artaphernes suddenly went on high alert, pacing around the doorway of the chamber and looking outside, as if expecting enemies to attack at any moment.

Once Aegis had taken it all out, he handed it to Tullan who placed the high quality iron base with the greater enchanting orb embedded into the obsidian holder on the ground. Once he’d set it down, he grabbed his smithing hammer and prepared to get to work.

“Please, place it near me once it is ready, and stand back. I cannot lift my head much.” Ysil’mareina said as she watched Tullan get to work. He quickly hammered in the the first few elemental cores, and to his surprise, the enchanting orb was absorbing them with ease and began glowing.

Leonard and Yorgi looked on with excitement, while Ysil’atrilios watched curiously. With each core that Tullan merged into the enchanting orb, it brightened and began to emit an increasingly intense heat.

“Let me give you a hand.” Aegis said as he saw Tullan beginning to struggle. He pulled out his own smithing hammer and joined in, and within a minute, they’d merged all of the cores and were left only with the flame giant’s heart.

“You handle the heart.” Tullan nodded to Aegis, and he nodded back. He carefully aligned the heart above the orb with one hand, then hammered it in with the other, and it was immediately sucked into the enchanting orb and released a blast of red flames. “Looks ready teh me.” Tullan said as he stepped back and threw his arms in front of his face to shield himself from the heat. Aegis picked up the eternal flame base by putting his hands on the obsidian parts of its outer shell where it wasn’t quite that hot yet, and hurriedly moved to set it in front of Ysil’mareina’s head as she lifted it up.

“Please, stand back. My flames will become very hot, and it will be dangerous for your kind if you stand too close.” She warned Aegis and the others. None of them needed to be told twice and they all shuffled back to the door of the chamber, watching from the threshold as Ysil’mareina lightly gripped the eternal flame’s base with one of her front talons.

Once it was in place, a bright white flame began to build up in the back of her throat, and seconds later, the blazing white flame shot out from her mouth and bombarded the eternal flame with its heat as she remained holding it in place with her talons. Her scales and talons seemed unaffected by the flames, as did the nearby eggs that she was clutching to her body with her tail. The nest and the tower, however, quickly scorched black and the stone around it began to melt. Even in the doorway, despite it just being a simulation, the heat quickly became so intense that the group had to back up further to avoid it, including Ysil’atrilios.

Like with the magma river, the air all around the inside of the tower became hazy, including the air seeping out of the tower through its windows. Ysil’mareina maintained her breath for a full 30 seconds, and the longer she breathed the hotter it got. It made a sizzling blasting sound as it shot out of her mouth, but over time it slowly began to give off a slight whistling, until finally, it fell completely silent and she had finished.

The bright light from the flames made it difficult to look around the interior of the building once they were gone. Aegis’ eyes had to readjust to the change in lighting. As his pupils resized he saw the stone around where she’d been breathing had become molten magma and was flowing quickly. More than that, though, is that it began dripping downwards before it was able to cool and solidify, and eventually drained away completely, leaving a giant hole behind in not just the floor of the tower, but the entire island.

As the heat inside the tower died down, Aegis and the others stepped forward to see that below the now completed eternal flame in Ysil’mareina’s clutches was a large hole in the island caused by her flames.

“I suppose I will need to repair that, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. Here, your eternal flame, hot enough to smelt nearly any metal in existence.” She gave a toothy grin as she gently moved her talons to hold it out for Aegis and Tullan, who both stopped a few meters away due to the extreme heat it was giving off.

“So, eh… How ‘bout you grab it and hold it in yer inventory fer now?” Tullan suggested, motioning Aegis forward.

“You sure? I mean, you did all the work to craft the base. I think you should do the honors of holding it.” Aegis suggested, motioning Tullan forward.

“Bah, nonsense. Yer the one that found the recipe and got the heart. I insist.” Tullan nudged Aegis towards the flame while Artaphernes rolled his eyes at them. Immediately upon stepping close, Aegis began taking fire damage from its heat. It was initially a small amount, but as he stepped closer it quickly ramped up.

“Damnit…” Aegis groaned as he saw the fire damage jump up from 1000 to 10,000 in a single step, and decidedly lunged the last meters to grab it and add it to his inventory before it dealt any more to him. Once in his inventory, he breathed heavily and felt sweat dripping down from his face. “Got it.” He gave an unenthusiastic thumbs up to Tullan.

“Great!” Tullan cheered, clapping his hands together excitedly.

“Awesome job, guys!” Yorgi joined in clapping and cheering.

“This means you can forge mithral now, right?” Leonard asked excitedly.

“More or less. Gonna need to make a few adjustments to one of our forges to hold it.” Tullan shrugged.

“Probably better to use the Night Hunter forge for now, until everything settles down. Then we’ll move it over to Rene.” Aegis said.

“Aye, good idea. By then, it’ll be no problem to make another one anyway, assumin’ this all works out.” Tullan smiled.

“You’re all getting ahead of yourselves, are you not?” Artaphernes spoke up, interrupting the jovial atmosphere. “You still haven’t solved the hardest problem. Finding actual mithral.” Artaphernes sighed at them.

“Aye, but, I bet I know where it is. Remember, ye said the dwarves told the humans they oughta dig for thousands of years and still won’t find it? What if they meant that because it’s here. In a sky island?!” Tullan suggested excitedly.

“Unfortunately, there is no mithral in the sky.” Ysil’mareina shut this down immediately, much to Tullan’s disappointment.

“Oh… Yer sure?” Tullan asked.

“I am positive.” She nodded.

“Do you know where it is?” Aegis asked her.

“The mortals who had me forge their eternal flames in the past never revealed its location to me. Though, to be truthful, I did not ask. But I do recall claims that in their minds, the creation of the eternal flame was considered a much more difficult task than acquiring the mithral itself. Perhaps the eternal flame itself holds the answers you seek?” Ysil’mareina suggested.

“Huh.” Aegis replied with a raised eyebrow, eying the dragon curiously. Unfortunately, though, nothing immediately came to mind.

“Cryptic NPC stuff. Not much help.” Artaphernes shrugged. “We’re done here, right? I’d very much like to get back to the ship now. We’re vulnerable while separated from it.” Artaphernes added.

“Right, yeah. We’re done. Thank you for everything, Ysil’mareina.” Aegis bowed politely to her, and the other players did the same.

“It was my pleasure. I pray that you return with true hope, so that we may stand against the darkness.” She smiled.

“Thank you very much for saving my mother.” Ysil’atrilios bowed. With a few more bows and nods, the group made their way out of the nesting sanctum, down the patio steps, and walked back across the garden quietly. Aegis and Tullan were both deep in thought, considering the possibilities of where the mithral might still be hiding. The silence was broken at the edge of the island, though, as the group prepared to take turns riding Snowflake back down onto the airship.

“Damn. This is bad.” Artaphernes grumbled in frustration.

“What is?” Yorgi asked curiously.

“I was using you as bait, Aegis. My entire guild is on standby. I thought for sure that those dark players would make a final play to try and stop you. You were vulnerable while doing your quest, especially. Even the airship has been vulnerable…” Artaphernes motioned down to it over the edge of the island.

“Hey, don’t tell me you were using my Sky Darling as bait as well?” Leonard scowled at him.

“Like I said, my entire guild is on standby ready to jump into action.” Artaphernes replied.

“I don’t get why it’s bad, though. It’s good, isn’t it? We got the eternal flame without any issues?” Yorgi replied with a smile.

“No, he’s right. It’s bad.” Aegis nodded. “It means they’re confident that they’ll succeed regardless of what we do. It no longer matters to them whether we get this eternal flame or not.” Aegis explained.

“Oh…” Yorgi nodded understandingly.

“Or, maybe they’re just logged out having a nap and missed it?” Leonard suggested. “No need to get gloomy, dears. This was quite a fun adventure! I’ve never met a silver dragon before.” He smiled.

“Aye, all we can do is our best. Hurry up and fly that sky chicken down so we can get back to Kordas.” Tullan instructed Aegis who nodded back, hopping onto Snowflake’s back with Artaphernes. With that, Snowflake squawked with enthusiasm and jumped off the side of the island.

Several hours later…

Tullan waddled toward Aegis with a proud grin on his face as the pair stood inside the Night Hunter’s guild hall. They were in the crafting chamber, surrounded by high end crafting facilities of every type built into the walls all around them. Tullan was approaching Aegis as he stood in the middle of the marble tiled floor, with lanterns hanging off the walls illuminating the room brightly.

Once by Aegis’ side, he stopped and turned to look at the forge and blacksmithing stations alongside Aegis. From within, they both saw the blazing red hot eternal flame emitting intense heat. With no need for a bellows, one of the crafting guild members excitedly walked forward and used it to melt down copper ore, and the process completed almost instantaneously.

“Works perfectly.” Tullan exclaimed.

“Yep.” Aegis nodded as he crossed his arms.

“Any ideas yet?”

“Nope.” Aegis sighed. From there, despite being proud of the extremely powerful forge in front of them, their moods quickly soured as they continued to ponder.

“Well, no sense just loitering about. I always find that a bit of work with my hands gets my mind flowing. Yeh’ve got lotso that high level salamander leather, dontcha?” Tullan asked him.

“Yeah. But, I was hoping to wait until I could raise the Mosmir hatchers and get more void silk before I tried making more armor. I used most of what I had already..”

“Aye… voidsilk with high level salamander leather would be a nice combination. Why dontcha ask yer friend Yuki?” Tullan suggested.

“Ask her what?” Aegis raised an eyebrow.

“Master Tailors can salvage old armor and reclaim the materials. With high enough skills, she prolly won’t lose any of the void silk in the process. Yeh can easily just remake your old stuff with new, stronger leather.” Tullan shrugged.

“Really? Good idea, I’ll try that…” Aegis said excitedly while opening up his interface and fidgeting around with it, sending a few messages to Yuki.

Excited at the prospect of working with voidsilk for the first time, she accepted faster than he was able to send the messages, as if she’d been watching his stream. With the help of Yorgi, it was only a short while before Yuki and Savika had arrived in the Night Hunter’s guild hall.

Tullan gave them both a brief tour while Aegis got to work on the salamander leather and scales, prepping it for crafting. From there, Tullan created a work project with Savika, Aegis, and Yuki, and the group worked together on crafting the best possible armor they could using the materials available to them. Initially, they prioritized making equipment for Aegis’ party, but eventually moved on to making spares for the Night Hunters.

Aegis convinced Tullan to let him utilize greater enchanting orbs from the Night Hunter’s storage, promising to pay him back in the future.

“All that’s left is the robes for Pyri. Do you mind if me and Savika work on it, so she can gain more experience?” Yuki asked Tullan and Aegis, to which she got two shrugs back.

“No problem.” Tullan answered.

“Sure.” Aegis nodded.

“Thanks!” Yuki replied cheerfully as the two quickly rushed towards the tailoring side of the large crafting chamber.

“I suppose I’ll be the optimistic one and work with this ironwood and salamander leather so we’ve got the non-metallic parts ready for our imaginary mithral weapons…” Tullan said as he slumped across the hall towards the sawmill, leaving Aegis to stand with his thoughts.

He absentmindedly found himself taking out the newly crafted and enchanted armor he had, to inspect its craftsmanship and options.

Name: Royal Salamander Leather Armor of the Voidreaver

Slot: Chest

Type: Leather Armor

Armor: 3419

Quality: 67%

Durability: 450/450

Requirements: Level 100

Option 1: Increases Favor with Eirene while equipped by 250

Option 2: Increases Casting speed by 2.5% [Source: Voidsilk]

Option 3: Increases Damage and Healing from Spells by 74 [Source: Mosmir Voidreaver Pincer]

Description: A leather chest piece made of Salamander, Voidsilk, Royal Mosmir Pincers, and Mosmir Voidreaver Pincers. Crafted by Aegis

At the very least, Aegis was proud of how the armor came out. It was significantly more powerful than his previous set of armor, and helped raised his damage reduction far beyond what it had ever reached in the past. To confirm this, he quickly navigated his way through his interface to arrive at his character sheet.

Name: Aegis

Title: Lord of Rene [Land Rank: 4 (Town)]

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Marriage Partner: Lina [+25% Experience While Grouped]

Level: 150

Class: Shattered Healer

Health: 74,011/74,011

Mana: 20,341/20,341

Stamina: 2733/2733

Hunger: 100/100

Armor Rating: 16,172 [45.78% DMG Reduction]

Strength: 113

Agility: 90

Constitution: 195

Intelligence: 210

Spirit: 332

Charisma: 15

Spell Damage Bonus: 282

Casting Speed Bonus: 12.5%

Favor:

Eirene: 42,170

Aphrodite: 4,260

Odin: 3,500

Shiva: 2,500

Equipment

Chest: Royal Salamander Leather Armor of the Voidreaver [3410 AC][O1: +250FVR(Eirene)][O2: 2.5% M.SP][O3: +74 S.DMG]

Legs: Royal Salamander Leather Leggings of the Voidreaver [1766 AC][O1: +250FVR(Eirene)][O2: 2.5% M.SP][O3: +52 S.DMG]

Feet: Royal Salamander Leather Boots of the Voidreaver [1393 AC][O1: +250FVR(Eirene)][O2: 2.5% M.SP][O3: +45 S.DMG]

Hands: Royal Salamander Leather Gloves of the Voidreaver [1012 AC][O1: +250FVR(Eirene)][O2: 2.5% M.SP][O3: +36 S.DMG]

Back: Vestments of Eirene [1 AC] [O1: +623MP/m]

Accessory[2/3]: Simple Ring, Aegis' Bane[ENCH: MindShell], Ring of Hope[O1: Rebirth]

Mainhand: Iron Shortsword [51-59DMG][ENCH: +16-20HLYDMG]

Offhand: Royal Iron Shield of the Voidreaver [2527 AC][O1: +250FVR(Eirene)][O2: 2.5% M.SP][O3: +75 S.DMG]

Class Skills [Shattered Healer]

Heal(Intermediate): Level 150 [+26,122HP, 790mp]

Smite(Intermediate): Level 150 [4,831-4,906HLYDMG]

Cleanse(Intermediate): Level 15

Bless(Intermediate): Level 150 [15m, +311-319HLYDMG, 360mp]

Healing Wind(Intermediate): Level 150 [+3,523hp/3s, 39s, 940mp]

Aura of Light(Intermediate): Level 150 [71mp/3s, 15m]

Avatar of Eirene(Intermediate): Level 150 [16m, +41.0%AC, 41.0%HE, +20.5%Aura]

Path of the Stars: Passive [Eirene]: Passive [3/3]

->[1/3]Aura of Beauty(Intermediate): Level 150 [16st/5s, 100mp/5s, 9m]

->[2/3]Challenging Roar(Intermediate): Level 150 [31,830threat, 225mp, 25m]

->[3/3]Varibhadra(Intermediate): Level 150 [80%dmg, 3000mp]

Holy Mastery(Intermediate): Level 114 [4 Targets, -37.4 Effectiveness]

Gentle Touch: Passive [Eirene]

Light of Eirene: Passive [Eirene]

Light's Reach: Passive [Eirene]

Basic Skills

Shield Mastery(Intermediate): Level 150 [+50%]

Abilities: Brace, Shieldwall, Guard, Bash[1,621-1,649dmg]

Sword Mastery(Beginner): Level 2

Abilities: Parry

Unarmed Combat(Beginner): Level 30

Leather Armor Proficiency(Intermediate): Level 150 [+60%AC, +10MS]

Shadow Resistance: Level 11 [11% DMG Reduction]

Fire Resistance: Level 47 [47% DMG Reduction]

Nature Resistance: Level 9 [9% DMG Reduction]

Acid Resistance: Level 25 [25% DMG Reduction]

Poison Resistance: Level 25 [25% DMG Reduction]

Void Resistance: Level 4 [4% DMG Reduction]

Cold Resistance: Level 25 [25% DMG Reduction]

Riding(Intermediate): Level 55

Land Vehicle Mastery(Intermediate): Level 30

Leadership(Intermediate): Level 101

Taming(Intermediate): Level 114

Dancing(Beginner): Level 7

Crafting Skills

Mining (Intermediate): Level 41

Proficiencies: [Copper][Iron][Mithral]

Woodcutting(Intermediate): Level 41

Proficiencies: [Pine][Birch][Ironwood]

Herbalism(Intermediate): Level 116

Creature Harvesting(Intermediate): Level 150

Proficiencies: [Scale][Bone]

Weaving(Intermediate): Level 63

Sewing(Intermediate): Level 62

Refining(Intermediate): Level 51

Proficiencies: [Mithral]

Blacksmithing(Intermediate): Level 55

Proficiencies: [Mithral]

Woodworking(Intermediate): Level 75

Alchemy(Intermediate): Level 68

Proficiencies: [Delayed Release]

Tanning(Intermediate): Level 97

Leatherworking(Intermediate): Level 83

Artistry(Intermediate): Level 61

Architecture(Intermediate): Level 88

Scribing(Intermediate): Level 41

Cooking(Intermediate): Level 127

Enchanting(Intermediate): Level 41

Abilities: [Enchant Object]

Stone Cutting(Intermediate): Level 89

Proficiencies: [Obsidian]

Farming(Intermediate): Level 30

Crafting Mastery(Intermediate): Level 79

He'd come along way since entering the underrealm in terms of his class skills, but he noted how far behind his crafting had fallen, and was grateful for Yuki and Tullan allowing him to make use of their advanced crafting class skills to pump out blue quality armor for himself and his companions, which he'd already added to his inventory. After he'd finished the inspection, he closed out of his character information screen and shuffled towards the scribing station within the crafting hall.

Already seated there at one of the tables, head in a book, was Yorgi. He was focused on the text in front of him, but the sound of Aegis pulling out the chair beside him caused him to look up.

"Oh, hey! How's the crafting going?" Yorgi asked with an enthusiastic smile.

"Good, at least for armor. What are you reading?" Aegis asked him curiously as he sat in the chair on the far side of the table from Yorgi.

"Learning the spell that protects from Scrying. Almost finished. Did you need help with something?"

"Nah, gonna just read over some notes. See if I missed something." Aegis shrugged as he took out from his inventory the pieces of parchment that he’d copied Kur’aktos’ journal in, and began reading over it again. Yorgi didn't disturb him with more words, but instead gave a nod of acknowledgement and went back to reading his spell tome.

“It’s one thing to be good at studying, but it’s another thing to be able to figure out bits of knowledge that no one else has figured out before…” Aegis mumbled to himself, barely paying attention to the fact that his viewership held steady at 500,000 throughout the entire crafting session. “Dig for thousands of years, and they’ll never find it. A place where no player has been yet, else it would’ve been found already. The answer lies within the eternal flame itself…” Aegis pondered out loud as he read the part of the journal explaining the eternal flames purpose in the forging process. As Aegis spoke, Yorgi looked up curiously, but once he saw that Aegis was clearly talking out loud to himself he went back to reading.

‘The only heatsource known to dwarvenkind that could reliably, and by great amounts, exceed the heat of even molten rock, was an eternal flame.’

As Aegis read it over, he spotted it. There were several mentions of it, but he hadn’t picked up on it before. All times during the forging and refining process, as the dwarves described the heat required, they always used molten rock as the reference point. The only reason they’d know to use that as a reference point is if they were absolutely sure that the temperature of molten rock on its own wasn’t enough to melt mithral. That’s because…

As Aegis thought this, he shot up out of the chair as a giant grin grew across his face. He quickly gathered up his parchment back into his inventory and turned around to look across the hall at Tullan.

“Tullan!” Aegis shouted, causing not just Tullan, but Yuki and Savika to turn and face him. The moment they did, Aegis fidgeted with his interface and shut off his livestream. Seeing him shut it off, and the big smile on his face, the joy became contagious and spread to Tullan. “How long until you're done learning that spell?”

“Uh...” Yorgi checked out how many pages were remaining in the book. "About 15 minutes?" Yorgi shrugged.

“Good. ‘Cause I figured it out.” Aegis took a deep breath, then released a long sigh of relief. “I know where to find Mithral.”