Chapter 243: Final Preparations

The Sky Darling sailed smoothly amongst the clouds for the remainder of its journey back to Kalmoore. Due to repeated uses of airburst, the journey was rather short, and it took very little time after their battle with the Shattered Pirates for the continent to appear on the horizon.

As they approached, Leonard lowered the ship down to meet the land and eventually allowed the island stone hull to take over the hovering aspect of their flight. It was late into the afternoon when they sailed over the last bit of forests and fields and began to approach the city of Kordas, visible from a significant distance away. Seeing it gave them all a great sense of relief, but none of the players aboard the ship were willing to completely let up and repeatedly looked back over their shoulders, half expecting the other airships to still be in pursuit of them.

“Home, sweet home.” Leonard called out once they entered the air above the city itself. Still very high up, Aegis found himself looking down over the railings of the ship at the people moving about the busy city streets below. He witnessed a significant number of both NPC and players craning their heads up to stare at their ship, pointing at it excitedly.

Eventually, the ship sailed elegantly up to the Skyport tower of Kordas, nestling its right side up against the same pier it was always at, and Gregory stood at the ready to die the ship down. The others lined up at the railing to look upon the players gathered, waiting for them to arrive. Unlike last time, there were no VGN reporters, or any reporters at all. Aegis wasn’t sure if this was due to Makaroth’s influence, or from them having learned from past experiences.

Instead, only Quinn, Tullan, Sapphire and Yuki were waiting to greet them, standing amongst several guards and onlooking fans of Aegis. They began loudly cheering at the ship as Gregory grumbled and tied off the ship, lowering the boarding plank for them to disembark.

A few of the cheers from Aegis’ fans were commenting on the pirate battle, others shouting words of encouragement for him for his impending battle up against Seraxus, or commenting on their underwater adventure. Aegis himself wasn’t exactly sure how to react, but Herilon put on a smug, cool-guy smile and threw out a few winks, while Ren started jumping and waving his hands around, cheering back at them - prompting an eye roll from Quinn.

“Quite the adventure, eh?” Tullan cheered to Aegis with a big grin on his face.

“Guess so. How’s your crafting coming along?” Aegis asked after giving a few awkward waves to his fans. The moment he asked, both Tullan and Yuki paused to give reassuring nods to one another.

“We’re ready.” Yuki said on their behalf with confidence.

“Okay, good…” Aegis smiled, but paused briefly before saying more while looking over the crowd a final time. “Let’s head to the Night Hunter’s crafting hall?”

“You betcha.” Tullan gave him a thumbs up. He turned to lead Aegis and Yuki through the crowds, while Aegis spotted Quin focusing on Ren and Sapphire giving a judgemental stare at Herilon. Meanwhile, Leonard had several of his favorite NPCs rushing up past them to get aboard his ship and welcome him home, to which he greeted with open arms and cheers.

It took a bit of effort to get through the crowds, but once they made it down to the bottom of the tower things became relatively normal. Aegis could feel an aura of excitement emitting from Yuki and Tullan as they hastily made their way back to the Night Hunter’s guild hall, with Trexon trailing behind them.

“I’ve gathered up some impressively high quality mithral to work with. Been workin’ on forgin’ all manner of equipment with the weaker stuff to perfect my craft. I’m bettin’ there ain’t and won’t ever be a dwarf in this world better at workin’ the stuff than I am.” Tullan spoke proudly.

“I- me too. I mean, with the voidsilk. It had a lot more potential than I was using it for initially, but I think I have unlocked it. It’s really great for protection, not just good looking designs.” Yuki smiled.

“Great. This essence is probably going to be a pain to work with, but if anyone’s going to manage it, it’ll be you two.” Aegis replied, causing them both to blush with pride. Once they arrived at the Night Hunter’s guild hall, they quickly stepped through the double doors and beyond the marble-floored foyer, down the hallway on their left, until arriving at the crafting stations of the Night Hunters guild hall.

Just as Aegis had remembered it, the forge across the way was still glowing bright due to the eternal flame nestled inside of it, its heat strong enough to be felt the moment they stepped into the room. There were several other low level crafters at work when they entered, doing laborious tasks such as cutting logs or weaving silk, but they all stopped what they were doing to look up at Yuki, Tullan, Aegis, and Trexon as they entered.

“Finish up yer current jobs, then leave us be. We’ll be takin’ over this room for the next while.” Tullan instructed them, getting words of acknowledgement. He then made his way over to a large wooden planning table, with many measuring tools, blank parchments, and ink bottles set about messily. Yuki and Aegis followed behind him as he cleared off the table and set down a large blank parchment at the center. From there, the group got to work.

Tullan focused on the logistical sides of the shield, while Yuki added insight into how to execute it, as well as design recommendations to get the base ready.

“That oughta be good for a standard shield, and should work fine to hold the essence.” Tullan finalized an initial design onto the parchment with a quill in his hand, after a long hour of discussion between the three.

“Hm…” Aegis leaned back and began scratching his chin. “It’s perfect for a standard shield.” He added while taking out his own shield and eying it carefully, mainly at the straps on its back. The words of Herilon were floating around in his head, in regards to his fighting style. “I can project two shields, and I’m wielding two claws, though…” his voice trailed off into thought as his eyes wandered up to the ceiling, with both Tullan and Yuki watching him intently.

“Yeh’ve got a better idea for how to craft it?” Tullan asked curiously. Aegis didn’t reply immediately, leaving the room silent for a long few moments.

“I’m going to need a way to keep up with multiple weapons at once… 7 minimum. I have an idea on how I might more easily utilize a shield, with these claws. It’s a bit unorthodox, though…” Aegis lowered his eyes to meet their stares finally.

“Unorthodox is pretty standard with you, aint it?” Tullan chuckled.

“Whatever you need, we can craft.” Yuki replied reassuringly.

“Okay…” Aegis turned to his livestream briefly. “Gonna shut you guys out for a bit. Be back soon.” He said awkwardly, waving before turning off the livestream that held strong at 2 million viewers. Once it was off, Aegis got to explaining his idea to the two advanced crafting players. It wasn’t an easy explanation, and at multiple points, Tullan gave him a look as if he was crazy, but eventually the three finished off the redesign of the shield, and took a step back to look at it proudly.

The design of the shield took up multiple parchments, but the one on top of the pile ended up being the design for the front of the shield, which looked no different than it had initially. With this in mind, Aegis turned the livestream back on.

“Good. All sorted out.” Aegis said proudly, as his viewership quickly shot back up to what it was before the radio silence.

“We’ll get to craftin’ it right away. You oughta start practicing your fighting - that style isn’t gonna be somethin’ you pick up in a day.”

“Mhm. But I bet it will be really fun to watch.” Yuki added.

“Right. You sure you two are okay making it yourselves?”

“Aye, we’ll be fine. If anythin’, with your low 150 craftin’ skills, yeh’d just lower the quality.” Tullan replied in a mocking tone, to which Aegis threw him a brief, judgemental squint.

“Okay.” Aegis fidgeted into his user interface until finding the essence, then slowly pulled it out of his inventory to present it to them. The moment it materialized in his hands, the bright glow of it took over the room and caused Tullan and Yuki’s eyes to widen in amazement.

“It’s beautiful.” Yuki said with an open mouth.

“This is gonna be one shiny shield.” Tullan mumbled with his jaw agape. They then reached out and took it, Tullan adding it to his inventory. Following this, he began rubbing his hands together excitedly. “Let’s get started.” He turned to Yuki, who nodded back at him excitedly. The two wasted no time getting to work, while Aegis turned to look back at Trexon who seemed to be distracted by his own interface, fidgeting his fingers around in front of his face.

“Do you think Herilon will be available to practice more PvP?”

“He oughta be. According to our guild chat, though, most of your party members are already practicing themselves.” Trexon replied while closing out of his interface to meet Aegis’ eyes.

“They’re done with their advanced class quests?”

“All but Lina, it would seem. They’re at the training hall in Rene, where Clara should be waiting for you. Here…” Trexon began waving his hands around, with a blue glow on his fingertips. Aegis had now seen a portal spell enough times to recognize the hand movements after the first two waves, and a few seconds later, a portal to the Altar of Rene opened up in front of them, floating suspended in the air and surrounded by a blue glowing magical energy.

“Thanks.” Aegis smiled at him.

“No problem. I’ll send Herilon over in a bit. Best of luck, Aegis.” Trexon bowed politely, to which Aegis reactively bowed back without thinking. He then stepped through the portal and watched it promptly close behind him - suddenly finding himself standing in Rene, far from Kordas and the Night Hunter’s crafting hall.

The familiar sight of the mountain towering over the north side of the city, the walls and castle that he’d painstakingly crafted with everyone’s help, and the many villagers, wagons, and beasts of burden walking about the streets nearby. All of it was a welcoming sight, that made him truly feel like he was home. He took a moment to breathe in the fresh air and let out a relaxed sigh before stepping down off of the portal altar.

Almost right on queue, Chax could be seen rushing towards Aegis from out of the crowds of NPCs and players walking along the road around Aegis.

“Walk and talk?” Chax asked him, slightly out of breath. Aegis gave him a nod, and the two began heading in the direction of the training hall.

“How bad is it?” Aegis asked him nervously.

“Bad? Quite the opposite, really. We’ve got a pretty big influx of players and NPCs after the incident. We’ve already managed to repair the damage caused from the attack - because they primarily focused their attack on the southern side of Rene, it actually worked in our favor. According to Ruffily, many of those structures were crafted in the early days of Rene, so rebuilding them gave her the opportunity to improve the quality of the buildings using her higher level skills.”

“Huh.” Aegis made an odd shrug as he thought on it. “What about the costs?”

“The voidsilk farm you built has given us quite an exclusive export. Other islands have managed to replicate it, but not as efficiently as us, so there’ve been multiple traders arriving on airship from other islands, buying up crates of the stuff at high prices. We’ve already paid back all of our debts to the Night Hunters, and have more than enough for anything we might need. Especially with all of those mithral crafts you made while leveling your crafting skills.” Chax said with a big smile on his face. “I’ve gotten enough experience that I’m already working on my advanced merchant class.” He added proudly.

“That’s…. That’s all great, isn’t it?” Aegis turned to him suspiciously.

“You keep looking like you’re waiting for bad news, but, I promise, there isn’t any. We just need to know if you want to keep expanding, and if so in what direction.” Chax shrugged, motioning to the north, west and east where there were still a decent amount of open fields to be utilized for the land of Rene.

“If we expand much more, we’ll upgrade from being a town into a proper city, won’t we?” Aegis asked.

“Yeah, but, well…” Chax replied while motioning to a family of Dark Elves walking through the streets alongside the other citizens. “That was inevitable right? As it is, the allies you made down in the underrealm seem to feel more comfortable relocating here, than Kordas. At least for the time being.”

“Will the council of Rene be able to handle becoming a city?”

“Ah, I won’t lie. Our workload might go up… but… from what I’ve seen, we’ve been all having a blast. Me, Ruffily and Amlie are handling most of it, but it's been fun. You know, now that there aren't a bunch of people spreading evil darkness through the streets.” Chax added with a chuckle.

“Alright… I think expanding to the west and north first would be the best.” Aegis concluded after thinking on it for a moment, having arrived at the outskirts of the training hall. Looking inside, he saw his party training, oblivious to his presence. Darkshot and Rakkan were desperately striking out at Pyri with everything they had, as she worked hard to prevent them from landing any attacks on her with his cinderbolts.

Two versus one, she was holding her own, but to Aegis’ surprise she looked fairly strained in keeping up with them. Arrows were being redirected at her by Darkshot from her blind spots, as Rakkan controlled his floating weapons in an unpredictable manner. This forced Pyri to not just stand still, but to utilize her legs and move around in tandem with her cinderbolts to avoid all of their attacks.

“Perfect. I’ll let the others know. You’re going to be joining in on the training?” Chax asked as he stood behind Aegis, watching him as he watched the others.

“Uh, not yet. I need to talk to Clara. Do you know where she is?”

“Up at the Monastery.”

“Okay, thanks.” Aegis gave him a smile and nod before heading off in that direction. Chax waved him off, and he moved with a skip in his step through the northern gate of Rene, following the north road up the mountain trail until reaching the Monastery of the Stars, nestled peacefully up the mountain a modest distance from the city of Rene itself.

There were more priests and priestesses walking through the gardens than Aegis had last remembered, and amongst them he was able to quickly spot out Clara as she was in the midst of giving out a quest to an up-and-coming Eirene priest player.

Aegis patiently waited for Clara to finish, and once she had she turned to smile at Aegis, as did the young level 18 human girl, who awkwardly blushed, waved, and smiled at Aegis before scurrying past him shyly.

“Aegis…” Clara spoke softly as she held her hands out towards his. “I am glad you have returned. I’ve been waiting.”

“I finished the task you gave me. I’ve gathered allies, and have found a method to push back the darkness and retake the surface. Thanks to the silver dragons, and the wildlings.”

“Yes. Wonderful news… but before we discuss that…” Clara wiggled her hands towards him insistently. Aegis' curiosity got the best of him, and he held his hands out to hers and let her clasp them. Once he had, she closed her eyes as if going into a deep trance.

Your transgression has been forgiven. 1000 Favor with Eirene has been restored.

The message popped up in his face, and he took a second to process what was happening.

“Eirene feels the pain in your heart, she feels the deep regret that you feel, and she understands that you truly had no other choice.” Clara spoke warmly as her eyes slowly opened once more. He heard her words, listening to them intently, but felt no urge to reply. Instead, rather, he felt a surge of guilt and pain in his chest as he remembered the events that Clara was referring to. It reminded him that now, a soulless golem made up of his old petrified friend was waiting, wingless, in the castle of Rene.

“Now, let us move forward with Eirene’s grand task. It has been a long time since her light has been able to shine upon the surface of the lands below Kalmoore. She wishes that as you have been instrumental in bringing together the Silver Dragons and the Wildlings, and aligning them with our cause, that you also be the one to lead the charge, utilizing the strongest form of her light that she can grant to a mortal of this realm.

Quest Complete!

The message flew up through Aegis’ peripheral vision, but he quickly waved it away.

“However, such a gift cannot be granted lightly. Eirene is only able to grant this power to one mortal at a time. Like most gods of this realm, it is only possible to have a single representative for themselves. You fought one such representative, named the Harbinger of Darkness. Would you like to take up the role of its counterpart, and represent Eirene? Or would you prefer a role of less importance, so that another may take this position?”

Eirene is offering you the following Advanced classes:

[Harbinger of Light](Unique(?)), [Shattered Knight](?)

Aegis was quick to click on the question mark next to the unique as the card appeared floating in front of his eyes, in his peripheral interface.

A unique class can only be held by a single player at any given time. If the conditions required to hold the unique class are at any point no longer met by the player, they will drop down to the non-unique version of this class, allowing another player to obtain it. Unique classes are given access to specialized skills and quests, depending on the class.

After reading the explanation, he understood it, and a big dumb smile grew across his face. He had no hesitation in his mind as he tapped the option to take on the role of Harbinger of Light.

[World Notification]

The Player [Aegis - 150] has become the first player in the world to reach the advanced Class [Harbinger of Light]