Spiteful Healer

Chapter 127: Planning Ahead

“So,” Erikson said as he sat at the round table within the town hall of Rene that following morning. Sitting with him were Aegis, Josephine, Amlie, Ruffily, Pyri, Yuki, Clara, Celestian, Farlion, Chax, Lina, Darkshot, Rakkan, and Princess Savika. Everyone on the council was present. “In the end, it was a typical gnoll raid.” Erikson concluded as Aegis looked at him intently.

“What about the raiders?” Aegis asked him curiously.

“They were looking to steal from the shops while the battle raged on. It’s pretty common for monster raiding parties to have certain creatures that try to sneak behind enemy lines during the battle. I’ve seen it a few times.” Erikson shrugged.

“But, the Warlord, he had corruption. Like he’d been touched by one of the Avatars.” Aegis explained.

“Any monster that hangs around the edges of an island, or delves into its depths can become corrupted like that. It’s also not unusual. It’s just a stronger version of a normal monster. It doesn’t mean anything sinister is going on, Aegis.” Erikson continued, trying to lay Aegis’ suspicions to rest. It wasn’t very effective though. Everyone in the room who was looking at Aegis could still tell he was still suspicious about the conveniently timed attack.

“Look, you made the right call having us protect Savika and Clara. You were right, there was a chance that they were the target. We all got caught with our pants down, and you made the best calls with the information we had. And, we were lucky enough to have so many high level players around that things turned out okay.” Erikson replied with a shrug, but he saw it didn’t do much in the way of changing Aegis’ mood.

“You did good. Monster raids are tough, even for experienced guilds.” Josephine joined in reassuring him.

“Next time we’ll be more prepared, right? You’ve got some experience, you know what to expect now. This was a win. No buildings were destroyed and no NPCs were lost.” Erikson smiled at him as he and Josephine stood up. “We should get back to the tavern, but if you need us for anything else, just holler.” Erikson added.

“Yes. And Luryala is still waiting, eager to talk to you.” Josephine reminded him with a smile.

“Right, I’ll be over in a bit.” Aegis nodded back as he watched them leave the building.

“Thank you for protecting us.” Savika stood up and gave him a big smile.

“You saved everyone again.” Yuki joined in, standing and smiling at him as well.

“I will hand out the gold to the brave adventurers who assisted in protecting Rene now.” Savika bowed.

“I suppose I should help with that.” Chax stood up too, followed by Celestian.

“Let me know if you need any extra gold.” Aegis said, and Chax gave Aegis a nod. With that, the four of them left the building. Once they had, silence fell over those who remained for a few moments.

“So… Even though we won, that kinda sucked, huh?” Amlie broke the silence with these words. Even though she had said it, it was clearly what everyone else in the room was thinking.

“I can’t believe you benched me.” Pyri pouted.

“Wha- I didn’t bench you.” Aegis replied.

“You totally benched me.” She grumbled back.

“I wanted to make sure Savika was safe, and she was safest with you!” Aegis explained himself.

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” Pyri huffed back.

“I apologize for being so weak.” Farlion said, frustratedly lowering his head.

“It’s not your fault.” Lina said to him sympathetically, then turned to Aegis. “Elite against non-elite just isn’t a fair match up.” Lina explained to Aegis as he watched Farlion stare down at the table in shame.

“He’s not the only one frustrated. Iron sucks.” Aegis said as he looked at his borrowed shield that Ruffily had made on his left arm. As he did though, he caught a disappointed look on Ruffily’s face. “Oh, no, I don’t mean your iron sucks. I just mean, iron in general. This is the second time in a row I’ve had to deal with monsters that shred through its durability.” Aegis explained.

“Oh… woof! Yes, iron is not very good against acid attacks. Or magma attacks… Or void attacks… Oh also, psychic attacks...” Ruffily went on.

“Exactly what I meant, iron sucks.” Aegis sighed.

“It’s the best material we have available right now though, woof!” Ruffily replied.

“What about mithral?” Aegis asked her.

“No one knows where to find it. Some mithral weapons drop off of random high level enemies, but there’s no consistency to it. Woof!” Ruffily replied. This made Aegis go deep in thought.

“You got some tier 3 wood though, right? You can make me a sweet new bow.” Darkshot suggested excitedly.

“But what about the rest of us?” Pyri asked.

“The Wildwood tree is good for staves.” Amlie answered.

“Yeah, I read up about that already. We need to convince the keeper of the tree to give us a piece, and they rarely give more than one. I don’t want to waste it on a staff when my woodworking skill is still so low though, we’ll do that when I get it to level 150.” Aegis replied, making Pyri pout at him again. “I’ll make you an Ironwood staff though, it should still be good.”

“Okay.” She pulled her lips to the side.

“I need to level up my echo rune, and find more runes. I gotta get strong enough to take on a Battlemaster.” Rakkan said as he drew eyes on himself.

“We all need to get stronger and level up.” Aegis joined in.

“Psh, speak for yourself, I was awesome. Did you see my pinning shots?” Darkshot grinned confidently, causing a few of the others to chuckle at him.

“Yeah yeah, it was pretty cool.” Aegis shook his head at him with a smile. “I’m worried about leaving Rene again, though. At least leaving it as it is.” He said as he panned his eyes around the room at everyone as they turned to face him. “Farlion, can you round up the guards and Celestian in the training grounds?” Aegis asked him, and he stood up immediately.

“Yes, sir.” He replied, marching out of the room. Once he’d left, Aegis turned his attention back to the others.

“I’m going to test out my theory on how to make NPCs elite.” Aegis said.

“Oh… woof…” Ruffily said timidly. “Doesn’t that involve, you know…” She took one hand and made an O shape, then started to put her other hand’s index finger through it, but Aegis stopped her.

“No, no. Why does everyone think that?” Aegis shook his head at her and she shrugged back at him innocently. “There’s definitely more to it than that.” He groaned. “I don’t know if my theory will work, but it's worth a shot. In the meantime, let’s get to work on building the walls and barracks. Those buildings should keep Rene safe when we're away."

“What about the Portal Altar?” Pyri asked. “Look,” She took the portal spell book out of her inventory to show it to Aegis. “I can portal us now. So if you build a portal altar, and something happens in Rene while we are away, we can get back in an instant.” Pyri smiled.

“Oh, awesome. Your class can learn portals? Not a lot of Wizard intermediates can.” Rakkan said excitedly as he saw the book.

“Yup.” Pyri nodded hesitantly.

“Okay, we’ll build the Portal Altar too. That’ll be really helpful. I’ll have to talk with Tullan about enchanting it so it works before we leave.” Aegis said as he opened up his interface and started three new construction projects for the Walls of Rene, the Barracks, and the Portal Altar. Once he had, he invited everyone in the room to the projects.

“This will require a lot of stone, woof! And we still can’t use the stone from the ruins.” Ruffily explained.

“Hrm. Tell Chax to start trading our extra gold for cut stone. We’ll have to deal with that raid boss soon, but not yet.” Aegis put his hand on his chin. “I’m not sure if we’ll be strong enough to handle that raid boss right now.”

“We could always invite the other high level players in Rene to help us out.” Lina suggested.

“Okay. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we leave again either way, so let’s get it done quickly. I’ll go talk with Luryala, you guys start on the buildings. Once I’m done, I’ll craft you guys your new weapons,” He motioned to Pyri and Darkshot, “A new shield for myself, then test out my elite theory. I also need some time to tame Snowflake. I'll help with the building once I get that stuff done though. When we finish, we’ll need to decide where we go next to level up. Is everyone okay with that?” Aegis asked, and they all nodded back at him.

“Yes sir!” Amlie saluted him playfully. With that, the group all headed out of the town hall building together and quickly fanned out into the streets around Rene. The morning sun had fully risen now, and players and NPCs were moving about the land as if nothing had happened. From how peaceful and mundane everything looked, it was hard to tell that just a few hours ago the village was a battlefield.

It took awhile for it to settle in, the fact that despite things not going the way Aegis had hoped, no buildings were destroyed and no friendly NPCs were killed. The outcome of the battle was pretty favorable for him. And, like everyone was telling him, the raid occuring, and the behavior of the gnolls was all pretty standard as far as monster raids went. So why couldn’t he shake the feeling in the back of his mind that something was wrong? As he thought this, he caught a glimpse of Tullan loading up goods from his market stall in the town square, with Cheryl helping him out.

“You’re leaving?” Aegis asked Tullan as he approached.

“Eh? Nah, just preparin’ the next load fer transport back teh Kordas fer sellin’.” Tullan shrugged at Aegis.

“I don’t think we’ve properly met.” Cheryl said as she stepped forward to shake Aegis’ hand. “I’m Cheryl. A cleric of Loki.” She smiled as Aegis carefully looked at her symbolism of a strange pair of serpents intertwined in an almost S shape. He reached forward and shook her hand.

“I’m Aegis, of Eirene.” Aegis bowed politely to her.

“Mhm, I know, super famous. Big fan.” She smiled at him warmly.

“Thanks for helping us out yesterday. Lina told me what you did.” Aegis replied.

“Oh no problem, I’m always happy to help out.”

“She’s Lookin’ fer a guild, she says. I figure she’s got what it takes to be a Night Hunter.” Tullan grinned at her, causing her to blush.

“Oh, you’re just being nice.” She playfully waved her hands at him to stop. “I hope they’ll let me join, I love going on big quests and adventures.” She rubbed her hands together excitedly.

“Sounds like you’d be a good fit…” Aegis turned his attention back to Tullan. “We’re going to be building a portal altar as soon as possible. Do you think you could send someone to enchant it?” Aegis asked him.

“Ay, I’ll have Trexon head right over. Quinn’s been waitin’ to get a portal up over here since we got back from Arallia.” Tullan smiled.

“Good, thanks.” Aegis bowed politely to him. “See you guys around.” He waved to them and they both waved back as Aegis continued towards the tavern. When he stepped through the doors he was hit with a playful upbeat tune being played by a bard on the small stage, and several people were dancing and chanting along with it. The lyrics of the song were related to defeating an army of gnolls and everyone seemed in a very jovial mood, smashing their mugs together as they chugged back ale.

Aegis’ eyes met Erikson’s behind the bar, and Erikson, who was already back in his apron, gave him a quick nod.

“She’ll be down in a minute, have a seat.” Erikson called out to Aegis and motioned to an empty table in the corner.

“Hey, there he is! The Lord of Rene!” An intoxicated orc shouted across the tavern, drawing attention to Aegis as the music paused for a moment.

“Three cheers for the generous lord! Long Live Aegis! And long live Rene!” Another player cheered as he raised his cup in the air, and Aegis recognized it to be Finley egging them on. Following this, everyone shouted cheerfully towards him three times, and Aegis waved awkwardly back at the crowd of players. Once the cheers died down, the music picked up again and Aegis moved to sit at his table in peace, but it wasn’t long after that before he saw Finley walking towards him, locking eyes and taking a seat at the table across from Aegis.

“I must say, I’m impressed how you handled that Beulgedine. That breath attack of theirs is way overtuned, in my opinion.” Finley said as he plopped his mug of ale down on the table.

“We would’ve died if you hadn’t shown up though.” Aegis smiled politely back at him.

“Nah, I think you would’ve gotten it eventually. You guys had some good team work. Most villages like this, with no defenses, fall to gnoll raids easily. You did good.” Finley gave him a nod of acknowledgement as he drank a few gulps from his cup.

“Thanks.” Aegis replied modestly.

“My quest will have me around here for a while, so if you ever need help with anything, feel free to ask. Us Eirene followers need to stick together.” He smiled, then prepared to stand up and leave Aegis, but an idea popped into Aegis’ mind.

“Wait, you mentioned you have a lot of experience with these raids and stuff, right?” Aegis asked, causing Finley to sit back down.

“Yeah, a few, back in Lanusk.” He shrugged.

“Other than walls and trenches, what other sort of precautions do you usually take before a battle?” Aegis asked him.

“Well, it’s not so much about the long term precautions, those always end up being pointless. A waste of time, really. Traps, catapults, spikes, all that stuff….” Finley said dismissively.

“What do you mean?” Aegis asked him confused, as that didn’t sound like good advice at all.

“Here’s the thing,” Finley leaned his elbow over the table, “You’re a nice peaceful village in the middle of nowhere, like many villages in this game.” Finley motioned out of a nearby window to the land around them. “If I want to attack your village, I will do some reconnaissance first. I will figure out what your defenses are, without you even knowing I’m doing it. No matter what defenses you build, the attacker has all the time in the world to plan out and prepare how to deal with them. This is what raiding parties typically call ‘attacker's advantage’.” Finley explained. “Like those gnolls last night, the raiders ran straight for the town square, right? Because they knew where it was, and where to get the treasure, most likely. They probably used spells or animal familiars to check out the area first. It’s not just players that do it, NPCs do it too.” Finley said as he took another drink of ale from his mug.

“But what about being a defender? We’ll have the walls, so shouldn’t we have the advantage in the attack?” Aegis asked with a curiously raised eyebrow.

“Well, yeah, it helps, but if an attacking raid has planned out their attack properly, you’ll always be on the backfoot, because they’ll have a plan to deal with your wall. If you have catapults, they can make a plan for those. Spike traps? Oil traps? Trenches? Smart attackers will always be 10 steps ahead of the defenders. That’s why defending can be so tough in a world of not just siege weapons, but magic as well.” Finley continued.

“Well that sounds pretty pessimistic. The only way a defender can win is to just be a lot stronger than the attacker, is what you’re saying?” Aegis asked him.

“Nah, the real trick is this. If the attackers are always going to be 10 steps ahead of your defenses, then your job as a defender isn’t to catch up to them, it’s to jump right to step 11. Always have a trick up your sleeve that no one is expecting, so they can’t scout it or prepare for it.” Finley shrugged.

“You mean a trump card? Like what?”

“I dunno. If you told me, or your audience,” Finley motioned to Aegis’ live stream viewership of 34,000, “Then it wouldn’t be much of a trump card, would it?” Finley leaned back in his chair with a smile. “You should still build a wall though, that’s a given. Real pain in the ass to defend a village that has no wall.” Finley chuckled as he patted Aegis on the shoulder and stood up.

“Ok. Thanks for the advice.” Aegis returned a smile.

“No problem.” Finley finished before turning and heading back towards the side of the tavern where the bard was playing music. Just as he was walking away though, Aegis spotted Luryala approaching from across the tavern. She had beautiful dark purple tinted skin with large pointed ears and dark black hair down to her waist. Her ebony eyes reflected the light of the lanterns hanging on the tavern walls and she smiled at Aegis with a look of familiarity as she approached him.

Many of the other players and NPCs around the tavern stopped to stare at her, as her race of Dark Elves were a very, very uncommon sight, but she ignored this and elegantly glided across the tavern floor in her simple white dress robes until she arrived at the seat across from Aegis where Finley had just sat, and slowly sat down.

“I am so happy to see you again, and see that you are well.” She smiled to Aegis politely.

“You look much better yourself.”

“Yes, Clara took good care of me while I remained in Orm. Then I heard she had moved here, and was surprised to learn that you had built on top of this land, and was eager to meet you again, as well as the other brave adventurers who had come to this land.” Luryala replied while scanning around the customers of the establishment.

“I still have the quest that you gave me, I hadn’t completed it yet, so I wanted to apologize. But you’ve been giving the quest out to the other players here, is that right? Does that mean there’s a path to that evil Warlord you spoke of nearby here?” Aegis asked her.

“Yes, the caverns under the old Darxon Hideout are the very same ones that me and my companions used to escape the Warlords grasp.” Luryala answered him with a nod. As she did this Aegis took the time to open up his quest menu to refresh his memory on the details of the quest.

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 Defeated

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

Questgiver: Luryala, of Kalmoore

Reward: Unknown

Difficulty: Extreme

“Did you have to pass the raid boss?” Aegis asked her. “I mean, you said the Darxon cultists captured you and your kin as you were fleeing from Kur'aktos. Did they capture you before, or after you got past that Raid boss down there?” He clarified.

“Raid boss? I’m not sure what you mean. There was a dangerous presence in the underground lake, but we avoided it. Perhaps you mean that?” Luryala replied.

“Yeah, that’d be it.” Aegis nodded as he began to tap his finger on the table, thinking about her words. It always felt odd talking to an NPC for Aegis, at least the Non-elite ones. He felt like he was trying to solve a puzzle where he needed to ask them the right questions to get the best answers out of them.

“Between here and the underrealm where Kur'aktos is, how far was it?” Aegis asked her.

“Quite far. It was a two week's journey on foot, though we were weak, injured, and sick.” Luryala answered.

“And was there anything of note between here and there?” Aegis asked her.

“Uhm, I suppose. Yes. The ruins of Belmiure, Reltrak Forest, and the Mosmir Hive, to name a few of the places.” Luryala said as she put her hand on the side of her head as if thinking deeply on her answer.

“Any Shadowspiders?”

“Many.” She nodded with a scared expression appearing on her face, as if recalling a bad memory.

“What level are the enemies down there, exactly?” He eyed her carefully.

“Level? They vary greatly, but they are all higher than yourself. That is why I perhaps thought it best to request aid from the other many strong adventurers now present in these lands.” Luryala smiled timidly.

“I see… okay, thanks.” Aegis said as he tried to think of anything else worth asking her. “Oh, this is a long shot, but…” He hesitated as he looked her in the eyes and she stared eagerly back at him. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen any mithral on your journey through the underrealm, did you?” Aegis asked.

“No, I never saw any mithral while traversing the Underrealm.” Luryala replied apologetically, and Aegis let out a sigh of disappointment. As he thought about her answer though he recalled how Lina had pushed Clara to get additional information back in Orm about his Shattered Healer class, and he played back Luryala’s answer in his head a few times.

“That answer had a qualifier…” Aegis said to himself, and Luryala looked at him confused. Aegis got overly excited at the potential here, and quickly went into his interface to mute his livestream before asking his next question. “You just said you never saw it when you were traversing the underrealm, but have you seen mithral before that?” Aegis asked her excitedly.

“Yes. The warlord who terrorizes my people wields mithral weapons. He forged them himself. His power to manipulate and wield mithral is what helped him rise to power, and why he is so feared. None know where or how he learned it, though.” Luryala answered him, and a giant grin grew across Aegis’ face.

“So you're saying that the big bad boss of the underrealm that we need to kill is also the only thing down there that knows about mithral.” Aegis paused as he went deep in thought for a moment with his hand rubbing his chin. "That makes things interesting." Aegis said to himself excitedly as a big grin grew across his face. “Don’t tell anyone else this information Luryala, and don’t give out the quest to anyone else. I promise I will save your people.” Aegis looked at her sincerely.

“Okay, I will do as you request. You are my savior and I trust you.” She bowed respectfully to him.

“Good. You’ll be safe here until then, we’ll build a place for you to stay so you don’t need to hang out in the tavern. Okay?” Aegis said as he stood up with her and shook her hand, and she bowed again politely.

“Thank you, you are too kind.” She replied, and with that, Aegis headed out of the tavern with a skip in his step.

“Guys…” Aegis spoke through his party interface as he sat in a party with Lina, Rakkan, Pyri and Darkshot. “Let's hurry up and get these buildings done. Our next stop is the Underrealm.”