Spiteful Healer

Chapter 134: Celebration

From the remains of Krik’lakgoth the Devourer had fallen several pouches filled with gold, many tendrils for crafting, and two high quality items, both above 80%. One of the items was a scepter, and the other was a black slimy robe, but Aegis could tell immediately that none of the robe-wearing players were at all interest in wearing it when Quinn held it up to show the raid party it’s item card.

“Alright everyone, listen up. Here is how I propose to share the drops, based on our split party. Firstly, I propose the gold be split evenly among all of us. That will total to each of us receiving 1300 gold.” Quinn declared as she climbed up on top of a few remaining broken blocks of the ruined tower. From there, she was easily visible to everyone in the group as they formed around her in a half circle at the edge of the lake.

By now, most players who were gasping for air as their stamina recovered had gone back to standing normally. The chatter died down as the players listen to Quinns words, and gave each other nods of agreement at her proposed idea.

“For the scepter and the robes, I propose we free roll for the items between each groups representative. I will roll for the items to go to the Night Hunters, Christoph can roll for the Blades of Kalmoore. Erikson can roll for the White Flames, and Aegis for his party. And, I suppose it’s only fair the individuals roll for themselves.” Quinn motioned to Finley, but he shrugged.

“Nah, I’ll pass. Not much interest in robes and a scepter.” He replied.

“We’ll also pass, the gold is enough for us.” Erikson said after looking over his old guild members and getting a few nods from them in agreement, including Josephine.

“Do you want to wear that robe?” Aegis whispered to Pyri as she and his other party members had moved to stand close to him.

“No. No way, that thing looks gross.” Pyri whispered back. “It could be the best robe in the game and I wouldn’t wear it.” She added as she cringed away from it as it dripped several slimy drops off its thick black silky cloth onto the cavern floor near Quinn.

“Uh, ok. We’re also passing on the items, but I’m interested in the crafting materials.” Aegis replied to Quinn.

“Fair enough. We’ll split the crafting materials between the guilds, but you’ll get the majority since you’re skipping on these items.” Quinn declared while staring at Christoph, as if asking him for approval, and he shrugged. Tullan let out an audible sigh of disappointment, but no one else seemed to care much.

“We could split them, Blades gets one item, Night Hunters the other.” Quinn suggested.

“Sounds good, we’ll take the scepter.” Christoph replied.

“Ah, nope, I want that!” Sapphire pouted.

“Okay… let’s roll. Winner gets the scepter, loser gets the robes.” Quinn suggested. She could see Christoph’s hesitation as he, too, eyed the robes with disgust.

“Fine.” He relented. Both of them pulled out a pair of dice from their inventories as the other players crowded around in a circle to watch. They stared at each other intently as they both cupped their hands around their plain white dice and began shaking them, preparing to roll them on the cavern floor.

Everyone held their breath and watched intently as it fell silent, save for the jingling dice and the rushing waterfall, until finally, they both released the dice and they clamored onto the cavern floor between Quinn and Christoph.

Quinn had rolled a total of 9 with her pair of 6 sided dice, while Christoph rolled a 7.

“Yes!” Sapphire pumped her fist into the air excitedly, while the Blades of Kalmoore members groaned and sighed.

“It’s fine, the robes have really good stats. They’re just a little slimy is all. I’m sure Yuki could do something about that, right?” Christoph said as he looked towards Yuki with hopeful eyes.

“I can try.” Yuki smiled awkwardly. Quinn handed the robes over to Christoph and he took them, turned and huddled off to the side with his guildmates, while Quinn moved to huddle off with the Night Hunters, and he could see each group begin discussing who should get the item.

“So, how was it? What’d you think?” Darkshot asked Aegis excitedly as his party of five moved to stand off to the side. The players began dividing into their respective groups and talking amongst each other about the battle.

“That was pretty fun, I’ll admit it.” Aegis grinned from ear to ear.

“It’s been such a long time since I’ve been in a raid battle. I forgot how I much I loved them.” Pyri said while panning over the other players.

“You didn’t do so bad, jumping in there when Quinn got mind controlled.” Rakkan gave Aegis a nod of respect.

“Yeah… I still need to look up the skills of the other classes though. Monks and Druids can’t be mind controlled? And that paralysis from warlocks looked strong…” Aegis commented as he scratched his chin.

“Yup. It’s pretty hard to control druids and monks with any control spell.” Lina nodded.

“I’ll use the database during down time to learn it all… but we’ve got no time for that now.” Aegis said as he stepped forward towards the broken tendrils at the edge of the lake with the intent to collect them. “Now, it’s time for us to head into the underrealm.” Aegis said excitedly.

“What’re you on ‘bout?” Tullan asked as he appeared beside him, walking with him towards the crafting materials.

“The underrealm. We’re going there.” Aegis motioned to the tunnel leading out of the cavern to the north.

“Are ye’ mad? First of all, underrealm aint no place for low level 50 players. There’s monsters there in the 100’s.” Tullan shook his head at Aegis as he explained. “Secondly, you aint ‘bout to rush off before we celebrate the victory. Everyone knows yeh gotta celebrate after a raid boss.” Tullan added.

“Really?” Aegis asked with raised eyebrows.

“Of course.” Yuki added as she moved to walk beside him as well and the three arrived in front of the pile of tendrils. “It would be a really nice celebration for the people of Arallia. Like, a holiday to celebrate Rene becoming peaceful, right?” Yuki suggested.

“I guess… We’ll be gone for a long time, from what I hear of the underrealm. So I suppose a going away party wouldn’t hurt.” Aegis shrugged as they started collecting the materials. “You can have some of our share, if you’d like Yuki. I bet you could make something nice out of it.” Aegis said as he saw her looking on curiously.

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” She smiled excitedly as she started grabbing a few of the tendrils.

“Don’t forget us.” Uggard joined in as he started collecting tendrils for the Blades of Kalmoore. It took them awhile to gather it all and divide it fairly. In the end, Uggard and Tullan took roughly 25% of the tendrils each, and Aegis took 50% of them due to the arrangement with the epic quality items.

By that time, Aegis saw that Sapphire was now wielding the new scepter, and the sage player of the Blades of Kalmoore was wearing the slimy robes, though not so proudly. Everyone continued to chat amongst themselves though, as if now in a large social gathering.

Aegis took advantage of this time to climb up onto the tall pile of rocks that Quinn had used to give out the items, so that everyone was able to see him.

“Excuse me, everyone.” Aegis called out loudly, and slowly everyone turned to look up at him. “I’m new to this game, and the traditions, but it was brought to my attention that it's traditional to celebrate after defeating a raid boss. Given the recent events, and the migration of Arallians to Rene. I also, well, Yuki also suggested that we make this a celebration for the Arallians as well.” He paused to look at Yuki, who gave him a nod. “Thanks to all of you, the land of Rene is no longer hostile, but peaceful. And, since we’ve got the Monastery of Eirene, I suppose today, I’d like to celebrate it as the day of Peace! A new holiday for Arallians and the people of Rene.” Aegis shouted, and following this he got a few cheers and claps.

“We’ve got plenty of ale to spare in the tavern. Let’s spread the word, get wasted, and celebrate peace!” Erikson shouted up at Aegis, and following this, the cheers got even louder.

By Nightfall that evening, Rene had turned into a rowdy place. The market stalls were closed down in the town square, and in their place a small stage was set up where bards were playing loud, jovial music. Players and NPCs alike were dancing around the fountain, while those loitering around the outside of the town square had drinks in their hands. It was quite a sight to behold.

The Blades of Kalmoore members and the Night Hunters were all getting along without issue. The hot topic of discussion was who did the most damage to the raid boss, and many people were picking through Miranda and Aegis’ livestream footage to try and figure it out, while others were just bragging and boasting, swearing it was themselves.

Aegis stood beside Lina as they watched the various people trying to dance, some drunkenly, and some skillfully, to the music of the bards.

Darkshot and Sherry were dancing together, though Sherry was having to cautiously avoid stepping on Darkshot’s feet and kept apologizing - she’d never tried dancing as a Satyr with hooves before and made sure Darkshot was aware of this, but he didn’t mind and was having a blast. The noise had gotten to be too much for Darkwing, though, and he was watching the action from the tavern roof rather than Darkshot’s shoulder.

Amlie kept trying to get Rakkan to dance with her, but he refused, and eventually Travis offered to dance with her instead, which she accepted. Yuki had taken Savika onto the dancing area and was attempting to teach her to dance as well, and they were both smiling and laughing along with each other.

Pyri was off to the side with Trexon, Uggard, Quinn and Christoph. They were drinking excessively and playing a card game together, gambling gold coins on one of several tables that had been set up on the outskirts of the town square. They were far from the only group of players and NPCs doing it. Aegis was happy to see how much fun she was having though, as she saw the players laughing and teasing each other as the hands of cards were dealt.

“So.” Tullan walked up behind Aegis and Lina with a mug of ale in his hand, and Aegis turned to see that Tullan wasn’t alone - Sapphire was with him, ogling her new scepter. “Yer really headin’ to the underrealm?” Tullan asked.

“That’s the plan.” Aegis shrugged.

“Aye, see? Toldya.” Tullan gave a nod to Sapphire. “I brought her to tell ya how crazy that *hic* is.” Tullan replied before taking a swig of the ale in his mug, some running down his beard.

“It's a maze down there. A lot of tricky, hard monsters. Really annoying skills. High level.” Sapphire said half-heartedly as she refused to take her eyes off her new scepter.

“But that means lots of undiscovered things, experience, and treasure, right?” Aegis replied.

“Yup.” Sapphire shrugged.

“Oi, yer supposed to talk him out of going.” Tullan groaned at her.

“What? He wants to catch up to us in levels. Exploring the underrealm in a small 5 player group is a good way to do it, as long as he doesn’t just end up dying over and over.” Sapphire shrugged.

“Thaz’ what *hic*, thaz what I’m saying. He’s just a wee lil baby level 30. I mean, 50, or somethin’. Bah, whatever.” Tullan waved at Sapphire and Aegis, his cheeks rosy red as he tried to take another drink from his mug, only to find it empty. “I need more ale. Free ale’s the best ale.” Tullan said as he started scanning his surroundings for a keg.

“I appreciate the concern, but we’ll be fine.” Aegis patted him on the shoulder, but his pat made Tullan burp loudly and start stumbling away, having spotted a keg.

“It’s pricey to portal out of the underrealm. Easy to get lost. But I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’ll be watching you gerbils.” Sapphire winked at Aegis and Lina, motioning to his livestream icon that was now hovering around 50,000 viewers. Following that, she disappeared into the crowd of celebrating players and NPCs.

“Everyone in Kalmoore is so nice. Even the top guilds here.” Lina commented as she watched Sapphire leave.

“It wasn’t like that on your old island?” Aegis asked her.

“No… it’s not like that on most islands. A lot of people play this game as their jobs, they take it very seriously and are very competitive. But here, it feels like everyone is just enjoying the game.” Lina smiled back at him.

“Excuse me.” Cheryl suddenly interrupted them, approaching them from the surrounding crowd. Aegis saw Lina immediately clench her fists and grit her teeth at her appearance. He initially glanced at Cheryl’s distractingly beautiful pink eyes, but quickly turned back to eye Lina’s fists, which Lina noticed and tried to release the tension, forcing a smile towards the approaching Cheryl.

“Hi.” Aegis replied to Cheryl, but his mind began to put the puzzle pieces in place. He wasn’t good with girls, but he was good at solving problems, and he’d now seen Yuki and Lina act this way around Cheryl multiple times. He was smart enough to realize that they were perceiving Cheryl as a threat in some way, most likely in a way Aegis didn’t understand.

And, as he thought this, he spotted Yuki looking across the town square at them, taking a break from teaching moves to Savika.

“Would you care to dance with me, Aegis?” Cheryl asked him with a smile.

“No thank you.” Aegis nodded politely. “I’m going to dance with my girlfriend, Lina.” Aegis added as he turned to look at Lina and smiled at her and took her hand. Lina was caught off guard, she went from looking defensive to blushing red in the cheeks. “If you want to.” Aegis asked, and in an instant his boldness had faded and his face also went red.

“Okay.” She replied as she looked down at her feet, and Aegis began leading her away from the sidelines towards the center of the town square where other players were dancing to the bards music.

“Wait, could you try this on, and put on your suit?” Yuki approached them excitedly, holding out a dress to Lina. Lina and Aegis both looked at her confused for a moment. “It’s for advertising.” Yuki explained to them in a whisper that she leaned in to deliver, barely audible over the music.

“Oh.” Aegis and Lina nodded, and Lina politely took the dress and equipped it while Aegis obediently equipped the suit that Yuki had made for him. Lina was suddenly out of her leather armor and wearing a beautiful dark blue dress with layered cloth below the waist, going down to her knees. The top was a v-neck that transitioned into thin straps with no sleeves, and it made Lina look suddenly much more mature.

“Wow… beautiful.” Aegis said as his jaw dropped and he looked at her.

“Thanks.” Yuki and Lina both said in unison, then looked at each other and let out a light giggle before Yuki awkwardly rushed away back to Savika.

“Actually, well…” Aegis hesitated moving closer to the fountain at the center of the square where most of the other players and NPCs were dancing. “I asked without thinking, I don’t actually know how to dance.” Aegis replied while scratching his head.

“Oh, it’s okay, I can teach you.” Lina smiled.

“You know how to dance?” Aegis was surprised, but Lina just rolled her eyes at him.

“What’s my class?” She whispered playfully.

“Oh, right.”

“Come on, once we dance a bit, you will get the dancing skill. Then, skill assist should help out.” Lina tugged his hand excitedly, leading him to the center of the square just as a song was ending.

“Let’s try a special song for the Lord of Rene and his lovely wife.” The leading bard, which Aegis recognized from their raid party, announced from atop the stage. Suddenly many eyes fell upon the pair.

For the first time since they’d met in The Shattered World Online, Aegis was redder than Lina. He glanced up to see his viewership had gone up to 60,000, and due to his and Lina’s beautifully crafted Yuki outfits, they’d garnered the eyes of all of the players and NPCs around them.

But, Aegis didn’t know how to dance. He looked into Lina’s eyes and saw her sympathetic stare as she saw his face reddening. The few moments of silence before the bards began to play music felt like hours, until finally the violin began to play.

“Like this, here…” Lina shyly took Aegis’ hands for him and lead them to rest on her waist, and he suddenly felt a rush of heat flowing through his body. “When I step forward, you step back. Don’t worry, it won’t take long for you to get the skill.” She tried to reassure him.

“Okay.” Aegis nodded awkwardly. She then gently placed her hands on his shoulders and took a deep breath, and Aegis could tell it was taking all of her courage to focus on the task at hand. In a way, the fact that she was focusing on a gameplay mechanic helped her overcome her shyness, and with determination she tried to help Aegis through the first few steps to learn the skill.

“Left back, right back, then reverse. Just really easy stuff until you get the skill.” Lina whispered, and Aegis nodded as he began following her feet movements. It took a few steps, but soon they fell into rhythm with the music as more instruments joined in, and a soft female voice began to sing.

Skill Learned: Dancing

“Oh thank Eirene, I got it.” Aegis sighed with relief, half jokingly. Suddenly the movements felt much more natural to him.

“Do you want to try more stuff now?” Lina asked him.

“Uhm, yeah, I guess…. You have to lead though.” Aegis replied nervously.

“Okay. Like this…” Lina began widening their movements, taking Aegis’ hands from her waist into hers and lifting his hands up to spin herself. She did it skillfully, in a way that made it seem that Aegis had taken the initiative - all compliments of her higher level, intermediate dancing skill which she had learned for her class.

Level Up!: Dancing has reached Level 2!

It got easier and easier from there. Several more players and NPCs joined in with the dancing, including Travis and Amlie, Darkshot and Sherry, and Yuki and Savika - then Tullan and Cheryl as well, and soon there was much less pressure on Aegis and Lina to preform.

As they relaxed from the lessened pressure, Aegis found himself beginning to enjoy himself. He could see in between Lina’s strained, focused expressions while she tried to help Aegis perform moves, that she too was having fun.

As the song went on, and Aegis gained a few more levels in the skill rather quickly thanks to his experience bonuses, he found himself able to take lead on the moves himself. Once they’d reached that point, Lina became less stressed and instead focused on having fun. Before they’d realized it, the song had finished, and Aegis had reached level 6 in his dancing skill.

The spectators clapped at both the music and the dancers, and Aegis quickly lead Lina out from the town square before the next song started.

“Did you see that? I was dancing. I don’t know anything about dancing.” Aegis exclaimed to Lina once they’d reached the northern street and traveled along it aimlessly away from the crowds of players.

“You did really good.” Lina smiled at him encouragingly.

“You too, I didn’t know you were such a good dancer. I mean, I guess I should’ve assumed. You’re a Shadow Dancer.” Aegis reasoned with himself as Lina giggled.

“I don’t know how to really dance at all. It’s just the skill, and a routine I learned for the intermediate quest.” Lina shrugged.

“Oh, right, you can’t use skill assist for the quest. So you really can dance?” Aegis asked.

“No no, just one specific dance. I just memorized it, and the names of the moves.” She replied.

“What sort of dance? Could you teach me? You know, in case I ever need the intermediate dancing skill?” Aegis asked curiously.

“Why would you need it?” She chuckled.

“I dunno, maybe for my advanced class.” Aegis shrugged. “I mostly just want to see you dancing more.” Aegis admitted shyly.

“Oh…” Her face went red. “Okay, I’ll show you a bit.” She began to fidget with her interface to disable skill assist. “You don’t get a dance partner in the intermediate quest in Kordas, so, I started like this -” She spun around and moved her arms elegantly around her body as she did. “Then this…” she continued, doing more movements, and the next few she did without words as Aegis watched her dancing along the northern streets of Rene.

There were torches lining the streets, and a Rene guard at the northmost edge of it where it led towards the northern gate, but apart from that, it was just them.

Aegis became quickly mesmerized by her movements. He wasn’t sure if it was because of how skillfully she was dancing, or if it was the beautiful dress, or just that it was Lina he was watching, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“Like that, basically.” She stopped halfway through and turned to see Aegis’ mesmerized expression, and couldn’t help but look away shyly.

“It’s beautiful, no wonder you passed the quest.” Aegis replied as she began fidgeting back in her interface to turn skill assist back on.

“It’s nothing… You passed all of the crafting quests. Even Architecture. And you built all of this. That’s way harder.” She motioned at the buildings around them.

“I still haven’t built a building for Darkshot. Or us…” Aegis added as he too looked down at his feet. “I was thinking we’d live in the Keep, with Princess Savika. If you want to still, you know. We could live in a Keep together.”

“I want to.” Lina replied quickly.

“Great.” Aegis replied with enthusiasm. “Where do you think we should build it?” He asked as he started heading away from the road towards the northern grassy fields. Still within the walls of Rene, he began walking along where the empty plots of land remained.

“Hm… maybe there? Close to the barracks and the portal altar?” Lina suggested.

“That’s a great idea…” Aegis nodded as he scanned around the fields, Lina following along behind him. It wasn’t long before they’d walked out of the light of the street torches, and stood only under the light of the moon and stars in the clear skies above. The sound of the music playing in the town square was still faintly audible.

“What sort of keep should we build? How many towers?” Aegis asked her.

“Oh, I don’t know… I’m not so good at architecture.” Lina shrugged.

“But we’re going to live in it together, so you should have a say in what it looks like, right? What do you think makes a really cool Keep?” Aegis asked her excitedly.

“Well… I suppose a pretty throne room. And then, a big tower that you can see from far away, that would be where the King sleeps.” Lina replied as she put her hand on her chin, and Aegis could see in her eyes the keep that she was imagining.

“Where would the queen sleep?” Aegis asked her.

“In the same place.” Lina replied quickly, as if this was obvious, but only realized what she’d implied after the fact. “I mean… in a typical castle, or keep, they would.” She turned bright red and began to fidget with her hilts, and Aegis couldn’t help but laugh at seeing her flustered.

“I know what you meant.” He chuckled. “But, if you want to sleep in the highest tower together, we can build the tower with multiple bedrooms. You know, for Savika, too.” Aegis shrugged.

“Okay.” Lina nodded with a smile. It went silent from there, as the two looked around the fields absentmindedly.

“Oh come on, they’re killing me! I’ve already got the poll up.” Hae-won shouted excitedly as she stood in front of Aegis’ broadcast. “If they kiss, will Lina get forced logged out? Or will she be able to keep it together? Place your votes now people!” Hae-won cheered with a squeal of excitement.

“I guess this’ll be our last time in Rene for awhile though. Underrealm is a big place, lots to explore, high level monsters. It’s going to be really tough.” Aegis said as he pondered on it.

“Don’t worry, we’re all strong together. I think we’ll be okay. I’ll stab anything that tries to hurt you.” Lina replied.

“I’m the one supposed to protect you. I’ve got the big shield.”

“Mhm, but I went to the underrealm once, so I know what to expect.” Lina shrugged.

“I can’t wait until I’ve done all the things you’ve done already in this game. Then I can act like the big tough protector that I’m supposed to be.” Aegis smirked.

“But, then you won’t need me anymore.” Lina pouted back.

“What do you mean? I’m always going to need you.” Aegis replied with a shrug.

“Oh…” Lina smiled while staring at her feet, kicking at a small mound of dirt she’d found in the tall grass. “We can… try…” She whispered weakly, but Aegis couldn’t hear her clearly.

“Hm?”

“We can try again…” She said again, slightly louder.

“Try what?” Aegis asked curiously.

“You know…” She mumbled as her fidgeting intensified. It took a second for Aegis to clue in.

“Oh. Are you sure?” Aegis asked as he began to fidget with the buttons on the suit Yuki had made him.

“Mhm.” Lina nodded.

“Okay…” Aegis replied, then hesitantly stepped closer to her. The two remained staring down at their feet as he reached forward and took her hands in his own, and slowly but surely they both lifted their heads up until their eyes met.

Aegis could see the moonlight reflecting in her eyes, and she in his, the skin on their cheeks flushing red. Then, she closed her eyes as he felt her fingers squeezing his, and leaned forward while lifting up her chin.

Aegis took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.

The last two times he’d done it, Lina’s lips had vanished from the game world in an instant. This time, however, they remained, as her grip on his hands loosened. For the first time, he was able to hold his lips against her and feel the softness of them.

But, he didn’t know what else he was supposed to do. Sure, he’d seen it in movies, how adults typically kissed - it wasn’t just a simple peck like this, but he’d never done it himself. He felt an urge, a desire to do more with his lips against hers, but talked himself out of it as he pulled away. He didn’t want to press his luck with Lina’s Simbox.

Once he’d moved his head back, they opened their eyes and smiled at each other.

“I did it.” Lina said excitedly to herself. Her innocent smile, and the pride in overcoming her shyness that lit up her face - it was irresistible to Aegis, and he couldn’t help himself. He leaned in and kissed her again, both of them quickly closing their eyes. This time, he didn’t keep his lips still, and neither did Lina.

Whatever it was that had forced her out of her Simbox before, she had overcome it, and the two were able to kiss passionately under the moonlight, uninterrupted.

“I can die happy. The story ends here. Shinji, cut the stream.” Hae-won fell back into a chair in her broadcasting studio, pretending to smoke an imaginary cigarette in her hand as she watched Aegis’ live stream chat going wild.

“Hell no,” Shinji grumbled back. “Forget the romance stuff, the next adventure is going to be epic. I hope this game has balrogs.” Shinji replied excitedly through a call to Hae-won, as he worked hard in his editing simulation.