Spiteful Healer

“Heh, I knew they’d fight dirty, but this is a new low…” Tommy spoke into a voice call with Shinji. The two were both working within their office simulations - Shinji was editing Aegis’ livestream as he was taken by Yorgi and Leonard back to the Silver Garden. Tommy was working with various advertising agencies and going over various past broadcasts of Aegis’.

“What is it?” Shinji replied, without losing focus on his current task.

“VGN is refusing to cover anything related to Aegis. Even with that world notification recently, there hasn’t been a single mention of it on any of their broadcasts, not even the daily news update that tracks all major progression milestones within the gameworld.”

“Is that bad for us, or bad for them?” Shinji replied in monotone.

“Normally, it’d be bad for us. But since Aegis triggered a world notification, people heard about it anyway - we didn’t need their coverage. And if viewers can’t get information from you, they go somewhere else. They’re shooting themselves in the foot just to be petty.” Tommy shrugged back, despite knowing Shinji couldn’t see him.

“Still… that’s just the first of their tricks. If they go all out, it’ll keep getting nastier.”

“I aint about to let a big network bully us around.” Tommy growled back. “If they wanna mess with our clients, they’ll learn that I ain't afraid to go below the belt too.”

Aegis approached Ysil’mareina with Yorgi at his back, having had Yorgi awkwardly use his fly spell to carry him up from Leonards airship and onto the cloud island high up in the skies above Kalmoore. Yorgi was visibly out of breath while Aegis seemed perfectly fine. Ysil’mareina was now walking around outside of her nesting structure, trotting around her garden with her gigantic dragon claws whilst carefully not stepping on any of the plants.

As Aegis and Yorgi approached, she stopped what she was doing to turn her large, silver scaled body towards them and face Aegis with her huge snout. He still hadn’t gotten used to seeing her large tongue flapping behind her razor sharp teeth as she opened her mouth to speak to him, sitting down on her bottom and towering her large neck over Aegis. He craned his neck to look up at her attentively as she spoke.

“I am impressed. You have shown diligence like this world has rarely seen before. With the knowledge and skill you now carry with you, you will surely gain the respect of the Wildlings. With them at our side, I have no doubt we will learn of a way to return this world to its former state.” She smiled with a big toothy draconic grin. “But… I shall warn you. You have defeated one Avatar of Darkness, yes… but a lesser. Once you embark on this path, the remaining ones will no doubt do everything in their power to stop you. Are you sure you are ready to bear such a burden?”

“I’m ready.” Aegis nodded back with no hesitation.

“Very well.” Ysil’mareina nodded, and following her words a new quest prompt appeared in front of Aegis’ face.

Quest[5/6]: Earn the trust of the Wildlings so that they willingly share information on the ancient world, and tell of a way to retake the Shattered World from the Dark Gods.

Objective: 0/1 Wildlings Trust Earned

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

Reward: Advanced Class: (Unknown)

Difficulty: Extreme(III)

Aegis hit the accept button quickly, after which Ysil’mareina bowed to him respectfully.

“I should warn you. They do not speak ancient, or your common dialect. They speak in the natural tongue. You would do well to bring one with you that is able to communicate with them, else learn the complex language yourself.” Ysil’mareina explained.

“Okay, got it. Thanks.” Aegis bowed to her before turning and walking away, Yorgi nervously following behind him.

“Good luck.” Her voice trailed after them as they headed to the nearest edge of the floating sky island. Once they were far enough away from her, Aegis slowed down so that he was walking side-by-side with Yorgi.

“Natural tongue?” Aegis raised an eyebrow towards him.

“It’s the druidic language.” Yorgi explained. “Any druid player will be able to speak it.”

“Oh. Hm.” Aegis scratched his chin.

“Want me to ask for a translator? We’ve got a couple druids in the guild…”

“I guess. If it’s not too much trouble…” Aegis shrugged. Yorgi nodded back and opened up his interface, fidgeting around with his finger in front of his face as he opened up his guild menu. Before he’d even opened it, there were messages from Night Hunter druid’s that’d been watching Aegis’ stream already eagerly volunteering.

“Uh, they don’t seem to mind… Ren really looks like he wants to come. Do you know where a Wildwood tree is?” Yorgi asked Aegis.

“Yeah, there’s one just outside of Rene.”

“Okay.” Yorgi shrugged. “Then, I can portal us to Rene instead of me trying to fly you back down to the airship. I’ll have Ren meet us there.”

“Alright. I’ll let Leonard know so he’s not waiting for us.” Aegis replied as he opened up his interface to send a message to Leonard, who was waiting below on his airship. Simultaneously, Yorgi sent a few messages and then began casting a portal spell to Rene. After a few moments, the blue portal opened up and both Aegis and Yorgi stepped through, just as the evening sun was beginning to settle over the Shattered World online.

The two stepped down off of the portal altar and stood on the paved streets of Rene just in front of it, waiting patiently in silence as the sounds of the rustle and bustle of Rene filled their ears. It wasn’t long before another portal opened up, and through it stepped Herilon, Trexon, and Ren.

“Yo.” Herilon waved, while Ren ran through with a big excited smile, his short green hair flapping up and down as he hopped down the steps.

“Hi Aegis!” Ren cheered excitedly.

“Hey. You’re here as well?” Aegis turned to Trexon.

“Yeah. I’ve finished my research. At least, I’ve gathered all the information possible and learned a great deal about the…” Trexon stopped himself and motioned to Aegis’ live streaming icon. Aegis nodded back and quickly muted his broadcast so that Trexon would continue.

“Hatred was hunting down the Silver Dragons after the battle of Hrath’mir. The Silver Dragons turned to the wildlings for help, and they forged a weapon that was able to contain hatred's power, and gave it to a holy champion. The holy champion fought hatred, defeated him, sealing him inside his own sword. But, in the process, the weapon was destroyed, and the holy champion slain. The wildlings took the broken pieces of the weapon and hid it away, to keep its power from falling into the wrong hands.”

“So, the same guys I need to talk to for my quest are the ones who might hold the key to standing up to that artifact weapon Seraxus is swinging around?” Aegis asked Trexon, and he nodded back.

“Exactly.” Trexon turned to Yorgi. “I’ll be staying with Aegis for the remainder of his quest, so you are free to continue studying and leveling.”

“Alright, cool.” Yorgi smiled. “Good luck with everything.” Yorgi waved before walking off down the streets away from the other four.

“I’m tagging along just in case. If anyone figures out what we’re up to, they’ll likely want to stop you.” Herilon added, as all eyes fell onto him.

“He was just bored and is hoping to get some PvP action.” Ren smirked. “So, which way is it to the tree?”

“Uh…” Aegis eyed Ren as he continued to hop around excitedly, unable to stay still while Trexon and Herilon stood behind him shaking their heads. “It’s this way.” Aegis motioned in the general direction of where he’d remembered the Wildwood tree to be.

“Okay, let’s go! I’m so excited! An adventure with Aegis!” Ren cheered. “Something crazy always happens. I wonder what’ll be this time? Maybe we’ll discover a new race of bug people?!” Ren began talking to himself as his voice got further away from the group - he didn’t wait for them and started rushing away excitedly in the direction Aegis had pointed, forcing the other three to speed walk in order to keep up with him.

“Would be funny if the quest ends after just a few lines of dialogue.” Trexon chuckled to himself.

“You mean there might not be any PvP?” Herilon replied in a dejected tone. Hearing both Herilon and Ren’s motivations for tagging along, Aegis couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he unmuted his stream.

As the group of four headed out of the eastern gate of Rene and followed along the river, Aegis sent party invitations to the others to form up a proper party just in case. It wasn’t far from the walls of the city that they arrived at the dense grove of trees surrounding the giant, old, wildwood tree. It was easy to spot out due to the lush and vibrant vegetation that grew all around the base of the trees.

It’d been awhile since Aegis had last seen it, he’d forgotten just how wild and surreal some of the plants were that cropped up around the large tangling roots of the tree as they protruded out of the dirt at various spots surrounding the trunk. Flowers with petals that spun like a windmill, others that repeatedly coiled and uncoiled their snake-like stems that slithered amongst the other plants. Some flowers were shaped like bells, and made soft ringing sounds as the wind blew against them.

The group of four stopped at the very edge of where the growth of influence from the tree ended, and they all looked up upon the giant, old tree. Its bark was a lighter brown than the surrounding trees, and it was very thick with countless tangling branches extending outward to hold up its bright green healthy leaves.

“Have you ever talked to these guys before?” Aegis whispered awkwardly to Ren as they stood shoulder to shoulder.

“Nope. Kayliera has, we need to talk to them for the druid advanced quests. I’m not advanced yet though.” Ren shrugged while motioning to his level of 136.

“Shoulda brought Kayliera.” Herilon grumbled. Ren threw him a pouting look as a response to this.

“It’ll be fine, I’m good at talking. Don’t worry!”

“Let Aegis do the talking, and you just do the translating.” Trexon rolled his eyes.

“Oh. Right. Okay.” Ren nodded, turning to look up at Aegis. “What should I say?” Aegis looked down at Ren, then back to the tree. He eyed the dark shadows cast on the branches, where he recalled seeing the pair of yellow eyes many months back when he’d last visited this tree alongside Amlie.

“Announce us, tell them we come on behalf of the Silver Dragon Ysil’mareina, and the Goddess Eirene. We’re seeking their aid.” Aegis whispered to Ren, and he nodded back enthusiastically. Following his nod, he began making strange noises with his mouth that caught the others off guard.

The sounds coming from his throat closely resembled that of branches swaying in the wind, old creaking wood and snapping bark sounds, mixed in with the sounds of shaking leaves. Aegis exchanged looks with Herilon who looked equally shocked, but Trexon gave off the impression that he’d heard this druidic language spoken before.

Once Ren stopped making noise, it fell silent save for the sound of actual wind blowing through the trees - at least, that is what Aegis, Trexon, and Herilon thought. Ren, on the other hand, was listening intently to the natural sounds coming from the wildwood tree and its surrounding plants, then turned to look up at Aegis.

“She wants to know how you expect her to aid you.” Ren said to him.

“Huh?” Aegis looked at him confused. “She spoke to you? You know it’s a she?”

“Yup.” Ren nodded back with a big smile.

“Right. Uhm…” Aegis pondered awkwardly for a moment. “We would like to know of a way to return the world to its former state.”

“Don’t forget, the weapon to defeat hatred as well.” Trexon butted in.

“Yes, that too. Ask her about that, too.” Aegis nodded along. Following this, Ren began speaking once more in the strange natural language. Once he’d finished, there was a heavy breeze of wind that blew through the wildwood tree, and this time, Aegis was able to pick up on the sounds of the creaking wood that acted as the Wildlings voice. Simultaneously, he spotted the pair of yellow eyes opening from within the shadows of the tree branches, staring down at them.

“She says she cannot give out such information. You must ask the Great Old One. He will decide if you are worthy of our knowledge.” Ren replied.

“Great. And where is this Great Old One?” Aegis asked. Ren repeated the words, then translated the response, all the while the Yellow eyes remained locked onto Aegis. Following her response, a bright yellow light suddenly lit up from under the dark branches of the tree and flew out towards them.

“She says the old one is hidden at the edge of the world. She will guide you to it, but only those pure of heart will be able to reach its location.” Ren explained as all eyes followed the yellow light.

It wasn’t until it got close that they spotted what the light actually was - a tiny female humanoid with yellow butterfly wings wearing a simple white dress. She had long yellow hair and yellow eyes, and the glow was illuminating from her wings as they flapped. She gently landed atop Aegis shoulder as he turned his head to look at her.

“In this form, I can speak your tongue.” She said, her voice soft and high pitched. It startled Trexon and Herilon, and all eyes fell onto her.

“You’re the wildling?” Aegis confirmed, motioning with his head from the tiny fairy, back towards the pair of eyes still sitting on the upper branches of the tree.

“Yes. We are able to take many forms. You may call me Bihi.” She curtsied as she introduced herself, and once she had, Aegis saw [Bihi(Elite) - Level 128] appear above her head.

“Well… nice to meet you. Thank you for helping us, and being willing to show us the way…” Aegis smiled awkwardly.

“Do not thank me yet. The path to the Great Old One is treacherous. I am at no risk, for my true body will not be accompanying you…” She motioned towards the eyes in the tree. “But you will be in mortal peril. Necessary precautions have been taken to keep the Great Old One safe from all threats, be it otherworldly, darkness, or void.”

“Right.” Aegis nodded, taking a deep breath as he briefly glanced at the others and saw a big excited grin growing on Ren and Herilon’s faces. “I’m guessing it’s not on Kalmoore, is it?”

“No. It is not.” She replied promptly.

“Guess I gotta message Leonard again. Hope he doesn’t mind.” Aegis opened up his friends list interface.

“Are you kidding? He lives for adventures like this.”

“If the Wildlings truly hold all this knowledge, there’s a good chance they’ll know about the Airship pilot intermediate quest…” Trexon pondered out loud. “You should lead with that.”

“Good idea.” Aegis nodded, sending a message out. Before he’d even finished he got several responses back from Leonard. “He says he’s in, he’s already on his way here to pick us up from Kiepalt forest.”

“Perfect.” Trexon smiled.

“Hell yeah! We’re going on an adventure! I knew it! A new unexplored part of the Shattered World!” Ren cheered with giddy excitement.

“I knew tagging along would be fun.” Herilon smirked. Trexon and Aegis both exchanged hesitant looks as both Herilon and Ren began hopping around each other excited.

“I feel like I’m being used, but at the same time benefiting from it.” Aegis mumbled to Trexon.

“Yeah… yeah….” Trexon nodded back sympathetically, patting Aegis on his left shoulder as Bihi watched them curiously from atop his right shoulder. The group made their way away from the tree and back towards Rene, stepping through the eastern gate back into the well lit city streets as night took over the world around them.

“Gather up any supplies you guys might need, I guess. No telling how long this’ll take. Are you sure you all want to tag along?” Aegis confirmed with them.

“Of course! I’ll see if I can find any elixirs. Or tasty snacks!” Ren ran off following these words.

“Same.” Herilon did the same, a skip in his step - the childlike behavior he was exhibiting was extremely mismatched to his imposing figure and the giant mithral greatsword strapped onto his back.

“I’ll stock up on reagents as well.” Trexon shrugged, leaving Aegis by himself.

“Do you need anything? A special type of food or something?”

“I feast on the sunlight.” Bihi replied with a yawn, stretching her arms up and looking around Aegis’ shoulder as if trying to find a place to lie down. Seeing it, though, he had an idea pop up into his head. “How about I craft you something a bit more comfortable, so you don’t have to hang out on my shoulder?” Aegis asked her, and she shrugged with a raised eyebrow at him.

Aegis got to work quickly, making use of the various crafting stations within Rene. With the intention of impressing the Wildling and winning her over through a display of his craftsmanship, he carefully created a pouch with a wooden interior, with a miniature bed suited to her size. He reinforced the interior of the bag with a single spare mithral ingot to make sure its shape wouldn’t warp and be at risk of crushing the occupant.

Once the bag’s shape was safe, he added into the small room tiny accommodations such as a shelf and a table and chair, all secured so that they wouldn’t move around even if Aegis was running. He then created multiple flaps to allow sunlight in, now knowing that Bihi lived off of it. Then, as a finishing touch, he created a strap atop the leather pouch so that he could secure it to his belt.

Once it was complete, he placed the pouch on a table with the flaps open, so that Bihi could easily fly in and out of it, and motioned her inside.

“This should make your trip with us more enjoyable. You can stay safe here and rest during the night, or while we are traveling through the dangerous and treacherous areas you described.” Aegis explained as he watched her flutter from his shoulder into the pouch. Once she landed on the wooden interior floor, she eyed the amenities - particularly the bed, and walked over to it.

“It is very accommodating…” She commented as she pressed down on the miniature mattress Aegis had made using Lagnok wool. “Thank you very much. She turned to smile at him, before curling up her wings and laying on the bed. Once she had, Aegis picked up the pouch and strapped it securely to his belt, heading out of the leatherworking crafting hall that he was currently in. He had quite a few onlookers staring at him, mainly due to his livestreamer status, but he had learned to ignore the points and whispers.

Once back out on the streets of Rene, he spotted off in the distant skies the Sky Darling, approaching them with its sails unfurled. Not but a few moments after he spotted it, he saw Ren, Herilon, and Trexon all approaching him as well.

“Nice idea.” Trexon motioned to the pouch on Aegis’ belt.

“Do you think I could go in there too? If I beastshift into a mouse?” Ren asked excitedly.

“No.” Aegis shook his head at him.

“C’mon. Let’s not keep Leonard waiting.” Herilon motioned towards the ship, and the others nodded. The party of four then made their way out of Rene to meet the airship, with all preparations completed.

By the time the four of them had stepped out of the eastern gate, the Sky Darling had come to a stop above the fields just outside the walls of Rene, and Greg threw down a long rope ladder for them to climb aboard.

“Hello, my dears!” Leonard called out excitedly. “Come on board, let’s get this adventure started!”

“Yeah!” Ren cheered, being the first to jump onto the rope ladder and begin climbing. Herilon went next, then Trexon, and finally Aegis. The Airship hovered several meters above the ground, so that by the time Aegis got near the top of the ladder he could see across all of Rene and its entirety, including the great castle that’d been recently constructed. Within the walls, there were numerous groupings of NPCs and players staring up at the airship, ogling it.

Some players, Aegis recognized. He spotted Erikson and Josephine standing beside Amlie in front of their tavern, looking up at Aegis and waving at him. He finished climbing to the top of the deck before waving back at them, but as he did, many more NPCs and players started waving.

“Quite the send off!” Leonard cheered playfully, joining in with the waving down at the citizens of Rene. After a few moments though, he stopped and clapped his hands together loudly. “Well then.” He turned to them, whilst rubbing his hands together. All but Gregory had looks of enthusiasm on their faces. “Ready to set sail!?”

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