Spiteful Healer

The Yallow Nux reared its head back after roaring before snapping it forward quickly, like a lunging cobra. Herilon, Trexon and Ren cleared out by leaping back over the altar or to the sides, while Aegis lifted his mithral shield and braced the strike.

You take 13,481 Slashing damage.

“It’s manageable.” Aegis called out as the impact of the strike on his shield sent out enough force to cause nearby loose rubble and stone to fly outward away from him and create a loud clanging sound that echoed off the walls of the chamber. Despite bracing, and bending his knees to receive the blow, he was still pushed backwards a few steps until his waist bumped into the altar behind him. “Find a weak spot. I’ll keep it busy. CHALLENGING ROAR!” Aegis shouted, drawing the attention of the beast unto himself.

He could tell he had the monsters full, undivided attention through the glint in his glowing white eyes as it reared its head back and prepared to strike out at him again. In this time he quickly wiggled the fingers on his right hand and cast healing wind on himself.

Trexon released a barrage of small fire bolts that flared out in the room like an exploding firework, then swirled around Aegis and the creature and began impacting it in various spots on its body. Herilon dashed back in towards the beast with his sword out and began slashing at various limbs and the creatures underbelly. Ren, however, left the striking to the others and took a step further back, trying to take in the creature and the room around him, studying it.

In this time, Aegis blocked another lunging strike which was then paired with two claw attacks from the arms on the Yallow Nux’s back closest to its head. He was able to brace the relatively slow and predictable strikes, using the altar at his back to prevent him from being pushed away further. After absorbing the blows he then healed himself up.

“Take your time, I can heal through this damage for a long while.” Aegis tried to reassure them as he saw Herilon swinging his sword furiously at the creature, and only seeing repeated 0’s come up for the damage dealt.

“You can give us all the time in the world, I don’t think this thing has any weak spots.” Herilon replied after several more swings.

“Try different elements.” Ren suggested to Trexon, who nodded in response after his barrage of bolts hit the body of the creature in various spots, to no effect. He swapped to wind, lightning, acid and wind magic to no effect.

“Nothing, no change.” Trexon said to Aegis after he’d blocked a few more hits.

“How are we going to kill something that doesn’t take damage?” Ren asked, prompting Aegis to ponder in between blocked strikes. Despite the creature being elite, its mind was that of a simple monster making it easy for Aegis to manage. It didn’t consistently use the same attack patterns with its claws and fangs, but nonetheless was quite predictable.

“Well…” Aegis thought out loud for a moment as he turned back towards Ren. “Got any beast shift forms that are good at tunneling or burrowing through rock?”

“Yup.” Ren nodded with enthusiasm. Once hearing it, he turned to Herilon.

“Wrangle the creature with as much rope as you can, and get ready to challenge its strength stat. Can you increase Herilon’s strength?” Aegis turned to Trexon who nodded back.

“Giant’s Grip!” Trexon cast a sage spell on Herilon which caused his body to grow slightly larger. Herilon looked at himself with a satisfied smirk for a moment before sheathing his mithral greatsword and drawing out plenty of rope from his backpack.

“Glad I always bring a lot of rope with me.”

“You can’t go on an adventure without rope.” Ren nodded in agreement with Herilon, causing Aegis to give them both a look as he was reminded of Lina’s approach to rope.

“Destroy the creature's tunnel that it used to get inside the chamber.” Aegis told Ren, and Ren nodded back before exploding into a puff of green mist. Once the mist dissipated, he came out of it as a gigantic armadillo-like creature with huge extended claws on its front. Once he’d shifted, he waddled ever so slowly to the hole in the chamber and quickly carved into the roof, collapsing it in after a bit of effort.

The beast struck out at Aegis a few more times but took note of the fact that its tunnel had collapsed, then let out a roar of frustration as Herilon ran around its torso, rapping as much rope around it as he could without losing grip of the ends.

“When you’re done, tie some around Ren’s beast form.” Aegis yelled to Herilon, and he nodded back hesitantly.

“Just what exactly are you planning to do?” Herilon asked.

“Trexon, can you cast underwater breathing on all of us?” Aegis ignored Herilon’s question, but this next statement made him visibly concerned.

“Aegis? What are you planning?” Herilon’s eyes now wide as everyone was cluing in to the plan.

“If we can’t kill it with damage, we have to drain its stamina. The creature burrowed into this temple, it didn’t swim. I don’t see any gills.” Aegis shrugged apologetically to Herilon.

“Oh hells…” Herilon whimpered as Aegis turned his attention back to Ren.

“Collapse the tunnel leading back to the wildling so it doesn’t drown, then burrow a tunnel up through the roof out of the ocean floor. Herilon, make sure the creature can’t burrow away, you gotta hold it in place.” Aegis gave his final instructions.

“I thought going on an adventure with you was going to be fun.” Herilon groaned as Trexon quickly cast the underwater breathing spell, then began looking around for something to hold onto. Ren wildly slashed out at the doorway they had used to enter the chamber from, trapping them completely inside. It was momentarily claustrophobic inducing to be trapped in a chamber under the ocean, but that was quickly alleviated when Ren used his beast shifted claws to start burrowing upwards out of the chamber at an angle.

The moment Ren began digging, the Yallow Nux ceased its attacks on Aegis to observe what was happening, watching curiously as Ren disappeared into the wall. It wasn’t long before there was a loud, ominous rumbling sound though. They were not very far below the ocean floor, and all it took was a little scratch to the ocean’s surface to cause the weight of the water to come flooding in, knocking Ren back with a violent force.

The moment the forces of nature pushed the water in through the tunnel that Ren had dug, all players were knocked off of their feat and thrown about by the waves, taking repeated bouts of high bludgeoning damage. Aegis quickly waved his hands around to help everyone heal up from the damage and withstand it, while the Yallow Nux reacted in a panic just as he’d predicted, and began desperately attempting to burrow out of the chamber away from the water.

“Don’t let it out of the water!” Aegis shouted, his voice somewhat gargled by the waves he was caught up in. Ren quickly dug his claws into one of the walls of the chamber to hold on, using the ropes Herilon had swung around him and the beast respectively. It was initially enough to halt the creature from digging very far out of the chamber, but soon the creature became much more desperate and frantic. Herilon managed to find a large section of stone jutting out from the wall to grab onto, using it to hold himself steady against the waves and simultaneously assist Ren in holding the creature in the chamber.

Within 20 seconds, the chamber was completely submerged, and the only light they had was glowing brightly off of the essence still visibly swirling inside the panicking creature's body.

Once the chamber had been fully submerged it became much easier to move around, and take in what was happening. Trexon had just barely kept himself steady off to the side near the collapsed doorway, while Herilon and Ren held onto the chamber walls with all their might, preventing the creature from burrowing out of the room. He saw the veins popping out of Herilon’s enlarged body as he mustered all of his might to hold it back, but it was working.

After another few long moments of struggling, the creature seemed to realize it wouldn’t escape like this, and turned to face them once more. This time, it eyed not Aegis, but the multiple thick strands of rope that had it bound to Herilon and Ren, and it quickly began slashing out towards the ropes with its claws and fangs.

This is where Aegis stepped in, utilizing his guards and his shield to protect the ropes from being cut by the creature's fury.

If it was anything more than a terrifying looking creature in a virtual game world, Aegis might’ve felt bad for doing this to the creature, but as it was he saw no other possible solution to obtaining the essence he needed to stop Seraxus.

Very quickly, due to the creature's large body, its stamina began to drain. Unable to land a single blow on any of the ropes binding it in place due to Aegis’ defense, eventually it succumbed to the water.

You have defeated [Yallow Nux(Elite)]!

There was no experience reward, due to Aegis still sitting at level 150. Instead, they were rewarded by a white glowing item orb rolling out of the creature’s mouth into the waters around them. It continued to emit a blindingly bright white light.

“Grab it and let’s get out of here before this whole chamber collapses.” Trexon said through the party interface. Aegis nodded back at him and grabbed the orb, adding it to his inventory and briefly looking at the name only to confirm he had what they’d come for.

You receive [Essence of Indestructible Light].

“Do you think I have time to harvest it?” Aegis asked as he found himself staring longingly now at the numerous claws and fangs visible on the creature.

“NOW!” Herilon growled at him impatiently, with a look of terror on his face.

“Right, right. Ren, shark it up and swim us to the surface!” Aegis said through the interface, causing Ren to nod back and shift out of his burrowing form and back into his sharp form. Once he had, both Aegis and Trexon cut the ropes free from the creature and they all grabbed onto the shark, who quickly swam up out through the tunnel back to the ocean floor.

Aegis activated his aura of light to illuminate the dark ocean surrounding them as they ascended up back to the surface. He glanced back down at the ocean floor below them and watched as the glowing, multicolored coral slowly faded from his view below. Not long after that, though, the light from the setting sun above them became visible as it pierced through the surface of the water to reach them.

Despite not being out of breath at all due to Trexon’s spell, when they breached the surface, they all collectively let out gasps of air, sucking in the virtual oxygen from the surface. It took a few seconds of glancing around for Herilon to spot the nearby floating Sky Darling, and desperately flailed his arms around like a drowning child to get back towards it.

The others followed suit, with Ren shifting back into his elven form.

“GREGORY! Lower the damn ladder!” Herilon shouted up towards the boat. This prompted Gregory to appear over the side of the deck railings closest to them, looking curiously.

“Finished your underwater adventure already?” Gregory asked with a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.

“Yeah, lower it!” Herilon shouted back.

“Very well.” Gregory sighed as he disappeared for a moment before returning with a rope ladder which he threw over the side for them. Herilon was the first to climb, followed by the other three. Their clothes and armor drenched, they left large puddles of water all around them on the deck as they each plopped down on their bottoms.

“I presume you got what you were after?” Gregory asked as he began pulling up the rope.

“Yup. We got it.” Ren smiled.

“Would you mind if we looked at it? I’m quite curious about its power.” Trexon asked.

“Sure.” Aegis shrugged, eying his livestream viewership count to see it was still holding steadily high at 2 million. Herilon caught him doing this, though.

“Your UI is still hidden from your viewership, right? They won’t be able to see what it does? It’d be bad if they know what it's capable of.” Herilon asked Aegis.

“Yeah, it’s hidden. Just don’t read it out loud.” Aegis explained, and got nods from Trexon and Ren as they leaned in, staring at Aegis’ hand eagerly as he opened up his inventory interface and took the essence out.

Name:Essence of Indestructible Light

Type: Crafting Material

Quality: 100%

Option 1: Item becomes indestructible, with no need to ever be repaired. Its shape cannot be damaged or altered in any way once crafting is completed.

Option 2: Significantly increases resistance to Shadow Damage

Option 3: Negates any damage dealt by soul-infused artifacts.

Description: An essence of pure light, formed and solidified by the powerful wildlings in order to protect the guardians of their world.

“Heh. Option 3 is a little bit on the nose, don’t you think?” Herilon smirked as the group collectively read it with smiles on their faces.

“Well, they did specifically make it for that purpose, so it makes sense.” Trexon shrugged.

“Still. For all the trouble we went through, I thought it’d be a bit more overpowered.” Ren replied with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“It’s just as powerful as it needs to be.” Aegis smiled back at him, taking the essence and putting it back into his inventory. “Once we get back to Kalmoore, I’ll work with Yuki and Tullan to craft it into something magnificent. All we need to do now is wait for Leonard to finish his quest.” Aegis said as he glanced back up towards the tree above them.

“Oh, Leonard? He’s already back. He’s a bit busy, below deck. Would you like me to fetch him?” Gregory asked, causing all of them to turn and look at Gregory with surprise.

“He finished his intermediate airship pilot quest already?” Trexon asked

“In a manner of speaking…” Gregory looked off to the side awkwardly.

“Well go get him then.” Herilon shrugged. “Let’s get back home right away.” The others nodded in agreement with this.

“Very well.” Gregory spoke reluctantly before disappearing below the deck of the ship. He hadn’t been gone long before a notification popped up in front of all of their faces.

[World Notification]

The Player [Leonard - 30] has become the first player in the world to unlock the intermediate class [Airship Captain].

They waved the notification away, but this only confused them more.

“How’d he complete the quest just now, while below deck?” Ren asked.

“And seemingly on command…?” Trexon asked, while Herilon and Aegis exchanged curious stares before turning their attention to the sounds of footsteps approaching from below deck.

First, Gregory stepped back up onto the deck with his head shamefully down. Followed by Leonard, who was wearing nothing but an open white bathroom with visible, bright pink underwear underneath. Then, lastly, following behind him was a partially green-scaled elven humanoid female, wearing very little, and holding a big smile on her face as she looked over the others on the ship.

They all quickly stood up from the deck, Ren and Aegis embarrassedly looking down at their feet.

“You will undoubtedly become a great conqueror of the skies, Leonard. I look forward to seeing you again.” The greenscale humanoid spoke seductively to Leonard. Aegis had barely time to glimpse the NPC name above her head, [Pareie’lassa(Elite) - Level 193].

“I’ll be sure to come and visit you again once I have.” Leonard replied in an equally playful tone. Following this exchange, the humanoid jumped off of the side of the airship, and before touching down on the ocean below, her body warped and morphed into that of a large green dragon, and she soared away from the ship until disappearing through a gap in the mangrove roots, flying upwards higher into the sky above them.

Once she was gone, there was a long awkward silence amongst the players aboard the ship.

“Did you sleep with your intermediate class quest giver?”

“Yes. I find that the more the NPCs like you, the quicker the quests move along.”

“I didn’t even know that was an option…” Trexon shook his head to himself in disbelief.

“My advanced class giver was a big, male, muscly half giant, so… I don’t think it ever was for me anyway.” Herilon mumbled.

“Right.” Leonard clapped excitedly. “Either way, I now know how to fly this ship out of here. Not only that, but I think I know a way for us to craft more airships, without the island stones.” Leonard smiled to himself excitedly. “Ready to head home?”

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