Chapter 131: Recruitment

Not long after the Wall of Rene had been completed and the crowd broke up and dissolved within the city, Aegis gathered his four party members in the town hall and had everyone take a seat at the round table, not immediately aware of why Aegis had brought them there. Once everyone was seated, though, Aegis leaned over the table to speak up.

“Ok. I’m certain that we’ll be heading to the Underrealm for Luryala’s quest. There’s numerous things we need to do, and all of it is down there. But, our path to the Underrealm is behind that raid boss below Rene.” Aegis explained and they all listened intently.

“I’ll be completely honest here, I don’t know exactly what to expect with a raid boss. While I don’t like the idea of sharing experience and drops with others, I’m also concerned that if we attack it, and fail, it will retaliate and destroy what we’ve built up over the last months.” Aegis said.

“So, I thought the best thing to do is to put it to a vote. There’s five of us, so we can come to a decision if everyone weighs in.” Aegis paused as he panned his eyes over them, Darkshot taking time to lean forward over the table while Darkwing looked around the room absentmindedly from atop his right shoulder. “Either we go down there, just the five of us, and try to take it on as we are. Or, we recruit other players to assist us to get it out of the way so we can quickly delve into the Underrealm.” Aegis deliberated the options available for them.

“I think we should recruit.” Lina spoke up first. “I have experience with raid bosses, I fought two with my previous guild. Even with 45 players, they were extremely difficult, and the battles ended with a lot of player deaths. Raid bosses are not designed for smaller groups.” Lina explained. “If we want to take them on, we will need our own guild, or a group of players we can rely on to help us.” After she’d finished speaking, it went silent as everyone thought of her words.

“Ok. I’m with Lina.” Rakkan nodded. “I don’t have experience with them, but what she says makes sense. We could probably grind and get strong enough to kill it as 5, but we have things we want to get done in the Underrealm, right? It’ll be an unexplored part of Kalmoore, so no doubt plenty of ruins, dungeons, and treasures. It’ll be enough to have access to those before anyone else.” Rakkan nodded.

“That settles it, because I’m with them.” Darkshot shrugged.

“Okay.” Aegis replied. “I’ll try to keep the group limited to people we know. Prepare what you need for the fight, I’ll get started on recruiting.” He stood up, and the others followed suit, heading out of the town hall together. “Rakkan, see if you can find Ruffily and ask if she has time to help clear out the ruins, we’ll need to unearth one of the tunnels in order to safely get the waterfall. Our other method of getting there was a little bit too risky.” Aegis asked him as he briefly motioned to the top of the mountain north of Rene.

“Gotcha.” Rakkan nodded.

“And, could someone ask Yuki if she’d like to join us? I’d go but…” Aegis remembered her looking at him angrily after the Cheryl incident. “I need to talk with Tullan and some others.” Aegis shrugged awkwardly.

“Yup, I’ll go.” Lina smiled.

“Ok, see you all in a bit.” Aegis replied, and with that, everyone dispersed through Rene. Aegis’ first stop was Tullan, who he’d spotted at the Night Hunter market stall in the town square.

“Aye?” Tullan eyed him as he approached, seeing the eager expression on Aegis’ face.

“Tullan, we’re going after the Raid Boss, but we’ve decided it would be best to ask for help. Do you think Quinn and the Night Hunters would be willing to join us?” Aegis asked.

“Aye…” Tullan replied, fidgeting with his interface, but it didn’t take long for him to close it and look up. “Yep, they’re already on their way. They’re watchin’, all giddy to come along.” Tullan motioned to Aegis’ live stream viewership of 35,000. “They’ll be portaling here in a bit.”

“Heh. Okay.” Aegis smiled at him. “That was easy.” Aegis shrugged.

“Raid Bosses are hard teh find and give a lot of experience and items.” Tullan explained.

“Good to know…” Aegis thought out loud as he headed towards the tavern next.

When he stepped inside he saw the familiar face of Erikson behind the bar who gave him a knowing nod as he entered. A few other players looked towards him as well, but none that he recognized, and they quickly went back to drinking and chatting amongst themselves. He was hit with the familiar smell of ale and spiced foods coming from the kitchen, with the ambient sound of a violin being played by a bard overtop of the murmurs of other players, and clunking of mugs on wooden tables.

Aegis thought about heading straight for Erikson behind the bar to talk to him, but as he scanned the room first he spotted the back of Finley’s head as he stood staring at the bounty board on the far left wall. Aegis walked up behind him but Finley hadn’t noticed him by the time Aegis had looked at Finley from the side to see what he was doing. He was staring at a particular bounty poster on the board, which inadvertently drew Aegis’ eyes towards it.

[WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE]

Player: SIMON

Class: UNKNOWN

Origin: UNKNOWN

Crime: MURDER

Reward: 1,000,000

On the right side of the poster was an image of the player, which Aegis immediately recognized.

“Oh, shit. I saw that guy.” Aegis said in surprise as he read the poster.

“You know him?” Finley said, broken out of his gaze.

“Yeah. He was sitting on top of the Skyport Tower in Kordas. Do you know how old this poster is?” Aegis asked Finley.

“Nope. I think a few days.” Finley shrugged.

“Hrm… any idea who or what he murdered?” Aegis asked.

“No clue. That’s a pretty big bounty though. Must’ve been someone important to draw that much attention to himself.” Finley replied.

“I’ll have to let the guards know to be wary of him.” Aegis said as he recalled portions of his encounter with the player, though his mind didn’t retain much, he was focused on other things at that time. Aegis continued to stand and stare for a bit until Finley stopped perusing the board to look at him.

“Did you need my help with anything?” Finley asked curiously.

“Oh, right. Yeah. You helped a lot during the gnoll raid, so I figured I’d extend an invitation. We’re going to be going after a Raid Boss nearby, and wondered if you’d like to help?” Aegis asked him, but was sure to be quiet enough that no one else heard the invitation.

“Oh, really? Yeah, of course. Sure. Ah, wait, well…” He paused. “My current quest requires me to do it alone, so I can’t join any party. Is it ok if I just tag along outside your raid group?” Finley asked.

“Yup, no problem.” Aegis shrugged.

“Okay. Count me in, I’ll be there.” Finley gave him a thumbs up.

“Keep Ruins in 30 minutes.” Aegis instructed him before turning his attention onto Erikson from there and walked across the tavern to greet him.

“How’s it going?” Erikson asked as he flung a washcloth over his right shoulder and put his hands down on the bar to lean forward over it closer to Aegis.

“Raid Boss. You down?” Aegis asked with a smirk.

“Lemme get my gear.” Erikson smirked as he stood straight up again. “You want me to call my old guild members too?” Erikson asked.

“Yup.” Aegis nodded. “Keep ruins in 30 minutes.” Aegis said and Erikson excitedly spun around and left the tavern to an NPC barkeeper as he disappeared into the kitchen through a door behind the bar.

Aegis was pretty happy with himself on how fast he was able to recruit a decent group of players and made his way out of the tavern, heading to the Keep Ruins on the northern end of Rene. When he arrived he saw that Ruffily and Tullan were already working to clear out a path through the rubble, and Aegis didn’t waste any time joining in. One by one, the other members of Aegis’ party as well as Finley, Yuki, Erikson, Josephine and the other white flames members showed up.

“I think there’s a path this way, I recognize these areas.” Rakkan motioned to one of the underground hallways that had been dug up.

“Ok, let’s clear out over there.” Aegis instructed them, and everyone participated in helping shift the stones. It went quickly, despite most of the players present not being crafting classes. They all had high strength and constitution stats which aided in moving things around easily. As they worked for a bit, Aegis suddenly heard the sound of many sets of footsteps approaching from the direction of the Portal Altar. He was below ground level in the ruins, unable to see who it was, but assumed it was the Night Hunters.

He climbed up out of the ruins to greet them, only to be surprised by a group of 20 high level Blades of Kalmoore members. Aegis recognized a few of them, including Quiver, Christoph, Miranda who was now level 42 with 1500 viewers, and the sage that tried to cast an identify spell on him.

“Hi there, Aegis.” Christoph stepped forward and smiled as the other members stood behind him, some pointing excitedly at Aegis as if seeing a celebrity for the first time, while others were taking in the scenery of Rene around them, admiring the walls and other buildings.

“Hello, Christoph?” Aegis replied curiously as Erikson, Lina, Darkshot and Pyri moved to stand behind him.

“Heard you had a certain Raid Boss that needs taking care of, and you’re looking for strong able bodied players to help out. We portalled over here as soon as we could.” Christoph smiled and motioned to the members he’d gathered behind him. “It’s all we could gather on short notice, lots of players are spread out around Kalmoore.” He explained.

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“Oh…” Aegis replied with an awkward smile, then turned to Lina and Darkshot with an unsure look. “I didn’t invite these guys… What should I do?”

“They just want to help, right? I’m not well versed in Kalmoore politics.” Erikson whispered back to Aegis, but he saw that Aegis' expression didn’t change much from these words. “I suppose it’s a matter of sharing the experience, versus guaranteeing the boss dies and Rene stays safe.” He shrugged.

“Your call, boss man.” Pyri patted him on the shoulder. “I’d let them stay, better to have more friends than make enemies. If you turn them down you might hurt their feelings.” She whispered.

“I dunno, that Quiver guy accidentally shot me during the gnoll raid. Those guys aren’t reliable at all.” Darkshot whispered. He now had two votes for, one against, and turned to Lina for the final opinion he had available to him.

“We… can’t really stop them from following us without PvPing. It’s hard to keep things exclusive when we are streaming, I guess.” Lina replied as she began to fidget with her hilts. It wasn’t a really conclusive answer, but he could see her getting anxious from him putting her on the spot, so he sighed and turned back to face Christoph.

“Ok, sounds good, we’re just waiting on Quinn to get started.” Aegis said.

“Roger.” Christoph saluted him, and in that moment Aegis saw a bright blue portal flash from the hexagonal gray stone portal altar down the street a ways, nearest the Barracks that was built beside the training grounds.

From out of the portal stepped a large group of players donning the purple Night Hunter tabard, with the standard white owl embroidered on the front. Leading the group was Quinn and Trexon, followed by Renn, Sapphire, Herilon, Travis, Cheryl, Sherry, and numerous other members that Aegis had seen around, but never met.

“Yo,” Quinn waved with a big smile to Aegis. It’d been awhile since he’d last seen her, and he couldn’t help but smile as she walked towards them, and he recalled everything she’d helped him with back in Arallia.

“Long time no see, gerbils.” Sapphire added as she made a loud crunching sound from biting into a carrot.

“Heard you got a present for us!” Herilon shouted excitedly.

“I don’t know if I would call it that…” Aegis smiled back at him.

“Hey, Aegis, check this out! Beastshift: Gryphon!” Ren shouted excitedly. A puff of green smoke exploded around Ren, and once it had cleared it was revealed that Ren had transformed into a green-feathered copy of Snowflake, and began hopping around excitedly.

“Ren, cut it out.” Quinn groaned as a few Night Hunters chuckled at him. He replied by squawking back at Quinn.

“That’s pretty good.” Aegis smirked.

“Oh I’ve been dying to visit here!” Travis squealed excitedly. “I absolutely must buy an outfit from Yuki before we leave.” He declared, but his voice carried to the ruins where Yuki was working with Tullan to clear the rubble and she poked her head up.

“Hm?” Yuki said curiously, and spotted Travis just as Travis spotted her. He immediately blushed red and started fanning his face excitedly. “Did someone say my name?” Yuki asked Aegis.

“No.” Darkshot replied on Aegis’ behalf.

“Oh, yo, sup Travis.” Rakkan smiled as he spotted him and climbed out of the ruins beside Yuki.

“My little soldiers, how are you two doing? You both look so strong now.” He said as he eyed them up and down.

“That’s the guy… girl? That taught you guys unarmed combat?” Aegis whispered to Darkshot.

“He prefers m’am.” Darkshot tried to clarify, but it truthfully didn’t clarify anything.

“Look, they accepted me!” Cheryl ran out in front of the other Night Hunters to stand beside the prancing Ren-gryphon so she could put her tabard on display for Aegis, spinning around to show it off. The moment she had, though, both Yuki and Lina quickly stepped forward to stand near Aegis, like guard dogs. Cheryl clearly saw them do this, but pretended she hadn’t. “I’m a Night Hunter now.”

“Congratulations.” Aegis smiled at her.

“Oh.” Travis turned to the Blades of Kalmoore members that he just now spotted huddled off to the side staring at them. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here to help with the Raid Boss. Just like you guys.” Christoph answered.

“Huh. You invited them too?” Sapphire asked Aegis while squinting her eyes, and he felt as though everyone was suddenly staring at him.

“The more the merrier!” Finley cheered loudly as he stepped in between the groups of players. “So, do you already have the raid party set up? We ready to go?” He asked excitedly.

“Uh… no, not yet, we’re still clearing out the tunnel.” Aegis motioned to the ruins behind him where Ruffily and Tullan were still working.

“Almost got it.” Tullan shouted up in response to this.

“Well, if you’d like, I can lead the raid for you Aegis. I’ve got plenty of experience.” Quinn offered.

“Oh nonsense, you just want control of the item drops.” Christoph groaned at her. “It’s his land, he should be the leader.”

“I…” Quinn sighed in annoyance. “Don’t care either way, I was just offering.” She shook her head, avoiding looking in Christoph’s direction.

“Probably for the best if you take point.” Erikson put his hand on Aegis’ shoulder. “I take it these guilds don’t get along?” He asked in a whisper as he leaned close to Aegis’ ear.

“Nope.” Aegis whispered back. “Ok, invites going out to everyone who wants to participate.” Aegis declared as he began wandering through the players nearby, inviting everyone individually. It took awhile to do this, and as he did he saw everyone begin making last minute preparations.

Many of the melee weapon users were pulling out whetstones from their inventories to sharpen their blades. Some of the bow, crossbow and dagger users were preparing poison vials on their belts, dipping the tips of their arrows and blades in it to coat them for the coming battle. Magic users started pre-emptively casting buffs on themselves and other raid members. By the time Aegis had finished inviting everyone, the tunnel entrance had been cleared and there was hardly a player who wasn’t glowing with some form of magical aura surrounding them.

Himself included, as Aegis noticed he had received a Wizard buff that increased his maximum mana, a focusing buff that improved his mana regeneration, and a monk buff that increased his critical strike chance, among others. Having such a wide variety of classes present working together provided the group with a massive amount of synergy. So much that Aegis had a hard time imagining that the Raid Boss would be difficult for them at all.

“Aegis, this here is Baffo.” Quinn stepped forward once the invites were done, and walking beside her was a heavily armored Silverscale player - it was the first one he’d really seen. Despite Josephine race changing to a silverscale, she always wore full armor including a helmet outside, so he hadn’t really seen the features of one yet.

Baffo looked like a tall, slender human but with pale white skin and scales that grew around his facial features and major joints. The scales were around his ears, forehead, shoulders, forearms and biceps, and he had short spikey white hair with platinum colored eyes. He was in the process of putting on the rest of his suit of enchanted iron armor as he stepped forward beside Quinn, but stopped to hold out his hand.

“Pleased to meet you.” Baffo said politely, though his face looked rough and serious.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Aegis.” Aegis shook his hand.

“Baffo is our main tank in the Night Hunters. He’s got the best armor Tullan can craft, with the best enchants. A Guardian class player. All of his skills are focused around taking the least amount of damage.” Quinn explained as she motioned to him, and Christoph and Erikson stepped forward to listen as well.

“I’m also a Guardian class player.” Erikson interjected.

“We too, have our own Main Tank, ready to help out.” Christoph turned and motioned to a heavily armored Blades of Kalmoore member behind him. Quinn eyed the others being offered, then shook her head.

“I know you’ve been the primary tank for your party of five, but I thought I’d suggest you make use of Baffo for this boss. He’s very good at what he does.” Quinn suggested. Aegis turned to Erikson who Aegis could tell was eager to be the one in the front, then looked over Christoph’s shoulder at the Blades of Kalmoore tank. It was then that Lina, Pyri, Darkshot and Rakkan all walked up behind Aegis from the crowds of surrounding players.

“It might be a bit strange…” Aegis said as he took a deep breath, then hesitated as he looked over the three guardian players one more time. “But when I saw the raid boss, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to try and take hits from something like that. I’d like to take on the role of primary tank, even though I've never taken hits from a Raid Boss before.” Aegis said, but to his surprise, Erikson and Baffo smiled when he said this.

“It’s pretty damn fun. You’re gonna love it.” Erikson replied.

“Yeah, once you get used to the pain, of course.” Baffo nodded.

“It’s a rush, having a huge ass monster glaring down at you, and you’re the only thing standing between it, and the whole raid's destruction.” The Blades of Kalmoore Guardian, named Uggard, a tall armored orc, joined in as he moved to stand beside Christoph.

“Hell yeah.” Erikson and Baffo both agreed.

“But you've never taken hits from a raid boss before... Have you tanked some bosses?” Baffo asked him curiously, his serious expression was gone and replaced by one of childlike curiosity.

“Yeah, I did a few now. A guardian golem with big fists…” Aegis was preparing to start listing them all off, but they all interrupted him at this one.

“Bludgeoning damage?” Erikson asked.

“Yeah.” Aegis nodded his head.

“Oh man, fuck bludgeoning.” Uggard said.

“Amen to that.” Baffo held out his fist and Uggard fist bumped it.

“Seriously. Fucking hate bludgeoning.” Erikson shook his head in agreement, and Aegis immediately felt his heart flutter, like he had finally found kindred spirits that understood his plights.

“Recently, we were fighting these ooze things, in Kolz, they destroyed the durability on my shield with acid damage.” Aegis said excitedly.

“Aw man, I hate acid too. Shit just wrecks iron.” Erikson nodded sympathetically.

“No kidding, we had to fight a black dragon once. A young one, but still, the acid breath was horrible. I think I went through like 10 shields in just that one fight.” Baffo explained and he got sympathetic looks from the other three.

“Have you fought a void enemy yet?” Uggard asked.

“Nope, not yet.” Aegis replied, and all three of the higher level guardian players suddenly winced.

“Oof, Best advice, just let it hit your friends, don’t even bother equipping the shield.” Uggard said, and the others laughed along with this. “Kidding of course.”

“That, or just turn your pain threshold all the way to 0.” Erikson said and the others nodded in agreement.

“AHEM.” Quinn cleared her throat loudly, causing the others to stop talking and stare at her. “We’ve already cast our buffs. Let’s save this for later, shall we?” Quinn suggested.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” Erikson smiled and nodded at her, the others joining in.

“This Raid Boss had a lot of tentacles, by the way. So I’ll probably need you guys to offtank them if they go out of control.” Aegis explained with a smile.

“Oh, okay sweet.” Baffo smiled and gently patted him on the shoulder. “I was worried you’d be annoying, since you’re a big streamer, but you’re pretty chill.” Baffo added. “I’ll go give Sapphire and the other healers a heads up to focus on you.” He turned from the group.

“I’ll do the same with Josephine and the others.” Erikson turned away.

“Same.” Uggard nodded, leaving Aegis to stand with a grumpy Quinn and Christoph, and his party who were all smiling at the exchange they just witnessed.

“Tanks.” Quinn shook her head in disbelief. “They’re the only type of player that always get along with one another. No exceptions.” She turned and walked off.

“Seriously, I don’t get it.” Christoph shook his head as well and left.

“Masochists. All of you.” Darkshot smirked at Aegis as he turned back around to face them.

“It’s all cleared out and ready. Woof!” Ruffily called as she stood atop the ruins with Tullan and Yuki flanking her, dusting themselves off. Aegis had invited Yuki and Tullan to the raid party, but Ruffily wasn’t interested and was planning to stay behind. “I’ll make sure Farlion watches the entrance so no one else wanders down.” She added, and Aegis nodded back before moving to stand atop a pile of rocks near the ruins to get a better view of all the gathered players. Once he had, he cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

“Alright everyone, the way to the target is cleared out. We’ll be heading inside now. Once we get to the waterfall, we’ll go over formations and tactics, but I’m not sure how close we can get without drawing its attention. So do your final preparations, then follow me inside and keep quiet.” Aegis called out to everyone as they all listened silently. Once he’d finished speaking, they continued to stare at him, but he didn’t know what else today.

“Okay, let’s go.” Aegis added awkwardly, then hopped down off the tower of stones and descended down into the ruins towards the hallway that had been dug out, that led north, towards the mountain. His party, Yuki and Finley were the first to follow him in, but the others all came shortly after.