Chapter 196: Shadow and Flame
“This version might do it…” Aegis mumbled to himself as he scurried around the Night Hunter’s crafting chamber. He continuously moved between the stonecutting, smelting, tailoring, and leatherworking stations as he did, giving odd orders to Tullan, Yuki and Savika along the way. All the while, Yorgi stood idly by and watched curiously, sure to maintain his newly learned divination shell that was covering the room and preventing anything inside from being scryed on.
“It’d be a lot easier if yeh told us what we were craftin’.” Tullan sighed.
“Armor, using elemental cores and salamander scales to enhance purely fire resistance. Also, a pickaxe made out of obsidian, and reinforced iron, also with fire resistance.” Aegis explained as he continued moving about.
“Why the hell do yeh need a specialized fire resist gear set? Are yeh plannin’ on diving into the red river or somethin’? Tullan asked rhetorically, but was surprised when Aegis turned back to look at him and grinned.
“Of course…” Tullan mumbled to himself as he came to the realization as well. From there, he worked with much more enthusiasm, leaving the others in the dark about what they were doing. Despite this, Savika and Yuki worked diligently to assist, and in the end they managed to complete a magnificent set of armor, complete with a powerful, nearly fireproof mining pickaxe. Aegis equipped it, and came out looking like a strange red salamander himself as he tried it on.
“I didn’t have much time to make it look good… but it should reduce your fire damage taken by a really high amount.” Yuki replied timidly as the others looked upon Aegis in his silly outfit.
“It’s perfect, thanks!” Aegis cheered excitedly, giving her a big smile which caused her to blush and look away shyly. “Alright, we’re ready, let’s go.” Aegis turned to Yorgi and Tullan.
“Go where?” Yorgi asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Hang on, let’s at least get Artaphernes to come along.” Tullan said as he began fidgeting with his interface.
“Do you need anything else from us?” Yuki asked.
“Uhm, nope, I think we’re done with armor crafting. Thanks a bunch, you were a huge help.” Aegis replied.
“No problem!” Savika replied cheerfully, throwing Aegis a thumbs up.
“Could you portal them to Rene first?” Aegis asked Yorgi and he nodded hesitantly.
“You know, portal dust isn’t exactly cheap…” Yorgi said as he reluctantly opened the portal to Rene.
“Take care. Good luck!” Yuki waved to Aegis as she and Savika stepped through the portal, and Yorgi and Aegis waved them off while Tullan continued to fidget with his interface.
“Artaphernes says they’ve got a lead on Simon. Asked if we really need him for this. What should I say?” Tullan asked Aegis while holding his fingers suspended in the air, ready to message Artaphernes’ his response.
“Nah. No one’s gonna no where we’re going anyway, we should be fine.” Aegis shrugged. “Yorgi, open a portal to Pakro’Vielle.” Aegis spoke in a commanding tone.
“Okay. Portal to Pakro’Vielle, coming right up…” Yorgi said as he waved his staff around, and a moment later the portal opened up into the small mushroom village.
“Ah, wait, sorry, one second. Let me go get Snowflake from your guild hall stables.” Aegis said in an apologetic tone before rushing out of the chamber. As he left, Yorgi made a strange whimpering sound, motioning towards the portal he had opened and was now maintaining in the middle of the chamber.
“He’ll just be a second.” Tullan responded sympathetically. Sure enough, a few moments later, Aegis returned with a saddled and excited gryphon prancing through the halls behind him, and the pair hopped through the portal with Yorgi and Tullan in tow.
The familiar glow of the blue lanterns took over their surroundings as they appeared on the portal altar in the village and began walking down the paved streets towards the entrance of the cavern. However, Aegis quickly noticed that none of the NPCs were moving about outside, and instead all remained in their homes, peering out of the windows. They were not looking in Aegis’ group's direction, though, but rather towards the cavern entrance where all of Pakro’Vielle’s guards stood stoically. There were several dozen, all heavily armored with spears at the ready.
“What’s going on?” Aegis asked as he got close enough to them to speak without shouting.
“Ah, Aegis, you’ve returned.” Ulaipu, the captain of the Plashrim guard, responded while stepping through the crowds of other guards. “Reltrak Forest is no longer safe. The abyss has claimed it.” He explained.
“What do you mean?” Aegis asked as he briefly looked back at Tullen and Yorgi, who returned anxious shrugs.
“You’re better off seeing it for yourself than having me explain. I don’t recommend you venture out there, though.” Ulaipu replied. Aegis took a deep breath and marched forward through the guards towards the fake wall that was the cavern entrance, but hesitated as he stood in front of it.
“We’ve got no time to waste.” Aegis said to Tullan and Yorgi behind him, then with Snowflake at his side, the two pressed through the gooey, sand-like substance that stood in for the false cavern wall until they came out the otherside. Moments later, Tullan and Yorgi stepped through behind them, and together the four were standing in the Reltrak Cavern.
Unfortunately, though, they could not see anything. The black mist of the abyss had completely engulfed all light in the cavern - it was so thick that Aegis couldn’t see his own hands in front of his body.
“Aura of light.” Aegis spoke quietly, creating a blast of holy energy around himself that cleaned away the mist. As the mist dissipated, the party of four watched several high level abysslings scurry along with the mist, fleeing from Aegis’ light. Once cleared, the mushrooms of Plashrim forest became visible again along with the blue bulbs sticking out of the mossy floor.
“Yorgi, can you fly and keep us safe from scrying simultaneously?” Aegis turned to him and he nodded slowly.
“How… How are they here already? Isn’t this pretty high up?” Yorgi asked in disbelief.
“Tullan, get on Snowflake with me. We’ll be faster flying above the mushrooms.” Aegis ignored Yorgi’s question as he climbed onto Snowflake’s back.
“C’mon Yorgi, focus up now lad.” Tullan snapped Yorgi out of his daze as he climbed onto the back of Snowflake behind Aegis.
“Right. Got it.” Yorgi tapped himself to cast fly, but his eyes remained wide. Snowflake then launched himself up off of the mossy cavern floor and began soaring above the mushrooms with Yorgi flying behind them. Aegis used his memory of the Plashrim map to quickly steer Snowflake in the right direction. Thanks to the aura of light, it was still easy to spot landmarks in the cavern and use them to navigate their way towards the red river.
The moment Aegis spotted the pillar of stone that signified the red river entrance, he steered Snowflake downwards and landed next to the hole in the cavern floor that wafted out hot air.. Moments later, Yorgi landed beside them, but still held a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“Why is the mist already so high? The invasion shouldn’t be possible for another two weeks, right?” Yorgi asked as the group began rushing down the ramp to the bottom of the tunnel.
“According to the broadcasting networks.” Aegis replied between his teeth.
“Oh man… We need to tell Quinn, don’t we?”
“They’re aware. Already told ‘em durin’ the flight. Problem is they’re stuck fightin’ a boss right now that keeps blockin’ magic. Said they’ll be returnin’ to Kordas once it’s done.” Tullan replied.
“Well that’s inconvenient.” Aegis replied in monotone.
“What do we do? Shouldn’t we do something?” Yorgi replied in a panic as they reached the bottom of the ramp and began traversing the tunnel.
“We’re doing it.” Aegis snapped back at him. “Come on.” Aegis broke into a sprint, which Snowflake and Tullan imitated immediately, and Yorgi shortly after. “Can you contact Leonard?” Aegis asked Tullan, and he fidgeted with his interface before nodding back.
“Yeah, he’s still available.”
“Ask him what’s going on in the city.” Aegis said.
“He says everything’s fine, everything looks normal.” Tullan replied after a second of clicking his interface.
“Good. Now, ask him if he can fly the Sky Darling out to the edges of Kalmoore. We need to see exactly how close the mist is to climbing over the edge, like it did during the Arallia invasion.” Aegis ordered Tullan.
“He says he’s on it.” Tullan replied. “What about your party members?”
Aegis began opening up his interface as they reached the partially caved in entrance to the Red River, and began checking his friends list. Every member of his party was still alive and well, within the Kordas training hall.
“Nothing abnormal with them. Still in the training hall.” Aegis replied.
“Good.” Tullan nodded as the four made their way into the red river. It was covered in the black mist just like the Reltrak forest, from floor to ceiling. The scurrying sound of abysslings rushing to the edges of his aura could be heard as they walked along the obsidian floor towards the edge of the river.
“The problem will be durability, and damage. This pickaxe will likely not last long down there.” Aegis explained as he continued walking forward. The slow flowing magma came into view as the light of his aura extended out over it and washed away the mist.
“I’ll link my armor cooldowns and durability repairs to your pickaxe. As long as I have mana, it won’t break. But, I’m guessing my mana won’t last long given where you are going.” Tullan said as he began casting several armorsmith class buffs onto Aegis.
“Where?” Yorgi asked as he watched Aegis reach the edge of the river, but he got ignored.
“My aura might diminish if I have to swim deep, make sure you stay in it. Healing Wind.” Aegis cast on himself. “This is going to hurt like a bitch, but I'll probably need the fire resistance experience.” Aegis said to Tullan. “Bless. Kill any abysslings that get uppity.” Aegis cast on Snowflake and instructed him, and he squawked back before turning to stare cautiously at the edges of Aegis’ aura.
“In the magma? Are you insane?” Yorgi shouted in disbelief. Aegis just smirked back at him before turning to face the magma river once more.
“Enchant object.” He cast on the pickaxe, hoping to enhance and protect it. Then, he took a deep breath, and did something he thought he would never do in his life. He jumped forward into the molten river.
You take 23,530 Fire damage.
Despite having level 47 fire resistance skill which reduced his fire damage taken by 47%, and the well made gear crafted by Yuki and Tullan adding another 35 fire resistance, the damage was still ridiculously high. However, it wasn’t an amount Aegis couldn’t heal through for a short while. He quickly tapped heal on himself as another burst of damage came through two seconds later of a similar amount.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
It wasn’t like water, it was thick, and the painful burning sensation that engulfed his entire body served to numb his nerves, simulating the effect of nerve endings being melted away like in the case of extreme third degree burns which he’d learned about during his medical studies.
He was grateful for this, though, as it allowed him to focus solely on the task at hand. Opening his eyes was only possible thanks to it being a simulation, and that regardless of how much damage he took, his body never deformed from it. He only saw pure stinging bright red light from the glowing hot magma all around him.
It took a great deal of effort to swim through it, and the intense heat was depleting his stamina as well as his health. He got repeated messages of the pickaxe’s durability dropping, then going back up thanks to Tullan’s durability repairing skills.
The biggest problem for Aegis was that he didn’t know exactly what he was looking for. He’d seen the engravings on the stone tablets in Kur’aktos’ chamber, but how was he going to find ore that resembled those images like this? He thought this to himself as he struggled to wade deeper into the river.
The next issue that concerned him was the possibility of encountering a magma elemental, but he tried not to worry about it and focused on the task at hand, and hoped his luck would hold out. From grinding here in the previous weeks he’d learned that the elementals were relatively spread out in the river, so there was a decent chance of him not accidentally bumping into one.
The deeper into the magma he got, the higher the fire damage slowly became.
Level Up! Fire Resistance has reached Level 48!
Aegis tapped himself over and over, repeatedly casting heal and maintaining healing wind on himself with his left hand as it held the pickaxe, while desperately kicking his legs around and swinging his right hand out, hoping to feel something solid - anything solid.
Seconds turned to minutes, and one minute turned to two, and holding his breath was reaching its limits despite his high constitution stat. He continued to swim, and his mana and Tullans continued to drain, but he was finding nothing. Doubt began to fill his mind on whether or not he was correct in the first place. Just like when he’d gone to try and acquire his intermediate class, he remembered that same feeling.
What if I’m wrong? Then this would be a massive waste of time. Time that we might not have anymore… Aegis thought this, and the doubt rotted away at his motivation. The only thing that snapped him out of it was remembering how Lina overcame his doubt last time, back in Orm. By never giving up even when Clara had shut him down. She kept persisting, and believing in Aegis, and it paid off.
That was enough to motivate him through the doubt, and he continued to push through. His mana dipped to 20% as he repeatedly healed himself, draining it faster than what his mana regeneration could keep up with.
It was then, though, that finally, he felt something hard with his right hand. It was drifting along with the magma, but moving slower than the magma was. Aegis couldn’t see what it was at first, so pulled himself as close as possible to the object and pressed his opened eyes against it.
All he could think about as he attempted this was how suicidally bad an idea it would’ve been in the real world, and despite the simulation he still felt incredibly uncomfortable pushing his pupils up against the object just to see what it was. All he could make out was a light pinkish hue, which immediately reminded him of the weapons wielded by Kur’aktos.
Aegis sprung into action. His initial plan was to try and lift it to the surface of the river, but after several attempts to budge it upwards, he was unsuccessful. Then, he considered going back up to the surface to recover his stamina and mana, but realized that the ore was moving, and it’d be impossible to find his way back down to this exact spot.
It left him with only one option. He pulled his arm back and struggled to gather momentum at first, attempting to swing the pickaxe at the magma. Luckily, the enchant-object was doing work in enhancing his swinging efficiency with the pickaxe, and he was able to garner enough force to hit the mithral.
Utilizing the techniques he’d learned for mithral mining proficiencies, he sped up from there. Desperately trying to get as much done before his mana completely drained, he pushed himself to his limit. Once he’d mined multiple small chunks, he had to quickly flail out at them to gather them before they flowed away with the river, and add them into his inventory.
Acquired: Mithral Ore [Quality: 19%]
Acquired: Mithral Ore [Quality: 24%]
Acquired: Mithral Ore [Quality: 18%]
Once his mana had reached 5% though, Aegis knew it was over. Simultaneously, it seemed that Tullan had run out of mana. The pickaxe hit 0 durability and it was destroyed, disappearing from Aegis’ hand. From there, Aegis desperately swam up through the magma, repeatedly healing himself with the last of the mana.
When he finally breached the surface and gasped for air, he realized he was nowhere near the shore, and completely drained of mana.
“Aegis! Sorry, I couldn’t keep repairin’!” Tullan cried out.
“Get out of the river, you’re out of mana!” Yorgi shouted desperately. Aegis couldn’t reply, still gasping for air. Luckily, though, Snowflake sprung into action and quickly launched himself off the obsidian floor of the cavern, flapping towards Aegis and soaring dangerously low above the surface of the river, front talon extended.
Once above Aegis, Snowflake grasped Aegis’ hand and yanked him out of the river at the last second, stopping him from taking a final deadly tick of fire damage while taking some fire damage himself as his white feathers singed from the intense rising heat. Snowflake then soared upwards and swerved back around, dropping Aegis onto the ground next to Yorgi and Tullan before landing himself.
Aegis rolled along the floor a bit from the rough landing, gasping for air as his stamina began to recover, as did his mana. Tullan could see the intense heat rising from his glowing salamander scale armor while Yorgi looked on in disbelief.
“Guess the pickaxe is done, eh?” Tullan said with an apologetic tone.”
“It’s fine.” Aegis coughed as he sat up, pulling out a chunk of mithral ore from his inventory. “Not the best quality, but it’ll have to do. If we make a mithral pickaxe, it should be easier next time.” He smirked.
“Yer’ outta yer goddamn mind.” Tullan cheered, punching his fists into the air.
“No way!” Yorgi’s jaw dropped.
“We need a portal back to Kordas. It’s time to make some gear weapons.” Aegis declared to Yorgi.
“Yes sir!” Yorgi replied excitedly as he began casting the incantation.
“Thanks for the save, lil buddy.” Aegis got to his feet and ruffled Snowflake’s feathers, causing him to screech and close his eyes, enjoying the praise and nudging his head into Aegis’ hand. Once the portal fully formed, the four wasted no time in stepping through it to find themselves standing on the portal altar of Kordas.
“I’m out of portal dust, now.” Yorgi announced. “Should I go get more from the Wizard tower, or stay with you guys to block scrying?”
“We should be fine now, even if we’re scryed on. Having portal dust will be more important.” Aegis answered, and he gave a nod back.
“Got it, I’ll go as fast as I can!” Yorgi cheered before casting fly on himself and floating away. Tullan and Aegis then briefly locked eyes with big dumb grins on their faces.
“Let's do this.” Tullan said, and the two broke into a sprint that challenged even Snowflake’s speed to keep up with them. Within a few short moments, the two were walking into the Night Hunter’s guild hall and entered the crafting chamber, while Snowflake followed them curiously.
“I’ve got enough ore for a few weapons, a pickaxe, and a shield. Do you mind if we prioritize equipping my party first?” Aegis asked as the two approached the forge. Aegis took the ore out of his inventory, and together the pair got started on the refining process, utilizing the heat from the eternal flame.
“Not at all, I got the base fer your party's weapons using tier 3 wood and salamander leather, as well as the left over void silk. It’s all ready. All that’s missin’ is this beautiful stuff.” Tullan rubbed his hands together as they got to work. “You know, it’s funny…” Tullan pulled out a pre-made pickaxe handle made out of dark black wood. “This tier 3 wood, when I first found it and read that it was wood that never burned, it sounded kinda useless. But now…”
“What’s that wood called? It sounds amazing!”
“Aye, it’s called Ebonwood. It grows near the edges of the island in the north.”
“So we use that for the handle, and a mithral head, and we should be good to go and get more, right?”
“Exactly.” Tullan nodded as the pair took opposite sides on the forge and Aegis spread the ore out between them. They filled smelting buckets with the ore and got to work on refining the mithral. Once the process was started, Aegis went to watch over it and carry out the process as per the instructions of Kur’aktos’ journal, while Tullan prepared molds, handles, straps and other components for the equipment.
“There you guys are!” Sherry’s voice called out to them from the door of the chamber as she looked over them, her satyr hooves lightly clopping on the marble tiles. “Do you have a moment, Tullan?” Sherry asked him.
“Oi, Sherry…” Tullan waved with a smile. “Thought you were managin’ our sales in Rene?”
“Nope, I got switched back to Kordas for this week.” She shrugged.
“Oh. Alright. What’dya need help with?” Tullan asked as he set down the molds he was holding near Aegis’ side of the forge.
“Just some supplies and pricing schemes with the Kingdom, do you mind coming to check them out?” Sherry said while glancing awkwardly between Aegis and Tullan.
“Uh… you got things covered here?” Tullan asked with a glance at Aegis.
“Yeah, no problem.” Aegis nodded back.
“Kay, I’ll be back in a jiffy!” Tullan said. Then, with a spring in his step, he rushed over to Sherry and the two headed out of the room. Aegis watched his joy and couldn’t help but smile as he left, shutting the door behind him as Snowflake let out a curious squawk.
“Man…” Aegis turned back to the ore as the eternal flame began to melt it down within the forge. “Can’t believe we actually found it. Pretty cool, eh buddy?” Aegis asked Snowflake, and he screeched playfully with a nod.
With careful work using his refining skill, and the size and power of the forge, Aegis was able to pull out enough refined mithral of 20% quality to fill all of the molds Tullan had set out for him. Knowing how fast the mithral hardened, though, Aegis didn’t want to jump the gun and instead decided to wait on Tullan.
Seconds turned to minutes, and Aegis’ excitement to start crafting began making him impatient.
“Wait here, buddy, I'll let Tullan know the ore’s refined and ready.” Aegis instructed Snowflake, causing him to squawk back excitedly. Aegis then stepped out of the chamber and made sure to seal it shut before rushing down the halls to where he knew Tullan’s office to be in the guild hall. Before he got there, though, he spotted Sherry walking down the hall towards him.
“Hey, where’s Tullan?” Aegis asked her as they stopped in front of each other in the hallway.
“He just had to run out to check something with our craft prices. There was a big change recently in some of the raw material costs and so we might’ve been accidentally selling at a loss.” Sherry replied with a shrug.
“Really? He went out now? Of all times?” Aegis replied with disbelief, raising his eyebrows at her.
“Yup.” She answered nonchalantly. “It’s a pretty big deal.”
“Hm. Okay.” Aegis eyed her curiously. “You’ve been dating Darkshot, right?”
“Yeah…” She smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of her head. “He’s really sweet.” She smiled. “So, you guys finally managed to find mithral?” Sherry asked him, motioning in the direction of the crafting chamber behind Aegis.
“Yeah…” Aegis paused, his curiosity turning to suspicion. “Tullan told you that we found it in a volcano?” Aegis asked.
“Yup, he was really excited. Pretty crazy that you guys found it there.” She eyed Aegis’ armor. “I guess that’s why you’re dressed like that, huh?” She asked, but immediately in response, Aegis opened his hand and swung it out at her face, making a loud echoing slap as he hit her on the right cheek.
“Ow, Aegis? What the hell?” She shouted angrily at him, pulling back and rubbing where she’d been hit.
“No favor loss.” Aegis replied as he quickly maneuvered through his bags to switch out of his fire resistance gear and into his new equipment.
“Tch.” Sherry let go of her cheek and began glaring at Aegis, her entire demeanor instantly shifted as if she was another person. “Wasn’t a volcano, was it?” She sighed. “Man, right at the finish line, I get caught.” As she spoke, her body shimmered and shifted, transforming from a satyr body to a pink haired humanoid player in high level armor that looked identical to what Joltblade had been wearing. [Cheryl - Level 150] stood above her head.
As Aegis took a step back and drew out his shield, he fidgeted into his friends list interface and saw that Tullan was dead, forced to log out for the next 24 hours. Simultaneously, Cheryl was fidgeting with her own interface before she began speaking into it.
“The Shattered Healer caught me, I’m gonna need a hand taking him out.” She grumbled into her party communications. Hearing this, Aegis hurriedly moved to send a message to Lina, but before he could, Cheryl charged at him with a mithral scepter that gave off a black trail of mist as she swung it down on him, forcing him to brace the strike.
You take 9,350 Bludgeoning Damage.
You take 1,173 Shadow damage
“Hey now, it’s rude to text others while we’re on a date!” She cheered. Taking the hit forced Aegis’ interface to close out by itself, and Cheryl quickly postured to strike again to prevent him from contacting anyone.