Chapter 66: Theory
*Ting* *Ting* *Ting*
The sound of Aegis’ blacksmith hammer hitting the anvil could be heard echoing through Rene. With every bar he smelted, and every basic item he crafted, he felt a sense of satisfaction beyond any other, like he’d been waiting for this moment since he’d started playing. A lot had changed since then, and the reason he wanted to make money in the game had changed, but the fact that he wanted to didn’t. He wasn't sure what the market value of his unenchanted iron pieces were, but with every craft he'd finished he hoped he was closing in on making enough to pay for Jillian's time off.
In the time the party had spent hunting golems, everyone had their inventories stuffed with a collective 12,000 iron ore, including Amlie taking some with her each time she'd come to supply them with repair materials. But Aegis had used up a lot of that in leveling his blacksmithing, making the forge and other buildings, and crafting everyone's gear.
By his calculations he'd have enough to craft about 1000 Iron weapons of decent quality, so that is exactly what he was doing. Lina on the other hand used the time to keep training Farlion, keeping an eye on Aegis to see if he needed anything, but the two didn't talk much - Lina let Aegis remain focused on his craft. His focus was broken regardless, however, as he was in the midsts of crafting an Iron sword that afternoon. A notification appeared in front of his screen, momentarily blocking his view of what he was doing.
[WORLD NOTIFICATION]
The player [Makaroth - Level 150] has become the first player in the world to unlock the Advanced Class [Spellblade]
[WORLD NOTIFICATION]
The player [Makaroth - Level 150] has successfully liberated the Island of Vorel from the Tyrant Yggdrael and released the [Kingdom of Vorel] from his clutches. The Island of Vorel is now available as a starting island for all new players. It is now possible to establish Airship Trade Routes with the [Kingdom of Vorel]
Aegis looked at the notifications that had popped up in his peripheral vision with a blank stare for a moment. He was snapped out of it only by the barking cheers of Ruffily.
“Woof, wow, did you see the clip?!” Ruffily ran over to Aegis while Lina walked over worriedly, listening in from a distance.
“N-nah.” Aegis replied as he waved the notifications away.
“It’s incredible, it was such an intense battle, 21 million viewers! woof! His whole guild was down, it was just Makaroth and his wife left! She healed him with the last of her mana, and he jumped in with his great sword, and wham! He sliced right through the boss! It was so cool! Woof!” Ruffily cheered excitedly with her tail wagging. Aegis did his best to keep his face down so that she couldn’t see his angry expression as he slammed his smithing hammer down on the sword blade he was working on.
“You know, woof, I met his son, Makaroth’s son. His name is Winter, he’s playing in this area. That is really cool, right? Woof!” Ruffily cheered with a smile. Aegis slammed the hammer down again, this time hitting it so hard that the iron hammerhead flew off of the handle and broke its durability down to 0, shocking Ruffily into silence as she caught a glimpse of Aegis’ angry expression and her tail stopped wagging.
“Ah, sorry. Guess I should upgrade my smithing tools before I make any more weapons.” Aegis replied as calmly as he could.
“Is everything ok?” Ruffily asked worriedly.
“Y-yeah. I’ll be right back.” Aegis quickly pressed a few buttons in his menu to log out of the simulation. He climbed out of his Simbox and looked over to see Jillian still inside hers. He walked over to her Simbox and pressed the Simbox communicator to talk to her.
“Hey Mom, are you alright?” Eli asked.
“Huh? Me? I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Something like that won’t bother me.” She replied shakily. Eli could tell from her voice and the way she was speaking that she was lying. She seemed to realize Eli wasn’t fooled, because she cleared her throat and spoke again. “I’m fine. I’m not going to let it ruin all the fun we’re having together in this game. I don’t want you to, either, okay?”
“Y-yeah, got it.” Eli replied.
“Good, now hurry up and sell all that crafting stuff. I need a longer vacation so she can finish this damned intermediate class quest.” She added, trying to sound tough.
“Right.” Eli replied with determination. He spun around and sat back down in his Simbox, restarting the simulation.
When he reappeared at the forge within Rene, he saw that Ruffily was back to working in the sawmill, and Lina was waiting for him.
“H-hey. I talked to Ruffily and told her that you don’t like Makaroth, so she shouldn’t talk about it anymore.” Lina replied with a sympathetic stare.
“Thanks… I’m ok though.” Aegis gave her a weak smile and she nodded.
“Are you really ok?” Lina asked worriedly.
“Yeah, I was just worried about Pyri.” Aegis replied as his eyes wandered around the land surrounding them, eventually landing on the viewership count of his livestream, 3. “21 Million… To be at the top…” Aegis mumbled to himself. “All he does is play all day. Nonstop. It’s how he got up there. Even if we do the same thing, we won’t catch up. Pacifism helps a lot, for a lot of my skills… but…”
“It does, it really does! I don’t think anyone else can level crafting skills up to 30 that don’t have a crafting class. The builder class gets 200% architecture experience and 150% Stone Cutter and Woodworking experience, for example.” Lina explained, but Aegis just gave a nod.
“I knew all that when I chose this class, and went after Pacifism. I had a theory about it, about the reason the pacifism skill exists with Eirene." Aegis said as he took his shield off of his back and looked at it carefully, seeing his own distorted reflection looking back at him. "When I was dying to that boar over and over again, as I got closer to the death count that I theorized was needed for Pacifism, I got extremely nervous that it wouldn’t work and I was wasting time…” Aegis explained as Lina watched him speak.
“It worked out, but that was only the first part of my theory." He put his shield away and took a few steps so that he was no longer on the foundation of the forge, but the grass, and looked up to the clouds drifting in the sky before taking a deep breath. "I haven't said anything about it, or the intermediate class I want to pick yet... because I'm worried I'm wrong. Darkshot said that there were still many things undiscovered in this game. Islands, like the one Makaroth just unlocked. Advanced classes, like the one he just unlocked too. Skills, spells, items, dungeons… but… there are also intermediate classes that’d yet to be discovered." Aegis paused as he took materials out of his inventory for crafting a new smithing hammer. "This skill, the lore behind Eirene and how she stood up to the Abyss gods, not by fighting back, but refusing to give up on the light… She was supposedly the reason that the islands of the Shattered World Online were kept floating in the light instead of being pulled down into the abyss with the rest of the world.” Aegis explained.
“You read the lore?” Lina smiled.
“Not really... that stuff is in the basic world information of the game manual though.” Aegis shrugged. “Anyway, the point is, I think that this Pacifism skill exists for a reason. It’s gotta lead to something right? It boosts the experience for non-offensive skills, so..." Aegis hesitated explaining his theory further, worried that it would sound stupider out loud than it did in his head. But what he'd said was enough for Lina to understand what Aegis was talking about, and her face suddenly lit up with excitement.
“That explains it!” Lina slapped her hands together, startling Aegis. “You are leveling every single non-offensive skill because you think some of them must pair up with pacifism in some way for a class no one knows about, right? Of course it’d be undiscovered, no one even knows the pacifism skill exists! Shield mastery is the obvious one, it’s one of the only non-offensive combat skills…” Lina’s eyes were burning as her mind began to work. "A builder class player gets experience bonuses for architecture, stone cutting and woodworking, because he needs those at level 30 to get his intermediate class. So if an Eirene Priest player gets a pacifism skill that grants an experience bonus to all non-offensive skills..." Lina said out loud exactly the logic behind Aegis' theory, reaffirming his idea.
“Exactly. We’re closing in on it now though. I’m starting to get nervous. Those notifications, I dunno…” Aegis was about to express more doubt in himself, but he didn’t get the chance.
“The first to unlock intermediate classes also get world notifications, it’s just been so long since anyone has found a new one!” Lina said with glee.
“You think it’ll work?” Aegis pointed at the viewership count.
“It’s a really good starting point, everyone will want to watch you to see how you did it!” Lina cheered encouragingly.
“I mean, the class, you think it’ll exist?”
“I think so. Even if it doesn’t, having all the skills up to 30 will let you make stuff no one has seen in this game before, so it’s only a matter of time before people will notice. You do the crafting and healing and take the hits, and then I’ll stab everything else!” Lina smiled ear to ear, but she still saw the doubt in Aegis’ eyes. “You can get to the top without doing what they did, because you’re the best.” She encouraged him, causing his face to redden from how bright her smile was.
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“Alright,” He cleared his throat. “I need to make the gold so my mom can keep playing, and we need to get the rest of these skills to 30.” Aegis replied affirmatively.
"What skills are you missing?" Lina asked as Aegis promptly went into his interface.
"Architecture and Artistry are 29. Enchanting and Crafting Mastery are 25. Scribing is level 1." Aegis said with a shrug. "For non-crafting skills, Taming, Leadership, Riding and Land Vehicle mastery all still need work."
“You can count on me. Work projects - Hire me for the maximum amount!” Lina suggested.
“What for?” Aegis asked, confused.
“Leadership experience. Just hire me for a bunch of taming projects.” Lina insisted.
“Okay.” Aegis complied, quickly sending her invitations to 5 projects until he reached the limit due to his leadership level.
“Also, let’s change the party settings so that we are a raiding party.” Lina motioned around to where she guessed Aegis’ party interface was. He nodded back and pressed a few buttons, converting their party into a raiding party. “Now you can assign me a role in your raiding party, if you assign me to hunting and damage dealing, you should get leadership experience when I do those things. That’ll help too.” Lina replied as Aegis did as she instructed through the interface.
“Okay, done. You think Leadership might be a part of the pacifism class?”
“No idea, but best to be thorough!” Lina replied excitedly, “Ok, here I go! I'll tame and hunt some wild animals.” She headed off. Aegis felt at ease seeing this excited side of Lina that only appeared when she got to talk about the game, and she seemed more excited than usual. It was contagious, and as she turned to run off towards the forest, Aegis felt his anger and doubt from earlier turning into excitement as well.
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“Oh thank god, he has a plan.” Shinji said with a huge sigh of relief as he sat in his Simulated Editing Office with 10 screens floating in front of him, the largest of which was Aegis’.
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Aegis knew what it took to get ahead. He’d scored higher in school because while other kids went out to play, he was studying. When they finished playing for the night and went to bed, he kept studying. It was no different here. He just needed to train, and not stop unless he absolutely had to, and the dreamstate was paving the way for him. That thought kept him motivated and kept his hammer swinging at the iron all day and all night, using his high quality cooking skill to replenish his stamina repeatedly.
Tinsel was able to share with Aegis a few recipes and thanks to that and the vegetables and spices she provided, along with the high level dire wolf meat, never had to worry about not having enough stamina to keep crafting. When he'd finally finished crafting all of the Iron into sellable weapons, he set out to start on his neglected scribing skill.
By using his alchemy and Amlie's unique flowers from the Wildwood tree he was able to get plenty of ink, and his woodworking was high enough that he was able to make his own paper. All he had to do was write - something he thought would be simple as he sat down at the singular desk within the Scribe's Hall that evening, using a candle as a source of light. But when Aegis pulled out his quill and started writing the way he normally would, he wasn't gaining any scribing experience whatsoever.
"Ruffily?" Aegis called out as she was working at the sawmill nearby.
"Uh uh?" She replied, stopping what she was doing to look across the street at Aegis as he stood in the doorway of the Scribe's hall.
"How do you level up scribing?" He asked her confused.
"Oh, you have to write using the game's alphabet. Woof!" Ruffily shrugged as if this was something obvious, then went back to what she was doing.
"Of course I do, why would it be something simple?" Aegis groaned as he turned and walked back to the desk, tapping his quill on the wood as he glanced at the bookshelf covered in musty old tomes. An idea popped in his head and he decided to plop a few of the old books down on the table. "These things look like they could use some love." He cracked his knuckles as he began rewriting the books from the old tower, word for word, on fresh pieces of paper.
Aegis wasn't sure if it was the contents of the book, the dialect, or the writing style of the Wizard he was copying, but his scribing experience began to soar upwards. By the evening of the next day he had fully re-written three of the beginner spellbooks and was already level 21 in scribing, and two days later of being couped up in the hall landed him with a welcome message.
Level Up! Crafting Mastery has reached Level 27!
Level Up! Scribing has reached Level 30!
Congratulations! You have reached the maximum level for Scribing(Beginner). In order to progress further, you will need to advance the skill to (Intermediate).
He stepped out of the Scribe's hall and stretched out his arms, glancing over his interface to see that he was getting a steady stream of Leadership and Taming experience thanks to Lina. He turned his attention to Architecture and Artistry, still stuck at levels 29. "Alright Architecture, Artistry, you want to play hard to get?" Aegis said to himself as he looked over the land of Rene for an idea, and as his eyes settled on the town square, one popped into his head. "Then let's play." He smiled while walking down the paved road.
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Level Up! Crafting Mastery has reached Level 29!
Level Up! Architecture has reached Level 30!
Congratulations! You have reached the maximum level for Architecture(Beginner). In order to progress further, you will need to advance the skill to (Intermediate).
Level Up! Artistry has reached Level 30!
Congratulations! You have reached the maximum level for Artistry(Beginner). In order to progress further, you will need to advance the skill to (Intermediate).
Fountain of Eirene [Rename] [Register] [Abandon]
Quality: 80%
Durability: 3000/3000
Option 1: Increases Eirene's favor of the land owner of any land this structure is registered to by 2000.
Details: A beautiful fountain with a statue of the Goddess Eirene crafted atop it. Constructed by Aegis.
“It’s lovely!” Tinsel cheered as they all stood back to stare at the completed construction. Right in the center of Rene's townsquare Aegis had constructed a fountain with a statue of Eirene built on top. The depicted statue of Eirene was made to match the images of her he could find online, with her holding both her hands to her chest to clutch a star pendant. She was wearing simple white robes with a hood pulled back to reveal her wavy long hair, with water flowing out around her bare feet down the two levels of the fountain. Aegis did his best to whiten the stone with alchemy and artistry so that it stood out from the color of the paved stones on the ground around it.
“That did the trick. Architecture and Artistry are done.” Aegis sighed with relief as Lina smiled excitedly at him.
“Rene is already my new favorite place in Kalmoore, woof!” Ruffily barked excitedly.
“I love it, I can’t wait until Rakkan gets back to see it.” Amlie added. The two of them walked forward to inspect it more closely as Aegis stepped away with Lina.
“So… Enchanting and Crafting mastery are left, but they'll have to wait until we're back in Kordas… and then there’s Taming, Riding, Land Vehicle Mastery, and... Leadership…” Aegis said as he stretched out his arms. "Thanks to your help they're almost done though." He smiled at Lina and she shyly nodded back.
“Do you have an idea how to level up those skills quickly?” Lina asked him curiously.
“The fasted would probably be..." Aegis paused. "Well, if you don't mind..." Aegis hesitated asking as he thought again on Darkshot's words back at the campfire, but as he looked to Lina's face, he saw that her shyness was gone - she was too focused on the progression in the game to be shy. "A wagon ride, around Rene, just the two of us." Aegis suggested, and Lina nodded while looking away, the shyness flooding in. "You know, because if you're with me I will get leadership experience. If its a wagon being pulled by two different animals, a lagnok and Grumble the horse for example, then it should be good experience for all of those skills." Aegis added and she continued to avoid his eye contact. "It'll probably take awhile so, I can understand if you don't want to." Aegis shrugged.
"N-n-no, I want to. It sounds n-nice." Lina replied nervously.
"Okay, I'll get to work on a comfortable wagon for us." Aegis said as he headed towards Ruffily. Lina watched from a distance as Aegis and Ruffily discussed the wagon before the two made their way to the sawmill to start working on it. Lina rushed over to the fountain right away once they were gone and looked at her characters reflection in the water as Amlie watched, but Lina paid her no mind and started adjusting her hair to look as pretty as possible.
"Everything ok?" Amlie asked curiously.
"H-huh? Yeah." Lina smiled back at her.
"Mhm." Amlie said as she began to wander around Lina, looking at Lina's reflection in the water alongside her. "Got a date or something?" Amlie asked with a mischevious smile.
"N-n-no." Lina blurted out as she stopped what she was doing. "We're just going on a wagon ride, to level up Aegis' last skills. He needs me to come for Leadership experience points." Lina explained.
"Mhm." Amlie rolled her eyes. "Here..." She pulled a pink flower out from her inventory. "This color suits you really well." She gently tucked the stem in behind Lina's right ear so that it held in place in her hair. Amlie took a step back before giving a thumbs up. "Perfect, you look really pretty." Amlie smiled.
"Really?" Lina asked worriedly.
"Yup." Amlie said as she stepped forward to Lina and made some adjustments to her armor to straighten it out.
"Okay. Okay." Lina said while taking deep breaths.
"Nervous, huh?" Amlie asked with a grin.
"Y-y-y-yes... After this, we'll be leaving Rene and doing our intermediate quests, so I won't see him for a long time." Lina replied.
"Relax, relax. You guys have been leveling together for like the past month here in-game. It's just a bit more of that, isn't it?"
"N-n-no, you d-d-don't understand. He said he w-wants me to come to help him level L-leadership, but I can look at his skills from the marriage menu and... his Leadership skill is already level 30." Lina's face went bright red.
"Oh it's totally a date." Amlie smirked, but that nearly knocked Lina off her feet and she fell onto the side of the fountain. Amlie had to catch her to stop her from falling in. "Okay okay, deep breaths, deep breaths. Relax, this is a good thing, isn't it?"
"W-what if I say something s-stupid?!" Lina asked worriedly.
"You'll be fine, just talk about Shattered World stuff." Amlie patted her shoulder. "You got this!" She gave an encouraging wink.
"Maybe I should just log out and say I had to go." Lina said this as if it was a great idea that had just come to her.
"Nope, don't be a wuss." Amlie flicked Lina on the forehead.
"Ow.. hey I'm older than you, you know." Lina replied grumpily.
"Could've fooled me." Amlie mocked her. "Look, if you run away now, he's going to think you don't like him, and knowing that guy he'll be too stupid to try something like this again. So it's now or never missy." Amlie said while placing her arms on her waist.
"O-okay. I can do this." Lina tried to psych herself up.