Chapter 77: Leadership Pt. 2
Aegis understood now why everyone had failed this quest within 60 seconds as he watched their uninterested attitude.
“So I’m guessing you guys are just going to sit there and let the Boss thing attack you until you hit 1 health, and I fail.” Aegis asked as he watched Caleb deal out the cards.
“Yep.” Caleb shrugged.
“Pretty much.” Walsh nodded.
“That’s fine, I’ve had my fair share of group projects where one person did all the work.” Aegis sighed as he stepped forward to stand in between them and the Boss, raising his shield up.
“Oh, side note, that thing takes 0 damage from anyone but us. So, good luck buddy.” Caleb added as they all watched Aegis strap his shield on.
“Our recommendation? Don’t drag this out too long, you’re only wasting your own time.” Walsh added.
“We get paid to be here either way so, whatever.” Treg shrugged.
“Oh, Mr. shield user, I would appreciate it if you didn’t let it mess up my hair.” Delphine raised a finger at Aegis while speaking condescendingly.
“Sure…” Aegis had to think. He had a few options here, but the underlying problem was, this was a challenge to test his leadership, he needed to convince these four to follow his orders and it was clear they had no reason to listen to him. Bribing them? Messing up their card game? Begging? Aegis played the scenarios out in his head, until he remembered a trick he’d used a few years ago with a troublesome group of project partners during a school assignment, and smirked to himself.
“I’m good at holding an enemies attention, and staying alive, so really I just need one of you.” Aegis took a step back and tapped Caleb on the shoulder. “Bless.” Aegis enchanted him, so that his hands began to glow with holy light and it wrapped around his cards.
“Ooh, look at that Caleb. Fancy light magic.” Delphine said sarcastically.
“That’s not a spell you see every day.” Walsh said, he sounded genuine but at the same time uninterested.
“Nice try buddy, but, I’ve got a killer hand so, buzz off.” Caleb shooed him away.” Aegis shrugged as if he was okay with this and dashed forward to intercept the Boss stomping towards them.
“He’s gonna drag this out, isn’t he.” Treg groaned. None of them even looked up to watch as the Bear boss pounced at Aegis and slammed into his braced shield, causing his feet to crack the tiles on which he stood as he struggled to hold back the might of the beast.
You take 200 Bludgeoning damage.
As Aegis had assumed, the boss didn’t hit him very hard - he could heal through that damage quite easily, but that wouldn’t explain why the other players all failed so fast. Surely they tried to intercept the boss as well? But Aegis got his answer as suddenly a large barb shot out from between the back plates of the Boss over his head, aimed directly at Caleb. It made a loud ominous whistling sound as it shot through the air, there was no way none of them heard it yet none of them turned to look at it.
“Uh oh, it’s your turn to get the hit Caleb." Delphine giggled as she gave the projectile a quick glance.
“Darn.” Caleb sighed annoyed. Aegis turned around and quickly snapped his fingers, causing a projection of his shield to appear in front of the barb and block it thanks to his guard skill.
“Tch, he’s an intermediate shield user.” Treg sucked his teeth.
“This is gonna take forever.” Walsh rolled his eyes.
You take 350 Piercing damage.
The barb hit harder than the bear itself, but nothing Aegis couldn’t handle. He pressed his shield hand on his chest and snapped his right finger to cast healing wind, letting it mend him up in tandem with the enchantments on his armor.
It took a few more attacks, but Aegis got a quick handle on the Boss’s attack patterns. It was easy to control its positioning and prevent the four card players from getting hit, so Aegis did exactly that, managing his mana and stamina with the intent of fighting the boss for a long time. It wasn’t until the first 12 minutes and 30 seconds went by that Aegis had to continue with his plan.
After blocking a barb attack, Aegis quickly dashed back to the group and refreshed his bless on Caleb.
“Any time now. Bless” Aegis sighed after tapping his shoulder to enchant Caleb's hands with holy light again.
“Not happening, pal.” Caleb sighed while the others were squinting at their card hands. The battle continued. When another 12 minutes went by, Aegis did the same thing - dashing back to Caleb and blessing him. This time, the players waiting in the line outside began to yell into the room at him.
“That’s not doing anything, c’mon man give it up.”
“Yeah, let someone else try, you’re just tanking that thing pointlessly.” They shouted at him, but Aegis ignored them.
It wasn’t until the 4th casting of bless that Aegis’ plan began to bear fruit. As he dashed in and tapped Caleb on the shoulder to cast it, the other NPCs chimed in exactly the way Aegis had hoped.
“Hey, I gotta ask.” Walsh said as Aegis was turning to go back to blocking the Bosses attacks on the other side of the arena. “Why are you only blessing Caleb?”
“Huh? It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Aegis replied with a smirk before dashing away. Another 12 minutes and 30 seconds went by and his Bless on Caleb faded, forcing him to dash back and refresh it. This time they were not quietly enjoying a card game, they were arguing with each other, but they went quiet when Aegis arrived.
“Kid, what did you mean by ‘It’s obvious.’” Treg shouted at Aegis angrily.
“This idiot seems to think you’re blessing him because he looks the strongest.” Delphine said laughingly.
“Well, he is, isn’t he? I figured he’s the leader of your group.” Aegis shrugged nonchalantly. “Bless.” He tapped Caleb on the shoulder while Caleb smirked mischievously at them.
“He’s got a point.” Caleb leaned back with pride, wiggling his glowing white fingers at the other three.
“Psh, my ass. Him the leader?” Walsh yelled.
“Why the hell does he look the strongest?” Delphine shouted angrily.
“Sorry, one sec, gotta go do my job.” Aegis replied condescendingly, dashing away back to the Boss.
“Hey, we’re not done talking to you!” Treg shouted after him, but Aegis ignored it. Another 12 minutes and 30 seconds went by and Aegis’ bless wore off of Caleb again. This time when he’d returned to bless Caleb, the others stood up and the players watching from outside went silent to watch.
“We’ve talked about it, and decided I’m the strongest, so you oughta be blessing me.” Treg said as he positioned himself in front of Caleb while he was still sitting down playing his cards, but this aggravated him into standing up.
“We didn’t discuss shit, you moron. If anything, I’m the strongest one here. Remember that time in the kobold cave? Who had the most kills?” Walsh protested as he stood up and pushed Treg to the side.
“Oh wow, look at Mr. tough guy here, bragging about killing a bunch of kobolds. I’m the one that took out that Grithok over in Sim’lar Forest.” Delphine shoved Walsh out of the way.
“Ladies, you’re just falling into his trap. Don’t be so childish. Just let the kid keep blessing me.” Caleb said condescendingly as he stood behind them.
“Oh you shut up you lazy bastard, you’re just happy the kid is dumb enough to think you’re the strongest.” Treg snarled at Caleb.
“Guys, guys…” Aegis tried to calm them down while glancing back to see the Boss slowly stomping towards them. “There’s an easy way to see which of you is strongest. I’ve got all the attention of that Boss. So there’s no excuse for not hitting it with all you got. I’d say, whoever gets the last hit is the strongest.” Aegis shrugged as he walked around, this time casting bless on all of them.
“Ah, hahah.” Walsh smirked. “I see what you’re doing. You think that’s really gonna work on us?”
“Clever kid.” Delphine waved it off, shaking her head as she took a seat, the others joining her and picking up their cards.
“I told you guys.” Caleb mocked them. Aegis just shrugged and started walking away.
“Eh, I don’t blame you. I’d be afraid of losing to my friends too. Isn’t that right Caleb?” Aegis said before he dashed back towards the boss. The four of them all held their cards up to their faces, their fingers glowing with holy energy, but they weren’t looking at the cards, they were glancing between each other in silence.
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“Fuckin’ hell.” Treg quickly spun around and grabbed his spear off the ground behind him, the holy energy on his fingertips immediately transferred to the tip of the spear as he dashed across the arena towards the Boss.
“Like I’m losing to Treg.” Walsh shouted angrily, doing the same.
“A headstart won’t help you weak losers!” Delphine shouted as she grabbed her weapon and joined in.
“Guys, come… c’mon.” Caleb sighed as he relented, grabbing his spear as well and following the others. Aegis kept the attention of the boss as the four of them maneuvered around the back of the beast, slashing at it with flashes of holy light marking each point of impact.
It was harder for Aegis to use his guard skill to still protect them from the spine projectiles when they were closer to the boss, he had to react quickly, but the four NPCs took no precaution against it as they had complete faith that Aegis would protect them, focusing entirely on trying to deal more damage than each other.
The result was that the boss was defeated within a minute from after they began attacking, with Delphine landing the final blow.
“Hah, suck that shit, losers.” She said as she threw her spear down on the ground triumphantly.
“Hey, hey, that wasn’t fair, the boss turned towards you at the last second and you got some headshots in for extra damage.” Treg complained.
“Last hit shouldn’t even matter, it was clear I did the most damage to it overall.” Caleb interjected.
“No you didn’t, I did.” Walsh shouted back.
“Guys, relax, if you’d really like to settle it, there’s plenty of rematches to look forward to.” Aegis motioned to the line of players waiting to take their turn at the Leadership quest. The four guards looked at the line, then gave Aegis a nod.
“Alright then, best of three.” Treg declared.
“Best of three? That’s bullshit.” Delphine complained.
“Why, you afraid you can’t do it again? You worried it was just luck?” Caleb replied in a babying voice.
“You know damn well it wasn’t luck.” Delphine growled as she picked her spear up from the ground. “Best of three then, it’ll only take another round to prove it.” She said confidently as Aegis reached the ladder on the far end of the arena and was climbing out of it.
“Very impressive, I didn’t think anyone would ever get those lazy idiots off their asses. There’s more to being a leader than great instructions and motivating speeches. To be able to lead requires you to understand the people you are leading, and guide them on the right path to insure the most desirable outcome.” Pelt smiled as Aegis walked up to him, patting him on the shoulder as the quest completed.
Quest Complete! 1/1 Captain Pelt's test passed.
Congratulations! You have advanced from Leadership(Beginner): 30 to Leadership(Intermediate): 30. You may now level this skill up to a maximum of 150.
Your use of the Leadership skill has unlocked the Leadership ability: [Commanding Presence(Passive)]
[Commanding Presence(Passive)] - Leadership
Improves the likelihood that non-elite NPCs will listen to your orders and respect your presence. This skill's effectiveness scales with your Leadership level.
“To face the most difficult challenges, you will always need people to work together. And it is in the face of those challenges that it is most difficult to force others to put aside their differences and work towards a common goal. Your job as a leader is to guide them on that path, under any circumstance. I hope to hear tales of your exploits in the coming months.” Pelt gave Aegis a respectful nod.
“Hey, c’mon Pelt, cut the chit chat, send the next one in.” Walsh shouted up out of the arena at him. This change in behavior had all the players staring in disbelief at Aegis and Pelt.
“You're welcome, guys.” Aegis smirked at them as he headed out of the hall. The murmurs and pushing to get to the front of the line happened almost immediately.
“Let me go next, I’ve been here the longest!”
“Come on, it should be me, I brought us all sandwiches, remember?”
“I want to do it before they change their minds and stop trying to compete with each other!” Players began shouting and shoving to get to the front of the line and do the test next.
Aegis felt a sense of relief that he’d managed it on his first try, even though it took awhile. It was also much less stressful for him now that his livestream viewership count was hidden, and he could stop worrying about whether the viewers were going up and down based on what he did. He just had to keep playing for now and believe in Hae-won and Shinji to do the rest.
As he exited the building he spotted at the bottom of the staircase a group of three players waiting for him, staring at him expectantly as he took the first steps down the stairs of the Military Command building. They wore red and white tabards with the symbol of crossed white swords on the front and a spear in the middle standing upright - Aegis had seen this on a few other players in Kordas before but didn’t know the meaning behind it.
“Hey there Aegis.” The player in the middle smiled and waved. [Christoph - ??] was above his name. He had a full set of enchanted and engraved iron armor with a large, powerful looking greatsword on his back. To his right stood a Lizardfolk player with a bow on his back and leather armor, [Embertongue - ??]. To his left he saw a female human wearing simple leather armor, blonde hair tied into a ponytail with fair skin and a big smile as her bright blue eyes looked him up and down. Something about her felt familiar, but Aegis didn’t know why until he looked up to see her name, [Miranda - Level 39] - she was livestreaming to a viewership of 1500.
“As you can see, my name is Christoph. I’m the Guild leader of the Blades of Kalmoore.” Christoph gently tapped the symbol on his tabard. “We’re the second strongest guild in Kalmoore on paper, but the truth is, we just prefer to leave all the boring management stuff to the Night Hunters so we can focus more on the fun stuff.” Christoph grinned. “I’m here to see if you’d be interested in joining our crafting team. We’ve got a lot of resources you could make use of to enhance your crafts, I think you’d like it with us. Our guild hall is filled out with all the bells and whistles.” He finished.
“And we have a lot of fun going on adventures together. Exploring dungeons, hunting down bounties… I’m a bit new, but it’s been nothing but exciting since I joined!” Miranda chimed in cheerfully. Aegis was at least glad to see that Miranda didn’t recognize him from their time in class together. He took some time to look between the three who stared up at him with hopeful expressions, but Aegis already knew the answer he was gonna give. Just as Aegis opened his mouth though, he was interrupted before any words came out.
“Oi, Aegis.” Tullan shouted from the street a ways away, quite loud to get his attention quickly, despite his distance. It was a bit odd behaviour, which caused all of them to look. “Catch.” Tullan whipped something small and shiny at him from a distance with urgency.
Aegis caught it and looked at it curiously. It was a necklace, with a pendant on it made of a beautifully cut Sapphire gem. It was clearly enchanted with some sort of magical effect, but Aegis didn’t have much time to look at the item card.
“Put it on ye daft dolt! Now!” Tullan shouted worriedly. Aegis glanced to see the look of panic on his face, then looked back to the other three in front of him and saw them looking at something behind Aegis. Rather than wait to turn around and see what they were looking at, Aegis trusted Tullan and put the necklace on, and in that instant he felt a bolt of energy hit him in the back and disperse around him.
Aegis turned around to see another Blade of Kalmoore player standing behind him with a staff, having just casted a spell on Aegis without him noticing, and a notification appeared in front of his vision.
[Identify]'s effects were blocked by the effect of [Aegis' Bane]
“Did… he just tried to use identify on me?” Aegis asked Tullan curiously, but Christoph answered.
“It’s only natural, we’d want to know what skills you have before you join our guild, right?” Christopher shrugged as if it was not a big deal, and both Embertongue and Miranda seemed to smile in agreement. Aegis took this time to look at the item card of the necklace he’d just equipped.
Name: Aegis' Bane
Slot: Accessory
Type: Necklace
Quality: 59%
Durability: 99/100
Requirements: Level 15
Option 1(Enchant): Protects the wearer from being identified through magical means. (Enchanted by Trexon(Detection Shell))
Description: A beautiful Sapphire stone hanging from a finely forged silver chain necklace. Crafted by Tullan.
“The moment Quinn saw the notification, she sent our highest level Sage back here to help me enchant that for ye’. Told me I was to get it to ye’ right away. Looks like I was just in time.” Tullan said as he caught his breath, clear that’d he’d just been running through the city until a few moments ago. “Don’t trust this lot, shady bunch, they are.” He motioned to the Blades members.
“Your days of ruling Kalmoore are numbered, Night Hunter.” Embertongue hissed at Tullan. Aegis watched the exchange and and thought for a moment.
“I’m going to have to decline. Nothing personal, I’m not interested in joining a guild.” Aegis replied coldly while glaring at the Elf Sage player that had attempted to identify him while he moved to stand with his guildmates. Tullan let out an audible sigh of relief.
“I see. That’s a shame. Well, as long as you aren’t joining up with these guys," Christoph motioned to Tullan, "if you ever would like to team up with us for some quests or dungeons, just give us a call.” Christoph said while giving Aegis an obviously fake smile. “And tell Quinn that she oughta stop playing mommy to every player in this city.” He added under his breath towards Tullan. Aegis watched the group of four Blades walk away and disappear into the city before he finished his descent down the stairs to join Tullan.
“Thanks, you saved me with this thing.” Aegis jingled the necklace. “You named it Aegis’ bane though? Really? That doesn’t even make sense, since it saved me.” Aegis raised a brow at Tullan.
“Yeah, well, y’know, revenge for namin’ that sword after me.” Tullan shrugged. “So, that’ll be 10 000 gold pieces.” He held out his hand expectantly.
“Huh?” Aegis looked at him surprised.
“Y’know, for the necklace. Sapphire’s ain't cheap, neither is silver, or that high level Sage enchant yer’ wearin. Had to use a Greater Enchantment Orb for it.” Tullan said.
“W-well why’d you make it with a Sapphire and Silver? Copper and quartz would’ve just been fine.” Aegis complained.
“Are ye kiddin me? You expectin’ someone like me with me craftin’ skills to go around workin’ with some junk materials for such a high level enchant? Pay up, Mr.” He nudged his open palm into Aegis.
“Well, the thing is… I don’t have any gold.” Aegis shrugged awkwardly.
“Wha- watcha mean you aint have any gold! Ye just sold 1000 Iron weapons for several hundred thousand! I’ve been watchin’ the markets, I aint no fool!” Tullan yelled at Aegis, annoyed now.
“Y-yeah, about that... I spent it all.”
“Sp-spent it all, on what? D’you buy a brothel or summat?!” Tullan shouted angrily in disbelief.
“A what? No, I had to use the gold to pay bills and buy textbooks, so I could study to pass all other crafting quests.” Aegis explained.
“You did what now? Yer tellin’ me you spent the last three weeks studyin’ all these crafts?” Tullan groaned with an eyeroll.
“Well, yeah, how else was I going to pass the intermediate quests?” Aegis shrugged and Tullan let out a long drawn out sigh. He turned and started walking away from Aegis, mumbling something under his breath, but as he was leaving, Aegis realized he now had a week left with nothing to do in the city, and an idea popped into his head, rushing after Tullan.
“Maybe I could pay you back, with some blacksmithing work?” Aegis looked at him curiously.
“Hmmm. Not a bad idea." Tullan turned and gave him a devious grin. "How about with a lil’ somethin I like to call the three S’s.” Tullan replied as he turned and continued walking down the street in the direction of the Night Hunter’s guild hall. “Sweepin’, Smeltin’, and Shopkeepin’.” Tullan finished, and Aegis reluctantly followed.
It didn’t sound fun, but he was glad he now had something to do to kill time for the next few days until it was time for the Airship to depart.