“-and you shouted it out!” Elijah furiously roared. “Just ran in and shouted it out! Talk about playing with trash teammates!”
“Sorry dude,” Tyler said. “We didn’t know it was a secret.”
“Yeah dude, calm down,” Boss Bitch agreed.
Currently Elijah was standing with Tyler and the other players out of ear shot from the building that the injured children were resting in. After the players burst into the building and started demanding cultivation techniques. Elijah quickly used his Supreme Will talent to suppress and silence them. Next, he excused himself and dragged the players outside. Once they were far enough away, he began to tear them a new one for the next thirty seconds.
“Yeah, it’s not like we would have said anything if there were other players around.” Atom added. “Who cares if a bunch of NPCs (non-player characters) here what we talk about? It’s not like they’ll attack us for the cultivation techniques like other players would.”
“It’s fine,” Elijah sighed. “I was planning on telling them anyway.” Although Elijah said it was fine, he was still a little frustrated that they carelessly revealed the information he wanted to temporarily keep secret.
Part of Elijah knew that he was overreacting to the situation, but in the moment, he wasn’t able to control himself. Even now he was still feeling the aftereffects. Losing control of the plan he set up was extremely frustrating.
“Also, you shouldn’t underestimate the NPCs of this game. Even an ordinary shop keeper won’t hesitate to stab you in the back or poison your drink if they thought you had a valuable treasure.”
“Noted…so, about them cultivation techniques?” Tyler asked.
Once again, Elijah felt a powerful wave of anger start to rise up from within, but this time Elijah was able to control it. Closing his eyes Elijah took a deep breath to calm himself down. Once he calmed down Elijah opened his eyes and gave his reply.
“No.”
“Listen Eli,” BB said. “We know we fucked up by talking about the cultivation techniques but you can’t-” BB abruptly stopped talking as her gaze focused on the blank air in front of her.
Quest: Dungeon Hunt
Description: Dungeons have begun to appear int Supreme Twilight village territory. Chief Eli has requested your help in finding these dungeons. Find the location of at least one dungeon and report back to Chief Eli.
Reward: 1 cultivation technique
Penalty: Lose 5 cultivation levels
“A quest.” Tyler said. “No wait, there are dungeons in this game.”
“Thank you for stating the obvious,” Elijah sarcastically responded. “So, what do you say? Help me out by finding a dungeon and I’ll give you the cultivation technique. Think of this as a way for you to apologize for letting the cat out of the bag.”
“Sounds fair,” Atom replied.
“Can’t you just give us the techniques?” Tyler whined. “You’re not an NPC. Plus, it’s not like we’ll take the cultivation techniques and run.”
“Sorry, no can do,” Elijah said. “We have to do things by the book.”
“Mind telling us what that book is?” BB asked.
After a brief pause Elijah responded. “Thank you for your help adventurers. I wish you luck on your quest.”
Next, Elijah turned his head and refused to respond to any further questions or actions. Elijah ignored the cursing, rude remarks, and a few pokes and slaps. Elijah only let out a chuckle when he saw the trio decided to walk away in defeat.
Once they were gone, Elijah returned to help Jenny with the healing. He was prepared to respond to any questions about the cultivation techniques, but to his surprise, nobody had anything to say. Shrugging his shoulders, Elijah decided to not waste any time thinking about the reasons for their silence. Instead, he continued to heal the children and focused on using his new cultivation technique.
Congratulations! You have upgraded your Heal Minor Wounds skill to the Minor Healing Stream skill.
Skill: Minor Healing Stream
Tier: 0
Stage: Initial
Effect: With a focused burst of mental and stamina energy, the user can turn the surrounding astral energy into a stream that will restore 25 of their target’s health points. At a rate of 10% of the initial cost of the skill per second, the user can restore 2.5 health points per second. The energy of this skill can be manipulated to target the healing of certain wounds.
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Cost: 50 mental and 10 stamina energy.
Elijah’s new healing skill was definitely a lot more expensive than his previous skill. It cost five times more. However, it restored more health with one usage than his previous skill did, and it had greater potential.
With his new skill Elijah was better able to control the way his energy healed his target. Although he didn’t fully restore the health of all the children, he was able to close all the wounds on their skin. Therefore, he decided he would leave and entrust the remaining healing to Jenny. It would give her the opportunity to practice her new skill, improve her job and level up her new specialty.
Specialty: Healing
Level: 1, 0%
Description: A specialty focused on treating various types of wounds, poisons and illnesses. Accumulate knowledge, practice healing skills, and heal others to level up this specialty. All healing skills are 10% more effective.
Rewards: +1 Wis, +1 Per, +2 free stat points, +1 to attack and +1 to defense each level
Jenny obtained her specialty at the same time she obtained the Minor Healing Stream skill. Elijah thought her talent should have allowed her to obtain the skill a long time ago. However, he was thankful he got to play a part in her obtaining the skill because it brought him one step closer to completing his quest.
Quest: Enlighten the Masses
Description: A leader is a guide and a source of inspiration. As a ruler you must help your followers find their specialty or assist them in bringing their specialties to the next level.
Assisted: 2/10
Reward: Skill, experience
Penalty: None
Before Elijah left, he gave Jenny a quest to remove the poison from the children. He wasn’t worried about leaving her alone as few people would attack the person in charge of healing their child. In fact, it’s likely that they would risk their lives to protect her.
After Elijah left the children, he went to look for Elder Jamal. Once he found him, he asked him to lead the team of hunters. Naturally, in a small village word traveled fast and Elder Jamal was already informed.
Full of energy, Elder Jamal didn’t wait for Elijah to find him and immediately went to select eight of the warriors to be permanent hunters. Satisfied with the number of people he picked; Elijah made sure they learned the three cultivations before he sent them into the forest. He wanted them to hunt more beast for meat to eat and do some reconnaissance on the changes in the territory.
Once Elijah finished speaking with the hunters, he went to visit Justin. Like Elder Jeb, Justin had also taken the initiative. The remaining warriors were his to command by default and he had already begun leading them in training at the village training area. When Elijah arrived, they were all shirtless and undergoing intense physical exercise around the Martial Arena.
Item: Martial Arena
Tier: 0
Description: A unique structure that can allow two cultivators in the Body Tempering realm to safely spar with each other. If the structure is properly maintained ten battles can occur without cost each day. Any additional battle will cost 10,000 points of astral energy.
The Martial Arena was an elevated square stadium that came up to Elijah’s chest. The arena was made out of the same material as his village core and Chief’s Hut. The unique gray material was like a piece of marble or crystal, dotted with golden blue stars.
“Stop! Take a break.” Justin announced after he noticed Elijah.
“I see you’ve got things handled here,” Elijah said after he approached Justin. “What do you have planned for the rest of the training session?”
“Next, we’ll practice some archery and then we’ll do some sparing. I was planning to look for you so you could activate the Martial Arena. Without having to worry about death or permanent injuries, I’m sure we can have a very effective sparing session.”
Justin turned to look at the Martial Arena with a burning gaze. Elijah could understand what Justin was feeling. After his first spar with Elder Jeb, every other spar he had felt bland in comparison. Elijah was eager to step into the ring and have an all-out battle with Elder Jeb.
Sadly, neither Elijah nor Justin would be using the Martial Arena today. “You can continue the archery practice but forget about conducting any spars for today.”
“Really, why?” Justin asked. “I’m not trying to question your decision, but-”
“You don’t have to be afraid to ask me questions. As for why, I don’t thing sparing is the best way to improve our combat ability at the moment. I plan on leaving the village tomorrow to explore the area around our village. I want you to practice giving commands to our warriors, so everyone will be more comfortable with responding to commands during battle.”
Justin looked confused by what Elijah said and this time he didn’t hesitate to ask questions. “Isn’t practicing one’s skills in actual combat more beneficial for a warrior’s growth?”
“For an individual warrior, definitely. But our warriors aren’t fighting as individuals. They will be fighting together under your command and it’s your job to lead them in battle properly.”
“But isn’t that what you do?”
“It is, but I’m not an expert at it. I only have a few skills that make me good at it. As a chief my attention will always be split between several different areas. That’s why I wanted to have an official leader who would be specialized in commanding our warriors. As the leader you will be the one who commands our warriors, and your commands will be what determines whether they live or die.”
Elijah silently looked on as he watched Justin’s expression change. His face became more serious and a bit grim as the weight of the position he accepted started to truly affect him. Elijah let him experience it for a few seconds before he continued speaking.
“You don’t have to worry too much,” Elijah said as he gave Justin a pat on the back. “Isn’t this what was always planned for you? You were always meant to be the person that led your people. I only temporarily stepped in. As for how exactly you should practice commanding the warriors and the specific commands you should create, I’ll leave that to you. I do suggest that you make the commands short, clear and easy to understand in the heat of battle.”
If Elijah wanted to, he could draw on the experience of previous wars fought in history to educate or enlighten Justin and the other warriors. However, his advice could potentially be harmful to their growth, so he decided to keep his mouth shut and till he saw his advice was necessary. Elijah spent a few more minutes talking about the details of their exploration tomorrow and gave Justin a few more tips.
After Elijah finished talking with Justin, his next stop was the farming fields. After that he would meet with Caleb to talk about the badges. Also, he had to check on the various construction projects going on inside and outside the village. Then he would… well, as you can see, the responsibilities of a chief were never ending.