Spiteful Healer

Chapter 48: The State of Things

“Hey! Hey Aegis!” Galanis waved Aegis down only moments after he’d logged into Orm and turned on his livestream. Aegis turned to see Galanis walking alongside Eccen, both were wearing much better equipment than when he’d last seen them.

“How’d that boss fight go? Sorry about bailing…”

“No problem man, it was tough but we managed to take him out. He dropped some crazy good equipment too.” Galanis showed off the blackened mail armor he was wearing.

“Congrats, and thanks for saving me down there.” Aegis smiled.

“Well that’s actually what I wanted to talk about. Seeing as how your party was the one that completed all the quests, I figured it wouldn’t be fair if we at least didn’t share some of the loot with you.” Galanis replied.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Aegis replied as he opened his inventory, not having touched much of the items he’d gotten from the Keep. He had been so focused on clearing his bags of his basic crafting materials, he’d forgotten to properly inspect it all. In his bags he still had the crafting materials from the Boar King, the Longsword from the wolf, An Acid Fang and some silk from the Broodmother, the broken shards of the suffering orb, and the now depleted and and very non-magical manacles. In addition he had plenty of weapon and cloth scraps and a few white quality armor pieces and jewelry that had dropped off of all the elite enemies. But the main loot he’d been excited about, he’d already registered.

“I feel like the land deed was the best item I could’ve gotten.” Aegis bragged with a wide grin as he closed out his inventory.

“Oh, you got the land deed to the Keep?” Galanis replied with a nervous look, not the response Aegis was expecting.

“Yeah… I already registered for it too. Was a bit expensive, but…” Aegis stopped as he watched Galanis and Eccen exchange looks of guilt.

“We should probably warn you, the Keep, well…” Galanis began.

“When that last boss became enraged, he grew a bit larger, and started swinging his spiked maul all over the place…” Eccen continued.

“Larger? He was already huge!” Aegis replied in disbelief.

“Y-yeah… and then, there was the void magic.” Galanis added.

“And when he died, there was the quaking…” Eccen said as the two of them watched the disappointment fill up Aegis’ face.

“H-how bad is it?”

“It’s basically just a pile of rocks…” Galanis replied guiltily.

“Sorry man, if we’d known you got the deed, we would’ve tried to lure the boss away or something…” Eccen shrugged apologetically. Aegis just looked down at his feet for a moment, his daydreams of rebuilding the keep into his own castle quickly disintegrated in his mind.

“H-here, at least take this, it’s a pretty good ring for our level.” Galanis pulled a silver ring with a black gem engraved in it out of his inventory and held it out to him. Aegis took the ring without looking at it, still contemplating what they’d just told him.

“Thanks…” He said dejectedly.

“We’ll… we’ll come by and visit your land, you know, once you get things running. It’s still a nice piece of land. A river, some fields of grass…” Galanis replied.

“I bet it's great farmland!” Eccen added, trying to cheer him up.

“Y-yeah, sure, come and visit sometime. See you guys later.” Aegis mumbled back as the three parted ways.

He begrudgingly trekked his way to the Craftsman Hall within Orm where he grabbed several quests that would teach him how to harvest better wood, gather stronger and sturdier leather, and pick more difficult herbs. Each had objectives similar to that of the Iron Proficiency quest, requesting he prove his ability to gather high quality, lower level materials first. By the time Aegis had finished and stepped outside, Lina was already waiting for him, leaning against the wall next to the door of the building.

“Darkshot said they’re still setting up your old Simbox in his house but he should be on in a bit.” Lina said with a wave.

“Ok, I just grabbed some quests… My mom should be here somewhere too, but I forgot to ask what her character name was.” Aegis replied as he sent a party invite to Lina which she quickly accepted. The two looked up and down the streets at the other players and NPCs walking about, though Aegis wasn’t sure what he’d be looking for exactly.

“Maybe the town square?” Lina shrugged.

“Yeah.” Aegis nodded as the two began walking towards the center of Orm.

“How’s the new Simbox?”

“Pretty awesome, and fast. The Dreamstate is probably the best part though. Means I’ll be able to sleep in the game with you.” Aegis replied, and his poor wording caused Lina to blush. “I meant like you, you know, like you did. I can do that now too.” Aegis quickly corrected himself.

“Y-yeah. I know you m-meant that.” She replied while staring at her feet as Aegis rolled his eyes at himself once he was sure she was looking away. When they reached the fountain, there was no sign of anyone that resembled his mom. After looking for a few minutes, Aegis shrugged.

“I guess she’s looking for horses already, are there any fields with some nearby?” Aegis asked, and Lina nodded.

“The stablemaster mentioned there were some to the south of the village.” Lina replied. Without further instruction they both headed in that direction in awkward silence, leaving the village of Orm and traveling beyond the surrounding farm fields. Just as they were passing underneath the treeline though, a female voice from behind them abruptly broke the silence.

“H-hey, Behind you!” The unfamiliar voice called. Aegis turned around, expecting to see his mom’s character waving him down, but instead saw a huge spear flying at him through the air towards his head. He was able to duck at the last moment, and as he heard the sound of Lina drawing her weapons he simultaneously saw in front of him a familiar, angry looking Orc wielding a longsword with the name Rakkan above his head.

He was already in a forward charging attack towards Aegis, but he broke out of it as Lina dashed forward and cut him off, forcing him instead to jump backwards. Behind Rakkan was a young female elf [Amlie - Level 4]. She was wielding a strange looking staff but otherwise wore beginner attire and nothing about her seemed threatening, rather she was the one who had warned them of the attack.

“Mom?” Aegis asked in confusion. Rakkan glared at Lina in the very short moment she stood still before she rushed towards him with a flurry of dagger strikes.

“Huh? N-no…” Amlie replied to Aegis equally confused. “Rakkan stop this!” She shouted at the orc, but he ignored her, and Aegis could barely keep track of the fight unfolding before him. What Rakkan had in strength, Lina could compensate for with speed, and Aegis felt an aura of fury emanating from her. Even Rakkan looked surprised by how quickly she dashed around his attacks, slashing him repeatedly with her daggers. Lina’s health went untouched while Rakkan’s health began to plummet without Aegis needing to assist her whatsoever.

The concern that Amlie had for Aegis quickly turned on its head and she looked at Rakkan with pity instead.

“W-wait!” Amlie tried to stop the fight, but neither Rakkan nor Lina were listening to her. Instead Rakkan was in the process of recomposing himself, watching Lina’s quick dashing movements, until finally he seemed to notice something. He swung his longsword down at her with his left hand, then quickly pulled out his axe in his right hand and did a back swing with it, cutting Lina off and forcing her to block with the blade of her daggers, but still taking damage from the blow. She then attempted to dash in the opposite direction, Rakkan used Switch again to swap his Longsword for a large bladed gauntlet, swinging at Lina in tandem with his battle axe and forming a pincer attack with both weapons. Lina shifted one dagger away from the axe and used it to deflect the fist downward into the ground before leaping backwards away from Rakkan for a moment.

“Wait, Lina.” Aegis called out just before she dashed back in. She complied, but didn’t take her eyes off Rakkan. “Rakkan, look, I still don’t know what your problem is, but you were edited out of everything, alright? Even right now.” Aegis motioned to the icon. Rakkan just glared back for a moment.

“It’s not about that. It’s about your kind tainting the world around you.” Rakkan snarled back.

“My kind? You mean livestreamers?” Aegis asked. Rakkan didn’t reply, but he took the silence for a yes. “Look I get it, I hate them too, all the ones I’ve met so far are entitled or show offs.” Aegis tried to sympathize.

“Then why are you doing it?” Rakkan roared at him as a child would.

“To be better than them.” Aegis shouted back, small bits of his own anger were beginning to seep out.

“The only way to be better is to kill them.” Rakkan replied.

“What good does that do, what point do you prove? They’ll just respawn.”

“Then I’ll do it again. I’ll kill him over, and over, and over, until he never enters this game and hurts people ever again!” Rakkan shouted - Aegis picked up on the pronoun switch as Rakkan tightened his grip on his axe and clenched the fist weapon shut, preparing to lunge forward again. Lina lifted her daggers in front of her face in anticipation.

“W-wait Rakkan, stop it!” Amlie shouted out, but it seemed futile. Just as Rakkan was about to charge forward at Lina, however, a flash of pink ears flew through the air along with a large ball of trailing light, exploding on the point Rakkan had been standing.

When the explosion of light had cleared, Aegis saw the high level Night Hunter, Sapphire, standing on top of a disintegrating Rakkan who was being forcefully logged out, his health having hit 0.

“What is up with Orm lately? So much crime and PvP.” Sapphire shook her head in disbelief as she watched Rakkan disintegrate. “Hey, you!” She pointed at Amlie. “This is still considered a part of Orm, so don’t start fights here. You were partying with the initiator, so learn from his mistakes or you’ll be next.” Sapphire snapped at her. She turned and briefly looked at Lina, then Aegis, then back to Lina.

“Lower level thief takes on a higher level fighter.” Sapphire started rubbing her chin and pacing around Lina as Lina stood upright staring back at her. “Are you looking for a guild?” Sapphire asked Lina.

“Nope.” Lina replied without hesitation, to which Sapphire sighed.

“Ok, stay out of trouble!” She shouted, then with a burst of light magic, leapt into the air as a bunny would, with incredible height, back in the direction of Orm. The three watched Sapphire fade in the distance with several more hops before Lina and Aegis turned to look at an anxious Amlie.

“Sorry about Rakkan. I told him to start over here in Orm to play with me but he's still angry about the past…” Amlie tried to defend him.

“You two are friends?” Aegis asked.

“Yes.” She nodded eagerly. “We go to school together.”

“So you know why he’s so pissed off at me?” Aegis asked as Lina resheathed her daggers, listening in silence while moving to stand beside Aegis.

“Uhm, well, I think he’s mad at himself. He swore he wouldn’t ever play with a streamer again, get strong, and hunt someone down… then the other day, he was having fun playing with you guys, only to find out you were a livestreamer.”

“If he was having fun, why would it matter if it's a livestream or not? Who is it that he’s hunting? Makaroth?” Aegis asked which caused Lina to glance at him briefly, seeing Aegis with an emotionless expression.

“No, not Makaroth. Someone else… it’s a bit of a long story…” Amlie began to mumble as she looked between the two. “I think… maybe you guys could help him though. You’re the first people he’s had fun playing with since it happened.” She looked at them with hopeful eyes.

Aegis looked to Lina after hearing Amlie speak and was surprised to see her indifferent expression. For all the rage she had just shown towards Rakkan, she looked just as emotionless as Aegis about the situation and instead was waiting for his reaction.

“How old exactly are you two?” Aegis relented as he looked back at Amlie.

“I’m 13… but I turn 14 this month. Rakkan’s already 14.” Amlie replied defensively. Aegis saw Lina let out a light puffing sound after hearing this, looking as if ashamed of herself before looking to Aegis again for his reaction. The two did their best to communicate their thoughts just through stares, with an eventual shrug and raised brow from Aegis.

“Alright. Fine. Just a kid… We're waiting for someone anyway, so, go for it. What's his deal?” Aegis asked Amlie.

“I-it started a few months ago…” Amlie began, and as she did, Aegis turned off his stream recording.