Spiteful Healer

Chapter 81: Monastery of the Stars

The door to the small home opened to reveal a half-dressed young male NPC. He had short shaved black hair with brown eyes, brown skin and wore a white long-sleeve shirt. He had a set of iron greaves and leather boots on his bottom half, and a belt strapped with a sheathed sword on his waist. The armor resembled that of what Aegis had seen the Arallian guards up until this point wearing.

His initial expression was annoyance until he looked up to see Priestess Clara, and his face grew a wide happy smile. [Celestian - Level 30] stood above his head in white text.

“Clara?! Could it really be you?” He asked as he ran forward and threw his arms around her without waiting for a reaction.

“It’s me!” She squeaked out with joy as Sapphire and Josephine watched with looks of slight confusion.

“Is this part of your quest?” Josephine whispered to Aegis.

“Nope.” Aegis whispered back.

“Then why are we here?” Sapphire grumbled in his ear.

“You guys are the ones who told me to try and make her Elite before my last quest.” Aegis shrugged back at Sapphire.

“This isn’t how you make NPCs Elite. You have to… you know,” Sapphire made an O shape with her left hand, and started putting her index finger of the opposing hand into the O suggestively. Josephine noticeably blushed and looked away when Sapphire started doing this.

“I refuse to believe that’s the only way to do it, the game creators aren’t perverts.” Aegis whispered back.

“Pfft, are you kidding me? They’re totally perverts. Want to see how many nipples a bunny demi-human has?” Sapphire mocked him as she began lifting up her armor, but Aegis quickly pushed her hand down to stop her.

“No, no. No. No thanks. Just, let me try it my way.” Aegis replied anxiously.

“Fine, but if you’re taking detours like this, I want a detour.” Sapphire demanded in a whisper.

“Quinn said you had to follow me, not the other way around...” Aegis mumbled back weakly.

“Would you rather I take the detour by myself and leave you alone with the suspicious White Flame Cleric?” Sapphire snapped back.

“Uhm…” Josephine tried to awkwardly interject, but they both ignored her.

“What is your detour?” Aegis asked.

“I’m not telling you until we get there. It’s better than this detour though.” Sapphire complained, all the while they were whisper-arguing, Clara and Celestian were happily exchanging pleasantries. They only tuned back into what the two NPCs were doing when Celestian put his hands on Clara’s cheeks, looking as though he was going to lean in and kiss her.

“I’ve missed you so, Clara.”

“I’ve missed you as well.” She replied, the two staring at each other dreamy eyed.

“How long will you be in Arallia?” He asked as he pulled his hand away from her cheek gently.

“I, well… I am here to escort this Priest of Eirene to the Monastery.” Clara motioned to Aegis and Celestian seemed to notice them for the first time.

“Oh, apologies, how rude of me. My name is Celestian, a guard of Arallia.” He moved forward to shake their hands and they all obliged one by one. “It’s still a bit until my guard shift starts. Would you like me to accompany you to the Monastery?” Celestian asked, and everyone looked at Aegis.

“Yes, of course.” Aegis smiled.

“Great, I’ll finish putting on my armor, one moment.” He excitedly skipped back into his house while Clara blushed, following him with her eyes.

“We’ll be taking a detour on the way first!” Sapphire called after him. “So, Josephine.” Sapphire turned to her expectantly as Josephine looked between Aegis and Sapphire. “You wouldn’t happen to know of a certain tailor here in Arallia, would you?” Sapphire asked her. Josephine rolled her eyes as though she immediately knew who Sapphire was asking about.

“Yes, she has her shop near the central square, but, I should warn you, it’s always very crowded.” Josephine replied.

“No problem, we’ve got time for detours, right Aegis?” Sapphire slapped him on the back as Celestian came back out, fully equipped in Arallian guard attire.

“I’m ready.” He said as he moved to walk beside Clara.

“Good, let’s go!” Sapphire started marching a few steps forward before stopping. “It’s this way, right?” She confirmed with Josephine.

“Y-yeah.” Josephine replied hesitantly. Aegis gave a regretful shrug as they began following behind an eager Sapphire.

“What tailor is she talking about?” Aegis asked Josephine curiously.

“Oh, you’re unfamiliar?” Josephine made an obvious glance up at Aegis’ livestreaming numbers as she said this, causing Aegis to look as well and see it was sitting at 2500. “The 7th highest streamer in The Shattered World, Yumily, started her journey here with her friends.” Josephine explained.

“Yumily?” Aegis asked with interest.

“Yes, she is a bard player who composes beautiful music, they often play her songs on broadcasts. You’ve never heard of her?” Josephine asked curiously.

“I think I have… I don’t listen to music much though.” Aegis shrugged.

“Well… Yumily has her own Airship now and travels to different islands to play concerts, but one of her friends, one of the highest level and most renowned tailor class players in the game, remains here in Arallia. She designs and crafts all of Yumily’s outfits. So naturally, her shop is very popular for visitors and Arallian players alike. She gets orders from many different islands and is even able to weave Shadowsilk.” Josephine explained.

“Sounds expensive.” Aegis replied, not very interested in fashion.

“I’ve seen her stuff, worth every copper coin!” Sapphire called back to him excitedly. Aegis glanced behind him to see Clara and Celestian deep in conversation, giggling and smiling, and thought it best to let the conversation pan out for as long as possible in the hopes that it might do something to help her become Elite. "The answer is two, by the way! I was just messing with you." Sapphire called out to him, getting his attention once more.

"Huh?" He turned back to face her as they walked.

"Bunny demi-humans. You know. Just two." Sapphire winked awkwardly while patting the iron armor over her chest. "I know you were wondering."

"I wasn't. You're pretty weird, you know that?" Aegis rolled his eyes back at her.

"You weren't curious how many I had, and you're calling me weird? Pfft." Sapphire looked at him like he was crazy before biting her carrot again, whilst Josephine let out a light chuckle. They headed towards the busier and more populated center area of the city, filled with tightly packed markets and players haggling with each other. On a number of occasions Aegis felt other players bumping into him and knew why Quinn advised him to keep everything in his inventory.

When they arrived at the busiest section of the city square of Arallia, there was a long line formed out front of the shop in question with the name 'Yuki's Threads' printed on a decorative wooden sign above the door. Mannequins wearing magnificent dresses, shirts, and pants were on display in the windows. Sapphire took one look at the line and sighed in annoyance before settling for just oggling at the display windows.

“Okay, okay, I won’t make you sit through that line with me. But you better finish your quest quick so I have time to shop around here, got it?” Sapphire pulled out a new carrot and wagged it at Aegis in place of her finger before biting into it.

“It’s not like I’m going to try and go slow or something.” Aegis replied.

“Do you mind if I ask what quest you are doing? I’ve never heard of an Eirene quest that requires travel like this.” Josephine asked.

“It’s, uh…” Aegis hesitated.

“It’s a Kalmoore quest, he found an Eirene thingy in a dungeon, they asked him to bring it back here personally.” Sapphire jumped in.

“Oh, I see, that makes sense.” Josephine smiled. “Then shall we head to the monastery now?” She asked.

“Yup.” Sapphire nodded.

“Right this way.” Josephine motioned them out of the busy district, making sure both Celestian and Clara were still following them. They headed out of the crowds towards the less travelled side-streets until they arrived at a road leading out of the city on the north side and up a winding mountain path. The mountain terrain was darkened sandy yellow, with pockets of shrubs and trees here and there, nothing like the mountains of Kalmoore. As they followed the winding mountain road and climbed higher up, Aegis could see that the back of the Arallia Palace's towers were just as decorative as the front side.

Several portions of the mountain trail ran alongside the river where there was much more plant life, and he spotted a few players along the trail that were hunting, fishing in the river, or mining and stone cutting areas that looked to be rich with copper ore. Aegis even spotted a group of four players who seemed to be druids that were alternating between using their magic to grow trees rapidly, and then chopping them down. He couldn’t imagine how tedious it’d be to level woodcutting in this environment, but thought it was pretty creative how they were handling it.

Eventually the mountain trail arrived at the base of the giant waterfall that came from out of a mountain cavern, and the trail transitioned into a clearcut manmade ramp that went back and forth up the wall to the left of the waterfall. As they walked up the ramp, there was a light mist from the falling water that sprinkled droplets onto them, cooling them down from the hot desert sun. Aegis could see that many players were hanging out around the shores of the water near the base of the waterfall, enjoying the reprieve from the heat.

At the top of the waterfall Aegis saw quite a few sturdy looking waterwheels connecting to sawmills and other buildings. Even here it seemed that despite being outside the city walls, they were still considered to be in the capital, as numerous guards were patrolling about and keeping the peace as players and NPCs alike took advantage of the trade and crafting buildings lining the fast flowing water to process their materials. Aegis saw that the river and the cavern went deep into the mountain, but their road took them off the side of the cavern to continue upwards on the outside of the mountain, so he didn’t get a chance to see what was deeper within.

After that, the air began to thin out, as did the amount of nearby players. The wind picked up as they got higher and higher up, and slowly the city below went from grandiose to looking miniature, and Aegis could get a clear view of the desert kilometers around them in all directions. He couldn’t help but stop and stare when he spotted far off to the northern side of the mountain a singular Island Stone glistening in the sands quite a ways away. Unlike the ones in Kalmoore, this one wasn’t fortified with walls and soldiers, it looked lonely out in the desert by itself.

“C’mon, keep moving. The sand keeps getting in my ears and its really starting to piss me off.” Sapphire nudged him to keep moving when she noticed he’d stop to take in the scenery.

“We’re almost there.” Josephine pointed upwards, seeing the walls of the monastery coming into view not but a 100 meters away.

“Are you excited, Clara?” Celestian asked her.

“Y-yes, and nervous. I haven’t been here since we were little.” She replied.

“I’m sure it will be bigger than you remember.” He said as he helped her walk around a large stone that had made its way onto the trail. Aegis looked back to see that nothing had changed with her name above her head, and they’d run out of time. He’d all but given up hope of making her Elite before moving on to the next part of his quest.

When they reached the outer walls of the Monastery, Aegis took one last look at the landscape around them, feeling somewhat intimidated by how high up they were compared to the city far down below at the base of the mountain. He could barely make out the Skyship port in the distance, needing to squint just to see it.

“Here we are. Welcome to the Monastery of the Stars.” Josephine smiled as she motioned them inside the walls, a beautifully crafted archway with a Star of Eirene engraved in the keystone stood before them, with a pair of large wooden doors held open to welcome them inside.

The interior was quite a drastic shift in environment. Similar to the Shrine of Eirene in Kordas, it was filled with lush green grass, neatly paved pathways fit between patches of bushes and flowers of a wide variety, and a wonderfully made fountain at the center trickling water down its multiple levels. There were people present in the garden, but not just couples on romantic dates, many Priests and Priestesses, both player and NPC alike, moving about and talking or tending to the wellbeing of the plants, and several children were running about playing tag with one another.

“Mom, you’re back!” A young NPC suddenly broke off from the other children, running towards Josephine and wrapping his arms around her legs. He had simple clothes on with no Eirene symbolism, light brown skin and short dirty blonde hair. [Elric(Elite) - Level 1].

“Hey there sweetie, how are you doing?” She kneeled down and ruffled his hair, lifting her helmet off her head and unequipping it into her inventory so she could kiss him on the forehead, revealing her bright blue eyes, pale skin and short blonde hair. As this happened, both Aegis and Sapphire turned to stare at each other with complete shock.

“You don’t suppose she made him elite by…” Sapphire began to whisper, but Aegis gave her a disgusted look and she stopped.

“Told you, there’s other ways to do it.” Aegis whispered back, annoyed.

“Mommy has to help these people meet the Great Prophet. Do you know where he is?” Josephine asked Elric with a smile.

“The Old man? He’s in the prayer chamber.” Elric shrugged while motioning to the main building of the monastery, a tall flat sandstone structure that led into a giant tower that stood over them. Aegis tilted his head back to see the top of the tower, and as Clara had told him, it looked like it went up right into the clouds, but he couldn’t stare up for too long due to the bright sun.

“What’d I tell you about calling him that?” Josephine sighed as she flicked Elric's ear.

“Ow, what? He’s an old man, isn’t he?” He grumbled back, to which Josephine threatened another flick and he winced. “Go on and play with the other kids, Mommy will be done in a bit.” She nudged him towards a group of two children who were staring and waiting for him a few meters away.

“Okay, bye mom!” He said before running off with them. Josephine stood back up straight and turned, seeing Aegis and Sapphire’s dumbfounded looks.

“Hm?” She asked curiously.

“How did you…” Aegis wasn’t sure how to phrase the question politely.

“Why do you have an NPC son, and why is he elite?” Sapphire asked before taking a loud crunching bite of a carrot. Her phrasing was rude but Aegis was somewhat greatful she’d asked for him.

“Oh, right, I suppose that’s the typical reaction. We saved him, me and my husband Erikson, the leader of the White Flames.” Josephine smiled awkwardly. “A group of desert gnolls had raided a village and taken the youngest hostage. Most were made orphans. My husband and I adopted Elric. We have been having trouble conceiving in the real world.” She shrugged.

“Oh, sorry.” Sapphire apologized crudely.

“It’s okay, a lot of people are curious about it.” She smiled politely. “We’re not the only ones. Once you show them enough love and care, I suppose they evolve to be more like us, and become Elite. We’re not sure what specifically caused him to become ‘Elite’, but we’re thankful for it.” She shrugged as she watched him running around with the other children, which Aegis now noticed were also tagged as Elite.

“There you go, Aegis. You just have to adopt Clara.” Sapphire nudged him on the shoulder, while Clara and Celestian stood a bit back, giving each other heartfelt farewells.

“It was a pleasure meeting you all. I must get to my duties though. I hope you have time to come see me again before you leave, Clara, so that we may spend more time together.” Celestian bowed to everyone.

“Later.” Sapphire waved.

“Nice meeting you.” Aegis said politely.

“Goodbye, Celestian.” Clara smiled and bowed, watching as he turned and headed out of the Monastery, making his way back down the mountain. Clara watched as long as she could before Sapphire cleared her throat to get her attention. “Yes, I am ready. Shall we meet the Great Prophet? Right this way.” She motioned Aegis to follow as she walked past them and headed into the building. Aegis, Josephine and Sapphire followed her in, passing by a few other players and NPCs, Aegis noticed another player walking side by side with a Priest NPC marked as elite. He wasn’t sure if there were always this many and he just hadn’t noticed before, or if Arallia had a lot more Elite NPC's than Kalmoore did.

“Is there’s a lot of NPCs here that have become Elite?” Aegis asked Josephine.

“I suppose more than most cities and islands. Arallia is one of the original launch starting locations, but unlike the other islands that were available at the games launch, Kriene only has one major city and it's tough to travel out to the unexplored areas in the desert. Many players just stay within the city and enjoy life as an Arallian, getting to know and befriending the NPCs here.” She explained as they stepped through the doors of the inner sanctuary, entering the central hallway of the Monastery’s main building. Aegis had trouble listening to her as he took in the beauty that was before him. Polished sandstone tile floors with elegantly engraved pillars holding up the tall ceiling, large paintings depicting scenes of serenity or noble figures he didn’t recognize lining the walls. Many open windows allowed beams of the bright sunlight to reflect off of every surface of the interior as their footsteps echoed off the walls around them. Aegis caught Sapphire as she too looked around in awe.

“I suppose that is why there are more Elite NPCs here. We do have the occasional bandit guilds rising up, though, as you saw. Due to lack of easy access dungeons to grind nearby, players try turning to crime to gain experience. But we’ve been working with the King and the Princess to keep it under control.” Josephine continued to explain.

“I gotta hand it to you Eirene priests. What you guys lack in firepower you make up for in art. This is way cooler than the Aphrodite temples.” Sapphire said as they moved forward through the hall.

“The prayer chamber is beyond these doors, where the Great Prophet awaits.” Priestess Clara stopped in front of a pair of large wooden double doors at the far end of the hall. As she did, Aegis got a quest completed message, and suddenly a burst of anxiety rose up inside of him.

“That’s the quest completed. One part left.” Aegis said as he took a deep breath.

“Nervous, huh?” Sapphire looked at him and saw his anxious expression.

“Are you anticipating the conversation to be a difficult part of your quest? Don’t worry, the Great Prophet is kind. He is also an Elite NPC.” Josephine assured Aegis, but as she said this Sapphire stepped in for Aegis.

“Hm. For the quest, its probably better if Aegis talks to the Great Prophet alone.” Sapphire said to her.

“Oh, okay, sure.” Josephine nodded politely, following Sapphire as she motioned her away.

“One thing, Aegis.” Sapphire turned as if she’d suddenly remembered something, and leaned in to his ear. “Don’t worry if you suck and die a few times. Intermediate class quests are hard.” She whispered with a wink before walking away with Josephine.

“Thanks for the pep talk, Sapphire.” Aegis sighed. Slowly, Aegis pushed open the doors to the Prayer Chamber while Clara stood outside the door, it was clear she didn’t plan on following him in as she moved to quickly shut the doors behind him.

The interior of the prayer chamber had no windows. It was circular, with a small ledge going around the outer wall of the room covered in candles of varying sizes, all glowing bright with white flames. The flickering candles illuminated a raised platform in the center of the room, a small staircase leading up to it, and in the center was a statue of Eirene. It was much better than the one Aegis had cut for his fountain back in Rene, extremely detailed with Eirene’s eyes shut, holding her hands out with her palms facing upwards, her head tilted slightly upwards as well. She wore the same wavy robes that Aegis had tried carving for her, but here they were represented much better. Its beauty and elegance was stunning, and he felt his Artistry skill helping him find a greater appreciation for it.

In addition, he noticed a twinkling light coming from above, and tilted his head upwards to see that the black ceiling of the room had small stars painted onto it, all glowing and reflecting the candlelight while the black paint around the stars seemed to absorb the light, making it appear as though he was looking up at the night sky despite being indoors.

Kneeling at the foot of the statue, garbed in thick white robes adorned with the yellow star of Eirene, stood an old man with long white hair. [Great Prophet of Eirene, Abrigalas(Elite) - ??]. It was one of the longest names he'd seen above an NPC’s head. Just as Aegis opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted.

“I’ve been expecting you, Aegis.” He said as he slowly got up to his feet, turning to give Aegis a warm and welcoming smile. “You have had quite a long journey, all the way from the distant lands of Kalmoore.”

“Y-yes.” Aegis replied, unsure of what to say.

“You must be wondering. Why me? Why these skills? In the state the world is in today, it probably does not make much sense, does it?” He asked.

“Well, yeah, actually.” Aegis nodded as he thought on it, remembering the skill requirement list - some of it did feel somewhat arbitrary.

“Hm. Truthfully, I cannot answer that either. I only know that it is my duty, in the name of Eirene, to seek out ones such as yourself. For it is not I who requested you here, but Eirene herself.” He motioned to the statue.

“I… don’t understand.” Aegis raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, and I believe that is the problem she wishes to remedy. She wants you to understand why someone like you was chosen. Why is it that someone like you is the one she has been waiting for? Once you understand that, you will be ready to choose if you would like to walk this path in her light.” He said as he stepped aside and motioned to the spot on the floor where he had been kneeling.

“If and when you are ready, kneel before her here, in the place closest to the stars in this world, and pray to the Star of Eirene, so that she may help you understand.” He said calmly.

Quest[3/3]: Pray to the stars and walk the path of Eirene to understand her true purpose and goals within the Shattered World.

Objective: 0/1 Survive the Shattering

Quest Giver: Abrigalas, Great Prophet of Eirene, Arallia

Reward: Intermediate Class: (Unknown)

Difficulty: Extreme(II)

Restrictions: Limited to classes: Priest, If the Pacifism skill is lost during this quest, the quest will fail automatically. This quest must be completed alone.

“What?!” Aegis said with wide eyes in disbelief, reading the quest details. There were several things that immediately jumped out at him, but he didn’t have much time to take it in.

“Is there something wrong?” Abrigalas asked.

“N-no, nothing wrong.” Aegis said nervously as he took a deep breath, looking at the statue in front of him. Extreme(II)? Something like that had never been seen before to Aegis’ knowledge, he saw no mention in anything he’d read about the game that the Extreme difficulty had a scale - as far as he knew, Extreme was the highest. Surviving the Shattering was the quest objective? Just what exactly was he about to experience? Aegis had no idea. He saw his viewership spiking up back to 5000 as he knelt down and closed his eyes, clasping his hands together. He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d need to do to pray properly, but the answer was, not much. The moment he closed his eyes, he felt his body become weightless.

Entering Unique Dungeon: Hrath’mir Fortress

Dungeon Option 1: Dying in this dungeon will reset the dungeon and return you to the entrance with no death penalty.

To exit the dungeon, abandon the quest. The quest cannot be re-accepted. Combat and weapon skill experience cannot be acquired while inside this dungeon.