Spiteful Healer

Two in-game months later…

Ryan walked through a large dimly lit room with several monitors on the far wall displaying a mix of livestream broadcasts, graphics, and other lists of information including several counters. He had bags under his eyes and lazily glanced up at them, processing the information as he calmly moved through the room with a cup of coffee in his hand, taking a sip from it.

The room also contained rows upon rows of state-of-the-art Simboxes, most of which had green lights glowing from the top to indicate they were currently in use. He wasn’t the only person moving about the room outside of their Simbox, as another young lady in casual clothes similar to Ryan saw him walking and hastily moved to catch him just as he was about to enter his Simbox once more.

“Ryan? You’re still working? You were here when I got here.” She asked curiously. Ryan turned and smiled weakly at her, glancing from her name badge pinned to her shirt before looking up at her familiar face. Linda, one of the few coworkers who’d talked to him since he’d started working at Averon.

“Yup. Overtime, I guess.”

“You’ve been working almost nonstop, you look absolutely exhausted.”

“Heh, well…” Ryan shrugged awkwardly, unsure of how to respond while simultaneously being too tired to come up with anything. He instead took another sip of his coffee, or at least attempted to until discovering the cup was empty. He then calmly dropped it into a nearby recycling bin beside his Simbox.

“Still that special assignment from Nicholas?”

“Yep.” Ryan nodded.

“Nope.”

“Jeez.” Linda sighed. “I wish I could get a special assignment that paid that much overtime.”

“Trust me.” Ryan took a deep breath as he began settling into his Simbox. “You really don’t.” He finished with, and she caught a final glimpse as his expression changed completely to a serious glare as the Simbox shut, and he logged into the Shattered World simulation as the character Ryner, standing at the stern of his Airship.

It was exactly where he’d left it, floating above the abyss some distance away from Puagas.

“Good, you’re back.” Mikael smiled at him from the lower deck, where his guildmates all stood around him. Their numbers had grown, and now included nearly all of the crusader, cleric and paladin players who worshiped Zeus that had initially ventured to Puagas with them aboard the ship. Some had left on the other ships that arrived monthly to transport gladiator participants, but most remained. The Iconography of Zeus’ thunderbolt was present on nearly all of their equipment, and many of the NPC crew members that Ryner had initially brought with him had too been converted to worship Zeus, and become elite due to the constant interactions by the Schadenfreude guild members aboard his vessel.

“We’ve located a good grind spot near the edge of the Island, should give us a chance to resupply and gain some more levels. For the time being, Seraxus is focused on finding his advanced battlemaster quest.” Mikael explained, and as he said this, Ryner eyed the levels of 114 floating above Mikael. He was the highest of the bunch, but most others were not trailing far behind.

“Renault will be meeting us there to grind with us.” Mightymira said with an excited tone, directing her words towards Mikael’s livestream as she spoke in a direction above his head.

“I thought he was training the soldiers in Bashriok?” Ryner asked. His words were met by a depressing expression, Mikael and others suddenly avoiding his gaze. “Seriously? I was only logged out for four hours…” Ryner shook his head in disbelief.

“The sword’s getting stronger, as are the creatures he can control.” Jeremax shrugged.

“That poor kid really didn’t stand a chance.” Mikael shook his head. An ominous silence was broken by the sound of Ryner using his skills to begin steering the Airship in the direction Mikael had pointed. They soared with the wingsails open through the skies, flying wide around the outskirts of Puagas until they arrived at the designated location. Before any action could be taken by the players to begin their transit to the edge of the land, Renault could be seen soaring towards them through the sky using his fly spell, and landed softly on the deck.

“Hey, are you guys ready? This grind spot should be really good for us, I got some information from the last of the local NPCs still hiding in the area.” Renault said with a forced smile on his gnomish avatar, but the frustration behind his eyes were clearly visible.

“Sorry, we couldn’t help.” Mikael replied first.

“I was offline…” Ryner apologized to Renault.

“It’s fine. It’s my fault, I didn’t hide the NPCs better. Reapers scouted us during a training mission.”

“Not everything is your fault, you know?” Mightymira sighed at him.

“Well… it doesn’t matter now.” Renault continued with his forced positivity. It was obvious that he was ignoring Mira’s words to everyone around them.

“What’re you going to do now, then?”

“I’ll find another group. There are plenty of forces of good still hiding on the island. They’ll stand up to him, and fight back him and his sword. I just need to be more careful, train them to be stronger.” Renault replied calmly.

“It’s pointless, isn’t it?” Jeremax shook his head at him, causing Renault to glare in his direction. “I mean, you’ve been trying nonstop, since before we got here. NPCs trained on Puagas aren’t going to be able to stop him.”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Renault shouted in frustration, showing his true feelings finally. “A sage can’t do anything. He’s even burned all the Wizard towers and killed all the wizard class trainers on the island. And you guys, none of you can beat him. You’ve all tried, even in the gladiator tournaments!” He shouted, then pointed at the livestreaming icon above Mikael’s name. “None of the people strong enough to stop him are going to help. No one cares about everyone who is suffering because of him! It’s up to me to stop him! I CAUSED IT!” Renault shouted.

“It’s not just up to you.” Mikael shouted back in kind. “We’re here, and are holding him back. We’re forced to do so, to progress our quests, and I’m not about to back down from this fight. None of us are. But you’re smart enough to know that what you are doing is completely pointless. Jeremax is right.”

“It’s just a game, in the end.” Mightymira added weakly.

“It’s not anymore, not between me and him. Not after what he did.” Renault replied while clenching his fists. “I don’t care what you say, you won’t talk me out of trying to stop him.”

“If you really want to stop him, then you need to switch classes.” Ryner spoke up, drawing all eyes unto himself. The stares were unwelcome, and he quickly cleared his throat awkwardly. “I mean, a sage is a support class. The magic is unique and unrivaled in that regard… but…” Ryner’s voice weakened as his sentence went on.

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“I can’t rely on other people to beat someone like him.” Renault finished Ryner’s thoughts for him, not completely accurately. “But starting from level 1, there’s no chance I’ll be able to catch up and compete with them on Puagas. There’s barely any low level quest givers left for light-aligned players.”

“There’s other islands.” Jeremax shrugged.

“I can’t just leave. What’ll happen to Puagas without me?”

“We’ll still be here.” Mikael smiled, as if everyone in Schadenfreude came into an agreement without speaking, several other members gave words of encouragement to Renault.

“You’re really going to stay here while I reroll to a class, to try and beat him? Even you?” Renault looked to Ryner. “Why?”

“It’s my job.” Ryner replied without thinking, but was lucky enough that no one thought more about what these words meant.

“But, you guys…”

“Listen.” Mikael interrupted him. “I get it, we’ve failed so far. We suck. Your old pal is incredibly good at fighting, even without that sword. But, he has to win everytime.” A large grin grew across his face. “We only gotta win once. And we don’t mind a little suffering, our guild name ain’t just for show.” A few members chuckled with Mikael’s statement. Renault didn’t immediately reply, but instead glanced between the many players aboard the ship staring at him with smiles, including multiple elite NPCs who he’d come to know.

“You guys are sure you’ll be okay without me?”

“Yeah. You’ve done enough. Go play the game.” Mikael nodded along with several others.

“Alright…” Renault replied weakly. The hesitation on his face was visible, but after a brief moment of contemplation, a resolute expression could be seen on his face in the last moment that his gnomish character existed within the gameworld.

“Whew, I’m glad. I felt so bad for him.” Mightymira sighed with relief as he disappeared. Several others shared her sentiment.

“Alright then, boys.” Mikael began addressing his guild. “By the time Renault is strong enough to defeat Seraxus, we’ll have already taken the glory for ourselves. A storm is brewing. The raging thunder of Zeus will crash over Puagas and strike down all who worship the abyss.” Mikael shouted excitedly, lifting his iron greatsword into the air. “Let us begin the age of lightning!” He added, and following these words, loud cheers erupted from the deck of the ship - Ryner couldn’t help but cheering along.

Present day…

“What do you guys want? I was already nice enough to forgive your Captain and allow you guys to land at the Tarolas Skyport.” [Daehyun - Level 166] Spoke down from a large stone throne atop a staircase, in a wide hall lined with decorative pillars holding up the tall ceiling. The throne room had a long yellow and blue carpet stretching from the double doors leading inside, up to the stairs that ascended to the throne. Beautiful tapestries hung from the walls with symbols depicting both Zeus, and the leading guild’s emblem of a ring of daggers with their blades pointing inward. This same symbol was present on Daehyun’s tabard that he wore above his high level, enchanted leather armor. He himself was a medium built half elf with normal sized, pointed ears. He had a stylized black haircut with pointed bangs hanging over the left side of his face which he made a point to lightly brush to the side as he’d finished his sentence.

“Me and my leading guild, Daggerstorm, have been more than accommodating to you guys despite how you’ve disrespected our authority.” He added coldly.

He had two, non elite, Royal guards of level 100 flanking him, wearing heavy plate armor. His head was tilted downward to look at the audience he was brought to converse with. Mikael, Mightymira, Jeremax and Ryner all stood before him. Their levels were all 150, save for Ryner still at level 30, and they had angry glares meeting Daehyun’s gaze.

“You must prevent Seraxus from landing in Tarolas. Whichever member of your streaming network is ferrying him around, I do not care” Mikael motioned half-heartedly to Daehyun’s live streaming icon above his head, displaying viewership numbers of 30,000. “. You must refuse to let them enter Tarolas skies, and instruct all of the forces of Olympiod to shoot them down the moment they reach here.” Mikael instructed him.

“Hah. Quite the order you’re giving me. Why should I listen to you, though?” Daehyun scoffed while eying Mikael’s lower viewership numbers of 10,000. “You of all people should want him to come - the only time you get decent views is when you’re fighting him.”

“He’s coming here to kill the Great Prophet of Zeus. He has a quest to do it, and we’ve stopped him for months through great effort. If you let him in, that’s exactly what he’s going to do.” Mikael explained.

“You really think a group of 5 players are going to be able to march through our capital and kill a Great Prophet in the middle of Stormtop?” Daehyun shook his head dismissively at them. “I’ve been told he’ll be on his best behavior, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“He’s not going to play nice, no matter what he says. That kid is a psychopath.” Mightymira jumped in with urgency in her voice. “Your only chance is to shoot him out of the sky before he gets here.”

“And it’s not just five, the sword lets him order around abysslings.” Jeremax added.

“Guys. Relax.” Daehyun smiled condescendingly. “He’d be stupid to try something. Makaroth and Feng are on their way here as well, or did you forget? They’ll be arriving before he does. If he tries anything, they’ll stop him. There’s nothing to worry about.” Daehyun replied dismissively.

“If they wanted to stop him, they would’ve done it months ago.” Ryner joined in.

“Look. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes to make sure this event is one of the biggest gladiator tournaments to ever take place in this game. We’re blessed to have it hosted on our island - the benefits to the people of our kingdom will be immense.”

“You’re not being blessed, you’re being cursed!” Mikael shouted at him angrily. “I’ve been fighting against that kid nonstop, I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt that you are making a huge mistake. If you let him into Tarolas, this island will fall to chaos just like Puagas did.”

“Let me worry about that. You focus on winning your first round match. If you’re good enough, you’ll be able to stop his sword of hatred in the arena, won’t you?”

“Bu-”

“Leave now, I’ve got preparations to make. Makaroth’s ship is arriving soon.” Daehyun waved them off and headed towards the exit of the throne room through a door behind the throne.

“Idiot!” Mikael shouted at him, but was ignored.

“Maybe he’s right?” Jeremax suggested weakly as the group of four turned and began marching out of the throne room through the main entrance. “Maybe he’ll play nice with all of his network buddies around?”

“Fat chance.” Mightymira shook her head at this.

“They even went so far as to stop Renault’s group from competing.” Ryner sighed.

“That kid made the mistake of teaming up with Makaroth’s son. They were never gonna compete seriously, anyway. It’s all just a show to these guys.” Mikael sighed. “We’re all that’s left. Plan the city's defenses, and alert the Great Prophet.” Mikael quickly ordered his companions.

Makaroth was standing on the deck of a large Airship, soaring through the cloudy skies of Tarolas. The tallest mountain came into view, with the walls of Stormtop visible at its peak. Makaroth was not watching it, though, but rather glancing at the final clip of Aegis’ livestream before he shut it off.

“You can stop looking into it. All sources point to them being out of the competition. We can focus on putting on a good show, now.” Lilya smiled while placing her hand softly on Makaroth’s shoulder. Without being able to see his interface personally, she still knew what Makaroth was looking at. “Look, the beautiful city of Stormtop.” Lilya motioned her free hand out towards the view in front of them. “I hear recently they’ve finally discovered the secret to finding Mithral.”

“Really?” Calikgos asked curiously, moving to stand beside the pair.

“Mhm.” Lilya smiled.

“If that’s the case, we ought to find out if the rumors are true, and acquire some for your team, Synopse.” Makaroth spoke in his normal, boisterous voice as he addressed his livestream viewers. “We want to guarantee your victory over that Sword of Hatred, don’t we?”

“Yeah, it’d help. I mean, I think my artifact staff oughta be enough, but mithral wouldn’t hurt.” Synopse forced a smile.

“How’d they suddenly discover it?” Calikgos asked curiously.

“Apparently, some recently banished player from Kalmoore had loose lips.” Lilya smiled deviously.

“Lucky for us, huh?” Makaroth grinned back at her. “The crafting capital of the Shattered World, filled with thousands of skilled dwarven craftsmen, will undoubtedly be able to make mithral weapons far greater than any the world has seen thus far.” Makaroth declared. “Look!” He added with excitement, motioning to the Skyport as it came more clearly into view. “Yumily’s airship has already arrived, and she’s promised to put on a grand opening performance for the tournament. Only 30 hours away, now.”

“Ooh, maybe she’ll sing a personalized song for the victor?” Lilya added excitedly, gently patting Synopse on the back.

“Heh. Yeah, maybe.” He replied.

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