Spiteful Healer

Chapter 76: Leadership

“So uh... Hello everybody.” Tullan spoke with a polite, normalized voice as he walked alongside Aegis out of the Storehouse. Aegis walked stiffly, like a robot, trying to pretend that he couldn’t see his viewership numbers sitting at 30 000. “If yer’ in the Kalmoore region, and yer’ interested in buyin’ some high quality crafts. Be sure to check out the Night Hunter shop, we got the best stuff there is in all of Kalmoore.” Tullan said awkwardly as he stood in front of Aegis. Aegis just stared blankly at him, frozen like a statue.

“Right then. Best be off to do more blacksmithin’. Ye’ go ‘n have a good day there, my good friend Aegis. Heh heh.” Tullan waved awkwardly before spinning around and walking away. Once Tullan was gone, Aegis was left to fend for himself, standing frozen in the streets of Kordas as a few people walking by recognized his name from the notification, whispering to each other about him as they passed.

“Yo, that’s him, that’s the guy that just got all the skills up!” One player whispered while pointing at Aegis obnoxiously. Aegis awkwardly waved with a nervous smile.

“I need Hae-won on Aegis’ stream, right now.” Shinji shouted into a call that linked up to Tommy and Hae-won’s Simboxes.

“I’m already switching over my set to cover casting Aegis.” Hae-won replied. In her Simbox she had closed out a broadcast covering a bard player that was in the midst of playing a song in a tavern and now had a black screen behind her. Moments later she swapped it over to Aegis’ feed to see him standing stupidly in the middle of the street. “What’s he doing?” Hae-won asked Shinji.

“I got like 10 different networks calling us for interviews right now, including the agent of the top crafting streamer in the entire game. They all want a piece of him, check this out.” Tommy yelled into the call as he pressed a few buttons within his simulation to send video feeds to Hae-won and Shinji’s office simulations.

“This is certainly exciting news. Most of you are not surprised that a player has finally achieved Intermediate in every crafting class.” A news host was sitting on a fluffy red chair talking to the camera, the set around him was craft themed, complete with anvils and other tools hanging on the walls around him. He had short brown hair and was dressed up with a blacksmithing apron on and leather work gloves. To his right, on the wall beside him, was a video feed of Aegis’ livestream.

“What is surprising is when you learn that this player hasn’t been playing the game since it launched. No, in fact, despite the game being released over half a year ago, this player has only been playing for only about a month. So that begs the question, just how on earth did a Priest, of all classes, manage to achieve such a high level in every craft in such a short amount of time? We’ll be trying to get an exclusive interview with Aegis as soon as possible, in the meantime, perhaps he’ll reveal it himself, let’s go live to his own personal broadcaster with the Fanta-see network, Hae-won.”

As he finished saying this his camera suddenly zoomed in on Aegis’ stream as it went fullscreen with Hae-won standing in front of it.

Both Hae-won in her red v-neck dress, and Aegis on the screen behind her, had blank dumb stares on their faces.

“Uh, Hae-won, that’s your cue, you’re up.” Tommy said to her through their Simbox call.

“The kid is not going to do interviews. We promised him when we made the contract that all he has to do is play.” Shinji interjected, before anything more was said.

“I don’t need interviews. Who do you think that third viewer has been? I’m good at my job.” She added under her breath, scolding Shinji before activating her broadcasting microphone.

“Welcome everyone, to Aegis’ livestream, I’m sure you’re all filled with questions about how he has achieved such an incredible feat.” Hae-won said with a smile, but froze again. She saw the viewership numbers climbing up to 35 000, well beyond any audience she had talked in front of before, and her nerves were starting to get to her. She took a deep breath to get a grip and tried to remain focused.

“The simple answer is, he is a player who loves the game. He loves it so much that he has immersed himself completely into the game world, and that has allowed him to embrace everything it has to offer. For that very same reason, we do our best to not disturb his gameplay and instead watch it from afar.” Hae-won explained.

“No need to worry though, as I am Aegis’ biggest fan, and I can answer any questions in the chat you have on his behalf as we watch him proceed with his adventures undisturbed. So, do feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them.” Hae-won smiled politely with her cutest expression she could muster, before opening the stream chat and seeing it zoom past her at a speed well beyond anything the human eye could ever possibly read. “Ahehe…” Hae-won nervously laughed when she saw it.

“Shinji, keep doing your thing, open up slots in editing for advertising, we’re getting hundreds of offers already.” Tommy said as a side conversation, closing Hae-won out of their call.

“No, not yet.” Shinji replied as his fingers moved rapidly to keep the feed of Aegis’ stream up to date, and angle the camera as best as possible - though truthfully there wasn’t much to do at the moment because Aegis was still frozen like a statue.

“What do you mean not yet, this is what you were waiting for, wasn’t it?” Tommy shouted back angrily.

“Nah, this isn’t it. Adverts now will push people away, we need them to fall in love with Aegis and his adventure first. The adventure is just beginning. This isn’t the storm, it’s still coming.”

“You’ve got something more interesting planned than a world notification? That’s the biggest viewership bump you can fucking hope for!” Tommy shouted at Shinji angrily over the Simbox call.

“Just trust me, alright?” Shinji replied calmly and Tommy let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll trust you.” Tommy replied in frustrated compliance. “If he keeps standing there, staring at nothing like a dumbass though, I’m gonna put ads on him regardless. It’d be a viewer experience improvement.” Tommy said before ending the call.

“Ahem.” Aegis cleared his throat, his mind racing wildly for a few seconds until panic began to set in and he fiddled through his interface, double checking information on what the viewers could see. He was relieved to see that his real name, any information about his character customization, and his skills were all kept hidden, and he had options in his menu that he could disable to allow the viewers to see his skills.

For now, he wanted to keep Pacifism hidden, at least until he’d finished the quest to obtain the class. He closed out his menus and let out a sigh of relief, thinking about what to do next. He knew he had an in-game week of time left to kill before the Airship trip began, and he had to figure out something to do that was mildly entertaining for that time.

The only skill left to raise up to intermediate was Leadership, so he decided he’d start with that, taking a deep breath. He walked stiffly to the nearest Kordas guard to ask for directions, and was directed to the Military Command Barracks, just outside the Kordas Keep. The viewership went up to 40 000 but seemed to stabilize around that number by the time Aegis arrived at the Military Command Barracks.

The building was built just outside the 6 meter wall that went around the magnificent Kordas keep. He could only see the tallest towers of the keep peeking up over the tops of the wall, but even from this distance he could spot the beautiful architectural work that must’ve been involved in its construction. The building in front of him wasn’t anything to ignore either - a wide marble staircase that narrowed as it climbed upwards to the base of the structure with two large marble statues flanking it on either side, depicting large armored humanoid figures Aegis didn’t recognize, with purple banners of the Night Hunters draped around the base and a purple and yellow carpet leading up the center of the stairs.

When he’d arrived he saw an NPC in the process of sweeping the steps and a player muttering to himself, stomping down the stairs angrily and leaving the building without even noticing Aegis standing there. Aegis climbed the staircase and entered the large open building through a tall archway and stepped inside to see a long hall with the carpet continuing through it straight ahead. On either side of the carpet stood more statues depicting famous figures - Aegis didn’t recognize them by appearance but he spotted a plaque naming one as Hectrin, the architect that had supposedly built Kordas.

There were numerous archways leading to open siderooms, one such room looked to have a round table with a three dimensional map of Kalmoore on it, markings of the locations that’d been explored and where various settlements were. Aegis didn’t get close enough to inspect it in detail and instead continued walking forward to a large pair of closed wooden doors straight ahead of him, far down the hall.

He knew it was the right place, because in front of the door stood a line of over 30 players all waiting to enter the room, and standing in front of the door was an NPC in simple leather armor, his arms crossed as he stared down at his tapping feet. [Captain Pelt(Elite) - ??].

Aegis approached slowly as all of the players in the line turned to look at him, some whispering loudly to each other while pointing at his viewership count, but Aegis did his best to pretend he didn’t hear them.

“Excuse me… is this the line for improving my Leadership?” Aegis asked as politely as he could, but his voice cracked due to his dry throat.

“Pardon?” Captain Pelt asked, not hearing him clearly.

“Yeah, it’s the line bucko. Get to the back.” A player near the front answered.

“Yes, if you’re here to be taught to be a true leader, you’ll need to wait your turn. As you can see, there are many people waiting to prove themselves.” Pelt motioned to the line.

“R-right, thanks.” Aegis bowed politely and made his way to the back of the line as everyone in it followed him with their eyes. Once he reached the back he stood silently and most people lost interest. Not exactly the most exciting thing to do once you’ve gotten this many viewers, Aegis thought to himself, but his viewership held steady. Aegis remembered that a good portion of viewers would watch streams from outside a Simbox, so every 4 seconds he had to wait was only 1 for them, and as his mind trailed off on this, the doors opened.

“This test is fucking bullshit!” A large orc player stomped out, yelling at Pelt. “I’ve seen other islands run this test, it’s no-where near this hard. Can’t we get a new squad?” The orc continued as Pelt turned to shrug.

“Sorry, no can do, they’re the only volunteers we’ve got. If you can’t pass the test, maybe you’re just not cut out to be a leader.” Pelt replied calmly without turning to face him.

“Tch, whatever. Screw leadership, it’s a bullshit skill anyway.” The orc waved him off, stomping down the hall. “Yall are wasting your time.” The orc shouted towards the line as he continued past them out of the building.

“Right. Ready to try again, Lindalya?” Pelt smiled as he turned to the next player in line and she nodded back.

“Yes! This time for sure.” She replied enthusiastically as she stepped through the doorway. Aegis caught a glimpse of the interior - it resembled the room that he’d done his Shield Mastery quest in. Once she had stepped inside, the doors closed behind her and it went silent again for about 60 seconds, until she came back out.

“Tchyaaa! So frustrating!” She squeaked loudly.

“I’m sorry, maybe next time.” Pelt said politely as the player walked past him, ignoring his condolences as she went straight to the back of the line behind Aegis. As the next player entered the room and the door closed, she tapped Aegis on the shoulder causing him to turn and see her Elven face, short brown hair with large pointed ears sticking out. [Lindalya - Level 47] stood above her character.

“You’re the guy who just got that world achievement, right?” She asked him curiously, and as she did Aegis felt as though everyone in the line was suddenly listening to them.

“Y-yeah. To be honest I didn’t know there was a notification for something like that.” Aegis replied nervously.

“No kidding. Who in their right mind would do every intermediate crafting quest? I mean, no offense.” She said.

“None taken.” Aegis shrugged awkwardly.

“Anyway, I haven’t seen you here so I’m guessing this’ll be your first try?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Aegis nodded.

“The rest of us are regulars. Pretty much no one passes the test here. They say you’re better off going to another island than trying to beat this test on Kalmoore. Only idiots like us keep trying.” Lindayla said as she motioned to the people in the line and a few of them chuckled. “You want to hear some tips for what we’ve figured out so far?” Lindayla asked.

“Ah, no thanks.” Aegis stopped her.

“Alright, but it’s your loss.” She shrugged back.

“So, how’d you do it?” Someone else in the line asked, getting confidence to speak to Aegis now as all eyes were on him.

“Do what? The notification?” Aegis asked.

“Yeah, how’d you get it? I mean the grinding alone is hard enough but, aren’t all those intermediate crafting quests super hard?” He replied.

“Yeah my dad’s botanist and he said the herbalism skill quest really pushed him to his limit.” Another player chimed in as they all looked at Aegis.

“You must’ve found some cheat around it right? To keep your skills active during the quests?” another player joined in, and following that they all listened excitedly, hoping to hear of some secret technique that they could use.

“It’s nothing exciting like that, I just studied really hard the past few weeks.” Aegis replied.

“You studied? All of those topics?” Lindayla asked.

“I like studying.” Aegis shrugged.

“But why would you level all those skills?” She raised a brow at him and several other players seemed to have the same question.

“And leadership too.” Someone pointed out and they all nodded.

“Ah, well.” Aegis looked around at their expectant faces. He wasn’t ready to talk about Pacifism, it would be too easy to get in his way and take advantage of him if they knew he couldn’t fight back, especially without Lina around. “I want to develop my land.” Aegis replied.

“Ah.” Nearly all of them gave him sighs or nods of understanding. “So you’re a land owner, no wonder. How much money did you spend on this game? How many workers did you use you farm all of your experience for you?” Lindayla asked.

“Uh…” Aegis saw the conclusions they were coming to - he was a ‘whale’ who bought a bunch of laborers and used them to farm experience through work projects. As he paused and thought about it, it was a pretty good cover. But he couldn’t swallow it, it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“None.” Aegis replied calmly, and a few players chuckled.

“Heh, yeah, sure buddy.” A few mumbled, and it was clear the consensus was that he was lying, but Aegis didn’t mind as long as he personally knew he wasn’t lying. After that, they lost interest in asking him anymore questions but Aegis’ viewership was staying steady - he’d imagined Hae-won was broadcasting for him now, maybe confirming he was telling the truth, but he couldn’t imagine how she’d manage such a large audience.

One by one Aegis waited for the players to take the test. They would enter the room for a bit, and then exit. Aegis began to time it and noticed that it was on average always around 60 seconds. Whatever was happening in that room was causing every player in this line to fail in under a minute, and by all appearances they'd been stuck here failing for quite some time. It’d be embarrassing if the first thing he showed to his audience was him failing an intermediate quest, which pumped up his determination.

Eventually it was his turn next and he stood in front of Pelt, waiting the last 60 seconds for the player who’d been in front of him to fail, and at this time his viewership had risen by several hundred. The number was starting to annoy him as it kept moving up and down and he opted to go into his stream settings to hide it so as to not be distracted. Eventually the door opened up and the player in front of him walked out dejectedly.

“Good luck, new guy.” The player said as he walked past Pelt to the back of the line.

“Ah, a new face, finally.” Pelt said with annoyance as he eyed the line of other players behind Aegis. “So, you’re here to learn to become a great leader. One who leads those who follow them to greatness. Greatness comes in many forms - a General leading an army against a horde of Abysslings, or a Great Architect directing the construction of a Grand Palace. They both have the same things in common, they require strong leadership, and to be a strong leader you must possess the right traits. Many people think themselves leaders, but they are simply people who have found themselves in leadership roles, and lack the traits to do their duty effectively.” Pelt said as he paced around in front of Aegis. As he spoke, he got the impression that this was a speech that all the players behind him had heard before.

“Prove to me you have the traits of a great leader, and I will teach you the skills you need to achieve greatness.” Pelt spoke proudly as he motioned Aegis to enter through the doors. As he did, Aegis got a quest pop up in front of his vision.

Quest: Captain Pelt has requested that you prove yourself to him by demonstrating you have what it takes to become an intermediate Leader.

Objective: 0/1 Captain Pelt’s test passed.

Quest Giver: Captain Pelt

Reward: Leadership(Intermediate)

Difficulty: Extreme

Restrictions: Leadership(Beginner): 30

Aegis saw it, and it stood out like a sore thumb. It was the first intermediate quest he’d encountered that listed its difficulty as extreme. The only other time he’d seen this difficulty was when he took the quest from Luryala back in Orm. He still wasn’t sure what to expect but he took a deep breath and tried to clear his head as he walked through the doors.

“Would you prefer to take the test in private?” Captain Pelt asked.

“Eh…” Aegis thought about the livestream over his head and shrugged. “I don’t care.” Aegis replied.

“Very well. Enter the arena and defeat whatever creature comes your way with the help of my squad of soldiers.” Pelt motioned Aegis forward to the ledge of the arena inside the room. “Use your leadership and your own abilities to their fullest. The strength of the enemy and my squad will be tuned to match yours, to ensure a fair test.” Pelt explained as he watched Aegis reach the ledge overlooking the arena. Now seeing it up close, the arena looked identical to the Shield Mastery arena.

“Don’t worry about death, there is magic within the arena to prevent anyone from dying, but… if any member of your team drops to 1 health, you’ll fail the test.” Pelt finished his explanation with a devious smile, and Aegis could come up with some theories on why the other players were failing so quickly.

With the door still open, Aegis took one last glance backwards to see that all the players in the line had maneuvered themselves so that they could see through the door inside the arena - none were willing to get closer and give up their spots in the line though.

“The test will begin once you enter the arena. Good luck.” Pelt finished saying, turned around to look away from Aegis and crossed his arms patiently.

Looking down into the Arena, Aegis saw there was a group of four NPCs sitting around in a circle. They had brushed the sand off of a small section of the tiled arena floor and were playing cards, each of them holding a hand and tossing cards into the middle, taking turns. They didn’t once look up to acknowledge Aegis’ presence, but this gave him time to scope them out.

[Caleb(Elite) - Level 30], [Delphine(Elite) - Level 30], [Treg(Elite) - Level 30], [Walsh(Elite) - Level 30]. Aegis recalled what Lina had told him about Elite NPCs, that they behaved like real people would, as if they were fully activated artificial intelligence, and this immediately explained to him why they were just sitting around playing cards. He took note that they were all wearing identical equipment, the Kordas guard uniform, with spears and shields laying on the ground around them outside their circle.

With nothing left to do, Aegis hopped down into the arena, and as his feet hit the ground he saw the portcullis on the opposite end begin to rise up, while at the same time his party interface suddenly changed to show that he had joined a raiding party with all four of these NPCs.

“Oh look, a new one.” Caleb said as he glanced to look at Aegis briefly before going back to his card game.

“A priest of Eirene? Psh.” Delphine looked as well, uninterested.

“You guys have done this before, I’m guessing?” Aegis asked them.

“Real genius, this one.” Treg replied sarcastically.

“Well… whatever comes through the gate, I’ll make sure to draw its attention. Once it is focusing on me, I’ll need the rest of you to attack it from a safe distance until I know what its capable of.” Aegis said.

“Right, sure thing boss.” Walsh replied.

“You go get it’s attention, then we’ll jump in and hit it with our pointy sticks.” Delphine replied dismissively. None of them were actually reacting with anything but sarcastic remarks, they all continued to focus on their card game. Aegis watched on the far end of the arena as a large bear-like creature stomped its way out from under the hall on the opposite side.

“That’s the thing we need to defeat?” He asked them, and two replied with shrugs while the other two didn’t acknowledge his question at all, too focused on their cards.

“Ah, I got you, you’re done.” Walsh shouted as he slapped a card down.

“Tch, man. You’ve gotta be cheating.” Caleb replied annoyed as he threw his hand of cards down at the ground.

“Nah you just suck.” Delphine said and the others chuckled, while the creature’s claws stomped a few steps further into the arena. Unlike a typical bear, it had no fur and instead had strange stripe-shaped scales over its back and head. It opened its mouth and let out a horrific roar, saliva flying from its dangerously sharp teeth as it did. [Boss] sat above its head in red letters.

“Oh no, it’s coming.” Delphine replied sarcastically. "Loser deals." She chucked her remaining cards at Caleb and he started shuffling the deck after collecting it, then proceeded to deal new hands to everyone.