Spiteful Healer

Chapter 95: Light of the Stars

[Rene] has improved to Rank 3.

Aegis got this message as he’d taken a break from working on the Monastery of the Stars up on the mountain overlooking Rene. Working around him were 10 Arallian architects, as well as Priestess Clara and Josephine, all in a work project Aegis had assigned. Over the last day he’d discovered that his Leadership at intermediate allowed him to open 10 work projects now, and hire 50 workers per task, so he’d done exactly that and everyone was using his skills to construct the buildings in Rene down below.

Looking down the mountain he could see the many houses and other structures being erected in the distance. All of the Arallians were extremely grateful to have a place to stay and were working without rest, and all of the players were getting loads of experience from participating. Included in the helping players were now several of the old White Flames members, other Arallian Refugees, and quite a few volunteer Kalmoore players who’d been getting quests from the NPCs to help out.

Word has also gotten around to many of the Orm and Kordas crafting players about what Aegis was doing, and they were gladly jumping into the work projects to get free experience in various crafting skills without having to worry about getting the materials themselves. All in all, everyone was benefiting from it in their own way and it kept Aegis from having to worry about paying people, whilst making Rene’s construction go rather quickly.

The Tavern had been the first building to be finished, after which Ruffily began focusing on building a town hall with a council meeting room, to make Princess Savika and the others jobs easier in managing and keeping track of everyone within the city. The only real concern Aegis currently had was whether or not Clara was really going to be able to become the next Prophet of Eirene.

Level Up!: Architecture has reached Level 41!

Level Up!: Stone Cutting has reached Level 43!

Level Up!: Woodworking has reached Level 40!

Aegis almost felt like he was cheating, his experience in the majority of his crafting skills had been skyrocketing. Despite the greater experience requirements, due to all of the people working in his projects, his leadership skill had reached 45 and he was now getting close to 20% of the experience that anyone working on his projects gained, and in turn they were utilizing close to 40% of his skills bonuses. That, coupled with his Pacifism bonus and being partied with Lina again, meant that the levels just kept rolling in. He didn’t want to slack off though, he wanted to lead by example. And most importantly, he wanted to make sure the monastery turned out as high quality as it could, so he was hands-on from sun up until sun down to get it completed.

With a team of separate workers using carts and lagnoks to mark, flatten, and clear a road up the mountain to the Monastery, it got easier and easier to transport stones from the ruined keep to the monastery. Unfortunately, though, the Keep’s stone’s were getting used up rather quickly and Aegis had to warn everyone not to start going too deep into the keep’s basement lest they unblock a tunnel leading down below. Aegis still had to worry about the raid boss underneath his land and didn’t want to accidentally piss it off before they were ready.

Two days after construction had begun, Farlion informed him that he’d made a force of 50 strong guards and had sorted out patrol schedules and tasks for them, but Aegis instead decided to order Josephine to escort them to the Caverns of Jia’nar, once the base of the Monastery had been built. Without revealing the location or purpose of the cavern on his livestream, Josephine was able to train the guards by killing golems with them, making sure she was there to heal them and protect them so that there weren’t any casualties.

The result was that the guards, Farlion included, began gaining experience, and Josephine was collecting the golem torsos and delivering them down back to Rene every hour to be stored for Aegis to mine and refine and add to his inventory once a day. He was excited at the idea of crafting new weapons and armors using what he’d learned for his intermediate quest, once he’d finished up with the monastery.

With a Rank 3 land, it meant he had met the requirements of 25 structures, 100 population, and 250 000 rank points, and it’d enabled him to see the requirements to upgrade his land to Rank 4, a town. He’d need 100 structures, a population of 1000, and 1 000 000 rank points. None of those requirements were things he’d meet for now, but thanks to being Rank 3 he was able to select an area to expand his land to. Through the interface he carefully plotted an extension of his land up a narrow path towards the monastery, and then claimed the land around the monastery itself. It made for an odd shape of claimed land, but he’d hoped to fill out the space in between a bit more once the land went up in ranks. For now he had plenty of space to accommodate everyone and wasn’t too concerned about it.

He’d also been able to assign roles to the various members, including setting Farlion and Celestian as Guard Captains (No royal guard options yet), Savika as Mayor (No royalty options yet), Yuki as leader of the Tailoring Hall and owner of her own shop near the town square that Ruffily had help her build, Erikson, Elric and Josephine owners of the tavern near the town square, Amlie as lead Farmer, and of course Chax and Ruffily already had their leadership roles. All in all, Aegis was pretty proud of himself on how organized everything had turned out.

It was a week of work later that the Monastery of the Stars began to near its completion. It was the only structure left at this point permitted to use stone from the keep ruins, and it was using a lot. Aegis worked with Amlie to perfect the garden out front of the monastery, taking extra care to craft a beautiful and elegant fountain with a paved path through the garden around it, leading up to the front entrance of the building. He did his best to imitate the style of the garden in Arallia and the Shrine in Kordas, but added his own flair to it and made it larger, because he could.

Amlie got creative with the flowers she’d planted in the garden, making use of all the beautiful and odd plants that she and Aegis had gathered from the Wildwood tree, all of which Amlie was now fond of and good at planting and raising. The end result was a beautifully serene guarden, the walls around it blocking the plants from the winds to allow them to grow in peace. It made the garden a very peaceful place to work, if not for the loud hammering sounds of the construction going on in the rest of the monastery.

Next, Aegis focused on the entry hall, and the interior. He followed Josephine and Clara’s instructions to make sure all the necessary rooms were built, and once the basics were done, he got to work on the prayer room. He knew this was the most important room, but luckily he’d seen two of them already - one in Hrath’mir, and one in Arallia. Both had looked similar, so he already had a clear blueprint of what they were meant to look like. The black ceiling and the stars were easy to accomplish thanks to Amlie’s plants and Aegis’ alchemy for dyes, but the statue in the middle was what gave Aegis anxiety.

He brought up stones large enough that would be suitable to carve into the statue, but he had three false starts where he’d scrapped them due to being unhappy with how they were turning out, until on the fourth try, he got into a stride. It took him an entire day of just working on the statue, but the end result was worth it. The Statue of Eirene in the prayer room looked incredibly beautiful and lifelike, impressing both Josephine and Clara in how closely it resembled the statue in Arallia, and Aegis was relieved to get their approval.

Then it was time for the tower. The first major change in construction he made was here - he built the stairs inside the tower rather than outside, with memories still fresh in his mind of the stressful climb he’d had to make back in Arallia with the reapers swooping down on him. Sure, the stairs being outside was interesting, but Aegis was more interested in practicality. In total, it took 9 days of work since Aegis had returned to Rene before he could step back from the Monastery and look at it in all its glory.

He invited everyone from the council up to look at it with him that afternoon as he excitedly prepared to check it in his management interface, nervous to see what stats the structure might have.

“It’s beautiful.” Princess Savika smiled upon it. “It makes me feel like a part of our home has come with us.” She added.

“Yes, I agree.” Celestian nodded.

“Me too.” Yuki smiled. As they marveled at the structure, Aegis took the time to pull Lina aside again.

“Anything?”

“Nope. Some suspicious players were walking around and scoping the place out, but they didn’t do anything. Could’ve been scouts though.” Lina replied, and Aegis gave her a nod.

“What about Rakkan, Pyri, and Darkshot? Still not back?” Aegis asked curiously.

“Nope.” Lina shrugged.

“Isn’t that a bit weird? They started before us.” Aegis asked her curiously. “My mom is usually really good at games.” Aegis mumbled.

“If they really had changes of heart in their classes, they might have needed to level up new skills to level 30.” Lina shrugged.

“Hm. Okay.” Aegis nodded. “I just hope this Prophet plan works, or I’ll be stuck at level 30 forever just like those Airship Pilots.” Aegis said as he stepped forward to the others. “Okay, the moment of truth. It’s time to rename this building and add it to Rene.” Aegis announced as he took a deep breath and opened up his inventory, slowly making his way to his land management menu to see the structure in the now very long list.

Monastery of the Stars[Rename][Register][Abandon]

Quality:71%

Durability: 25000/25000

Option 1: Increases Eirene's favor of the land owner of any land this structure is registered to by 25 000.

Details: A Monastery built in the name of the Goddess Eirene as a place for her disciples to learn to follow in her footsteps, and spread her light across the land. Constructed by Aegis.

“Damn, 25 000 favor with Eirene. That’s a lot more than I was expecting. 71% Quality.” Aegis said to everyone.

“Whew.” Erikson said with an impressed look.

“It turned out really well, didn’t it?” Josephine smiled.

“I don’t have to live here though, right?” Elric replied apprehensively.

“No, no, we have our own home now.” Josephine ruffled his hair.

“Okay, good.” Elric sighed with relief as Aegis continued to rummage through his interface.

“And look, what I can do.” Aegis smiled as he pressed a button, and suddenly the name above Priestess Clara changed to [High Priestess Clara(Elite) - 43].

“R-really? Are you sure I am qualified?” Clara asked anxiously as all eyes turned to her.

“I’m sure. It has to be you, Clara. And there’s only one thing left for you to do.” Aegis said as he looked at her with a serious stare, and she looked back at him worriedly.

“But, what if the Goddess decides I am not the one for the task?” Clara asked Aegis.

“Then that is Eirene’s will, and I’ll be happy to still have you as the High Priestess.” Aegis reassured her as he put his hand on her shoulder. “Reach out to her from the depths of your heart, and let her decide.” Aegis said as best he could.

“Okay.” Clara gave a nod, Aegis’ words instilling a bit of confidence in her.

“You’ll do great, Clara.” Celestian smiled at her.

“Good luck!” Yuki and Savika cheered as Clara made her way inside the Monastery. The building was empty of workers and other people, meaning Clara would be able to enter the prayer chamber and pray in peace undisturbed. As she disappeared inside the building, Aegis felt his anxiety building up once more, and his anger towards the Arallian bandits bubbled up as he recalled why he had to do all these extra steps for his quest in the first place.

Everyone moved into the garden and sat around on the benches inside, all waiting nervously as well and staying quiet, including Chax, Amlie and Ruffily. Ruffily and Chax wandered about quietly complimenting Amlie’s work on the garden to kill time while Aegis was pacing back and forth with Lina watching him, feeding off of his nervous energy and fidgeting with her daggers.

“Hey, I don’t think we properly met, but I saw you keeping an eye on us. I’m Erikson, tavernkeeper.” Erikson said as he approached Lina and shook her hand.

“I’m Lina.” She smiled back.

“I was just curious, I saw you and Aegis have matching rings, are you two married?” Erikson asked her, and Yuki was suddenly very interested in their conversation. Lina blushed and nervously looked towards Aegis, who wasn’t listening at this time.

“Y-yes.” She smiled and nodded.

“Ah, so you must be one of his party members he spoke of. Is it just for experience, or is it more than that?” Erikson asked, and saw Lina’s face go cherry red. “Oh, sorry, I suppose that’s none of my business.” Erikson apologized. “The real question I wanted to ask is… you’re a Shadow Dancer, right?” Erikson grinned at her as Josephine and Yuki listened.

“Y-yeah.” She replied shyly.

“Ah.” Erikson smiled, giving a knowing nod towards Josephine.

“Aegis is lucky to have someone like you by his side.” Josephine commented.

“Thanks.” Lina smiled awkwardly at them. Yuki, on the other hand, let out a long sigh of disappointment.

“What’s wrong?” Savika asked her as she kicked her legs back and forth, sitting on the bench beside her.

“Nothing.” Yuki pouted.

“Do you like Aegis as well?” Savika asked in a whisper.

“Wha? Why would you ask that?” Yuki whispered anxiously to Savika, while making sure that no one was listening to them.

“Because you are always watching him.” Savika shrugged innocently. Yuki looked to Savika, then over to Aegis as he paced nervously on the far end of the garden.

“He is really nice, and selfless, in a strange way. He cares more about people than things, which is rare in this… world.” Yuki had to stop herself from saying ‘game’ to Savika.

“Well, Eirene believes in polygamy, you should ask if he’ll marry you too.” Savika whispered back shamelessly.

“Huh? I’m not going to do something like that.” Yuki’s face went red.

“Why not? He is a priest of Eirene, it’s their duty to spread love.” Savika shrugged. “It’d probably make him happy, since you are so kind and beautiful yourself.” She smiled at Yuki. Yuki just let out a long nervous sigh.

“I’m not taking relationship advice from an 8 year old.” Yuki grumbled back.

“Hey, I’m mature for my age.” Princess Savika protested.

“Mhm.” Yuki rolled her eyes at Savika. They went quiet for a few more moments until Yuki had time to think about what Savika said.

“Hae-won said he’s an idiot with that stuff though. So he probably doesn’t even think of me like that.” Yuki whispered quietly to Savika.

“Well, why don’t you try making him something? You are a really good tailor. Like a present, maybe?” Savika suggested.

“You think so?” Yuki asked her, hopeful.

“It can’t hurt to try, right?” Savika shrugged, and Yuki went quiet in thought again as she began to daydream what sort of clothing she could make for Aegis so that he’d notice her. Unbeknownst to Yuki and Savika, however, Shinji had angled one of the point of view cameras of Aegis’ live stream towards Yuki and Savika, so that all of the 30 000 viewers could hear their conversation.

“What’d I tell you guys?” Hae-won said proudly as she stood casting in front of Aegis’ broadcast. “He doesn’t understand women at all. The worst part is, he’ll never watch his own stream, so I’m willing to bet he’ll never realize how Yuki feels. In fact -” Hae-won pressed some buttons on her broadcasting interface. “Let’s have a vote in the chat right now. Yes, you think Aegis will figure out that Yuki cares about him, or No, Aegis won’t notice a damn thing.” Hae-won excitedly entered the poll into the chat and the numbers flew up and down for a bit, until it skewed heavily in one direction.

“89% of you agree that Aegis won’t notice a damn thing. You are some smart viewers, that’s for sure. But now I just feel bad for Yuki. Let’s hope that those 11% of you who said yes are right, for her sake!” Hae-won cheered excitedly.

“She has more fun casting this romance stuff than she does the action stuff, doesn’t she?” Shinji said to Tommy through a voice call as he was busy editing the footage in real time.

“Can’t complain, our female viewership is way above average.” Tommy shrugged back. “Whoa, what’s that!?” Tommy shouted as he saw on Aegis’ broadcast a sudden explosion of light.

Everyone in the garden got up and turned towards the Monastery tower as a large beam of light shot upwards from the building into the sky, clearing out the clouds drifting above. Even though it was broad daylight, the beam of light still drew attention from everyone in Rene down below, and Aegis felt a jolt of excitement as he saw it. A few moments later, the light faded and it went quiet.

“Was that…?” Erikson asked, looking to Aegis for answers.

“I don’t know.” Aegis shrugged. He quickly opened his interface and scrambled to his quest log to check, and there, he saw it, and a big giant dumb grin grew across his face.

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: 1/1 Survive the Shattering

Quest Giver: Great Prophet of Eirene, Clara

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.

It worked, and excitement flooded into Aegis. The quest was now complete, and as this thought filled his mind, they all saw the front doors of the monastery open and out stepped Clara, with a new name above her head. [Great Prophet of Eirene, Clara(Elite) - 45]. Josephine clasped her hands to her mouth and let out a squeak of joy.

“Hell yeah!” Chax pumped his fist into the air.

“You did it! Woof!” Ruffily cheered excitedly.

“Congratulations!” Amlie smiled at her.

“Incredible.” Savika cheered at Clara, while both Yuki and Lina looked to Aegis to watch his overjoyed expression.

“SUCK ON THAT, BANDITS!” Aegis shouted aggressively, causing everyone to look over at him in surprise. “I mean, congratulations, Clara, I knew you had it in you.” He corrected himself, clearing his throat. Clara smiled at him as she stepped forward towards him.

“Eirene spoke to me about what I must do for this world, and most importantly, gave me a message for you.” Clara said as she stepped forward towards Aegis and held her hands out for him, as she had done many weeks ago. Aegis gently placed his hands in hers and she looked Aegis in the eyes. “You have learned the fundamentals of what it means to truly walk the path of Eirene, and guide this world to a better future. You are ready for the next step in your journey, and begin the healing of this world. That is why you must become the Shattered Healer.”

Quest Complete!

Would you like to become the intermediate class: Shattered Healer? Once you become this intermediate class, this decision cannot be undone.