Spiteful Healer

Chapter 98: Bow, Staff, Bladed Fist

Two In-game Months Earlier...

“You promise to take good care of her?” Pyri said as she gently stroked Melon’s snout. Pyri, the black mare Melon, Darkshot and Rakkan all stood out front of the Kordas stables as she handed off the reins of her horse to a stablehand.

“Don’t worry, I promise she’ll be in good hands. Do you know how long you’ll be in the city?” The stablehand NPC asked Pyri.

“Shouldn’t be too long, right boys?” Pyri smiled at the other two.

“Heh, yeah.” Darkshot shrugged nervously, Rakkan gave a nod.

“Very well.” The stablehand said as he led Melon into the stables while Pyri turned to the others.

“What’s with you two? You’ve been down ever since we left Rene. Do you miss Aegis that much?” Pyri raised an eyebrow at them.

“No, it’s not that.” Darkshot chuckled. “It’s just what Lina said. About using our skills to fight - I don’t know anything about using a bow outside of the game.” Darkshot said as he pulled out his longbow and looked at it as if it was some strange foreign object.

“Oh c’mon, you guys will be okay. It might take a few tries but you’re both smart enough to figure it out, right?” Pyri looked at them encouragingly and they gave weak smiles back at her. “Let’s do our weapon masteries first. That’s what everyone recommends, right?” Pyri turned to Rakkan for confirmation.

“Yeah, that’s the smartest way to do it.” He shrugged.

“Onward!” She pointed into the city and began marching jovially. Rakkan and Darkshot followed behind her, but their moods hadn’t improved much despite Pyri’s encouragement.

They arrived at the Kordas Training Grounds shortly after and quickly traversed across the grounds past all of the training dummies and archery targets, spotting several players spread about and practicing their weapon skills. On the far end of the grounds sat the large marble staircase leading into the Training Hall building. The three of them ascended the stairs and entered the building, finding themselves walking along through the long entry hall that was lined with statues of great warriors, and the doors leading to the various weapon training arenas for each weapon type. They could see the lines of other players standing out front of each of the doors, waiting their turn to take a shot at completing their intermediate weapon mastery quests.

“Look, the symbols above the door tell you which door is for which weapon.” Pyri pointed out the shapes of weapons engraved into the keystones of each door's archway.

“Now I just have to decide which one to try first.” Rakkan said reluctantly as he spotted several of the weapon symbols he’d need. Closest to them were the Crossbow and Spear intermediate weapon mastery quest NPCs, both of which were standing idly with their arms crossed in front of their respective doors, long lines of players waiting for their turn in front of them.

“You can do that one. Barely anyone in line for that!” Pyri pointed down the hall at the door with the bladed fist symbol above it.

“Y-yeah, sure. Thanks.” Rakkan smiled as he headed towards the line.

“Good luck!” Pyri cheered as he walked off and waved.

“Good luck.” Darkshot said weakly. He’d spotted the line for the Longbow intermediate quest as he was watching Rakkan walk away. It was a line of only 5 people. “I guess I should go there.” Darkshot motioned to it, and Pyri smiled at him.

"Don’t worry. I'm sure you'll figure it out, right? Aegis is always saying how good you are at playing games.” Pyri tried to encourage him along.

“Yeah, right.” Darkshot gave an unenthusiastic nod before he headed for the line. Once Pyri was standing alone in the middle of the hall she gave two quick glances to see Darkshot and Rakkan in their respective lines, both looking down at their feet deep in thought.

“Sheesh those boys need some self-esteem.” Pyri shook her head to herself as she spotted the line for the Staff Mastery intermediate quest, having the longest line of all. “Ooh boy, hope I can get it on the first try.” She mumbled as she went to join the line.

Darkshot found himself getting more and more nervous the closer to the front of the line that he’d gotten, until finally it was his turn to talk to the Quest NPC next. He watched as all the players in front of him went into the arena, then either completed the quest and left, or went to the back of the line behind him, until finally it was his turn.

“Welcome.” The Intermediate Longbow NPC spoke, [Esmerille - ??]. “You’ve no doubt come to learn how to further improve your skills with a Longbow?” She asked him.

“Y-yep, that’s what I’m here for.” Darkshot smiled weakly back at her. “Wonderful. I can see you have spent a lot of time firing a Longbow already, but there is more to mastering this weapon than simply loosing arrows at your foes. If you would like me to teach you further, first I’d like for you to prove to me that you truly understand what it means to wield a Longbow.” Esmerille smiled at him as he was hit with a quest prompt in front of his peripheral vision. Darkshot quickly hit accept and the doors behind Esmerille opened. He stepped through the doorway into the room to see the large round arena with 8 pillars spread through it, a light coat of sand blanketing the tiled floor as it sat 2 meters down below the upper ledge that he currently stood on, looking at the arena from above. He saw the door on the far side of the arena with a portcullis rising up, and he moved to stand on the ledge.

Darkshot had seen plenty of streamers do weapon intermediate mastery quests in the earliest days of The Shattered World Online’s launch. With no access to his own Simbox to play, he was forced to watch the game through various streamers, including Makaroth. The result was that, for things like this quest, he knew what Esmerille was going to ask him to do before she’d even asked it.

“The test is simple, shoot and kill all 10 enemies that come out of that door without getting hit once.” Esmerille said with finality before the doors shut behind Darkshot. He took a deep breath, drew out his bow and nocked an arrow, then hopped down off the ledge and onto the arena floor below. The moment his leather shoes touched the ground he heard the sound of footsteps coming from across the arena. A large boar began recklessly stampeding towards him from the door opposite him.

Darkshot did his best to aim the arrow in the bow forward, pulling the string back, but he could immediately feel that the skill assistance had abandoned him. How far do I pull the string back to shoot it at that distance? How much do I need to arc the arrow upwards? What do I need to do to compensate for the speed it's approaching me at? Is it going to strafe left and right? Can I even shoot it straight ahead if it doesn’t change its approach? Is it like this? Is this how I do it? All of these thoughts rushed into his mind until suddenly he noticed that the boar was getting too close, and he released the arrow in a panic. The bowstring brushed against the inside of his left forearm while the arrow strayed sideways off the side of the front of the bow, shooting completely wide with hardly any force behind it, sliding across the sand covered tiled floor of the arena.

The boar got closer and Darkshot frantically reached into his quiver, but he missed grabbing one arrow in his fumbling, accidentally grabbing two, and had to drop one on the ground as he went to nock one again. He had nocked his first shot while he was out of the arena, the skill helped him, but now inside the arena it wasn’t doing much, and he fumbled to line up the back of the arrow with the bowstring, and in that time the boar closed in on him. He took a few steps backwards to try and get himself more distance, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and the boar got in range and rammed its tusks into Darkshot’s legs, knocking him off of his feet before vanishing into thin air.

Darkshot heard the sounds of the door opening behind him as his bottom hit the ground.

“You’ve failed the test. Unfortunately another person is here to take the test next. If you'd like to try again, you'll need to wait outside for your turn.” Esmerille called in after him.

“Yeah. Yeah, fine.” Darkshot said as he breathed heavily, looking at the arrows scattered around his feet as he slowly stood back up. He couldn’t stare at his bow any longer without being disgusted with himself, and put it away into his inventory. Once he’d collected his arrows and bow that Aegis had made for him, he climbed the ladder out of the arena and walked past Esmerille to see a line of three players had formed again behind her, and moved to the back of it. As he did this, he looked ashamedly across the hall to see Rakkan moving to the back of the line of the bladed fist intermediate quest - he’d failed his quest as well, but it didn’t make Darkshot feel better. He’d only felt worse instead when he spotted Pyri walking out of the Staff Mastery quest room with a skip in her step across the hall.

She had a great big smile on her face as she spotted Darkshot and Rakkan in their lines, skipping towards the exit, but she stopped by Darkshot.

“Oh, still didn’t get a chance to go yet? I got it on the first try, easy stuff!” Pyri cheered at Darkshot excitedly.

“Congratulations.” Darkshot forced a smile at her.

“I thought using the staff and the magic might be hard, but it was just like a quest in another game I’d played, so…” Pyri shrugged as she began to pick up on Darkshot’s bad mood and slowly went quieter and quieter.

“I’ll probably be here for a while.” Darkshot replied. “This quest, it’s pretty hard.” He added, and as he said this, a player started walking out of the longbow quest room behind Esmerille.

“Hell yeah! First try!” The player pumped his fist into the air, causing Darkshot and Pyri to look at him. They both followed him with their eyes until he’d left, and the next player in line went in to do their longbow quest. At that time, Pyri glanced across the hall to see Rakkan staring down at his feet, brooding.

“Do you want me to stay and wait for you to finish?” Pyri asked with a concerned look on her face.

“No, no need. The rest of our quests need to be done alone anyway.” Darkshot shrugged.

“You sure? I don’t mind. I can give moral support!” She said as cheerfully as she could, but nothing was getting through - she could tell something was bothering Darkshot, like Rakkan, way beyond surface level nervousness.

“Yeah. It’s fine, I might be stuck here for a bit.” Darkshot replied in a bummed out tone, which was very unlike him.

“Ok… well, if you need something, just let me know on the friends list, okay?” Pyri smiled and he gave a final nod, before she skipped towards Rakkan. Darkshot watched Pyri and Rakkan talk from a distance, and he could tell the conversation was going similar to how his conversation with Pyri had gone, as a short few moments later Pyri gave them both waves and headed out of the building alone. Rakkan and Darkshot both looked at each other briefly, giving knowing nods, before staring back down at their respective feet.

Shortly after that it was time again for Darkshot to take another shot at his quest. He stepped back into the room up to the ledge overlooking the arena, the door closing behind him. He made sure to nock an arrow preemptively in his bow before jumping down into the arena and his having his Longbow skill assistance abandon him. The moment his feet touched the floor, he once again heard the sound of the boar charging towards him out of the darkness of the door on the opposite side of the arena. He decided this time he was just going to shoot wildly and try to hit it, as he had done the first time he used the bow in the game, before he’d gotten the skill.

He shot an arrow that barely went anywhere, then another that flew too high, then another to the side. He kept shooting while backing up from the boar slowly, and after 6 missed shots the boar slammed its tusks into his legs and knocked him off his feet again.

“FUCK!” Darkshot shouted, throwing his bow angrily at a nearby pillar. “Going to to the top? My fucking ass. I can’t even…” Darkshot mumbled to himself angrily as he punched his fist into the tiled floor of the arena as he sat back up. “I can’t even shoot an arrow.” He sighed.

“You’ve failed the test. Unfortunately another person is here to take the test next. If you'd like to try again, you'll need to wait outside for your turn.” Esmerille called in after him.

“Yeah, yeah.” Darkshot waved at her angrily as he retrieved his things and headed outside. When he got back out this time there was a line of 6 people that’d formed, and he double checked to see if Rakkan was still doing his test, but he was gone from the bladed fist quest NPC's line. That either meant he’d finished his bladed fist quest, or was doing it right now. Rather than go back in the line for his quest, though, Darkshot wanted to catch some fresh air and instead headed out of the Kordas Training Hall to the staircase leading down to the training grounds outside. From atop the wide marble staircase, he could see a row of archery targets far below and across the Training Grounds in front of him, nearly 100 meters away. With ease, he pulled an arrow back in the bow and shot it at one of the targets, hitting it dead in the center.

“Of course it’s easy now. The game skill is doing all the work.” He mumbled with disappointment at himself. Darkshot took a seat on the stairs near the top and leaned back, sighing as he looked up at the clouds soaring over the city of Kordas above. His mind trailed off, he imagined how easily Pyri did the quest, and how simple it would probably be if Aegis was doing it.

“Fuckin shit.” Rakkan mumbled in frustration as he took a seat beside Darkshot. “Pyri gets it on the first try, and I can’t get it after three tries.” Rakkan said angrily. “Not even close. And I’m supposed to do seven weapons.”

“But, you were an intermediate player already, weren’t you?” Darkshot looked at him surprised.

“Yeah, but that was a sage, with magic, and lore. I was good at all of the skills I needed, without the game's help.” Rakkan explained. They went quiet after that, sitting beside each other in silence for a few more minutes, and in that time a third player took a seat on the stairs near them, pulling out a large bowl of salad from their inventory and crunching it loudly and breaking their silence, causing both Rakkan and Darkshot to look at them.

The player, [Travis - ??], was one of the strangest characters that either of them had ever seen created before. It was undoubtedly a male elf with shiny dark skin, but they had cartoonishly large female breasts. He was wearing a purple loincloth with the Night Hunter emblem on the front of it, and a purple leather wrap around his chest, with wooden sandals on his feet, and was otherwise naked, revealing his very large muscular form. He had purple eyeliner and rosy red blush on his cheeks, and rainbow colored pigtails. Rakkan and Darkshot couldn’t help but accidentally stare at him for a second, until he noticed between bites of his salad, and looked back at them annoyed.

“What’re you looking at?” He said with an extremely deep voice, startling both Darkshot and Rakkan into looking away awkwardly, pretending as though they hadn’t been staring. “You guys got a problem?” He asked.

“N-no.” Darkshot replied awkwardly while Rakkan shook his head.

“Just ignore him.” A fourth player said from atop the stairs behind them. “He’s just mad that someone threw up on his Simbox during character creation.” [Christoph - ??] smirked. Rakkan and Darkshot turned to see this player wearing the emblem of the blades of Kalmoore on his tabard, two white crossed swords with an upright spear overtop of them in the middle, on a red background. He wore this over his enchanted iron armor, with a greatsword on his back. He had a shiny bald head and pointy elven ears. Travis didn’t reply to this comment outside of raising his eyebrow and crunching into his salad greens loudly.

“Hi. My name’s Christoph, I’m the guild leader of the Blades of Kalmoore.” He reached his hand out to shake Darkshot and Rakkan’s hands after moving to stand in front of where they were sitting on the stairs. Darkshot and Rakkan looked between each other before shaking his hand curiously. “Noticed that you guys were having trouble with the intermediate weapon quests. I could help you both out with that.” Christoph smiled.

“Help us? How?” Darkshot asked curiously. “I don’t know shit about using this thing.” He motioned dejectedly to his longbow on his back.

“Hah, you really think all of these guys completing these quests so easily know how to use their weapons?” Christoph said as he motioned to all of the players inside the training hall, standing in line waiting to do their quests. “I mean, sure, some of them might know a bit, but, it’s 2090, who knows how to use a longbow?” Christoph asked rhetorically.

“How else are they completing the quests, then? The skills are blocked, aren’t they?” Darkshot asked as Rakkan listened with interest.

“Well yeah, but it’s just a quest. There’s tricks and strategies to beat them all, even if you don’t know jack about the weapon.” Christoph shrugged. “I can show you how to get your quests done, pretty easily really, and then you can go on playing with the skills like normal and level ‘em up to 150.” He smiled.

“You’re going to show us how to cheat the intermediate quests?” Rakkan raised an eyebrow at him as Darkshot and Rakkan both glanced at each other hesitantly.

“Well, yeah. Unless of course you’d rather be stuck here trying to do it the normal way. And in return, you become members of the Blades of Kalmoore. We’re always looking for new members with potential.” He said cheerfully, but as he did, Travis let out a loud laugh, causing Christoph to look at him annoyed.

“You must be really desperate.” He said to Christoph, then turned to Darkshot and Rakkan. “That guy’s trying to recruit you by offering quest strategies you can find for free all over the internet. If you really want to cheat your intermediate quests, just look it up online yourselves.” Travis said while his mouth was full with food, and he continued to chew between his words, making it somewhat hard to understand him

“It’s not as easy as that. And we’ve got members of every class that’ll be able to help you with the class quests too.” Christoph said while scowling at Travis. It was a tempting offer, both Rakkan and Darkshot went deep into thought. The idea of them completing these weapon mastery quests, and then their class quests, on their own, when they had little to no knowledge of these weapons or their classes seemed so incredibly far-fetched. But at the same time, something about this method Christoph was offering felt wrong. Darkshot and Rakkan both recalled Pyri and Aegis’ words, how they’d want to figure out how to beat the quests by themselves without any help.

Darkshot couldn’t imagine himself playing alongside Aegis at the top if he didn’t find a way to improve somehow, but he also couldn’t imagine himself standing beside Aegis after taking shortcuts to get there. Rakkan didn’t believe he’d ever learn to fight or use the weapons he’d need to learn to be a battlemaster, but he also knew that if he took shortcuts, he’d never be able to beat Seraxus.

“No thanks.” Darkshot and Rakkan said in unison, as they’d both made up their minds on the offer at the same time.

“Hah.” Travis chuckled as Christoph threw them all nasty looks.

“Fine, suit yourselves. Have fun being stuck on your quests for a few months, if you ever pass them.” He said dismissively as he stomped off. Rakkan and Darkshot followed him with their eyes for a bit until they caught him approaching another group of players inside the training hall, hearing him begin the same speech that he’d just given them. They both felt good about turning him down, but that feeling went away quickly when they realized they still had the same problem, they couldn’t beat their quests.

“Sorry I’m late!” Sherry called out to Travis as she ran across the training grounds towards him. Darkshot and Rakkan looked down the staircase to see the white-furred, brown-spotted tiny Satyr girl approach, and Darkshot’s jaw dropped at how beautiful she looked. She, like Travis, was sporting the Night hunter emblem, though hers was more modestly presented on her tabard.

“No problem. Ready to get started?” Travis stood up and put the rest of his salad in his inventory.

“I’m ready.” Sherry nodded with determination from the bottom of the stairs as Travis headed down them to meet her, but as he reached the bottom he stopped and turned to look up at Darkshot and Rakkan.

“Why’d you turn down Christoph? He’s not wrong, y’know. Most people just cheat the quests. Actually learning the weapons is a pain.” Travis asked them curiously.

“Because… if we can’t beat the quests by ourselves, we don’t deserve the rewards.” Darkshot said while looking at Rakkan, and Rakkan gave a small nod back. The two of them stood up, preparing to head back into the training hall to give their quests another try.

“Good answer. Come. You can join us.” Travis motioned them to follow him and Sherry, causing Rakkan and Darkshot to look back down at him confused.

“Heh?” Darkshot replied.

“Join you for what?” Rakkan asked.

“The Night Hunters don’t recruit members that can’t beat the quests properly. If you struggle, we train you. Even our merchant class players must learn to fight.” Travis motioned to Sherry. “Starting with the basics.”

“The basics?” Darkshot asked curiously.

“Unarmed combat. Martial arts.” Travis said as he started walking towards the training dummies. “I’m here to teach Sherry, but if she doesn’t mind, you boys can follow along too. Don’t expect any special treatment though.” Travis shrugged.

“I don’t mind.” She smiled up at the two of them before quickly moving to follow Travis into the training grounds. As they got further and further away, Rakkan and Darkshot looked at each other hesitantly.

“Can’t hurt, right?” Darkshot said, and Rakkan nodded back. The two rushed down the stairs after Travis and Sherry and followed closely behind them.

“You fail.” A dark skinned male NPC said to Pyri with disappointment. [Archmage Jael(Elite) - ??] had a smooth bald head with dark eyes and broad shoulders, wearing majestic blue and red robes and wielding a fine white staff on his back, adorned with a large red gem at the top. The two of them were in a round room of 6 meters in diameter with a decorative tiled floor. The walls of the circular room were lined with bookshelves covered in an incredible variety of colorful books. Windows above the tall shelves allowed sunlight to shine into the high-ceilinged chamber. It had a singular door leading into it, and a large oak desk sat opposite the door. The man was standing in front of his desk with his staff fastened on his back as he looked down at Pyri who was kneeling and out of breath in the center of the room.

“What do you mean, I failed?!” Pyri looked up at him confused. “I asked you if I could have my intermediate class quest, and you just attacked me.” She stood back up, looking to see that her health was at 1.

“Yes. You’re not ready.” Jael replied coldly as he turned from Pyri and went to sit behind his desk.

“This is bullshit!” Pyri shouted out at him angrily.