Chapter 77: Leadership Pt. 2

Chapter 77: Leadership Pt. 2

Aegis understood now why everyone had failed this quest within 60 seconds as he watched their uninterested attitude.

“So I’m guessing you guys are just going to sit there and let the Boss thing attack you until you hit 1 health, and I fail.” Aegis asked as he watched Caleb deal out the cards.

“Yep.” Caleb shrugged.

“Pretty much.” Walsh nodded.

“That’s fine, I’ve had my fair share of group projects where one person did all the work.” Aegis sighed as he stepped forward to stand in between them and the Boss, raising his shield up.

“Oh, side note, that thing takes 0 damage from anyone but us. So, good luck buddy.” Caleb added as they all watched Aegis strap his shield on.

“Our recommendation? Don’t drag this out too long, you’re only wasting your own time.” Walsh added.

“We get paid to be here either way so, whatever.” Treg shrugged.

“Oh, Mr. shield user, I would appreciate it if you didn’t let it mess up my hair.” Delphine raised a finger at Aegis while speaking condescendingly.

“Sure...” Aegis had to think. He had a few options here, but the underlying problem was, this was a challenge to test his leadership, he needed to convince these four to follow his orders and it was clear they had no reason to listen to him. Bribing them? Messing up their card game? Begging? Aegis played the scenarios out in his head, until he remembered a trick he’d used a few years ago with a troublesome group of project partners during a school assignment, and smirked to himself.

“I’m good at holding an enemies attention, and staying alive, so really I just need one of you.” Aegis took a step back and tapped Caleb on the shoulder. “Bless.” Aegis enchanted him, so that his hands began to glow with holy light and it wrapped around his cards.

“Ooh, look at that Caleb. Fancy light magic.” Delphine said sarcastically.

“That’s not a spell you see every day.” Walsh said, he sounded genuine but at the same time uninterested.

“Nice try buddy, but, I’ve got a killer hand so, buzz off.” Caleb shooed him away.” Aegis shrugged as if he was okay with this and dashed forward to intercept the Boss stomping towards them.

“He’s gonna drag this out, isn’t he.” Treg groaned. None of them even looked up to watch as the Bear boss pounced at Aegis and slammed into his braced shield, causing his feet to crack the tiles on which he stood as he struggled to hold back the might of the beast.

You take 200 Bludgeoning damage.

As Aegis had assumed, the boss didn’t hit him very hard - he could heal through that damage quite easily, but that wouldn’t explain why the other players all failed so fast. Surely they tried to intercept the boss as well? But Aegis got his answer as suddenly a large barb shot out from between the back plates of the Boss over his head, aimed directly at Caleb. It made a loud ominous whistling sound as it shot through the air, there was no way none of them heard it yet none of them turned to look at it.

“Uh oh, it’s your turn to get the hit Caleb." Delphine giggled as she gave the projectile a quick glance.

“Darn.” Caleb sighed annoyed. Aegis turned around and quickly snapped his fingers, causing a projection of his shield to appear in front of the barb and block it thanks to his guard skill.

“Tch, he’s an intermediate shield user.” Treg sucked his teeth.

“This is gonna take forever.” Walsh rolled his eyes.

You take 350 Piercing damage.

The barb hit harder than the bear itself, but nothing Aegis couldn’t handle. He pressed his shield hand on his chest and snapped his right finger to cast healing wind, letting it mend him up in tandem with the enchantments on his armor.

It took a few more attacks, but Aegis got a quick handle on the Boss’s attack patterns. It was easy to control its positioning and prevent the four card players from getting hit, so Aegis did exactly that, managing his mana and stamina with the intent of fighting the boss for a long time. It wasn’t until the first 12 minutes and 30 seconds went by that Aegis had to continue with his plan.

After blocking a barb attack, Aegis quickly dashed back to the group and refreshed his bless on Caleb.

“Any time now. Bless” Aegis sighed after tapping his shoulder to enchant Caleb's hands with holy light again.

“Not happening, pal.” Caleb sighed while the others were squinting at their card hands. The battle continued. When another 12 minutes went by, Aegis did the same thing - dashing back to Caleb and blessing him. This time, the players waiting in the line outside began to yell into the room at him.

“That’s not doing anything, c’mon man give it up.”

“Yeah, let someone else try, you’re just tanking that thing pointlessly.” They shouted at him, but Aegis ignored them.

It wasn’t until the 4th casting of bless that Aegis’ plan began to bear fruit. As he dashed in and tapped Caleb on the shoulder to cast it, the other NPCs chimed in exactly the way Aegis had hoped.

“Hey, I gotta ask.” Walsh said as Aegis was turning to go back to blocking the Bosses attacks on the other side of the arena. “Why are you only blessing Caleb?”

“Huh? It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Aegis replied with a smirk before dashing away. Another 12 minutes and 30 seconds went by and his Bless on Caleb faded, forcing him to dash back and refresh it. This time they were not quietly enjoying a card game, they were arguing with each other, but they went quiet when Aegis arrived.

“Kid, what did you mean by ‘It’s obvious.’” Treg shouted at Aegis angrily.

“This idiot seems to think you’re blessing him because he looks the strongest.” Delphine said laughingly.

“Well, he is, isn’t he? I figured he’s the leader of your group.” Aegis shrugged nonchalantly. “Bless.” He tapped Caleb on the shoulder while Caleb smirked mischievously at them.

“He’s got a point.” Caleb leaned back with pride, wiggling his glowing white fingers at the other three.

“Psh, my ass. Him the leader?” Walsh yelled.

“Why the hell does he look the strongest?” Delphine shouted angrily.

“Sorry, one sec, gotta go do my job.” Aegis replied condescendingly, dashing away back to the Boss.

As he exited the building he spotted at the bottom of the staircase a group of three players waiting for him, staring at him expectantly as he took the first steps down the stairs of the Military Command building. They wore red and white tabards with the symbol of crossed white swords on the front and a spear in the middle standing upright - Aegis had seen this on a few other players in Kordas before but didn’t know the meaning behind it.

“Hey there Aegis.” The player in the middle smiled and waved. [Christoph - ??] was above his name. He had a full set of enchanted and engraved iron armor with a large, powerful looking greatsword on his back. To his right stood a Lizardfolk player with a bow on his back and leather armor, [Embertongue - ??]. To his left he saw a female human wearing simple leather armor, blonde hair tied into a ponytail with fair skin and a big smile as her bright blue eyes looked him up and down. Something about her felt familiar, but Aegis didn’t know why until he looked up to see her name, [Miranda - Level 39] - she was livestreaming to a viewership of 1500.

“As you can see, my name is Christoph. I’m the Guild leader of the Blades of Kalmoore.” Christoph gently tapped the symbol on his tabard. “We’re the second strongest guild in Kalmoore on paper, but the truth is, we just prefer to leave all the boring management stuff to the Night Hunters so we can focus more on the fun stuff.” Christoph grinned. “I’m here to see if you’d be interested in joining our crafting team. We’ve got a lot of resources you could make use of to enhance your crafts, I think you’d like it with us. Our guild hall is filled out with all the bells and whistles.” He finished.

“And we have a lot of fun going on adventures together. Exploring dungeons, hunting down bounties... I’m a bit new, but it’s been nothing but exciting since I joined!” Miranda chimed in cheerfully. Aegis was at least glad to see that Miranda didn’t recognize him from their time in class together. He took some time to look between the three who stared up at him with hopeful expressions, but Aegis already knew the answer he was gonna give. Just as Aegis opened his mouth though, he was interrupted before any words came out.

“Oi, Aegis.” Tullan shouted from the street a ways away, quite loud to get his attention quickly, despite his distance. It was a bit odd behaviour, which caused all of them to look. “Catch.” Tullan whipped something small and shiny at him from a distance with urgency.

Aegis caught it and looked at it curiously. It was a necklace, with a pendant on it made of a beautifully cut Sapphire gem. It was clearly enchanted with some sort of magical effect, but Aegis didn’t have much time to look at the item card.

“Put it on ye daft dolt! Now!” Tullan shouted worriedly. Aegis glanced to see the look of panic on his face, then looked back to the other three in front of him and saw them looking at something behind Aegis. Rather than wait to turn around and see what they were looking at, Aegis trusted Tullan and put the necklace on, and in that instant he felt a bolt of energy hit him in the back and disperse around him.

Aegis turned around to see another Blade of Kalmoore player standing behind him with a staff, having just casted a spell on Aegis without him noticing, and a notification appeared in front of his vision.

[Identify]'s effects were blocked by the effect of [Aegis' Bane]

“Did... he just tried to use identify on me?” Aegis asked Tullan curiously, but Christoph answered.

“It’s only natural, we’d want to know what skills you have before you join our guild, right?” Christopher shrugged as if it was not a big deal, and both Embertongue and Miranda seemed to smile in agreement. Aegis took this time to look at the item card of the necklace he’d just equipped.

Name:Aegis' Bane

Slot: Accessory

Type: Necklace

Quality:59%

Durability: 99/100

Requirements: Level 15

Option 1(Enchant): Protects the wearer from being identified through magical means. (Enchanted by Trexon(Detection Shell))

Description: A beautiful Sapphire stone hanging from a finely forged silver chain necklace. Crafted by Tullan.

“The moment Quinn saw the notification, she sent our highest level Sage back here to help me enchant that for ye’. Told me I was to get it to ye’ right away. Looks like I was just in time.” Tullan said as he caught his breath, clear that’d he’d just been running through the city until a few moments ago. “Don’t trust this lot, shady bunch, they are.” He motioned to the Blades members.

“Your days of ruling Kalmoore are numbered, Night Hunter.” Embertongue hissed at Tullan. Aegis watched the exchange and and thought for a moment.

“I’m going to have to decline. Nothing personal, I’m not interested in joining a guild.” Aegis replied coldly while glaring at the Elf Sage player that had attempted to identify him while he moved to stand with his guildmates. Tullan let out an audible sigh of relief.

“I see. That’s a shame. Well, as long as you aren’t joining up with these guys," Christoph motioned to Tullan, "if you ever would like to team up with us for some quests or dungeons, just give us a call.” Christoph said while giving Aegis an obviously fake smile. “And tell Quinn that she oughta stop playing mommy to every player in this city.” He added under his breath towards Tullan. Aegis watched the group of four Blades walk away and disappear into the city before he finished his descent down the stairs to join Tullan.

“Thanks, you saved me with this thing.” Aegis jingled the necklace. “You named it Aegis’ bane though? Really? That doesn’t even make sense, since it saved me.” Aegis raised a brow at Tullan.

“Yeah, well, y’know, revenge for namin’ that sword after me.” Tullan shrugged. “So, that’ll be 10 000 gold pieces.” He held out his hand expectantly.

“Huh?” Aegis looked at him surprised.

“Y’know, for the necklace. Sapphire’s ain't cheap, neither is silver, or that high level Sage enchant yer’ wearin. Had to use a Greater Enchantment Orb for it.” Tullan said.

“W-well why’d you make it with a Sapphire and Silver? Copper and quartz would’ve just been fine.” Aegis complained.

“Are ye kiddin me? You expectin’ someone like me with me craftin’ skills to go around workin’ with some junk materials for such a high level enchant? Pay up, Mr.” He nudged his open palm into Aegis.

“Well, the thing is... I don’t have any gold.” Aegis shrugged awkwardly.

“Wha- watcha mean you aint have any gold! Ye just sold 1000 Iron weapons for several hundred thousand! I’ve been watchin’ the markets, I aint no fool!” Tullan yelled at Aegis, annoyed now.

“Y-yeah, about that... I spent it all.”

“Sp-spent it all, on what? D’you buy a brothel or summat?!” Tullan shouted angrily in disbelief.

“A what? No, I had to use the gold to pay bills and buy textbooks, so I could study to pass all other crafting quests.” Aegis explained.

“You did what now? Yer tellin’ me you spent the last three weeks studyin’ all these crafts?” Tullan groaned with an eyeroll.

“Well, yeah, how else was I going to pass the intermediate quests?” Aegis shrugged and Tullan let out a long drawn out sigh. He turned and started walking away from Aegis, mumbling something under his breath, but as he was leaving, Aegis realized he now had a week left with nothing to do in the city, and an idea popped into his head, rushing after Tullan.

“Maybe I could pay you back, with some blacksmithing work?” Aegis looked at him curiously.

“Hmmm. Not a bad idea." Tullan turned and gave him a devious grin. "How about with a lil’ somethin I like to call the three S’s.” Tullan replied as he turned and continued walking down the street in the direction of the Night Hunter’s guild hall. “Sweepin’, Smeltin’, and Shopkeepin’.” Tullan finished, and Aegis reluctantly followed.

It didn’t sound fun, but he was glad he now had something to do to kill time for the next few days until it was time for the Airship to depart.