Chapter 150: Intermission

Chapter 150: Intermission

“Let’s walk and talk, we’ve gotta visit the storehouse.” Aegis said to Chax before looking worriedly towards his party members. He walked forward through the streets of Rene towards the townsquare, and the others followed behind him. “What’s the problem, exactly?”

“It started two weeks after you left. Yuki, Ruffily, and Amlie all headed off to do their class quests. Yuki for her advanced, and Ruffily and Amlie for their intermediates.” Chax explained.

“Oh, are they back yet?” Rakkan asked eagerly.

“No, not yet.”

“Is Savika still safe?” Lina asked.

“Yes, she is fine - Celestian and Farlion have gotten much stronger since you made them elite, and law and order has been maintained. The issue is with the Arallians.” Chax replied. “We started getting an influx of new residents from Kordas, Orm, and the like. Word somehow spread that we were providing free housing, so NPCs from other cities and towns have been coming here to take advantage of it.” Chax continued.

“Ah, I see.” Pyri nodded as they neared the townsquare. Aegis could see what Chax was talking about - there was a much greater variety of NPCs walking about now, as opposed to before where it was primarily Arallians in Arallian attire.

“Without you or Ruffily around, or Yuki, Savika was doing her duties as Mayor under the assumption that you would keep this method of house assignment. She’s been giving any family that asks a plot of land to build their homes upon. The houses were at first being constructed by the highest level Arallian crafters that helped out with the wall, ect. So they turned out okay...” Chax said as he motioned to the eastern section of Rene. Aegis could tell just from a glance over the crowds in the townsquare that there were much more buildings, and plenty that clashed with the architecture style of the others.

“But, the new Kalmoore citizens proved to be troublesome in their own way. They started passive aggressively commenting on the fact that the Arallians were willing to work and build their homes for free, given that the Kordas citizens were accustomed to being paid for working.” Chax went on as they left the townsquare and neared the storehouse.

“So the Arallians stop building them houses?” Aegis asked.

“Not only that, they’ve been much less willing to engage in any crafting whatsoever, without an income.” Chax replied.

“Even though their housing is free?” Aegis asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Even though.” Chax shook his head as the group stopped in front of the storehouse. “The Kalmoore NPCs spread the idea to them that they shouldn’t work for free, all the while moving here to take advantage of the free housing. On one side, the Kalmoorians were envious of the housing, and now on the other side, we’ve got Arallian’s envious of being paid for work. Savika doesn’t know what to do, but the complaints have been coming at her constantly. She’s most likely in the townhall now with Celestian.” Chax went on.

“Right.” Aegis nodded as he started unloading his extra materials into the Rene storehouse. Constructed by Ruffily a while back, it was under the protection of two Rene guards. Aegis was made aware that once a storehouse was registered to a city, any belongings placed in them by any player could not be stolen, nor would they be lost if an island fell.

As he dropped off the spare items he wasn't planning to use for crafting yet, he pondered Chax’s words and tried to come up with a solution.

“Man, what a pain in the ass.” Aegis scratched his head as he’d finished, stepping back from the building whilst his party continued to drop off items they’d gathered so far. He looked around at the surrounding land, then moved up into his interface to check in on it.

“We’re just short 17 more residents, then we’ll be upgraded from a village to a town.” Aegis commented as he looked at his land management menu. “I’m not really interested in playing a game where I’m trying to manage a population's happiness all day, though.” Aegis sighed. “Savika really can’t come up with a solution? She was the daughter of a Kingdom’s King, wasn’t she?”

“She might be able to, but she lacks authority, or confidence.” Chax shrugged. "She's still just a kid."

“What do you suggest we do?” Aegis asked Chax.

“Honestly, I’m a bit pissed off at the ungratefulness of their AIs. They’re happy to accept free land, but two months later, it’s not good enough.”

“I don’t think that’s an issue with just AI’s. Most people are like that.” Pyri shrugged.

“Everyone always wants more.” Darkshot nodded along.

“What about the Tavern?” Lina asked as she looked towards it in the nearby town square, seeing it plenty busy.

“Tavern is fine, they make their own profits. Same with the shopkeepers.” Chax said as he motioned to a few NPC-run market stands in the town square. “The other players have no complaints, they love it here. Erikson’s been doing well. It’s really just the NPCs.” Chax replied.

“What would happen if we start paying the Arallians for their work for the village?” Aegis asked him.

“Well... We’d have to start by paying the guards. Then, those crafters that have been working on our exports for treasury funds. And the builders who contribute to construction and maintenance. Then, the farmers who supply the granary. We could afford it, but it’d cut down on our profits massively. Easiest way to pay them is to start charging them for their land.” Chax shrugged.

“If you charge them now, they’ll be pissed.” Rakkan warned Aegis.

“Yeah, they’ve grown too accustomed to living free. It’s harder to take something away than to never give it in the first place.” Pyri agreed.

“I can manage the funds to sort it out as efficiently as possible, but... if word gets to Kordas that we’re giving out free housing AND paying for work, no NPC will want to live anywhere but Rene in Kalmoore. The other cities and towns of Kordas will suffer.” Chax replied.

“Hmm.” Aegis pondered the situation. “Alright, tell Savika to stop giving out free housing. Organize the funds so that we start paying all of the NPCs working for us, standard wages.”

“That’ll make it harder to pay back our debt to the Night Hunters.” Chax replied.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

“It’s fine, I’ll sort out that debt myself once I start crafting the tier 3 items and selling them.” Aegis shrugged.

“Right. The cloth will sort that out really quick. Can you weave it yourself, since Yuki’s not around?” Chax asked him.

“Gonna try...” Aegis said as he paused, walked to the storehouse and made sure he'd grabbed all of the strands, pincers, and other crafting materials he had available to him, including his ironwood and some high quality iron bars.

“Ok. Sounds good. Once Ruffily’s back we’ll have to ask her to sort out the weird buildings that have been built up recently. I’ll update you on any other changes.” Chax bowed, waved, then rushed off towards the townhall, leaving Aegis and his party alone on the streets of Rene out front of the storehouse.

“Should I just give up ownership of the land to Quinn or something? This sucks.” Aegis pouted.

“Nah, you’re doing good. Having our own land is awesome, can do whatever we want here.” Darkshot patted him on the back. “NPCs are just doing NPC things. Savika and Chax will sort it out.”

“Just bad timing, what with Yuki, Amlie and Ruffily all gone.” Lina nodded.

“Yeah, I bet if they were here it woulda been fine.” Rakkan shrugged.

“I guess...” Aegis replied hesitantly. “Alright. Hand over your gear. I’m going to try and learn to weave this silk on my own and use it with leather to make us some new armor before we continue into the Underrealm. Let’s meet up again in 24 hours.” Aegis said to the group.

“Okay. I’ll go check on Melon. You wanna come and stretch out your wings without all that armor on?” Pyri asked Snowflake in a babying voice. He nodded excitedly and screeched softly before hopping along behind her towards the pasture.

“I’m going to go see Sherry, she’s working the Night Hunter stall here in Rene. Cya.” Darkshot waved before he ran off with a skip in his step.

“I’ll go check on Amlie’s house and farm fields.” Rakkan shrugged, leaving Lina and Aegis alone.

“Do you have anything you want to do?” Aegis asked her.

“Nope, I want to stay with you...” She replied while avoiding eye contact, fidgeting with her hilts.

“Next, a new set of robes and staff for our Wizard.” Aegis presented dark blue voidsilk robes, boots, and leggings to Pyri, followed by her new Ironwood staff. Aegis had added the voidpincer to the top of her staff, jutting out of it like a horn, and it maintained its purple glow.

“Ooh, this looks like a neat, underrealm themed magic staff. Much better than that walking stick I had before.” Pyri took it excitedly and equipped it all.

“For Rakkan, a new set of weapons made with appropriate pincer incorporation. And some new leather armor.” Aegis handed over Rakkan’s new items one by one. “I left out the spear, though.”

“Yeah, I got that spear from the Queen.” Rakkan nodded excitedly. “This stuff is crazy good.” He excitedly equipped the new set of dark blue leather armor.

“For Darkshot, new armor and a quiver. And a new Ironwood bow infused with a drone pincer. My new crafting method of infusing tools, and the pincers, made it a lot stronger than your last bow. If we want to improve it, we’re going to need to find a high quality sinew from something in the underrealm.” Aegis explained.

“I don’t know what a sinew is, but this stuff is sick.” Darkshot said as he equipped it all.

“For Lina, new armor and daggers.” Aegis handed it to her. She took it all with a smile and quickly equipped it, looking down at herself to check it out.

“It’s perfect, thank you.” Lina smiled.

“And of course, my own stuff.” Aegis proudly began equipping each new piece of armor one by one, inspecting it himself as he did.

Name: Royal Iron Shield of the Voidreaver

Slot: Off-hand

Type: Shield

Armor: 2515

Quality:61%

Durability: 500/500

Requirements: Level 55, 55+ Strength

Option 1: Increases Favor with Eirene while equipped by 250

Option 2: Increases Casting speed by 2.5% [Source: Voidsilk]

Option 3: Increases Damage and Healing from Spells by 75 [Source: Mosmir Voidreaver Pincer]

Description: A shield made of Iron, Ironwood, Voidsilk, Royal Mosmir Pincers, and Mosmir Voidreaver Pincers. Detailed with the star of Eirene. Crafted by Aegis.

Name:Royal Basilisk Leather Armor of the Voidreaver

Slot: Chest

Type: Leather Armor

Armor: 1764

Quality:58%

Durability: 300/300

Requirements: Level 50

Option 1: Increases Favor with Eirene while equipped by 125

Option 2: Increases Casting speed by 2.5% [Source: Voidsilk]

Option 3: Increases Damage and Healing from Spells by 57 [Source: Mosmir Voidreaver Pincer]

Description: A leather chest piece made of Basilisk leather, Voidsilk, Royal Mosmir Pincers, and Mosmir Voidreaver Pincers. Crafted by Aegis

The gloves, boots, and leggings all contributed an additional 2.5% casting speed each, bringing his total casting speed bonus up to 12.5%, meaning that Aegis’ heal could now be cast on himself in roughly 1.75s, down from 2s. It was the first thing he wanted to test out.

“Heal.” Aegis cast on himself, and he was happy to see the cast finished much faster. “This voidsilk is amazing. I wove it all for now, but once the larvae are ready to catch I will figure out how to tame and raise them to make more.” Aegis explained to Chax.

“If you manage that, you’ll make Rene rich.” Chax grinned from ear to ear at this idea.

“Those pincers, too, were really good.” Lina commented as she waved her daggers around in front of her.

“They’re not enchanted yet, but I was taught how to mine Glasmium from Pakro’Vielle. That's the stuff that is used to craft enchanting orbs. The mining trainer in Pakro’Vielle said we’ll find it on the other side of the Red River, so once we get some, I’ll put enchants on our equipment.” Aegis explained and he got a few nods back. “Does anyone else need anything from Rene?” He looked over his party members once more.

“Nope, not really. I got enough arrows.” Darkshot shrugged.

“I got a nice relaxing sunbath, so I’m rejuvenated and ready for round two.” Pyri replied.

“Same, I’m good to go.” Rakkan said.

“Me too.” Lina joined in.

“Alright.” Aegis spoke loudly, clapping his hands together enthusiastically. “And, you’re good now here with Savika?” He asked Chax.

“Yeah, she’s not letting any more people in for free, and the Arallian’s seem willing to start working again.” Chax replied.

“Good, let me know if anything changes. And tell Savika she’s free to make executive decisions if she needs to, she’s the Mayor after all.” Aegis added.

“Got it.” Chax nodded back.

“Ok.” Aegis looked to his party members once more, stopping on each of them briefly with his eyes before moving on to the next. Each and every one of them looked eager to test out their new equipment. “Fetch me my gryphon, and let us return to the Underrealm!” Aegis cheered over-enthusiastically.