Chapter 328: Still Here

note: This, and the next few chapters were written on my laptop using a different writing software, and it did funny things with the text. I'll edit it to get it normal, but the next few chapters are finally completed. Tomorrow will be a multi-release, and I'll go back to edit this chapter to fix all the weird stuff the software did to it over the day.

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Eli managed to escape most of his fanfare with the bus ride back to his room. He shut the door behind him and leaned against it, sighing with relief when he saw his roommate's shoes were missing. The sound of a broadcast was playing through the apartment, unintelligible from the doorway. 

Eli slipped off his bag, jacket, and shoes, tapped his wrist implant to adjust the room’s thermostat to warm it up, and headed further in. He saw the mess left behind by his roommate, with clothes strewn about, an unmade bed, an empty food box, and a hovering holo-display playing a news broadcast about the Shattered World Online from a network he didn’t recognize.

He pulled his simulation suit out of a case and began putting it on, and as he did he heard the name Aegis come up on the broadcast, peaking his interest and causing him to pay attention to it.

“We now know what Aegis has been up to, thanks to some of his classmates broadcasting him in person. Eli Winters, the player behind the famous Harbinger of Light, Aegis, has been spotted attending the Medical University, Equinor. When asked about his thoughts on VGN, this is what he had to say:” The newscaster spoke in front of a screen that swapped to a clip from the livestreamer in his class.

“Nothing I did was extraordinary. I just played the game. If you guys hate VGN so much, why are you all waiting for me to deal with them? You guys have sim-boxes too, right?”

“Oh, come on, give me a break,” Eli rolled his eyes.

“Despite not actively streaming for the last two months, Aegis has been active in-game on the island of Kalmoore. He has not gained any levels, nor has his in-game wife, Lina, since the tournament on Stormtop. This has led to numerous theories about what he’s been up to. This appearance, however, all but confirms his retirement. Though separately, Rakkan and Darkshot have continued to level up and are now above level 70…” The caster continued.

Eli had finished putting on his simulation suit and climbed into his sim-box. He tuned out the rest of the broadcast as he booted up The Shattered World online.

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           The city of Rene was bustling with adventurers, merchants, and NPCs of all sorts. The streets were filled with wagons and carts, pulled along by beasts of burden such as horses, lagnoks, or even gryphons. Players gathered around the fountain at the center of the town square, shouting out advertisements to fill their questing and dungeon-delving parties. The blacksmiths gathered around the Forge of Rene, where the famous heart of flame was burning inside, heating their metals while they hammered away at the anvils.

           The sawmill never stopped spinning, and the looms in the tailoring hall had a line that extended out of the building and down the street, with eager tailor-class players awaiting their turn.

           The tavern built near the town square was as noisy as always. Bards could be heard battling inside for the attention of the drunk patrons, who were either cheering or shouting at whatever live-stream broadcast was on display currently. The Rene city guards made sure that nothing got out of hand, though. They all donned the same attire, deep purple and blue tabards with the symbol of Eirene, a 10-pointed yellow star, embroidered onto the front over their mithral armor.

           For new players, it was hard for them to discern which of the people in Rene were NPCs and which were players due to how well they were getting along and how many of the NPCs were tagged as (Elite) and acting just as a real person would. Their races varied just as drastically as the races of the players, too. There were Lizardfolk, halflings and elves from Arallia, Dark Elves from the City of the White Tree, Plashrim from the under realm, and everything else mixed in from Kordas and beyond.

           It was not entirely peaceful, however, as the largest farm within the walls of Rene had fences that neighbored the main road, and a pair of curious low level players had made there way to a particular spot on this fence.

           The players, [Reymok – Level 13], and [Sakyil – Level 15], were eying a row of rare, fairly expensive herbs that were growing within the field.

           “Keep an eye out for the guards. Do you see any?” Sakyit asked as the two glanced around at their surroundings nervously, eying any other players that were approaching on the nearby road.

           “No, but, you really think we should be doing this? This is Amlie’s farm, you know?” Reymok replied.

           “So what?” Sakyil sighed while rolling her eyes at him. “Don’t be such a wimp. We won’t get caught.”

           “I heard that Lina trains the guards in Rene herself, and they all know how to shadow step…” Reymok replied.

           “Hah, yeah, right,” She shook her head in disbelief. “No way the guards can all shadow step. That’s just something they tell people to stop ‘em from stealing.” Sakyil looked Reymok in the eyes. “Look. I’m just gonna hop the fence, grab some of those herbs, then hop right back. It’ll take 10 seconds. Then we’ll sell the herbs and buy some nice enchanted iron weapons, and get some good grinding in. It’ll be fine.” She tried to reassure him.

           “I don’t know…” Reymok’s eyes shifted around at a few passerby's out of earshot range.

           “You want to level faster, don’t you? We’ll level hella fast if we buy some of Aegis’ enchanted iron weapons!”

           “Ok… okay fine.” Remyok relented. “But go quick!” He whispered anxiously.

           “Of course. I’m always quick.” Sakyil winked. Reymok turned to face away from the fences while Sakyil readied herself to hop over them.

           “It’s clear, go now.” Reymok nudged her. She hopped the fence into Amlie’s fields and rushed over to the rare herbs, a set of sparkling violet roses with a reflective, glassy center to the petals. She crudely ripped out one, two, three, four, and finally five of the flowers.

           “I got 5 already! How’s it looking?!” Saykil asked, and as she did she turned from the plants to look back at Reymok.

           “Uh…” Reymok’s head was raised as a spear-tip was being pressed against his neck, wielded by a [Rene Guard – Level 150].

           “What the hell, I told you if you saw a guard to warn me!” Saykil shouted at him before turning to take off running into the field. She couldn’t take more than one step before a puff of black smoke exploded out of the shadow of some nearby tall herbs. Out of the smoke stepped another Rene Guard who pointed his spear at Saykil’s neck before she could react.

           “I told you they could Shadowstep.” Reymok squeaked at her.

           “You are both under arrest for theft. Follow us or risk further charges against you.” One of the guards spoke robotically.

           “Yeah, yeah,” Saykil sighed. She and Reymok reluctantly followed the guards away from Amlie’s farm, making the walk of shame through the city of Rene with their armed escorts. Many of the other players nearby saw them and could immediately recognize what was going on---it wasn’t exactly an uncommon sight to see in a city with so much business going on at all times.

           Eventually, the pair were lead into the town hall of Rene, and the main chamber of the town-hall at that. Inside was a large round table with dozens of chairs tucked in, and two players seated on the far end of the table in the middle of a discussion.

           The guards moved into the room and shut the doors, standing in front of them to prevent Reymok or Saykil from attempting an escape. With the doors shut, the bustling sounds of the city streets outside could no longer be heard, allowing the two criminals to hear a few words from the players seated at the able.

           “Oh man, we’re screwed. That’s Lina!” Reymok whispered as he eyed the names floating above the two player’s heads. [Lina – Level 155], and [Chax – Level 150].

           “Just, shh, let me do the talking.” Saykil whispered back aggressively. Lina and Chax finished their discussion and looked up from several parchments that were laid out on the table in front of them.

           “Crime?” Lina asked the guards.

           “Theft of 5 Hallow blossoms from Amlie’s Farm.” One of the guards replied to her.

           “Oooh, they went straight for the expensive stuff. Tsk tsk tsk.” Chax smirked while shaking his head at them.

           “We still have them. We can give them back!” Saykil spoke up.

           “You can’t put them back in the ground, though.” Chax pulled his lips to the side.

           “What difference does that make? They still have the same value…” Saykil protested.

           “There’s a very big difference between a Hallow blossom that was harvested by a couple of unskilled level 15 thieves, than one that was carefully harvested by a skilled level 152 advanced farming class player like Amlie. The moment you touched them, they lost value.” Chax explained.

           “Oh come on, please! I really don’t want to go to jail again…” Saykil sighed.

           “Again?” Lina held back a chuckle.

           “I don’t think you’ve got much of a choice in the matter… I doubt you’ve got enough gold to pay back the damage you’ve caused, even if you return the 5 plants you crudely harvested.”

           “Please, we’ll do anything. We just wanted to sell them to get some of Aegis’ weapons, so we can grind really fast!” Reymok spoke up with pleading eyes. Chax and Lina looked to each other, and he a Sympathetic grin growing on her face.

           “Maybe they can pay it off somehow?” Lina suggested. Chax let out a frustrated huff.

           “Fine. You’re lucky Lina’s here.” Chax grumbled. “You’ll be completing some chores around Rene for me, under guard supervision. And you’ll hand back those stolen blossoms.” Chax extended his hand expectantly. Saykil approached while fidgeting with her user interface, which to others looked as if she was poking her finger at the air in front of her face as she walked. After a few presses, the 5 stolen blossoms appeared in her hand.

           “Ah!” Lina exclaimed suddenly, as she had a notification pop up in her own interface. “Aegis just logged in.” She cheered.

           “Great. You guys are finally on the last one now, right?” Chax asked.

           “Yup! See you later!” She waved to him. A second later, she was gone. Lina made use of her own shadow-step skill to disappear in a puff of smoke, jumping between the shadows of the various buildings spread across the city of Rene. She reached the castle of Rene in seconds, and used the side of the tallest tower opposite the sun to jump up into the room at the top, where Aegis was waiting.

           Aegis, having logged into the Shattered World Online only moments ago, was sitting on the side of the poster bed in his common clothes, staring down at his feet.

           “Hey! How was your first day of classes?” Lina asked in a jovial tone, smiling at him. Aegis didn’t look up or reply. “Everything okay?”

           “Yeah… well, no, not really…” He met her gaze.

           “I saw some of the live streams.” She nodded sympathetically. “That looked annoying.”

           “Oh, yeah. No, not that. I slipped up, but that was going to happen eventually anyway.” Aegis shrugged.

           “Something else?” Lina took a seat beside Aegis on the bed.

           “The tech class… got a first look at Nanotech in medicine. I thought it’d be at least one or two semesters before we’d learn how to use it ourselves, but, it’s so simple it doesn’t need more than a manual to administer. The professor had us administering it in the simulation halfway through the lecture.” Aegis explained.

           “It’s that good?” Lina raised her eyebrows.

           “And it’ll only get better.” Aegis fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

           “Hm.” Lina did the same.

           “He might’ve been right. What do you think?”

           “Well…” Lina started kicking her legs back and forth over the side of the bed. “Forget the tech. What do you want? Why’d you want to become a doctor in the first place?” She asked.

           “My mom worked as a nurse. I spent so much time in the hospital watching her work or the doctors work… I was really good at studying, so I just applied it to what I was surrounded by, I suppose.” Aegis sighed in frustration at his own answer.

           “Is that really the only reason?” Lina asked curiously.

           “I dunno… maybe…. What about you?”

           “Me?” Lina hesitated as she saw Aegis turn his head on the bed to face her, staring at her ear. Her face tinted a slight red as she felt his eyes on her.

           “Yeah, what’d you want to do?”

           “I…” She paused. “I wanted to work for Averon, or another gaming company. I really love playing games, so I thought it’d be great to make some. But now…” She briefly turned to look at Aegis before staring back at the top of the poster bed.

           “You don’t want to anymore?” Aegis asked as he looked up as well.

           “You gave us so much money from your livestreaming, I don’t really need to work.” She shrugged.

           “So you’re okay with just playing?”

           “As long as it’s with you…” Her voice got quieter towards the end of the sentence. Aegis got up off his back and put himself overtop of her, his hands on the bed on either side of her shoulders.

           “Basically, you’re saying I’m all you need in life?” He asked with a sly grin.

           “Don’t make fun of me,” She pouted, turning her head to the side and pouting. Her face went bright red, just as Aegis knew it would, and he leaned in to kiss her before pulling away and standing up. “You should give it a week at least. It was only the first day, right? Maybe you’ll have a better feeling for it by then.” She shrugged while standing up with him.

           “Maybe.” Aegis nodded. “We’ve got stuff to do, though.” He took a deep breath and headed toward the window of the room that overlooked the city of Rene below. As he moved, he equipped his adventuring gear piece by piece, starting with his salamander-scaled armor, to his shield, vestments, claws, helmet, boots and gloves. Lina did the same and moved to join him at the window.

           “Do you know where the last quest is?” Lina asked.

          “I’ve got a pretty good idea.” He snapped his fingers to activate his Avatar of Eirene skill, causing holy wings of light to explode out of his back. He extended his hand to Lina. “Let’s fly.”