Spiteful Healer

Chapter 9: Showmanship

Winter walked into the small wooden church of Eirene to see standing at the back just as he’d left her, Priestess Clara. Upon entering the building she looked up to him with a smile.

“You’ve returned. Have you brought with you the Poporon flowers?” She stepped forward towards him. Winter took the flowers out of his inventory and held them out towards her.

“Yes, they’re here.”

“Thank you, you have done a great service in the name of the Goddess Eirene. Her light shines upon you, should you choose to walk her path.”

Quest Completed!

Warning: This quest will change your class to Priest. This decision cannot easily be undone without a full character reset. Are you sure you would like to become a Priest?

AcceptDecline

“The moment of truth, will Makarath’s son follow through with the quest? Or will he change his mind and go for another class?” Samathara said in a whisper as she stepped into church with Zekor, both staring intently at the interaction. Winter rolled his eyes and hit accept.

Congratulations! You have chosen the class Priest!

Skill Learned: Minor Heal (Beginner)

Skill Learned: Smite (Beginner)

Deity Skill Learned: Gentle Touch

Minor Heal - Level 1 (Beginner)

Restores a small amount of health to a target, must remain still while casting. Amount healed and mana cost increase with levels.

Cast Time: 2s

Cost: 15 Mana

Range: 5m

Effect: Restores 20 health to a friendly target of your choice.

Smite - Level 1 (Beginner)

Shoot a bolt of holy energy in a line, dealing holy damage to the first target hit. Deals double damage to undead, demon, and dark creatures. Damage and mana cost increase with levels.

Cast Time: 2s

Cost: 10 mana

Damage: 10

Gentle Touch - Passive

Deity: Eirene

Improves the effectiveness of all non-combat related skills by 10%

Restriction: This skill is lost if the favor of Eirene is lost.

“I’m happy to have another to follow in her holiness’s footsteps. I’m afraid I have bad news though. The illness that has affected the Rostan Family has now spread to other villagers, and I suspect foul play. I would like for you to investigate the cause of the sickness.”

Quest: Priestess Clara would like you to find out what is causing the spread of illness in the village of Orm.

Objective: 0/1 Orm Investigation Complete

Reward: [Vestments of Eirene], +100 Favor with Goddess Eirene

Difficulty: Average

Restriction: Limited to classes: Priest.

He hit accept, the quest didn’t sound too difficult.

“I’ll do my best.” Winter bowed politely before heading out of the church. He had one last step to complete in his plan before he returned to the Craftsman Guild hall though. At this time the sun had set but the crowds in Orm village continued to grow. He stopped by a random merchant to pick up a new wooden shield for 5 silver coins as he made his way through the village square.

After equipping it he made his way along the western road out of the village and headed straight to the tree line in the dead of night. He heard murmurs from the two streamers behind him about how dangerous it was for a level 1 player to fight monsters alone at night because of monsters becoming more deadly when the sun set, and he could only smile to himself knowing the show he was about to put on.

It didn’t take long for him to find his first young boar. He got its attention by yelling at it, while Samathara and Zekor used illumination spells to light up the area around him so they could record more easily.

The boar charged at Winter with all its might and slammed into his shield. He blocked it and was sent back off his feet, then drew his sword. He took a swing wide at the boar and missed, hitting dirt instead, and the boar gave him a swift hind kick to his shield knocking him back once more.

“What’s he doing?” Zekor whispered as they watched. Winter pretended to struggle to compose himself as the boar came at him again, and again, while he constantly swung wide and missed the boar, dealing no damage, until his health got dangerously low, 4 health left.

“Is this guy seriously about to die to a boar?” Samathara asked in disbelief.

Winter gripped his sword tightly, held his shield in front of himself, and let out an enormous battle roar, giving one last desperate charge at the boar as the creature matched his enthusiasm with a loud squeal, crashing its head into Winter’s shield, dealing 6 damage and killing him.

You have died.

Login Restriction: 1h

(Reduced Login penalty due to player level)

The Sim Box opened up. Eli climbed out and stretched his muscles as he headed downstairs to see his mom watching television. On the screen was a live stream of his character in the Shattered World Online through the perspective of the streamers.

“Sweetie? What are you - I’m watching you on TV. Does that mean…?” His mother said worriedly as she looked between Eli and her TV screen.

“It’s not looking good for Winter, he hasn’t even been able to land a single blow on this boar and his health is getting dangerously low!” The commentator's voice said on the screen, he recognized it as Zekor’s voice.

“Their livestream editing team is impressive, they’ve almost got the simulation speed 4 edited up to realtime.” Eli noted.

“They fast forward and slow down a lot. It’s pretty hard to watch without a SimBox viewer.” His mom complained.

“One more hit and it could spell the end of Winter.” Samathara commented. He heard himself roar loudly as he made his final charge at the boar, then watched as the boar killed him.

“Oh no!” His mom cried out at the scene. “Oh I’m so sorry sweetie, are you okay?”

“Mom relax, I’m fine, I died on purpose.” Eli reassured her. “Want me to make dinner?”

“Why would you go and do that?” She asked worriedly.

“I’m trying something out. I’ll make something.” He answered his own question as he headed to the kitchen. “If you want to jump into the game you can, I just need to log in every hour to die.”

“What the heck are you trying to do? Did I raise a masochist?” She called through the house, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Alright, let me know when dinner is ready.” She added as she got up from the couch and headed upstairs to the Sim Box.

As he began to cook he heard that the TV was left on and the interviewers continued to talk about him.

“Are we sure this is really Makarath’s son?” Zekor asked.

“Absolutely, our sources have confirmed it. It seems like the old saying, like father like son, just doesn’t apply here.”

“It’s practically night and day. If we look back on the earliest footage of Makarath we see at level 1 he was fighting groups of 10 enemies at once without any trouble. I can’t imagine how he’s feeling after seeing his son fall to just a single boar.”

“Unfortunately it looks like the player Winter isn’t anything special. He’s far below average, I’d go as far as to say he’s a complete noob.

“That goes against our original theory from our interview earlier today. We had suspected he was either a beginner, or a sarcastic guy. It looks like our questions have been answered. There is still the possibility of him trying something unusual though. As some viewers are pointing out, his sword swings seemed way too theatrical. We’ll continue to follow him a bit longer to make sure we uncover the truth.

Stay tuned in 4 hours Simulation time, 1 hour real time, to find out. Is the player Winter, the son of the top player Makarath, truly a complete noob? Or is he hiding something?” Zekor said anticipatory.

The broadcast switched over to advertisements after that. Eli just grinned to himself, wondering just how long they’d stick around, knowing what he was planning to do. If his theory on that mystery skill was right, he would have to die as much as the Crusader had died on his high level quest. Knowing that the Crusader had taken almost 3 weeks to finish the quest, in tandem with the fact that the death lockout time goes up by 1 hour per level, until the maximum 6 hours at level 6, he theorized the Crusader had died around 50 times without having killed or attacked a single monster.

After reading the deities the player worshiped, it only made sense to Eli that the mystery skill’s nature, and the circumstances under which it was obtained, was related to the goddess of Peace, Eirene. He could only hope his theory was correct, but luckily since he had kept himself at level 1, he could tack on deaths much more quickly than the level 31 Crusader had.

“Too theatrical, huh. I’ll have to tone that down a bit so no one gets suspicious.” He mumbled to himself. He finished making dinner after 45 minutes and got his mother out of the Sim Box to eat together. Once they were done, he hopped back into The Shattered World Online after reassuring his mom he’d be back out in a minute.

He logged in standing in front of the familiar white statue in the graveyard, seeing that Zekor and Samathar were both already waiting for him along with other curious onlookers. He pulled out his sword and put on an angry expression.

“That bastard boar.” He grumbled furiously, loud enough so that the streamers could hear him. He charged through the streets of Orm back to the forest to the exact same spot he had died, and sure enough the same boar was rustling around in the bushes.

“I’m back for revenge, you damn beast!” He shouted out, only afterwards realizing he’d been a bit too dramatic. The boar was drawn to his voice and charged at him. Another intense battle ensued. At least, Winter did his best to make it look intense. He pretended to have the boar knock the sword out of his hand, then slam him around a few times until eventually he fell over again, dead.

You have died.

Login Restriction: 1h

(Reduced Login penalty due to player level)

He hopped out of the Sim Box and ran downstairs to see his performance on TV, his mother passing by him to take his place in the game, but as she did she looked at him like he was crazy.