Spiteful Healer

Chapter 137: Under the Mushrooms

As much as Aegis’ party would've liked to say that the following three weeks in-game flew by, they did not. Killing Mosstrappers over and over again using the exact same strategy got dreadfully boring and repetitive towards the end, even for Aegis.

Use a lure, group up the enemies, kite them while casting challenging roar, then creature harvest them all. The party got fast enough in killing them after the first week that they had plenty of downtime between their respawns to play around.

Darkshot and Rakkan invested time in helping Lina, Pyri and Aegis improve their unarmed combat using the training methods that Travis had taught to them. Surprisingly, Darkshot and Rakkan were interested in learning dancing, so Lina gave them basic dancing lessons in return, but that didn’t last long.

Once Rakkan’s Rune:Echo skill reached level 75 after the second week, he’d gained the ability to create a second echo, and he was having a very difficult time controlling it. Meanwhile, Darkshot’s Multishot had skilled up high enough to shoot 15 arrows and he was having difficulty redirecting all of them properly, so they started using their downtime to practice utilizing those skills.

Rakkan was practicing controlling his two echos by having them fist fight each other, while Darkshot was practicing shooting and controlling his arrows by trying to weave them around the mushroom stalks nearby that hadn’t a Fisher hiding in them.

During the 1st week, Pyri’s multicast gained enough experience to allow her to up her simultaneous cinderbolts to three, then four. Casting and maintaining three, and then four cinderbolts became very taxing on her mana upkeep though, and she wasn't able to do it for very long. Even though her multicast got high enough to cast 5 cinderbolts in the 3rd week, she didn't bother with it. Instead she stopped investing points into intelligence in place of spirit for mana regeneration. Four cinderbolts was plenty, though, and massively improved their kill time on the Mosstrap swarms.

Lina’s Shadow Dance skill control also improved massively. She’d gotten so fast at teleporting around in the darkness that it was difficult to keep track of where she was, and was leaving behind shadow after-images as part of her skill after each dagger strike.

Once Aegis had reached level 70, he’d taken to asking his party to leave one Mosstrapper alive to level up his shield mastery and leather armor proficiency, then finishing it off with a cast of Varibhadra. At level 70 he had much more health to safely take their attacks despite the reduction in his armor’s effectiveness. The damage reduction of his armor was based on whatever his current level was, so anytime he’d leveled up, it slowly scaled down, signaling to him that he’d need to keep improving the quality of his armor to keep up his tankiness.

Despite starting on leveling his skills later than the others, due to waiting until he’d hit level 70 to start, his skills quickly surpassed his party members thanks to his Light of Eirene skill. The skill's levels also very quickly surpassed his actual level. Unfortunately, though, due to the level of the enemies being in the 70’s, all of them saw a massive drop off in experience gains once their skills and spells reached level 90.

By the end of the third week, the party had hit their goal of reaching level 85. They had no sense of what time of day it was when they got the last notifications - they had seen nothing but bioluminescent glows for the past 21 days. They were only able to keep track of time through leaving the Simbox for meals and showers.

Congratulations, you have reached Level 85!: +5 attribute points available, +401 health, +126 mana!

“YES!” Darkshot dropped to his knees from joy as he saw it appear. He stopped dealing damage to the last few Mosstrappers in their current pull to rejoice, leaving Lina, Rakkan and Pyri to finish them off. “We survived, lil guy. We made it.” He turned to Darkwing on his shoulder who was now sitting at level 50 - he was only gaining a portion of the experience that Darkshot had been earning. Similarly, Snowflake, who was still at work buffeting the poison mist away, was now level 75.

“We’re done, right? We’re strong enough to explore the Underrealm?” Darkshot asked with desperation in his voice.

“Not quite!” Aegis shouted up at him as he ran along the base of the ramp on his current loop. “Leave one alive, there’s still one more thing we should train on these guys before moving on.” Aegis declared.

“Games are supposed to be fun, you know.” Darkshot complained as he stood in a cloud of poison mist, breathing it in and taking poison damage while Aegis repeatedly healed him through it.

“What do you mean? This is fun.” Aegis shrugged.

“You’re making me breathe in poison, on purpose.” Darkshot crossed his arms.

“Yeah, look at all that experience you’re gaining though.” Aegis replied with enthusiasm. “If these things use poison mist, chances are this area is filled with poisonous enemies. Better to be prepared.”

“He’s right.” Rakkan nodded as he stood up the ramp, waiting for his turn. Aegis had discovered a use for the Mosstrapper poison glands - when he ripped them open, they released a temporary cloud of poisonous mist. It didn’t deal much damage, or last very long, but it was perfect for training up their resistances. The group spent several hours intentionally breathing in the mist until all of them had reached level 15 in poison resistance, then Aegis continued further to get his up to 25.

“Okay, now we’re done, right?” Darkshot asked expectantly once Aegis had hit his level 25 poison resistance goal.

“Yup, now we’re done.” Aegis stretched his arms up to the cavern roof excitedly.

“Finallllly!” Darkshot re-enacted his relief, dropping to his knees again and tilting his head back to the ceiling.

“That was incredibly fast.” Lina smiled.

“FAST?” Darkshot glared at her.

“It was pretty fast…” Lina mumbled back timidly.

“Should we take a break and go see the sun? We’re still pretty close to Rene.” Pyri suggested.

“Nope! Now it’s time for adventure!” Aegis pointed forward towards the forest excitedly.

“Not even a little bit of sun?” Pyri pouted.

“Finally. There’s gotta be some ruins down here somewhere. There’s always ruins in the underrealm.” Rakkan rubbed his hands together as he headed down the ramp, the others following behind him, but they stopped behind Aegis as he only made a few steps forward into the cavern.

“It feels a bit weird.” Aegis said as he looked around at the forest. “We’ve been here for three weeks, staring at this forest from this spot, running loops and fighting the enemies here. Now we’re finally stepping out into the forest, and even though we leveled, it still seems really dangerous.” Aegis said.

“Look.” Lina pointed up at the cavern roof at the snails. “We can see their levels now.” She added. Sitting above the heads of the stony snails on the ceiling were their nameplates, all in the range of levels 110 to 115.

“Any player that is level 135 or below, we’ll be able to see now. Most of the high level players are stuck at 150 doing their advanced quests.” Rakkan explained.

“We’re getting closer.” Aegis replied as he turned back to the others with a big grin on his face. Aegis took this moment to fidget with his interface to see how he’d grown over the last few weeks in this cave.

Name:Aegis

Title:Lord of Rene[Land Rank: 3 (Village)]

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Marriage Partner:Lina[+25% Experience While Grouped]

Level: 85

Class: Shattered Healer

Health:32,711/32,711

Mana:7860/7860

Stamina:1230/1230

Hunger: 100/100

Armor Rating:4236[34.35% DMG Reduction]

Strength:75

Agility:60

Constitution:155

Intelligence:61

Spirit:250

Charisma:13

Favor:

Eirene:40,270

Aphrodite: 4,260

Odin: 3,500

Shiva: 2,500

Equipment

Chest:Lynx Leather Armor[978 AC][ENCH: +25HP/5s]

Legs:Lynx Leather Pants[445 AC][ENCH: +25HP/5s]

Feet:Lynx Leather Boots[303 AC][ENCH: +25HP/5s]

Hands:Lynx Leather Gloves[278 AC][ENCH: +25HP/5s]

Back:Vestments of Eirene[1 AC] [O1: +25MP/m]

Accessory[2/3]: Simple Ring, Aegis' Bane[ENCH: MindShell]

Mainhand:Iron Shortsword[51-59DMG][ENCH: +16-20HLYDMG]

Offhand:Iron Shield of Eirene[1327 AC][O1: +250FVR(Eirene)][O2: -5% ABY][ENCH: +25HP/5s]

Class Skills [Shattered Healer]

Heal(Intermediate): Level 90[+7924HP, 480mp]

Smite(Intermediate): Level 12

Cleanse(Intermediate):Level 1

Bless(Intermediate):Level 90 [15m, +111-113 dmg, 215mp]

Healing Wind(Intermediate):Level 90[+871hp/3s, 39s, 449mp]

Aura of Light(Intermediate): Level 1 [1mp/3s, 1m]

Avatar of Eirene(Intermediate): Level 60 [7m55s, +40.2%AC, 40.2%HE, +20.1%Aura]

Path of the Stars: Passive [Eirene]: Passive [3/3]

->[1/3]Aura of Beauty(Intermediate): Level 75 [8.5st/5s, 39mp/5s, 4.7m]

->[2/3]Challenging Roar(Intermediate): Level 90 [21,470threat, 256mp, 22.8m]

->[3/3]Varibhadra(Intermediate): Level 30 [24,5%dmg, 1790mp]

Gentle Touch: Passive [Eirene]

Light of Eirene: Passive[Eirene]

Basic Skills

Shield Mastery(Intermediate): Level 90[+35%]

Abilities: Brace, Shieldwall, Bash[796-804dmg]

Sword Mastery(Beginner):Level 2

Abilities: Parry

Unarmed Combat(Beginner): Level 25

Leather Armor Proficiency(Intermediate): Level 90 [+45%AC, +7MS]

Shadow Resistance: Level 10[10% DMG Reduction]

Fire Resistance: Level 30 [30% DMG Reduction]

Nature Resistance: Level 9 [9% DMG Reduction]

Acid Resistance: Level 25 [25% DMG Reduction]

Poison Resistance: Level 25 [25% DMG Reduction]

Riding(Intermediate):Level 45

Land Vehicle Mastery(Intermediate):Level 30

Leadership(Intermediate):Level 74

Taming(Intermediate): Level 45

Dancing(Beginner): Level 7

Crafting Skills

Mining (Intermediate): Level 36

Proficiencies:[Copper][Iron]

Woodcutting(Intermediate):Level 30

Proficiencies:[Pine][Birch][Ironwood]

Herbalism(Intermediate):Level 61

Creature Harvesting(Intermediate):Level 91

Weaving(Intermediate):Level 33

Sewing(Intermediate): Level 33

Refining(Intermediate):Level 45

Blacksmithing(Intermediate):Level 47

Woodworking(Intermediate):Level 70

Alchemy(Intermediate):Level 32

Tanning(Intermediate): Level 66

Leatherworking(Intermediate):Level 67

Artistry(Intermediate): Level 43

Architecture(Intermediate): Level 88

Scribing(Intermediate): Level 30

Cooking(Intermediate): Level 45

Enchanting(Intermediate):Level 32

??Abilities:Enchant Object

Stone Cutting(Intermediate): Level 79

Farming(Intermediate): Level 30

Crafting Mastery(Intermediate): Level 48

Seeing how high everything had gotten, his confidence slowly built up. He’d started spreading out his attributes from leveling up between spirit, strength, constitution and intelligence. The intelligence was helping improve the power of his spells beyond what the skill level ups alone could do, but stamina and mana were still his biggest issues. Regardless, he was much stronger than he had been several weeks ago.

“Alright. Are we going for the Fisher…” Aegis motioned to the nearest worm-like creature hiding in the underside of one of the giant mushrooms. “Or, one of the snails?” He pointed at the ceiling of the cavern where the snails were hanging amongst the stalactites.

“I kinda like the snails. I think they’re cute.” Pyri commented.

“Really? Snails?” Aegis raised his eyebrows at her.

“What?” They’re just slinking around, having a good time. I don’t want to hurt them.” Pyri replied.

“Okay. fine. Fisher first.” Aegis sighed as he took a few steps forward towards the nearest one. Walking away from the cavern wall and into the mushroom forest felt surreal, but he continued forward nonetheless.

“How do you reckon we get it to come down?” Darkshot asked.

“I reckon you could just shoot it.” Aegis suggested.

“Yeah. Okay. I reckon I will.” Darkshot huffed back as he nocked an arrow, and Aegis quickly spread his bless buff to the party. With weapons drawn they all looked up eagerly at the worm-like creature and waited for the arrow to hit.

When Darkshot fired at it, the creature immediately let out an aggravated chittering sound and uncoiled itself, then lashed downward at them using its body like a whip. The back of its worm body remained connected to the underside of the mushroom through several large hooks it had growing out of its tail that were dug into the mushroom.

Its skin was a pure, milky white with a round mouth that opened to reveal circular rows of thin sharp needle-like fangs. Rather than eyes, its mouth was surrounded with feeler-like stingers that Darkshot had to jump back and avoid. [Reltrak Fisher - Level 103] stood above its head as it pulled its head back and prepared to lunge out again at Darkshot, before Aegis moved to stand between it and him.

“Challenging Roar!” Aegis shouted to get its attention. Once he had, the party began dealing damage with their various attacks and spells. Aegis was anxious to see just how dangerous this enemy would be - even though they were now level 85, the Fisher was still significantly higher level than them.

You take 13,213 Piercing damage.

Iron Shield of Eirene has been afflicted with Petrification and is no longer usable.

“Huh?” Aegis said as the front of the Fisher crashed into his shield with its stingers, and a second later, his shield suddenly got incredibly heavy and turned into dark gray stone. “Shit.” Aegis panicked as the creature reeled its body back and prepared to strike again, while the others looked to see what was going on.

“It’s petrifying?” Rakkan asked.

“Yeah, the stingers, don’t let them touch you!” Aegis shouted as he quickly unequipped his stone shield for another one, but rather than block another hit he opted to sidestep the strike. The forward momentum of the Fisher’s lunge attack carried its body past Aegis, but as it pulled back again it swerved itself outward to try and hit him with its stingers. “Guard!” Aegis shouted at the last second, creating a shield projection in front of himself just in time to block the stinger tendrils from lashing out at him as he recovered from his dodging motion,

You take 16210 Piercing damage.

“Healing wind. Heal.” Aegis began casting as he watched the creature coil back. “This thing is nasty, kill it fast please.” Aegis said as he saw Pyri’s four cinderbolts burning it, Rakkan and his two echoes striking at it, and Darkshot and Lina relentlessly hitting it alongside Snowflake.

“Try running away, you know? Kiting it!” Darkshot suggested.

“No, if I get out of its attack range it might turn on you guys.” Aegis replied as he prepared to dodge another lunging attack. This time he was prepared for both the forward strike, and the backward strike, and jumped wider to avoid it. As he did though, he spotted the stingers dragging along the mossy floor of the cavern. The moss too turned into hard stone just from touching them, and it quickly spread out across the floor to touch Aegis’ leather boots.

Lynx Leather Boots have been afflicted with Petrification and are no longer usable.

“Son of a…” Aegis said as his feet suddenly got stuck to the floor. His boots had become cemented to the stone moss around them and he could no longer move his feet at all. He saw this a bit late - as the Fisher prepared to lunge at him again, he anxiously moved into his interface and unequipped his shoes just in time to free his feet and allow him to jump out of the way of the Fisher’s lunging attack, then rolling a second time as it pulled its body back towards the stalk of the mushroom it was hanging from.

It dragged its stingers long the mossy cavern floor again, though, and this time Aegis had no shoes to protect him. He anxiously ran away from the petrification as it spread out from the point that the Fisher had touched it for two meters before it stopped.

“No wonder the snails don’t go near these things.” Aegis commented as he felt the strange spongy moss beneath his bare feet - it was not a good feeling to walk along it without shoes on. He was forced to dodge its strikes a few more times barefoot, but after that he got a better sense of what the fisher was capable of and managed it okay.

When the Fisher had taken enough damage, it let out one final chittering screech as it released its hooks on the underside of the mushroom and dropped to the petrified mossy floor of the cavern below it, coiling in on itself as it died.

“From my perspective, that thing was really easy to fight.” Darkshot shrugged with a smirk as he looked over at the annoyed, out of breath and bare foot Aegis who glared back at him.

“I need a new pair of shoes. Gimme yours.” Aegis held his hands out to him expectantly.

“No way, I’m not walking barefoot on that stuff.” He motioned to the green slimy stains on Aegis’ feet from walking on the moss. Aegis just sighed as the others gathered around and he took his petrified shoes and shield out of his inventory.

“Anyone know how to remove petrification?” Aegis asked them.

“Nope. I remember dispel magic didn’t work on it, back when I was a sage.” Rakkan shrugged.

“What about cleanse?” Aegis asked rhetorically as he went into the database in his interface to look up cleanse. “No… higher levels remove poison, diseases, and curses.” Aegis sighed.

“Petrification is one of the worst status conditions. I think there’s elixirs and oils that get rid of it from alchemy…” Lina shrugged.

“Hm.” Aegis said as he closed out his interface and took out his creature harvesting tools, getting to work on the Fisher. Once he’d finished, all he’d gotten from it was some decent quality Fisher Meat, and showed it to the group. “Doesn’t look that tasty…” He commented, then spotted Snowflake practically drooling over it, and hucked a piece towards him which he caught in his mouth and gulped down excitedly.

“Maybe there’s something in this forest that helps remove petrification?” Pyri suggested as she looked around at their surroundings at the various odd fungi and other plants growing amidst the moss.

“Yeah, I’ll gather a bit of it all and mess around with it.” Aegis nodded as he joined her in looking. “What happens if one of us gets petrified?” Aegis asked Lina.

“When you are petrified, you get an option that appears on your screen - you can choose to kill your character and be logged out for 24 hours in-game time, or wait for someone to remove it. Also, if your stone statue form is broken in any way, you’ll die instantly.” Lina explained.

“Jeez, talk about rough.” Darkshot shook his head.

“The upside is, it’s a monster only debuff - players don’t get access to it.” Lina shrugged.

“You sure about that?” Rakkan asked her curiously.

“Yes.” Lina nodded. “An Averon developer said so.” She added.

“Let’s avoid walking near any mushrooms with those fisher things then, at least until I can figure out how to unpetrify my shoes.” Aegis replied as he started walking forward, deeper into the mushroom forest. The others didn't hesitate to follow along behind him.

It wasn’t long before they got deep enough into the forest that they could no longer see any cavern walls around them, making it hard to tell that they were underground at all. Darkshot utilized his high level 90 tracking skill to easily spot out any of the Mosstrappers that were hiding along the cavern floor, while the rest of them kept their heads tilted upwards at the undersides of the mushrooms to avoid walking near any of the mushrooms that had Fishers hiding in them. All the while the ceiling of the cavern above them remained dotted intermittently with the snails that hung amidst the stalactites in their stony shells.

The sound of running water got louder the further they walked into the mushroom forest, as did the ever-present green fog that hovered over the surface of the moss. It thickened the further into the Reltrak Forest that they went, and they began hearing sounds of odd squeaking creatures and cricket chirps, creating a strange, underground forest ambience. They didn’t encounter the creatures making the sounds until they finally spotted a gap in the green fog - it was a sign that they’d finally found and reached the river. There was a strange looking collection of round gray insects gathered on the bank of the river that fluttered away as they approached, and the chirping sounds stopped once they had.

Walking closer to the river, they were all surprised to see just how wide it was. The moss of the cavern floor grew right up to the edge, then a second, dark blueish moss could be seen growing along the riverbed under the clear water that spanned 6 meters across. It was deep, but the dark blue moss in the water had aquamarine colored orbs growing from white stems, allowing them to see the bottom easily.

Aegis and his party walked right up to the edge of the running water and looked around curiously.

“Swim across?” Rakkan suggested. Aegis turned to Snowflake and saw Snowflake sniff the water, then pull his head back.

“Better not, looks like something is funny with this water.” Aegis said after seeing Snowflake’s behavior.

“You’re not going to make us rope it again, are you?” Darkshot asked.

“Nope. We’ve got Snowflake with us.” Aegis grinned as he motioned Darkshot towards Snowflake’s saddle, and Snowflake obediently knelt down to let him climb on.

“You sure he’s not going to drop me in the water?” Darkshot asked as he approached the beast with caution.

“Snowflake would never do that. He’s a good boy, right buddy?” Aegis said in a babying voice as he ruffled his feathers, and Snowflake squawked back excitedly.

“Alright.” Darkshot hesitantly climbed onto the back of Snowflake and held on awkwardly.

“Just fly him across the river, okay?” Aegis instructed Snowflake, who nodded back, then with a big leap and several violent flaps of his wings, he took off into the air and landed on the opposite side of the river. Lina shadowstepped across, Pyri flew across, and Aegis and Rakkan got quick rides from Snowflake as well.

As Aegis flew over top of the river last, however, he spotted a strangely shaped stone object amidst the blue moss under the water.

“Whoa, hang on.” Aegis pointed it out as Snowflake landed beside the others. He hopped off of Snowflakes back and moved to the edge of the river, now on the other side, and motioned to it. “Do you guys see that? There’s something in the water.” Aegis pointed it out as the others moved to stand beside him and looked.

“Oh yeah…” Darkshot squinted. “Looks like a face.”

“A mask, maybe?” Rakkan added, also squinting.

“Hard to say, there’s a lot of moss growing on and around it.” Pyri shrugged. “Should I swim down and grab it?” Pyri offered.

“I dunno, that water is pretty shady. It looks too clean, in a forest filled with moss and mushrooms and poison bugs.”

“I’ll be fine.” Pyri shrugged as she took a step in the water, and immediately pulled her foot back out after having taken 6340 damage and winced from the pain, hopping around for a bit until two seconds later, the pain vanished and she put her foot back down. “Ow.” She declared as she stomped the foot back down on the moss. “Acid.” She announced to the others.

“Of course it’s acidic.” Aegis sighed.

“You weren’t kidding when you said everything down here is trying to kill us.” Darkshot said with a nod towards Lina and she shrugged back at him. “Well, I guess the mystery of the underwater mask will have to go unsolved.” Darkshot turned to Aegis, only to see he was already unequipping his armor.

“I’m going in.” Aegis declared, already nearly half naked. “Profanity filters, on.” Aegis ordered them.

“I’m not going to see anything I haven’t already seen.” Pyri waved this instruction off, while Rakkan, Darkshot and Lina all looked away. Once he’d unequipped it all, he took a deep breath and prepared to dive in.

“Nothing like taking a swim in a river of acid.” He grumbled to himself, then quickly dove into the water towards the moss-covered mask.

You take 5,430 Acid damage.

It burned horribly, all over his body. It felt as though his skin was melting, but he fought through the pain as he swam with his eyes open through the clear liquid towards the mask.

You take 5,360 Acid damage

The damage came a second time after three seconds of being submerged, but in this time he’d reached the mask and reached out to grab it, only to find that it wasn’t a mask, but attached to a full, humanoid body that was covered in the dark blue moss. As he took a third hit of acid damage, he worked furiously to rip the moss off of the humanoid creature and get it free from the ground.

It was a struggle, and the statue was heavy, but Aegis had a strong feeling that this wasn’t just a statue, so he was determined to break it free. By the 5th hit of acid damage, his health had gotten dangerously low, but he managed to free the statue and swam up with it to the surface. He had to release it near the river bank though to get out of the acid fast enough before the next hit of damage on him.

As he emerged from the acid, he gasped for air and shook his body violently to work through the pain of the acid damage.

“Fuck me, that hurts.” Aegis shouted angrily as he began casting heals on himself. Hearing his voice, the others instinctively turned around to look, only to see that Aegis was still completely naked and turned back away from him again.

“Put some clothes back on.” Darkshot complained.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Aegis replied as Pyri reached into the acid river to grab at the statue near the bank and pulled it out the rest of the way for Aegis. A few moments later, Aegis was fully dressed, and Pyri had stood the statue upright so that they could all look at it.

The statue of the creature had a head that resembled a tree stump, with an opening in the bark for its eyes, and nose. Under the nostril holes the bark-like skin faded and transitioned into a normal looking human chin, but it had no ears and instead had several broken branches growing out of the upper half of its tree-stump head in place of hair.

It was short, the height of a child, and had leather armor and leggings indicating that it was civilized, or at least smart enough to wear equipment. Its skin on its hands looked bumpy, with an odd texture, and its fingers had stubby, mushroom-like endings. It was hard to make out more details than that, though, as the statue was all one color and solidified.

“What is it?” Darkshot asked as they eyed the humanoid creature up and down.

“I don’t know. It’s humanoid, but it’s not any of the playable races.” Lina replied.

“Looks like a kid.” Rakkan added.

“Is it friendly?” Pyri asked.

“Only one way to find out. Guess it’s time I start acting like a doctor and find a cure for petrification.” Aegis grinned as he cracked his knuckles and began scanning the surrounding forest for useful herbs.

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