Aegis found a large trunk growing from the base of Bihi to hop up onto, so that all the gathered players could see him clearly. Darkshot and Lina followed him up. He didn’t need to clear his throat to get the attention of the crowd; they were already attentive and silently staring up at him, waiting for him to speak.
All manner of levels, races, classes, and gear shimmered in the light of Bihi’s glowing white leaves. Some giddy whispers echoed over the sounds of shifting feet and armor. It was otherwise dead, awkward silence.
“Ah,” Aegis scratched the back of his head awkwardly, glancing to Lina and Darkshot, who both had their mouths agape. “So, uh, I guess we will be needing a 5th player to fill out our final party slot before we set out into the abyss, and I assume that is what you’re all here for?” Aegis asked. He got no answer, but many of the players nodded excitedly.
He took the time to look over them more closely and recognized quite a few of the faces mixed in within the crowd, including a few last-minute attenders; Trexon, Yorgi, Ren, and as a big surprise, Serenity snuck into the bunch as well, leaving Kenji and Kaito behind to watch from a distance. He watched Herilon give an encouraging thumbs-up to Kayliera, the Night Hunter druid, before she, too, joined in the massive crowd.
Aegis turned to Lina with a desperation on his face. “What should I say?”
Lina held back a giggle. “Tell them what we’re looking for, first.” She whispered. Aegis gave a nod.
With an awkward clearing of his throat, he stepped forward. “Playing with us isn’t fun and games. It’s hard work. No slacking, endless focus, very little rest. If you’ve got a job or something else that otherwise takes you away from the game for long periods of time, it won’t work well with what we’re setting out to do, so I’ll have to disqualify anyone who can’t play as much as possible. Dreamstate sim-boxes preferred.” Aegis shouted clearly. To his surprise, this worked in disqualifying a decent number of players, who lowered their heads and sighed. Disappointed, but none appeared particularly surprised or upset.
“We’re also specifically looking for players who have already completed their advanced class quests and advanced weapon mastery quests. Your class will need to be magic-oriented, so druids, wizards, warlocks, or subclasses of other classes that involve heavy magic use. If not enough people remain after these conditions, we may consider others, but for now, that’s what we need.” Aegis said.
“What if I look very magical while I swing my sword?” Herilon shouted from the back, heavy sarcasm. A few people laughed as the crowd shrank drastically. Players were obediently clearing out of the area, but perched themselves up on nearby roots to get a view of the remaining ‘applicants’ to see what would happen.
“Sorry, doesn’t count,” Aegis replied, and Herilon let out a fake sigh of disappointment that got a few more laughs. Several dozen contenders remained, but Aegis was at a loss for what to say next. Ren and Trexon sat out voluntarily after the conditions were laid, leaving just Yorgi and Kayliera from the Night Hunters. Yumily stood at the back, and a tough-looking black-haired gnome wearing the Schadenfreude tabard from Mikael’s guild stood at the front, dark purple tattoos imprinted on his body to indicate he was a warlock. [Ishmoore - Level 165].
After eying the bunch, Aegis turned to Lina and Darkshot. “You guys got anything you want to add? Tests or whatever? I’ve no idea what I’m doing, but we need someone like us. Someone determined, will do what it takes, you know, yadda yadda,” he waved his hands awkwardly.
Darkshot confidently slapped his hand on Aegis’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” He stepped past Aegis and rubbed his hands together. “Alright, everyone, listen up. This party isn’t only Aegis, and we’ve gotta vibe together, and be strong together. I’ve got some important tests for everyone before we can move forward, and it’ll help narrow it down. These tests may seem fun, but they’re serious. Trust me,” Darkshot crossed his arms.
With those words alone, Aegis regretted letting Darkshot up front.
His first test was for every applicant to tell a funny joke, insisting it would prove they could all get along. He followed that up by asking each player 5 Shattered World-related trivia questions related to either the Avatars or PvP and class skills. Aegis suspected Darkshot was half-using the trivia as a way to show off how much he knew about the game now, since he’d started PvPing in the last few months.
A few more ‘tests’ went by, each more ridiculous than the last, and Aegis had half a mind to step in, but everyone was getting into it, with those disqualified standing back and cheering on the remaining applicants, until finally, Darkshot managed to whittle it down to 5 players.
Yorgi, Ishmoore, Kayliera, a high-elf wizard named Waxstal who resembled a male version of Pyri, oddly, and lastly, Serenity.
“That’s all I got,” Darkshot shrugged. Aegis turned to Lina, who shrugged as well, leaving Aegis to step forward once again.
A Warlock, A druid, two Wizards, and a Bard. One of each of the primary magic classes. Each had pros and cons to bring to the table as their 5th member.
The five of them lined up as cheers from the observers died down, and Aegis hopped off the root of Bihi to pace in front of them, avoiding eye contact. His mind wandered as he considered each of them.
Yorgi, a sage, had reliable utility skills and portals, but lacked the offensive ability to hold his own. That weakness was offset by the fact that everyone in the group already knew him, and they’d already fought together on numerous occasions.
Kayliera was in a similar boat; she offered more crowd control and healing, as well as debuff removal, but lacked offensive power. Trustworthy and reliable, though, and likely knew the stakes of joining his group, as Yorgi did.
No doubt all of these five know the stakes, though. That shouldn’t be a deciding factor.
Serenity had a lot of utility and offensive power. She’d fought with Aegis before, too, but he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d be able to handle the harsh conditions of grinding for weeks on end; her gameplay up to this point had been focused on performances, and she had her own stream to worry about. It made Aegis ponder why it was she wanted to join, leaving him scratching his chin for a moment.
The last two, an elementalist wizard and a warlock, were both unknowns, but both classes had great offensive power and utility that they could offer the group. The deciding factor would have to be outside of their classes, and rather than who they were as people, Aegis decided.
With a deep breath, he strapped his shield to his left arm and took a fighting stance. “I want each of you to take turns attacking me with your most powerful attack. I want you to put all of your feelings into the attack, focus on why you want to join us, and why you think you’d be a great fit.”
One by one, they drew out their weapons and cast buffs and enchantments on themselves as their classes allowed.
“We’ll go left to right,” Aegis said while motioning to the leftmost of the five. Ishmoore, the warlock, stepped forward with runes glowing over his body. The others took a step back, and Lina’s hands instinctively moved to the hilts of her daggers.
“Yo Aegis, I know you’re tanky and all, but what if one of them manages to kill you?” Darkshot asked from atop the root.
Aegis smirked. “If one of them manages that, they can join right away.”
These words caused a grin of determination to creep across Ishmoore’s face, and his entire body gave off a deep purple glow.
“Ready?” Ishmoore asked, a german accept similar to Mikael’s.
“Give it your best shot.”
Ishmoore rushed forward and crashed into Aegis’ shield with his body, using it as a glowing purple battering ram. “Dark Comet!” he cast, and purple magic exploded from the point of impact against Aegis’ shield. He managed to brace the hit, but even so, a massive number appeared.
You take 67, 340 void damage.
The brace and shield did very little to stop the pain of the attack from surging through Aegis, causing him to stumble backward for a moment before recollecting himself. When the explosion of light faded and revealed Aegis still standing, the spectators cheered while Ishmoore let out a sigh of disappointment.
“Dang. You’re a tough bastard. That was a fully infused 12-hour cooldown with maximum soulpower saved up,” Ishmoore said with widened eyes. Aegis only vaguely knew what most of that meant; he didn’t have the knowledge of Warlock skills fresh in his mind.
“It was a good hit,” Aegis nodded apologetically. “Next.”
Waxstal stepped forward and hit Aegis with a meteor flame blast, doing less than 10,000. Yorgi and Kayliera did their best as well, but as Aegis suspected, lacked the offensive power to put a dent in Aegis’ hitpoints.
Finally, Serenity stepped forward with her instruments floating behind her, glowing pink.
She locked eyes with Aegis and took an anxious breath in before waving her fingers, shooting out a music note from her floating Violin. The note arced, swirled, and formed into a large pink magical arrow that shimmered and swirled, music notes wrapping themselves around it and dancing at the back of the arrow.
It shot forth at Aegis in an instant and exploded onto his shield, dealing 30,981 psychic damage and giving him a debuff that made him deaf for 10 seconds. It took a moment for his hearing to come back, and the strange sensation caused by the psychic attack to leave his mind.
Once it cleared, he healed himself to full and eyed the five of them for a brief moment before pointing at Waxstal.
“You’re not a fit for our party.”
Waxstal was taken aback and let out an odd, surprised grumbling sound. “Why not?”
“Of all the spells an elementalist should have, you went with fire, of which I’ve got the strongest resistance. Not that I feel you should know that, but you could infer it from knowing about where mithril comes from. The choice of fire proves you’re lacking knowledge in several key areas, and I didn’t feel much from you when your attack hit.”
Waxstal’s eyes went weird for a minute, as if he had more he wanted to say, but the spectators were shouting out things like ‘nice try’, ‘good try’, and other polite phrases that encouraged him to politely bow and walk away.
“Yorgi and Kayliera, I felt your determination, but I don’t think it’s from a place that’s suited to join our party directly. I value you both as members of the Night Hunters and friends, though,” Aegis bowed respectfully.
“Yeah, figured as much. Good luck,” Yorgi turned to Ishmoore and Serenity, and Kayliera smiled and bowed politely to Lina, Darkshot, and Aegis.
The crowd clapped and cheered as they backed away, leaving only two. Darkshot and Lina hopped down from the root to flank Aegis. Serenity nervously looked at her feet, while Ishmoore stared forward confidently.
“The Eirene passive helps get a sense of people's emotions when they attack me. You both had a lot of it, both regret, and anger. I don’t need either of you to explain where it comes from; I can presume, from what I know of both of you, or where you’ve come from. You’d both fit perfectly into our party and be strong allies to help us reach our goals…” Aegis paced a few times as he considered them both, and one final test came to his mind.