The crowd of onlookers cleared a path for the three. Aegis led Serenity and Ishmoore through them, ignoring their gawking eyes and whispers of curiosity. Lina and Darkshot trailed further behind, equally confused about where Aegis was taking them. Over several roots, he sent party invitations to the pair, to which they accepted.
Hae-won and Aegis livestream audience were as filled with excited anticipation as the onlookers in-game, but Aegis kept a straight, serious expression. His short walk led him to the Forge of Rene, where Tullan was putting the finishing touches on the clean-up job. The new eternal flame had already been installed, and a few low-level smiths were using it.
More curiously, even to Lina, was that Rakkan had stopped training the guards and was already waiting at the forge for them. He gave a knowing nod to Aegis when they arrived, which was reciprocated.
“You know what his test is? What’s the test?” Darkshot asked Rakkan with scrunched brows. Rakkan let out a light chuckle and didn’t answer. “C’mon? What is it?”
“Yeh need the forge?” Tullan asked.
“Only two crafting stations,” Aegis replied. Lina’s mouth went wide; she realized what the test was going to be. Darkshot saw this and growled at her.
Darkshot saw this and growled at her. “You too? What is it?”
No answer from Lina.
Serenity and Ishmoore exchanged nervous glances. Aegis stopped in front of two empty crafting stations, turned, and faced the two players.
“Both of you have your pain threshold set to 10?” Aegis asked.
“Yes,” Serenity nodded, straightening her back as she spoke with her arms stiff at her sides.
“Of course,” Ishmoore said.
“Good, Aura of Light,” Aegis motioned with his arms to the door leading into the forge, where the Eternal flame. His healing aura briefly flashed light outward from his feet, pulsing healing magic to all who stood within it. “When I count to three, I want both of you to put your hands on the Eternal Flame. The first one to let go, or lower their pain threshold below 10, loses.”
Their eyes went wide, while Aegis looked over their shoulder to the gasping, shocked crowd. The murmurs and whispers died down, and Aegis spotted Sapphire and Kayliera amongst them.
“Could you guys help out with keeping them alive?” Aegis asked.
Sapphire, with a carrot in hand, shook her head and took a loud crunchy bite. “You’re sadistic. I like it, let's do this.” Sapphire positioned herself behind Ishmoore.
Kayliera moved to stand beside Serenity, and the two locked eyes. Kayliera gave Serenity a look of sympathy as Serenity gulped the saliva in her dry mouth.
“You’re gonna torture them? For real?” Darkshot shouted in disbelief, echoing the sentiment from several other onlookers. Aegis ignored Darkshot, as did his companions.
“One,” Aegis shouted, his voice quickly silencing the crowd.
“Ooh, I ain’t watchin’ this. I nicked that flame puttin’ it in me inventory, and whew, did not feel good,” Tullan turned away from the scene.
“Two,” complete silence. Ishmoore and Serenity stepped up to their respective crafting stations, where the metal doors into the forge were open. The blazing heat from the eternal flame simmered outward, causing the air to haze. Sapphire and Kayliera’s hands shone with magic, pre-casting healing spells.
“Three.”
Ishmoore and Serenity reached out their right hands, stuck them into the forge, grabbed the giant, blazing red orb, and placed their hands on it. Before even making contact, the fire damage streamed in, offset by heals from Aegis splitting his healing spell to both of them, his aura of light, and heal spamming cast by Kayliera and Sapphire.
Ishmoore bit down on his lip and scrunched his eyes shut, groaning within his mouth. Serenity let out a high-pitched cry of agony, leaning her body as far back as possible from the point of contact and facing her head away to avoid the blazing heat directly on her face.
Their healthbars immediately began to yo-yo up and down, taking massive amounts of fire damage that would otherwise kill them within seconds if not for the heals. Neither had nearly the level of Fire Resistance as Aegis did, and it showed, but they were leveling it up incredibly fast.
Ishmoore held his pain in at first, while Serenity let it out. Their roles reversed within 25 seconds. Serenity stifled her cries and screams, but wore the pain on her face. Ishmoore began to let out loud grunts, breathing heavily. Both of their faces were seared red, sweat rolling off their bodies.
60 seconds passed, and both refused to let go. The crowds murmuring picked up, most cheering them on, others shouting displeasure at Aegis’ test. The displeasure and calls to stop prompted Darkshot to speak up.
“Yo Aegis, is this really proving anything? You’re torturing a pop-idol right now, yknow?” Darkshot said with uan ncomfortable laugh.
“I don’t care,” Aegis replied coldly. “Our enemies won’t care. This isn’t for fun. This isn’t meant to be entertaining, to increase viewership, or to prove a point. Listen,” Aegis turned to the crowd. “Watching entertaining fights of desperation is one thing, but living through them can be hell. I’ve been through that hell with Rakkan, Lina, and Darkshot. I’ve had to stand up to the Avatars of Suffering, fight through Jealousy’s petrification, deal with swarms of enemies with little to no resources, all odds stacked against us. You really expect us to be able to trust you in our party so easily? We’re just getting started. So let me say it again. This isn’t for fun. We won’t be setting out to have fun. It may look fun on a livestream broadcast, but it won’t be for us.”
Aegis turned back to face Serenity and Ishmoore, who, through their pain, opened their eyes to look back at him, his holy light repeatedly mending their singed bodies. “We’re fighting enemies that will do whatever they can to rip us to pieces in any way possible, so that everyone else can continue to have fun in this game. If we fail, everyone loses.”
The pair held their determined expressions. Aegis’s eye twitched, and he gave a nodding motion to Rakkan. “Add crushing damage, keep it fair.”
Without a word, Rakkan created two echoes armed with mithral mauls.
“Hey, hey, what kind of healers do you think we are?” Sapphire gasped as she saw the echoes approaching Serenity and Ishmoore from behind.
“Need more volunteers,” Aegis waved toward the crowd nonchalantly. A few cleric players anxiously stepped forward, diving themselves up between Ishmoore and Serenity. “Better?”
“Hae-won’s gonna kill us,” Lina said, wincing as Rakkan’s echoes pulled their mauls back. He aimed both swings at Ishmoore's and Serenity's stomachs, both hits landing simultaneously.
Loud screams of agony shot out from both of them as their cores buckled from the blows, both stumbling into the searing forge, but quickly pulling themselves away from the flame as much as possible, aside from their arms.
Serenity flailed her left arm up in front of her face, hitting a button in her interface that had popped up. Aegis recognized it as the mental limit warning.
“Again.”
Rakkan’s maul pulled back and swung a second time. Another duet of agony filled the ears of the crowd. They began to protest, yelling at Aegis.
“No one’s telling you guys to watch this. No one is making them hold on and do this. Let go and walk away if it’s too hard,” Aegis roared back at them. He snapped his fingers towards Rakkan, signalling him to strike again.
As they recovered from this third hit, he saw Ishmoore hitting his first mental notification away with his left hand. There were enough healers now keeping them alive that Aegis could let up and take to pacing.
“Why’re you trying to join us, Ishmoore? A member of Schadenfreude, you failed to beat Seraxus for months. That must’ve been painful, to try your best with a guild of determined players, only to fail to kill a single player. Over and over again. Endless failure. Was it your fault? Was it your guildmates' fault? Were they holding you back?”
Ishmoore opened his mouth to reply to Aegis words, but the moment he did, Aegis snapped his fingers so that Rakkan hit him again, causing him to shout out in pain instead.
“Serenity, you’re ashamed you were a part of VGN, and want to make up for past mistakes? What are you trying to prove? Everyone thinks of you as a cute face and a nice voice. You think joining us, anyone's gonna take you seriously? Will anyone accept you as a party member? How important is it to you to be liked, versus doing what your party needs you to do?”
Serenity didn’t bother trying to reply, as she already knew another maul swing was coming.
“Aegis…” Herilon gave him a look, stepping in front of the crowd. Aegis glared back at Herilon, causing him to throw his hands up. Aegis turned his attention back to the two.
“This is only pain threshold 10. It’s gonna be way worse. If you can’t take it, walk away. Avatar of Suffering will do worse than this. Avatar of Fear will dig out your insecurities and pull at your deepest, darkest thoughts. Avatar of Anger will seek to get a rise out of you in any way possible. So what makes you guys angry? What are you afraid of? How much suffering can you take?”
Aegis snapped his fingers again, and two more maul strikes came in. This time, neither of them cried out in pain. A light smile crept up over Aegis’ face.
“Okay. Good. Now, Avatar of Death,” Aegis turned to Darkshot and tapped his shoulder, casting a blessing on him.
“Huh? What? You’re not making me partake in this torture fest,” Darkshot took a step back toward the crowd and threw his hands up.
“No torture, put them out of their misery. Aim for both of their heads, a killshot if it lands,” Aegis instructed.
“Why do I gotta be the bad guy here?”
Aegis shrugged. “The longer you take, the longer they suffer.”
Darkshot rolled his eyes and pulled his bow off his back, knocking an arrow and stepping a few more feet away.
“No countdown, take a shot every few seconds. Mix in the maul hits.” Aegis instructed his party members. “Ishmoore and Serenity, you guys can use whatever skills you have to stay alive, but don’t let go of the eternal flame.”
He moved behind Darkshot, crossed his arms, and observed. Neither Ishmoore nor Serenity could afford to wince anymore, as after two seconds, Darkshot loosed an arrow with multishot, aiming directly at both of their foreheads.
Serenity shifted her head to the side, while Ishmoore activated a burst of purple warlock magic to deflect the arrow away from his head. Darkshot pulled another arrow from his quiver and repeated, followed by another strike from Rakkan. The healers made sure to stay clear of the action, and both players were now taking a noticeably lessened amount of fire damage from the flame due to the rise in their Fire Resistance skill.
This continued for another 30 seconds, and both managed everything at once without much issue.
“There’s no way I woulda passed these tests,” Ren said to Tullan, who was still refusing to watch. “Would you still be in this Herilon?”
“You kidding me?” Herilon looked at Ren as if the answer was obvious. “This is my morning routine.” He got a few laughs from the crowd.
Suddenly, Aegis raised his hands up. “Stop. Take your hands off the flame, both of you. It’s over.”
Rakkan cancelled his echoes, and Darkshot lowered his bow. Both Ishmoore and Serenity stepped away from the eternal flame, Serenity shaking out her hand, her legs giving out as she fell to her knees. Kaito, Kenji, and Yuki were the first to rush from the crowd to her side, while on Ishmoore’s end, Mightymira and other members of Schaudenfreude ran to him. Sapphire and Kayliera cleared away to join Herilon, Ren, and Tullan.
Mumbling and muttering amongst the onlookers erupted, as they curiously asked what had happened and who had won. Rakkan, Lina, and Darkshot were as curious, eying Aegis to see his every move.
Aegis turned his head downward, shaking his head in disappointment. “Mighta worked if she wasn’t so persistent. There’s no way for me to check your pain threshold level, but I’m not an idiot,” he lifted his head to glare in Ishmoore’s direction. “What’s it actually at?”
“Hah? It’s at 10!” Ishmoore shouted back at him, pushing the other Schaudenfreude members away.
“By comparing the initial fire damage both of you were taking, I can roughly estimate that your Fire Resistance skill was at 26, and Serenity’s was at 20. If you were both at a 10 pain threshold, it’d be impossible for her to pass you. For the last few seconds, she was taking fire damage equal to someone at a Fire Resistance skill of 37, while yours is, I’m guessing, 34 or 35? I’m not exact with my math, but it was all livestreamed, so we can go review the numbers if you’d like,” Aegis explained.
Ishmoore went quiet, while Serenity lifted her head up, looking over her companions and fidgeting with her interface.
“It’s 37 exactly…” Serenity whispered with an impressed tone.
“Whatever, you really expect people to go through a test like that? At the end of the day, it’s just a game, isn’t it?” Ishmoore shouted angrily. “Even at threshold 5, that hurt like hell. You’d have to be a psycho to do that at 10 willingly,” he directed these words to Serenity.
Aegis ignored Ishmoore, stepped forward, and extended his hand towards Serenity with a smile.