Spiteful Healer

Chapter 106: Odin's Challenge

“This is way better.” Rakkan said with a big smile as they stood in front of Kordas' Temple of Odin. There were no walls, or curtains, or archways. No bushes, fountains, or gardens of any kind. The road from the Kordas temple district branched down a long walkway flanked by statues of mighty warriors wielding large weapons in intimidating poses, and beyond them stood the Temple of Odin, a large round stone building surrounded by a ring of pillars holding up a plain stone overhang.

Walking towards and away from the temple were fully armored, fully armed players and NPCs. There weren’t just priests and priestesses of Odin, but fighter, thief, and even druid, wizard, and warlock class players moving about. It was noisy, rough, and a refreshing change of pace for everyone after the Aphrodite temple.

“So what skill are you trying to get from Odin?” Darkshot asked curiously.

“Challenging Roar. The crusader taunt skill.” Aegis declared with enthusiasm.

“Oh, then we won’t have to worry about monsters attacking us anymore, right?” Pyri asked excitedly.

“Exactly. I should be able to keep them all focused on me a lot easier.” Aegis nodded.

“What do you think we’re going to have to do to gain favor with Odin?” Darkshot asked.

“Hopefully not pose naked.” Aegis replied apprehensively as he started walking forward towards the temple. “Let’s find the High Priest and ask him.” he said, and they all followed Aegis towards the main building.

"I'm not even gonna ask." Rakkan whispered under his breath.

The inside looked no different than an Ancient Roman Colisseum. There was a large main hall that led straight ahead to an open arena that they could partially see into from the entryway. There were several doors branching off the main hall, but everyone around them seemed primarily interested in heading towards the central part of the coliseum. The interior of the hall itself was sparsely decorated, save for a large statue of Odin constructed in the middle, depicted with his arms crossed and staring down at Aegis and the others as they entered.

Rather than stop and ask for the location of the High Priest of Odin, they opted to first get a look at the center of the coliseum. They walked through the long gray stone tiled hall straight ahead and came out the other side into a large circular arena. It was a large oval shaped arena floor surrounded by 4 meter high walls with wooden spikes sticking out of the base of them, pointed inwards. Then, above the walls were rings upon rings of stone seats, broken up occasionally by staircases leading from the lowest row to the highest, with multiple entrances into the stands at various points around the rings.

On the far side, near the lowest level of the seating area, was a large raised stone platform that protruded out of the ring of seats around it, and on it were several rows of much larger, fancy looking stone chairs, with tables of food in front of them. There, Aegis saw several important looking NPCs as they looked down at the ongoing battle in the arena below them.

Currently, there were quite a few players scattered about the seating watching the battle, but it was closer to being empty than it was full given the size of the place. In the arena itself sat four pillars in a square formation, and in the center of those Aegis saw a party of five players currently battling with what looked to be a giant Minotaur.

The Minotaur was easily the size of a house and had huge curved horns protruding forward out of the sides of its forehead. Its muscles were massive and it was wielding a giant double sided battle axe with armored greaves on its legs. The front of its chest was covered in tan colored hair, while the rest of the hair that covered the creature's body up to its snout was dark brown. Finally, on its bull-like snout it had a large iron ring hanging from it, and as it stomped towards the party of players, Aegis could see its hooves equipped with iron plated horse-shoes.

As they took in this view, all five of them felt themselves drawn to watching the battle. The party of five in the arena were struggling against the Minotaur. Initially they were putting up a decent fight, but slowly they lost ground as it became apparent they were running low on stamina.

“Oooh, that’s not good. I think that protector player can’t block anymore, too low stamina.” Darkshot pointed it out as they watched the player in front with a shield start kiting instead of trying to block the axe.

“He should put down that sword and pick up a steak.” Aegis commented.

“That dragoon is barely attacking. Why’s he attacking so slow?” Rakkan sucked his teeth as he pointed out a fighter wielding a spear that was furiously stabbing at the back of the minotaurs legs. They watched a bit longer, but once the tank player got taken out, the others fell one by one. When the player's health hit 1, though, Aegis noticed they didn’t die, but rather they locked in place like stone statues.

Once all five of them had been defeated by the Minotaur, it disappeared and the five players unlocked and were able to move again.

“Hah. Good show, but the Mighty Minotaur is victorious once again!” A loud booming voice echoed across the stadium. It was coming from an NPC sitting on one of the elevated chairs by the table of food, but too far away from them to make out the name above his head. “The next challengers are welcome to step up now. Come forth, and show me your bravery!” He finished.

“Oh, I’ve heard of this. This is Odin’s Challenge.” Darkshot said as if a light bulb flicked on in his head.

“What’s that?” Aegis asked.

“It’s a famous quest chain that’s available on every island, if you go to the Odin Temple. You basically just keep fighting stronger and stronger enemies, each time getting a greater reward than the last.” Darkshot explained.

“It has a 1 week lockout If you fail though. So you can only try it once every 7 days.” Lina added.

“I heard so far the highest anyone’s got to is the 7th boss. Only two guilds, the Vindicators and…” Rakkan was speaking enthusiastically, but stopped himself before he said the 2nd name. That was enough for Aegis and Pyri to know what he was going to say, though.

“That’s probably why all these players are spectating the matches, then.” Pyri pointed them out, trying to change the subject. “They can only try once a week, so they’re studying. Studying is good, right?” She teased Aegis. He simply rolled his eyes back at her.

“I’m willing to bet that the loud guy shouting was the High Priest, so let’s go talk to him about what we came here for.” Aegis motioned to the elevated seats. The group walked around the outside of the stadium until they reached a small set of stone stairs that lead up to the elevated seating area, and sure enough sitting in the chair was a tall, muscular orc with dark green skin wearing only a pair of leather pants and a belt. He was chatting it up with a Priest of Odin sitting to his right about the match they’d just witnessed while holding a large mug of ale in his hand. [High Priest of Odin, Eldrok(Elite) - ??] stood above his head, and as the five of them stepped up, he stopped talking to the priest and turned to face Aegis.

“Ah, a party of five, But you’re all new faces. Here to take on Odin’s Challenge for the first time?” Eldrok asked excitedly.

“Well, actually, I’m here to earn favor with Odin.” Aegis replied.

“There’s no better way to do it than Odin’s challenge.” Eldrok said before taking a big gulp from his mug of ale.

“Really?” Aegis confirmed.

“Yes, of course. You’ll receive fame, glory, gold, experience, and of course, favor with Odin himself.” Eldrok explained with a cheerful grin. “Of course, Odin’s Challenge cannot be taken alone, it is meant for a full party of five adventurers. But I see you’ve brought some with you.” He motioned to the others behind Aegis, and Aegis turned to look at them.

“I guess that makes things easy… you guys up for it?” Aegis asked them.

“Finally, some action.” Darkshot cracked his neck.

“It’ll be our first time fighting together since we got our intermediates.” Lina smiled.

“I’m not that great with controlling the rune echo yet, but… gotta start somewhere.” Rakkan said as he began stretching his arms.

“My Cinderbolt is ready.” Pyri nodded, and Aegis smiled at all of them. “Okay, we’re ready to take on Odin’s Challenge, Eldrok.” Aegis turned back to face him and he grinned. Following that, Aegis was sent a quest.

Quest[1/10]: Defeat the opponent(s) within Odin’s Arena in under 10 minutes.

Objective: 0/1 Opponents Defeated

Quest Giver: High Priest of Odin, Eldrak

Reward: 250,000 Experience, 500 gold, 1000 Favor with Odin

Difficulty: Medium

Restrictions: This quest must be accepted by every member of a 5 person party before the quest may begin. Players who have completed this quest previously will not receive the rewards for completing it again. Upon failing to defeat the opponent, you must wait 7 days in-game before attempting the challenge again.

As Aegis hit accept he watched the others pressing the accept button with their fingers as well.

“Wonderful. Please step into the arena and I shall announce you. Then, you will meet your first opponent.” Eldrok said as he motioned them towards the arena floor below them. Aegis turned and looked and saw his viewership sitting lower than it had been during the Aphrodite temple, 45 000, then saw the many other players sitting about the stadium looking in their direction expectantly.

“Let’s do this.” Aegis said as he hopped down from the elevated seating, making for a steep and narrow walkway down into the arena. The others followed behind him, and one by one they stepped out onto the tiled, sand covered floor of the arena. It felt so much more intimidating than the arenas in the Training Hall, this arena was much larger, and much more open, with the afternoon sun beaming down on them.

Aegis fastened his shield to his left arm, Darkshot took out his longbow, Pyri drew out her staff, Lina unsheathed her daggers and Rakkan equipped his longsword and his spear.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, for the first time ever, the player Aegis will be taking on Odin’s Challenge! He is joined by his party members Pyri, Lina, Darkshot, and Rakkan, who are also all first timers. Let’s give them all a warm welcome!” Eldrok shouted, his voice echoing loudly and carrying over the entire arena. A few people in the stands complied, giving loud cheers and welcoming claps, but it was rather unenthusiastic.

“Any clue what sort of monster we’ll fight first?” Aegis asked the others.

“Nope.” Darkshot shrugged.

“I can’t remember, I did it a really long time ago… I remember it being something really fun though…” Lina went deep in thought.

“Now, entering the arena as the first of Odin’s Challenges… The Army of 1000 Goblins!” Eldrok shouted enthusiastically. As he did, the sound of all of the doors of the arena on all sides began to open, and screeching battlecries could be heard from the darkness beyond the doors.

“Did… did he say 1000?” Darkshot confirmed.

“He said 1000.” Aegis nodded back. The five of them formed a circle with their backs to each other as the hoards of goblins began flooding out of the doors towards them wielding an assortment of weapons. Some had crossbows, but most had shortswords and spears. They were tiny, dark green skinned humanoids, only slightly bigger than gnomes that sat at around 80 cm in height on average. They had very long pointed ears, long pointy noses, and razor sharp teeth that they bore towards Aegis’ party as they charged forward. Most were only wearing patches of leather clothing on their bodies, so their armor wasn’t going to be a problem. The problem, like back in Arallia, was their numbers.

“Hey, I just thought of something. This is a good chance to see who's the best at using their intermediate stuff. Whoever kills the most goblins gets the title of best damage dealer.” Aegis grinned encouragingly. “Bless, Bless, Bless, Bless… annnd Bless. And, Aura of Beauty.” Aegis said as he one by one enchanted all of their weapons with holy damage, causing them all to glow white. After which, once he'd activated the aura, he released a burst of light around himself that began to replenish everyones stamina.

“Easy.” Darkshot grinned as he nocked an arrow, but before he could shoot a single shot, Lina snapped her fingers while thrusting her hand forward at the line of charging goblins.

“Smoke bomb.” She said as a small black orb shot out from her hand and crashed into the goblins, exploding into a wide cloud of black smoke. She then knelt down and flung her cloak up to create a shadow around herself. “Shadowstep.” She said, and teleported into her smoke bomb with the goblins. Within it, Aegis saw red damage numbers popping up, and the painful cries of the goblins she was stabbing while they were unable to see her.

“Hey, hey, no fair, I wasn’t ready!” Darkshot shouted. “Multishot!” He fired his arrow and it split into 3. “Piercing shot!” He shouted, and all three arrows quadrupled in size, gliding through the goblins in front of him and taking every single one that he’d hit out.

“Charge Strike!” Rakkan shouted, rushing towards the nearest line of goblins, "Rune: Echo!" He said as he'd reached them, and a second copy of himself appeared. Both Rakkan's began swinging their weapons around at the nearby enemies, though as Aegis looked he could easily tell which was the real one and which was the copy - the copy would stop moving for a second after each weapon swing. Rakkan was still learning to control the duplicate, but regardless, he was taking out goblin after goblin with his actual body.

“Oh, me too! Cinderbolt!” Pyri cheered as she formed the red ball of flames above her, then rolled it forward like a bowling ball and directed it around the arena floor, burning and killing any goblin that came into contact with it. Aegis positioned himself towards the center of his four party members and threw out healing winds and heals anytime they’d started taking damage, but none of them really did.

“Don’t tell my boss but, Lina’s right, this is totally fun.” Pyri cheered as she mercilessly burned the goblin monsters to death.

“I’m up to 100!” Lina shouted out competitively as she continued to throw smoke bombs around the battlefield, then proceeded to kill any goblin caught within it without taking damage from them.

“Hah? No way you’re that high already.” Darkshot shouted at her in disbelief.

“I’m catchin’ up, I’m almost at 100 too!” Rakkan shouted back.

“No way! In that case, I’m at 500!” Darkshot shouted as he fired more multishots. Aegis used the chance to observe them all closely - he hadn’t seen any of them fight in awhile, let alone with their new skills, and he wanted to get a good sense of what everyone was capable of for the future fights.

They had 10 minutes to finish off the horde of goblins, but they needed less than five before the goblins got low in number. They were non-elite and mindlessly charging with no sign of any fear, despite the fact that they'd gone from 1000 strong to 5 remaining.

“Wait, wait, don’t kill the last one!” Darkshot called out to Rakkan as they dropped to a single goblin remaining, and Rakkan had the tip of his spear pointed at its head. Lina and Pyri turned to look at it across the arena. “Aegis, since you can hit stuff now, I think you should finish it.” Darkshot grinned as he motioned to the goblin that mindlessly charged at Rakkan and started swinging its shortsword at him, which Rakkan easily dodged.

“Hah? Me? I still haven't learned any weapon skills yet though.” Aegis protested.

“Aw c’mon, you learned a bit of punching, right?” Darkshot smirked, and Aegis could tell Darkshot was hoping to make him look silly.

“Use your shield!” Lina suggested with a big smile. Aegis turned and gave her a hesitant nod before slowly walking towards the goblin, and Rakkan moved out of the way as Aegis approached.

"I hope I don't lose favor for this..." Aegis said to himself as the Goblin quickly turned its mindless sword swings on him, and he blocked the strike, then followed through his brace with a sudden frontal thrust of his shield, smashing it into the goblin. The goblins body was sent flying back off its feet as it took 449 damage and died instantly, disintegrating mid-air before it collided with anything.

Your use of the Shield Mastery skill has unlocked the Shield Mastery Ability: [Bash]

[Bash] - Shield Mastery

Hit an enemy with your shield. Damage dealt is based on the armor rating of the shield, as well as the skill level of Shield Mastery, and the users strength.

Damage: 420-423 [127.5(Str x 2.5) + 155(ShldMstry x 5) + 139.2(ShieldAC x 0.12)]

Aegis was happy to see he hadn't lost favor for the attack and quickly looked at the skill and compared it to the damage number he saw. noting that his bless buff was added to the damage he dealt.

“449, not bad.” Rakkan said with an impressed nod.

“How much do you normally hit for?” Aegis asked, looking for a baseline.

“Eh… I guess my weaker weapon right now hits for 700 on average.” Rakkan shrugged as he wiggled his longsword.

“Okay, good to know.” Aegis nodded as the others gathered around.

“So, how many did you get?” Darkshot asked Lina as the group converged.

“I think around 248.” She said confidently.

“Really? Dang, I got only 220.” Rakkan replied.

“Hah, suckers! I got 309!” Darkshot cheered.

“I wasn’t counting…” Pyri shrugged.

“That’s not fair though, you’ve got a piercing shot, it’s a big AoE.” Rakkan protested.

“It doesn’t hit that hard though.” Darkshot said defensively.

“Yeah but these things were only like level 10!” Lina joined in competitively.

“So? It took a lot of skill to control the arrows. I won because I’m awesome.” Darkshot crossed his arms triumphantly.

“I saw you accidentally hit the wall with three of your piercing shots at once, and then you whispered oopsie.” Pyri pointed out, this caused Lina and Rakkan to shake their heads disapprovingly at him.

“What? It’s hard to control them sometimes. Doesn’t matter, I still won.” He said proudly.

“CONGRATULATIONS!” Eldrok’s voice boomed over the stadium as he stood up from his seat, clapping. His voice and claps were amplified and carried through the entire arena, drawing all eyes on himself. As he did this, the five of them on the arena floor all got a quest completed message, and accepted the quest rewards.

You gain 1000 Favor of Odin.

You gain 250 000 Experience!

You receive 500 gold.

“You’ve completed the first stage of Odin’s Challenge, merely a warm up for the things to come. Are you prepared to take on the 2nd challenge?” Eldrok asked excitedly. Aegis looked to the others, double checking everyone’s mana and stamina was slowly creeping back up. He purposely delayed his response a few seconds to hand out steaks for everyone to eat and gain food buffs, which they all did not-so-subtly.

“We’re ready.” Aegis said with a mouthful of food.

“Then, let us begin!” Eldrok shouted enthusiastically.

Quest[2/10]: Defeat the opponent(s) within Odin’s Arena in under 10 minutes.

Objective: 0/1 Opponents Defeated

Quest Giver: High Priest of Odin, Eldrak

Reward: 500,000 Experience, 1000 gold, 1500 Favor with Odin

Difficulty: Medium

Restrictions: This quest must be accepted by every member of a 5 person party before the quest may begin. Players who have completed this quest previously will not receive the rewards for completing it again. Upon failing to defeat the opponent, you must wait 7 days in-game before attempting the challenge again.

Once they had all accepted the quest, they heard the sound of loud stomping coming from an arena entrance on the far side, and from within they heard a loud, familiar sounding roar.

"The good news is, if we beat this I'll have all the favor I need." Aegis said as he looked anxiously towards the source of the roar, and the sound of the stomping got closer. "Bad news is, I'm pretty sure that's the Minotaur."