Viridian Gate Online: Schism: A litRPG Adventure (The Heartfire Healer Series Book 2)

by E. C. Godhand

  We distributed the loot from our last excursion. I pulled the items from my inventory: a new shield for Kismet and a new deck of cards for Yvonne. Corvus showed off their new thurible, which used incense smoke to give buffs or debuffs on the battlefield. I showed off my new golden bangles.

  “Are those Shackles of Faith?” asked Yvonne, showing off her own matching bangles. I inspected her using Acuity, which let me gain insight into other players’ status effects, and saw she had the same accessory Gaia had gifted to me for completing the quest.

  <<<>>>

  Shackles of Faith

  Armor Type: Light

  Class: Rare

  Base Defense: 5

  Primary Effects:

  Returns a small portion of Health to the wearer when casting spells that use Spirit.

  Let the prayers of your soul unto The Light renew your body.

  <<<>>>

  We talked as we ate. Suffering divided humanity, but mitigating suffering united us, and whether that was with good friends or good food, it was a lovely breakfast.

  That is, until Yvonne brought up Exarch Jericho.

  “After the events at the Black Temple, and Cian’s confession, the Inquisition is considering an audit of the temple’s policy of charging forty gold to cure each level of the plague,” she said.

  Kismet stomped on Yvonne’s foot. “Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss Inquisition matters in the open?” she hissed. I wholeheartedly approved of changing the subject. The bastard had put a hit out on me and had Osmark Technology’s cleaners drag me out of the capsule early to make sure I couldn’t play. The dislike was mutual.

  “You know what’s more fun to spread than a plague?” I asked between mouthfuls.

  “Kindness?” offered Kismet, willing to play along.

  “Legs?” suggested Yvonne. Kismet spit out her coffee.

  “Wild accusations?” said Corvus. “If Hector were here,” they added after a pause, “he’d say ‘the Good News of Areste.’”

  “No, jam!” I said, stealing a scone off Yvonne’s plate and spreading the Sunshine Peach Jam and taking a bite. It tasted heavenly.

  “We should talk about Jericho though,” protested Yvonne, stealing the rest of the scone out of my hand and shoving it into her mouth. “Turns out he’s trying to maximize his prophets with his ‘pay to live’ situation.”

  Kismet sighed heavily. “Oh, Gaia. There’s two of them...”

  “You know he won’t stop coming after you until you turn in that Orb of Antishade, don’t you, Liset?” said Yvonne, staring at me.

  The quest object burned a hole in my inventory. I knew she was right. I also knew that I didn’t want to deal with that right now.

  “If I do, he’ll have me excommunicated for Hector dying,” I protested back.

  “There was nothing you could do to stop that,” consoled Kismet.

  “And if you don’t,” said Yvonne, “he’ll have you excommunicated for stealing a holy artifact.”

  The waitress brought our drinks. I downed the green liquor in one long chug. Yvonne opened her mouth to speak, but I held up a finger to silence her as I kept drinking.

  Yvonne pounded the table and raised her voice. “Liset! You could lose your class if you don’t deal with this.”

  I ignored her and turned to Corvus. “How’re you holding up?”

  “I’m okay. I just have something in my eyes, is all. Mostly tears,” said Corvus.

  The liquor hit me like a knock on the head, but I didn’t feel like jumping out the window at the mention of Jericho anymore.

  Yvonne rolled her eyes. I wasn’t off the hook so easily. “Come on, priestess, aren’t you going to cheer them up? Got any words for the grieving?”

  I ordered another drink. “Corvus is allowed to be sad without my permission. Grief is a holy expression of having loved.”

  “Thank you,” said Corvus in their echoing monotone. “I will continue to be miserable.”

  Yvonne sipped her cocktail and narrowed her eyes at me. Didn’t she know them well enough to know that wasn’t sarcasm?

  “Fine, jeez.” I leaned against Corvus, drunk. “Hey. Psst. Want to hear a joke?” I whispered.

  “Will the grief go away?”

  “No?”

  “You may proceed.”

  I sat straight and finished my coffee. My head swam but I mentally went over the seven gods of V.G.O. to make sure I told the joke right.

  “So, a Sophitian, an Aediculean, and a Gaian all go to Morsheim. Thanatos assesses them and asks them what they believe,” I said. “The Sophitian speaks about the need for balance and a life of temperance and is permitted to be remade. The Aediculean speaks of ingenuity and improvement and boasts of all the various wonders he did in his life and what he hopes to accomplish in the next. They, too, are permitted to be remade.”

  “And the Gaian looks at Thanatos and says—” I paused to make sure I had everyone’s attention.

  Yvonne crossed her arms. “I believe that you are in my seat,” she finished for me.

  I frowned. Kismet laughed. Corvus patted my shoulder gently. “That is an ecumenical nightmare, sister,” they said.

  I nursed my second drink silently. Secretly, I wondered where my own NPC, Veronika, was. I’d handed her over to the Inquisition to save her from the plague and paid for her care out of my own pocket. If I hadn’t, would I have joined the Darklings to save her? Last night Kismet said she escaped. I wished she were with us. Even though Hector was a stuck-up theologian who genuinely believed Areste would bring salvation to Gaia’s realm, I wished he were with us, too.

  “You make a good point, though,” said Yvonne, her tone softer.

  “I what now?” I said, not believing what I heard.

  “They say ‘the evil that men do lives after them, but the good is oft interred with their bones,’” said Yvonne. “I wonder if the inverse is true, too. If you plant a seed, whether good or bad, maybe it grows in unexpected ways.”

  “Jericho often spoke of his ‘seed money’ when he wanted donations, so I’m not keen to follow the analogy,” I said.

  Corvus stared at the Augur. “You’re not suggesting it’s a good thing that Hector died, are you?”

  “No, nothing like that,” she said gently. “But he did save us. And he saved a lot of other people, too. We brought in Cian alive. Now we have information about the Darklings’ efforts. He may never know the good he’s done for the world, but we will.”

  Everyone finished their meals in silence.

  Yvonne dropped her knife and pulled out her new card deck. “Okay, but seriously, Liset. You need to deal with that orb. And for that, we’re going to consult Gaia.”

  I groaned. “Fine.”

  She shuffled the cards with a flourish. I picked three. She held them out floating over the table as her glowing hands read the answers.

  “The Jailer, representing confusion. You surrendered your power to someone else but proclaim your innocence. That it wasn’t your fault. But you are not powerless, you have options.”

  “I don’t know, Yvonne, it still feels like a double-bind,” I said.

  Her hand hovered over the second card. “Serth-Rog.”

  My heart stopped. What was the Daemon Prince of Morsheim doing in my reading from Gaia?

  “Hey, hey, calm down,” said Yvonne, reading my expression. “This one isn’t as bad as it looks. It adds to the first, that you were tricked into thinking you have no control over your negative impulses, and that you can’t break free of the metaphorical chains around your neck. But they’re loose. You could take them off.”

  She peered at the card, turning it around in the air with her magic. “And uh...it also asks you to consider maybe if you like having a leash. But that’s just one of the interpretations.”

  “Who would like that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t judge or anything, but have you considered bondage?”

  I took a deep drink to avoid responding.

  Kis
met chuckled and draped an arm over the back of her chair. “She did let me put the cuffs on her a few days ago,” she said with a wink.

  I choked on my drink. “The last card, please.”

  Yvonne flipped it with a twirl of her hand. “Gaia, representing relief. As long as you dwell in Gaia’s realm, she will be with you. She has a plan for you, and it will work out in the end, even if it’s not what you expected.”

  Yvonne shuffled the cards back into her deck. “Maybe this is part of it. Like, you got to ask yourself what makes you a Priest: believing in Gaia, or your powers?”

  I didn’t want to consider that. I wasn’t sure on the difference yet. Before Yvonne could press me on it, I pushed my chair out. “Anyway, let’s get out of here. Who’s paying?”

  “I thought you were paying,” Yvonne said. “Didn’t you sell off the extra loot?”

  I felt the blood drain from my face. “There wasn’t any extra loot,” I said slowly. “It was a PvP dungeon, not PvE.”

  Yvonne stood. “Don’t tell me you don’t have any money?”

  “YOU invited us to breakfast!”

  Kismet stood as well. “Did you spend all your money on liquor at that inn?”

  “I mean...maybe?” I confessed.

  “I told you that you drink too much,” scolded Kismet.

  I went around the table and ran my hand along Kismet’s shoulder armor. “Inquisitor, you saved up quite a bit, didn’t you?” I said sweetly.

  She rolled her shoulder to evade my touch. “I gave all my money to you.”

  “I had to give it to the temple as a tithe...” I protested weakly.

  “I thought you hated the temple,” Corvus said.

  “It’s complicated, okay?” I said, a bit too loudly. “The temple is a damn glue trap and I had to gnaw my own arm off to get free.” I rubbed the scars under the bangles on my right wrist where the plague had infected me, twice now, with the Curse of Serth-Rog.

  Yvonne shushed me and looked around. “Listen, they seem pretty busy. Let’s just get out of here.”

  Kismet clamped a hand on Yvonne’s shoulder, her voice quiet. “First off, I’m an Inquisitor. If we’re going to be the good guys, we must act like it. Secondly, we have a rare Priestess, a Plague Doctor, you have a literal bird in your hair, and I have wings.” She jutted her thumb over her shoulder as if to remind us, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “We have everyone’s attention right now.”

  “So, what are we going to do?” I asked.

  Everyone slowly turned as one to look at me.

  “Yes, raid leader, what are we going to do?” asked Yvonne.

  I hugged my arms to myself in thought. “I have some levels in Cooking. I’ll talk to the chef. It’ll be fine.”

  Grillable Hours

  It was not fine. Chef Boyle, a Wode woman with curly blonde hair pinned into a bun and a mole on her right cheek, stared me down, her muscular, scarred arms crossed over her messy apron. I bowed as she considered my offer to pay her back. I hoped she’d accept, because the woman looked like she beat the eggs, whipped the cream, and battered the fish on a daily basis.

  Corvus was already washing dishes to pay for their meal, while Yvonne bussed orders at the front of the house. Kismet, being an Inquisitor, I sent to go check with Ser Berrick, Seneschal of the Harrowick Inquisition Chapter Hall, about any updates to the plague he was investigating for us.

  Chef Boyle sucked in a deep breath and clicked her tongue. “You’re saying not only can you cook, but you also trained with Wolfgang at the cenobium?”

  “Yes, Chef.”

  Chef Boyle narrowed her eyes, appraising me. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. “Gaia sends the harvest—”

  “Serth-Rog sends the cooks,” I finished, remembering the idiom the cooks taught me. It meant providence could give you what you needed. Leave it to humanity to mess it up though.

  The chef let out a faint whistle. “Well, alright. Maybe you did,” she said. “Or, maybe you just overheard that while being wined and dined,” she added. She threw an extra apron at my face and snapped her fingers, pointing to a pancake station. “Lunch rush is coming. Show me what you got. We have a big name coming in today. Don’t mess up!”

  “Yes, Chef!”

  I equipped the apron over my white-and-red Priest robes and tucked any loose strands of hair under my veil. I watched multiple Health bars during battle and kept people alive. How hard could cooking at a restaurant be?

  <<<>>>

  Quest Alert: Piece of Pancake

  Chef Boyle has graciously offered you a chance to pay for the food you consumed at her café. Show off your cooking skills and make her customers happy, and it’ll go a long way towards paying your debt. Timeliness and accuracy of order factor into how happy the customer will be, so be sure to follow the recipe and don’t get distracted.

  Quest Class: Common; Skill-Based

  Quest Difficulty: Average

  Success: Serve 15 pancake orders at 75% happiness or higher.

  Failure: Decline quest; serve burnt food or wrong orders three times.

  Reward: 300 XP; Increased Cooking Skill, Portion of breakfast bill paid

  Accept: Yes/No?

  <<<>>>

  I accepted readily. After rolling up my sleeves and washing my hands, I got to my station, which was set up like some of the diner-dash games I’d play on my phone back on Earth. A line cook prepared the pancake batter as well as whipped cream, syrup, a hazelnut-chocolate spread, and cut strawberries kept fresh by something called a Shadowbox.

  The first order came in: Simple Pancake. My HUD updated with a countdown timer in the corner that indicated the customer’s patience.

  I buttered my griddle and ladled the batter in a circular pattern. Another bar filled quickly. It flashed green for a moment, then turned yellow, so I grabbed the handle of the griddle and with a quick toss, flipped the pancake.

  “Haha! That was so cool!” I giggled, watching the meter fill up again. I looked around to show Corvus, but they were obscured by a pile of dishes. The line cooks were too busy focusing on their jobs to notice. No one saw. That was fine, I’d still do it again.

  When the pancake meter turned orange, I knew it was nicely browned and set it on the plate topped with a simple pat of butter. The customer’s patience meter was 90%. Good, that wasn’t so bad. I got the timing a little better with the next order, which asked for whipped cream and strawberries.

  The tickets piled up in various combinations of pancakes, cream, syrup, and fruit, each more complex. Overall, I finished fifteen orders. I thought I completed the quest, but an update told me otherwise:

  <<<>>>

  Quest Update: Piece of Pancake

  You’ve proven you remember the basics of your cooking training, but a restaurant of this caliber expects a little bit more than the bare minimum for its customers. Presentation and quality ingredients are key and allow for higher prices...and better tips.

  Quest Class: Common; Skill-Based

  Quest Difficulty: Hard

  Success: Serve 15 orders at 75% happiness or higher; Make the servers 5 gold in tips by serving orders at 95% quality or higher.

  Failure: Decline quest; serve burnt food or wrong orders

  Reward: 500 XP; Increased Cooking Skill, Portion of breakfast bill paid; Servers tipped

  Accept: Yes/No?

  <<<>>>

  The quest had a point. I couldn’t forget the servers who’d kept our coffee filled and worked hard to bring us the food. They deserved to be paid, too. A line cook brought more toppings in colorful bowls to add to my station: meats, cheeses, and greens, plus new fruits and a pot of honey.

  The first order was for three Autumn Crepes. I spread my batter thin. The cooking meter filled quickly. I pulled that off the burner, folded it, then topped it with walnuts, pears, and a drizzle of honey.

  An order came in for Farmer’s Crepes before I had finished the first of the three. This one wanted steak medium-rare, sautéed onions,
mushrooms, and spinach, and goat cheese. I had to cook several crepes at the same time, but the damned things cooked almost instantly.

  More orders piled up: two Berries n’ Cream Crepes, one order of Ham and Cheese Crepes, another order of Autumn Crepes, as well as Chocolate Hazelnut Crepes.

  The ingredients were simple and relatively cheap, but combined, looked beautiful and brightened someone’s morning. The problem was everyone wanted that experience and they wanted it right now, but I could only cook four crepes at a time on my grill.

  When I did take them off the grill I had to prepare the toppings right away, because the dish cooled instantly. A few customers ate cold crepes and sent them back. Their orders went to the top of my list and slowed the other orders. But the more time I spent on the toppings, the higher chance I had of the crepes burning.

  The four black circles stared at me on the grill. I sweat bullets from the heat of the kitchen and because I didn’t want to face Chef Boyle.

  <<<>>>

  Quest Update: Piece of Pancake

  More like piece of crepe...You’ve burned too many orders, and your customers are unhappy! Your servers are taking the blame and apologizing for your utter incompetence.

  <<<>>>

  The chef’s glare stabbed in my back.

  “Are you a Black Priest of Serth-Rog, you wet piece of bread?” she asked calmly.

  “No, Chef!” I said, turning around.

  “Then why are you causing chaos in my kitchen?” she yelled, an inch from my nose. “It’s one thing to try to stiff me on the bill. It’s another entirely to serve sub-par food to my customers. All those people out there are depending on you, but you’re in here messing around like you have no responsibility to them. Are you going to let them down again? Should I put you out with the compost?”

  “No, Chef! I’m sorry, Chef!” I called out. “I’ll fix it right away.”

  I didn’t waste time on more apologies. Actions would fix this, not words. I threw the burnt bits into the bin and started over. I accepted the quest when it popped up again. Quest or not, these people expected a delicious pancake breakfast and by Gaia that’s what I was going to make.