"The Great Herald Stone is victorious!" I declared, pumping my free fist in the air. My legs shook from the shifting weight. I grabbed onto the mountainside with both hands once again and moved a bit more forward. My situation was becoming precarious. One wrong move and I could—Hold on, why am I afraid of dying?

I looked around. There was no way back up.

Except to go down.

And I jumped after the Mirdabons, joining them in death.

But unlike them, I could respawn.

"The Great Herald Stone is victorious!" I roared at the other peaks rising out of the clouds. I raised my two hands in the air and run around in circles. “All hail the Great Herald Stone!”

I paused for a couple of seconds, checking if there was anyone around. New players rarely picked Mardukryons, favoring the newly discovered races, so I didn't expect any to pop up. But perhaps, Nic logged back in and checked this place.

Confirming I was all alone, I continued in my childish cheering, hollering, "Suck it, Mirdabons!", while beating my chest like a gorilla.

When was the last time I celebrated something so trivial? So simple? Something that wasn't connected to my responsibilities? To real life?

A month ago, I was busy overseeing the finalization of the requirements set by the MCOCon committee after we won food concessionaire bids. Many nights back then, I was also in meetings with lawyers since our company was in the process of acquiring a smaller chain selling waffle croissants. We wanted to put our hotdogs in their croissants—no innuendos there; it was a new development of food offerings for Dolly's. And I had to fly all over the country to check the sites of our various new branches, from Rock Dove in the north to Goldfinch Beach in the southern part of Eyrie.

Fast-forward to now, I was in a virtual world, exhilarated over killing a bunch of data, probably happier than when we opened our first branch and expanded our business. To be fair, that branch at New Dunlintown was a huge headache to setup, especially with the permits and supplies, that it was more of relief rather than happiness I felt after finally opening it.

Nelly would ridicule me if she saw me now.

My sister was a fan of amusement parks, and she'd visit them every chance she got. She'd post her travel videos on Missive, and I'd shake my head whenever I saw her screaming like she was going to die inside a haunted house or on a roller coaster. She was only two years younger than me.

But wasn't that what I was doing now too?

All these years, I controlled my every action, every word that came out of my mouth. Now that I had the chance to be not Herald Stone, the CEO of Dolly's—rather, the former one since it was Nelly's turn now—I simply wanted to let loose. And, man, did it feel amazing. Bringing back the old days of sixteen years ago.

Fulfilling Goal #1 wasn't only for the sake of completing The List. It was also to bring things full circle.

To finally make peace with the past—Bah! Enough of the cheesy, emotional crap!

Herald Stone, the Rising Tank was back in business. Emotional moment breaks were only limited to two minutes. Going overtime wasn't covered by company policy and should be discouraged. I opened my Akashic Configuration, excited to see the new bonuses given by my level two [Ancestral Constiution]. Big numbers made me happy...and hard.

Lvl. 2 Ancestral Constitution: Mardukryons inherited but a minute fraction of the divine solar vitality of their ancestors.

Passive: +10 Armor, +25 Health

Each time damage is received (Max stacks [4]):

+1 Armor, +2.5 Health per Second, +12 Health

Duration: 20 seconds per stack

Reaching the next level of [Ancestral Constitution] didn't only raise the original attributes it gave, there was also a new secondary attribute. Not exactly new, I supposed, but armor was also added into the effects of procced stacks whenever I'd receive damage, in addition to having an inherent bonus armor.

Did this mean further skill levels would give more and more attributes? I also noted that the increase in values of the original attributes wasn't linear. From giving a measly three armor at level one, it had jumped to ten armor at two, and ten health became twenty-five.

This must be why Cidules were hard to level; they became stronger at an exponential rate. 'Breaking through' the maximum level of ten, going up to fifteen, using Greater Skill Points would equate to extremely powerful skills. It was unfortunate that I was still two levels away from five and getting a GS to manually increase the level of my [Ancestral Constitution]. But perhaps I could level a couple of times more before returning to the Big M since I also noticed that my Mardukryon Cidule was about to reach level two as well. What new skill choices would be available to me then?

Before returning to killing Mirdabons, I switched from my Akashic Configuration to my primary attributes page and examine the changes. Straight to level three? All in a day's work.

I thought I was going to level up only once based on Nic's story of the successful attempt of Lud's party to complete this quest. If I had to guess, it could be the last Mirdabon leveling up like crazy after all of its siblings died that increased the Essence and Gli I gained. It was a level ten, and I was level one. With that big of a gap, I expected more experience. But I bet MCO had a system in place to limit the experience gained by players the larger the gap between their levels and the levels of the monster killed. Otherwise, stronger players could easily leech their new friends.

Level leeching was a lucrative business in Nornyr Online, and also in other MMORPGs, I had played. There were usually hourly rates to hire a high-level DPS to party with a new player and leech at end-game areas. I wasn't able to get in on that though since I was a tank; customers would just complain that their experience would only trickle like piss and a DPS from a retirement home could beat my monster kill rate with their eyes closed.

Name: Herald Stone | Lvl 3 Exp: 27%

Base: Mardukryon

Health: 178/178

Energy: 120/120

Ancestral Shroud: 135/135

ATTRIBUTES (10):

Might....................15

Vigor.....................15

Spirit.....................15

Sense...................15

The first thing I noticed was the ten free attributes points, which translated to five points per level. There were also increases in my Health, Energy, and Ancestral Shroud. Moving to the secondary attributes page, the values I spotted that had changed were Physical and Magic Damage, Combat Rating, and Constitution Rating—I'd have to look up the last two later. In all, those were the attributes that increased every time I'd level up.

"And now to add Vigor!" I cackled madly as my Vigor rose after I dumped all my free attribute points into it.

Generally, this was a bad idea for leveling; it was better to increase the stats that gave damage to have an easier time killing monsters early on. But this was a tank's life. Grinding was a struggle. It was customary for bigger and more organized guilds to leech their tanks and help them along, essentially babysitting them, because tanks, even if few, were a valuable component of parties and guilds.

However, in my current situation, it wouldn't have mattered if I picked any of the attributes. I wouldn't be able to stand and fight the Mirdabons. Might as well increase my Vigor and continue with my...cliff methods...of fast leveling. When I'd eventually enter the village after completing Mehubanarath's questline, I could do non-combat-related quests given by NPCs to gain Essence and Gli—this was the usual method to level tanks if a party or a guild was unavailable to help.

And to finish it all off, I hit myself four times to max the stacks of my [Ancestral Constitution.] Gotta pump those numbers!

Name: Herald Stone | Lvl 3 Exp: 27%

Base: Mardukryon

Health: 291/291

Energy: 120/120

Ancestral Shroud: 155/155

ATTRIBUTES:

Might....................15

Vigor.....................25

Spirit.....................15

Sense...................15

It was so beautiful...

With this huge increase in health, I could pick much lower but more stable ledges to drop onto. I also noticed Vigor added a bit of Ancestral Shroud as well. Now, how about my secondary attributes?

OFFENSE

Combat Rating....................31

Physical Dmg......................55

Physical Fire Dmg.................6

Physical Dmg Inc.............9.5%

Magical Dmg......................33

Magical Dmg. Inc.............9.5%

Critical Hit Dmg...............130%

DEFENSE

Constitution Rating.............35

Armor..................................39

HEALTH / ENERGY / AS

Health per Sec...............13.13

Energy per Sec................0.78

AS per Sec...........................4

My higher health gained per second and armor made me grin from horn to horn. It was like I was eating a Snivel Pod every second. The damage from hitting myself with the sling was already gone. I wondered if armor mitigated fall damage, but if it did, it would be a huge help in my...unconventional... leveling strategy.

Despite my growth in stats, I estimated I'd still die to Mirdabons. I was naked, for one. And even if I further increased my tankiness, I didn't have any DPS skills to kill them. But that wasn't an issue. I had my best buddies, cliffs and gravity to do it for me.

Off I went hunting more Mirdabons to level my Cidule and my [Ancestral Constitution] as well. Seven times more, I dragged packs of Mirdabons to the edge of the cliffs, leading them to their deaths. It did become noticeably safer to fall on ledges and rock outcroppings; armor appeared to reduce fall damage, and likely all types of physical damage as well.

Four of my attempts ended in failure. My first mistake was choosing a wide shelf. The Mirdabons also landed in the same space and killed me with glee. I did last longer since I became tankier, but I still died. Next, I found a smaller ledge, but some members of the pack fell right on top of me and dragged me along with them; this happened twice. My last failed attempt because I stupidly overshot the ledge I was aiming for.

At any rate, I only needed three Mirdabon packs worth of Essence to reach level five. The Gli couldn't push [Ancestral Constitution] to level three, but I now had a free GS for that. And I could also pick a new skill from my Mardukryon Cidule. Again, there were three choices. The magic option, [Friendly Fire], was out of the question, leaving two. Now, which should I choose?

Lvl. 1 Fiery War Stomp: Slamming the ground with a powerful hindleg, a Mardukryon can stun nearby enemies and deal (130% Physical Damage) as Fire Damage.

Stun Chance: 20%, Stun Duration: 1.5 Seconds

Cost: 20 Energy

Cooldown: 20 Seconds

Lvl 1 Cleansing Flames: Purify yourself from ailments with the flames of the Mardukryon ancestors. 70% chance to remove 1 negative status.

(Passive) For every negative status you have (Max stacks [3]):

+10 Armor, +5% Physical Damage Reduction

Cost: 15 Energy

Cooldown: 12 Seconds