I stroked both my horns in a totally not sexual way. They weren’t as big as the Elder’s, obviously. My two other horns weren’t even showing. They were merely nubs behind my ears, somewhere near the base of the skull. I wasn’t sure where that would be on a human skull since a Mardukryon’s skull was more elongated and had a bigger forehead to accommodate a pair of horns and four eyes.

The horns coming out of my temple grew forward and curved slightly upward. They had those grooves like the horns of rams making them extra cool. Why the hell would you choose a human character when you could get these horns? Why pick elves when all you get were pointy ears? Four horns and two tusks, more points were better, although my tusks were barely showing.

I scratched the corners of my mouth where the tusks were growing. It felt like they were actually pushing down from my jaws. Was this supposed to be included in the game? We don’t even feel actual pain here. Maybe this was some type of phantom feeling because of my virtual body?

A small explosion interrupted my thoughts. I quickly recast my [Pyro Shell]. “Hmmm, my Solar Spirit is not regening smoothly. Good thing that battle-ax guy told me to build up Solar Spirit stats early on. Would have been much better if I got that Healer bonus that turned other stats to Solar Spirit, but then I wouldn't have gotten the bonus skill point and respec points if I went that route.” The respec points could have strategic value in the future. Perhaps, I would need to grab some skills to do a quest but after getting stronger, I wouldn't need those skills anymore, then I could use the respec points to reallocate skill points. I was considering to respec out of [Critical Frenzy], however, I could probably make a tank build out of it. Not quite sure, but a little creative could make it work.

The considerable increase in reputation would surely come in handy in the future. I was sure that there was some hidden content, a quest, a weapon maybe, that would be given depending on how high a reputation would get. There was always something like that in RPG games, especially when there were several factions, or NPCs.

All in all it was a good questline; very beneficial for me.

Snarling and scratching interrupted my thoughts.

A Mirdabon orgy was ongoing in front of me. Ten Mirdabons, I think I already killed off two, were trying to squeeze themselves into a crack in the cliff wall where I have holed in. Only three or four of them could reach me because of the small space. The others were humping the ones in front to be able to get to me.

I simply stood in the far end of the crack, or fissure, whatever the term was, with my [Urus Stance], now level two with fifteen bonus armor, my level five [Ancestral Constitution] giving twenty armor and twenty-five health regeneration, further increased by passives, and let myself be hit by Mirdabons.

[Pyro Shell] was a new skill of mine. I got it from Zaido after helping him clean the jail after I did the Trial. I was lacking a few more relationship points before he would teach me some skills he knew from the time he was a Hunter-Warrior. It was a change of pace to do something like cleaning a jail for a quest rather than hunting ten monsters of this kind or collecting ten things. Balasi even helped me.

My new skill was essentially a coating on my shield that adds some armor and absorbs damage up to a certain threshold and then explodes dealing fire damage. It was my first skill that dealt elemental damage. The damage that was dealt by enemies seemed to be reduced by armor and other defenses before it subtracts from the “life” of the coating so it was an exceptionally good skill for a tank.

During my testing, even if I was attacked from my sides, the coating would still absorb the damage. The problem was it could only explode into a cone shaped area in front the shield. Unless I could attach my shield to my ass, all the damage of the [Pyro Shield] could only be directed forward, and somewhat to my sides if I turn my upper body that way. Which was the reason why I was squeezed in a crack along the side of the mountain. I was doing the thing the Spartans did in the Battle of Thermopylae, funneling their enemies down a narrow gap.

The explosion hits the Mirdabons right in front of my shield the hardest, with some splash damage to the ones in the back. It was so convenient to cram them all into this opening. I spent a couple of hours several days ago to find this hole and it was paying off it beautifully.

Another problem with the [Pyro Shield] was the cost—stamina and Solar Spirit. The stamina cost was negligible, probably for the effort of casting something, but Spirit cost was something that prevented me from casting it every time the coating exploded. I even picked up a skill that generated a small amount of Spirit based on damage that was blocked by my shield, it was my other new skill.

The new shield that I bought had fifteen percent chance to block, better than my previous shield’s ten percent. I wasn't quite sure, but the Spirit regen on block was based off the original damage of the monster, not the damage after armor reduction. Otherwise, I wouldn't even notice the regeneration because my fucktons of armor nearly trivializes the damage of simple Mirdabons.

The coating exploded again and I recast the skill. “Good thing I have this SP pots from Mr. Armand,” I said, holding one bottle up to the light that filtered through the cracks above me. I redeemed the card and found a hundred potions that would transform to whatever medium the said race used as fuel to cast spells, so that would be mana for most races, stamina or Solar Spirit for Mardukryons.

I also continuously case [Defense is The Best Offense] even if the damage it adds was only physical, so no added damage to my explosive skill.

I flipped through the pages of the document that I was reading. I think the term that should be used here was “AFK leveling.” Although, I was not “away from keyboard” in any sense of the term. No keyboards here, and I was still inside the game playing it. I don’t know what gamers nowadays call this passive gaming style.

Another explosion killed off two Mirdabons that took the full blow. Others move further inside my den to take the place of their fallen.

“Let’s see if you’ll evolve,” I said with a smirk as I observed the remaining Mirdabons increase in level. As I was already well informed, Mirdabons increase in level when attacked. It seemed that the increase in level depends on the size of the pack. The horde of Mirdabons outside the Mardukryon village immediately increased their levels to as high as five when I poked one of them. I think there was even a level six there. This pack that I pulled, numbering twelve, levelled up to two or three after the first poke.

When some of them died, the rest also level up. Some even gaining certain skills. The one in front of me turned to level seven and had double attack displayed as a skill. Thanks to my [Hunter’s Instinct], I could have some heads-up as to some of the skills a monster has. The Hunter-Warriors, NPCs and players, have finished one of their hunts and came back a few days ago, so I was able to get the skill from the NPC.

If only a couple or so Mirdabons were left in a pack, they transformed into certain evolutions or variants. Apparently, there were tons of evolutions for Mirdabons. Or sometimes they just level up and get more skills. The last pack I pulled had a Mirdafang, and the one before that had a Mirdarock. The highest they reached was about level twelvish so it wasn’t that bad getting cornered by them. I wonder, what happens when you kill the Mirdabons outside the village; how high-levelled could they get?

Once I levelled to about seventeen or eighteen and had better skills, I planned to pull bigger packs.

Obviously, this wasn’t an efficient way to level. I could have better experience rate per hour of playing if I simply engaged higher levelled monsters and speared the shit out of them. However, if I did that, my Strength would increase instead of my Solar Spirit and Vitality. As I have observed earlier, the twelve stat points received every level up would be allocated depending on what you did to level up.

My goal was to stack up on Vitality and Solar Spirit. I was particularly aiming for a skill in the Mardukryon tree that diverts some of the damage taken to Spirit. Essentially, Spirit and health would share the damage. An insanely good skill for tanking. It needed a lot of skill points to reach though. But that was fine; I couldn’t sustain it with my low SP anyway.

As for damage I would go for skills like this [Pyro Shield]. There were some area-of-effect skills in the skill tree that caught my eye as well. I obviously couldn’t just stand around being hard, what am I, a dick?

And I could play passively when using this strategy. After I became stronger, I could move to the mines because there were lots of choke points there. Or I could find stronger types of Mirdabon packs.

I would develop my [Charge] and look for good attack skills for single targets, especially bosses. I don't think I would be able to kill bosses that heal or regenerate insanely fast if I simply relied on things like return damage, for now, anyway. Perhaps, I could spec into a reflect tank when I have the skills and the gear for it. I had a reflect tank in a game once. A very annoying opponent in PVP.

I kept on pulling Mirdabon packs throughout the day while reading the documents I had on my phone, casting an occasional skill to keep on levelling them. The documents were the records of the patents and copyrights connected to JYE corporation and their stockholders. I was very interested on who could be the possible developer of the AI they were using in Nornyr Online. I simply couldn’t get over the feeling that that Dalkanus could understand jokes and I couldn’t accept that AIs could understand why a joke was funny because, for me, it was a human thing.

After sifting through tons of records, I couldn’t find anything. Checking my equipment, I found that my shield only had a few points of durability left. Might as well repair it before logging out. The [Pyro Shield] actually mitigated some of the damage to durability taken by the shield, making it last longer. Less costs for me!

As I was going back to the village, I heard the sound of explosions. Might be players. It would be interesting to see how others fought so I hurriedly followed the explosions.

Four players were in an open field fighting two hugeass monsters and tons of small ones. the other one was the same type of monster but was level thirty-five while their mobs were Mirdabon variants. The Mirdabullys were like huge Mirdabons, about three times my size, but had stubby legs and arms sticking out of their furry bodies. Claws as large as swords stuck out from their paws. I wasn’t close enough for my [Hunter’s Instinct] to gather information about the monster but it was certainly strong based on how it raked up the ground with swipes I could barely follow.

I don’t think I could dodge its attacks. I would be grated like cheese in a couple of seconds.

“Huh? I can see one of the player’s name...oh, it’s Nicole.” Her name was displayed over her head in contrast to the other players who had question marks above their heads. “Right, she added me as a friend.” Should I go over there? I was sure I could get some more information about levelling from them but they might be annoyed if I barged in while they were fighting the Mirdabullys along with its mini-mobs.

I decided to wait until they’ve won before I approached then but I wanted a closer look on how higher levels fought as well as their skills so I trotted towards them.

Two of the players were probably Norman and Wharton. They did say that they had two more friends so the fourth person might be one of them.

Nicole stayed away from the Mirdabullys as she showered all sorts of heals and buffs on her teammates. She had magic circles on her feet and nearly transparent shields floating around. While she was far from the mini-bosses, the mobs tried to go for her and she fought them off with a mace and a shield in between casting supporting skills.

I raised my brow as she would cast a spell that would one-shot the Mirdabon-variants that made up the mob. That was an awful strong spell. She would then target herself with heals, both single targets and chain heals.

“Why is she doing that? Healing herself every time she cast that spell. She wasn’t even damaged since those glass shields around her are still intact.” I looked down as I trotted to think. Maybe the cost to cast that spell was health? That would be the logical explanation of her actions.

I knew Norman was a Hunter-Warrior, so he should be the one wielding a two-handed sword. He took on the two Mirdabullies, allowing his life to get low and then activating what I assumed to be the same skill that Balasi’s clone used during the Trial when I couldn’t damage him. Norman’s buffed self was way cooler, black lightning coiled around his body while his large sword was on fire while at the same time spitting fireballs, killing Mirdabons that strayed close. After his sort of berserker mode was over, Nicole would heal bomb him. Nicole was actually pretty good. Supports should get credit.

Another one of their party kept on throwing bottles, balls, and all sorts of items. Sometimes they would explode, sometimes produce gas, all sorts of effects. What the hell was that class? Wharton was a Pathfinder, if I remembered correctly. That didn’t look like something like a Pathfinder would do.

Perhaps Wharton was the one throwing spears non-stop at the Mirdabullies. He dashed all around the battlefield, ignoring all the mobs while focusing his spears at the mini-bosses. The spears would light up in different colors and have different effects as they hit. Probably, he was applying status effects?

I stopped just far enough to make sure I don’t attract the aggro of the monsters hanging around. I sniffed. Having a party was obviously very advantageous. Nicole saw me and waved to me before getting back to supporting her friends.

I didn’t have to wait long before the Mirdabullies finally went down to Norman’s powerful attacks. He walked to me as the others cleaned up the few remaining mobs that milled about.

“Hey! It’s the noob who got killed by Mirdabons at level one,” Norman said. He turned to the player who threw potions and bombs. “This is the guy I told you about. Really funny.”

“Cut that out,” Nicole snapped at Norman.

“Hey, that was funny, right? Uuhh…” Norman raised his brow.

“You can tell Mardukryons apart?” I changed the topic rather than tell him my name. And I really couldn’t tell Mardukryons apart except from the growth of their horns. I’m not being racist or anything.

Nicole said, “Norman has really good observational skills. Those things are easy for him.”

Norman puffed up his chest and grinned at Nicole, apparently forgetting that he didn’t know my name. “Damn right.”

“So, what job did you pick?” the fourth guy whom I haven’t meet before excitedly asked.

“Uh.” Shit, Nicole could see that I’m just level fourteen. If I say that I’m not a healer, then I should need to explain how I got an early Trial. “Um, I picked healer,” I said, giving Nicole a sheepish look as if I was ashamed to admit that I followed her class. I decided that it was better for the hapless noob façade I have shown them to keep secret that I have discovered a hidden quest.

“Come on, why does no one want to give Foragers some love? And it looks like you’re solo playing? It’s hard to level up without a party if you’re a healer,” said the guy who was throwing potions earlier.

“I thought it’s harder for a Forager to level?” Wharton said.

“No way. Foragers are awesome even if playing alone,” said the fourth guy which I now knew was a Forager. “Tons of buffs from the food and drinks we can make. Poisons from plants. Exploding chemicals. Tons! You just need to be imaginative.”

“He’s right,” Nicole said. “Healers do have a hard time levelling up alone.”

I put on a disappointed expression then looked to Norman with a hopeful face. Time to shine buddy. Show off your knowledge.

“Don’t discourage him,” Norman said. He placed his arms around my shoulder like we’re best pals. “You know what you should do? You know what you should do?”

“What?” I was tempted to say another “what” because he asked the question twice.

“When you reach level fifteen, go to the Hunter-Warriors place and then sign up for quests.”

“Everybody does that,” Forager guy said. “Everyone besides Hunter-Warriors could only start taking those hunting quests when they get to fifteen. What kind of advice was that? And usually, parties who take up those quests are already friends…so…”

“That’s why he should apply for a hunt and wait for others to come. He should instantly take up a slot on a good hunting mission and surely others would show up. And they couldn’t kick him off that mission. I think the ones in demand at low levels are the crystaminds hunting quests.”

"For bottle making? Yup. Foragers need those for making potions, and they even pay other players in potions to gather ingredients for them, driving up the demand."

"So what you should do," Norman said to me, "is wait for a crystamind quest and just wait for people to come. Others might be dicks and try to convince you to give them or their party the quest, but don't mind them."

Forager guy snapped his fingers. “What a devious advice. It sounds cheap, but hey, you don’t have friends so you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“We’re his friends,” Nicole said. “Stop it with your stupid advice, guys.”

“Huh?” Wharton said loudly.

“What is it?” Norman said.

“One of my traps got disabled. The ones I scattered around this area to protect us while we’re farming the Mirdabullies.”

“You mean something got caught and destroyed it?” Norman then turned to the Nicole and the Forager guy. “You guys up for that monster?”

“No, not like that. It's as if my trap was removed,” Wharton said, his voice slightly worried. “I would have seen if something got caught and destroyed it. This hasn’t happened before.”

“Let’s leave then?” Pathfinder guy said. “Ya’ll have speed potions, right?” His fingers waved at the air as he appeared to have opened his inventory. “You go first. I’ll give a speed pot to this guy,” he said, referring to me.

“Another one got disabled,” Wharton exclaimed. “It’s getting nearer.”

“Everyone log out!” Norman said. He pointed at me. “Including you. Log out now.” And he disappeared in a sparkle of blue light.

“What? What’s happening?” I said. Are they pranking me? I turned to Nicole but she already logged out. Opening my interface, I shrugged. “Might as well follow them.” There was a slight muffled sound as something dropped on the snow near me. I turned around. “Huh?”

A Mirdabon rolled in front of me.

A flash and then...

You died.

Penalty:

25% Reduction of all Primary Attributes for 24 hrs.

30% of Currency held will be lost

The durability of all equipment will be reduced to zero.

"Bitch."