“This might actually work,” Mephisto said. “I think this will be enough to obstruct them so that they won’t bunch up and gang up on you.

We were between two large rocks, one larger than the other and positioned up a sloping mound, a bit of distance away from the clearing in which the hive of the crystaminds was located. There were also large trees and thick shrubbery powdered lightly by snow around us. I planned to position myself between the two large rocks. Given the small size of the crystaminds and the large space between the two rocks, which could probably fit two Mardukryons between them, a fair number of those monsters could get to me. But this was much better than being in an open field where all of them could jump on me.

I argued that I should be the one to tank them because I have a shield, had heavier armor, and my stats were skewed towards Vitality. Also, my regeneration was more than theirs because I have leveled those skills. Regeneration was the most important part of my plan. Both of them were Focus heavy because they developed the crafting part of their factions. They were also invested more on the support cluster of the tree.

Plus, it was also my plan.

Of course, the real reason I wanted to be the one to face the crystaminds was that I wanted to use my defensive skills to kill rather than charge around to kill them; this was a good opportunity to level my defensive skills. I felt that Justalyne and Mephisto were rather relieved, although a bit hesitant, that I volunteered to tank for them. They were probably half-expecting me to die but just went with my plan to lessen costs of killing the crystaminds.

They could simply run away if this turned out to be a failure.

Mephisto would be somewhere behind me, out of reach of the poison which Justalyne would throw, killing those that he could. Anyway, all the aggro would be on me and he has quite a reach with his poleaxe so he would be relatively safe from the mobs and the poison cloud.

Justalyne was better off running around anyway so that she could place herself effectively to support us. But as regards to Mephisto, he was most likely more durable than me, but I have a shield. A shield has a chance to block which effectively increases my health and defenses. Don’t ask me how to compute those; I just know people could translate block to effective health or effective armor.

And I had [Pyro Shell]. If my guess was correct, we could kill these crystaminds quickly with less costs in terms of consumables items. If we didn’t go with my plan, we would be running around the rocks and trees, kiting them, trying not to get cornered and spending a few health items to stay alive.

“Of course, this will work,” I said. I held up the potion that Justalyne said would keep the crystaminds on me. I hoped her poison would be strong enough to kill them quickly before my Spirit ran out from continuously casting my shell. I was slightly apprehensive that my Spirit regeneration wouldn't be enough. Justalyne didn't level her potion making skills for Spirit regeneration because ChilliMaster, their main guy, was from the Healer faction and had tons of Spirit regeneration anyway.

“That would be enough to keep the aggro on you and away from us. Don't worry that they'll change targets if we attack them,” Mephisto said, guessing at my thoughts. “On stronger monsters, you would need stronger potions to make them attracted to you and I don’t think Justalyne has unlocked those potions, but that would be enough for crystaminds. They’re simple mobs, really.”

“But this has a penalty, right?”

“Yup. Justalyne still hasn’t figured out how to make one without a penalty, sorry for that. But my buffs will cancel that out. Don’t worry.”

I drank the potion.

Threat Level +150

Armor -40

Attack Speed -15%

Movement Speed -15%

“These are some nasty penalties,” I said. At least, getting my attack speed and movement speed penalized was inconsequential. The armor penalty, on the other hand, was annoying. With all buffs, I think I was about a hundred and fifty armor. When I get more money, I’ll make sure to upgrade my gear. Hopefully, I’ll get more money from these Hunts.

“My turn,” Mephisto said.

[Armor Tempering II]

Base Armor Increased by 60

Total Armor +15%

Duration 60 seconds

[Reduced Equipment Degradation]

Armor +25

Durability of equipment +30%

Duration 5 minutes

“Wow, those are some nice buffs,” I said. I noticed that his skill had a ‘II’ after it. Which meant that it was already a ranked-up skill. Which also meant that he leveled it up like crazy.

He positioned himself about the length of his poleaxe from behind me. “I’m not done yet. I’m an awesome to have around, mind you. If I’m not with ChilliMaster, other people hire me out to have in their parties.”

A new status appeared in my interface.

[Close Support II]

All buffs cast on a Mardukryon player will be increased by 20% if the Mardukryon caster is nearby.

I raised my brow. Wait, I don't have a brow. It wasn’t a faction skill but rather a skill from our skill tree from the support cluster. So, this was how they affected faction skills. I said, “This is really awesome. I feel hard already. No pun intended.” We both chuckled. “Just a question,” I said. “Do they really need to mention that this would only work on Mardukryon players?”

“Don’t you know that our buffs will only work on fellow Mardukryons?”

“Yea..someone told me that,” I said. “But how did they find out about it? It’s not like there are other races around to try it on.”

“People tried healing monsters,” Mephisto said. “Other races could heal monsters, even buff them. There are lots of dicks out there running around healing and buffing monsters that people are trying to kill just to prank them. They especially target newbies. There are lots of videos about those online. Haven't you seen those? They're funny but they're also assholes. So, it’s possible to heal monsters.”

“But that doesn’t work with our skills?

“Nope. It would probably work on the undead though since it’s not really healing them. The guys in the Healer Faction have been experimenting on how to achieve a negative heal and I’ve heard that it works on monsters, damaging them. So, there’s that. You have to ask ChilliMaster about that.”

I nodded. Those were some weird mechanics. It was as if that Mardukryons were forced to band together. No surprises there, given our lore. I was very, very, super, extremely certain that something awesome would happen if you managed to get together all the Mardukryon tribes. Maybe I should give that a go?

“You have the fruits ready?” Mephisto said, interrupting my happy thoughts. He meant the fruits Justalyne gave me. They gave some health when eaten. Not as efficient as the health potions Healers could make, but we make do with what we have.

“Yup. Look, Justalyne is coming back.” Our minimap showed a blip, which was Justalyne, coming for us followed by smaller red blips, symbolizing monsters that were locked on to her. There was one large pack after her plus some stragglers. Another pack came into view on the mini map. It looked like they were coming in waves. Justalyne obviously made sure not to alert the entire hive all at once.

I hit myself enough to start stacking up [Ancestral Constitution] and then cast [Defense is the Best Offense]. I planted myself at the narrowest point between the two rocks and assumed my [Urus Stance].

Justalyne thundered towards me. She held two bottles above her head. Just before she got to me, she threw the bottles in an area in front of the two rocks, breaking them. Their contents, one a black liquid, and the other was a slimy clear substance, mixed on the snow and started to smoke.

“They’re all yours!” Justalyne said as she blew past me, squeezing in the tight space left in between rocks.

“Hey, they’re not all mine. Take care of my back,” I said as a cast [Pyro Shell]. Obviously, the crystaminds could hit my front and my back because the place we’ve chosen wasn’t exactly a funnel, but I could only hit the front with the explosion of my shell so they have to take out those who circled around me.

About a dozen crystaminds came into view. I inhaled deeply. I knew this was just a game but it made me anxious that a dozen level fifteen fuckers were coming for me. Heck, we were the same level. A wise plan would be to move around but then that would just defeat my purpose of leveling my defensive skills. We would also have a hard time killing them since they increase in speed the more of them died.

[Blessings of the Greenwind Sapling]

Every Mardukryon player inside the area of effect will receive:

Health Points +300

Regeneration +30hp/sec

“Thanks for that Justalyne,” I called out. Small plants grew in a small circle around me. It could probably fit two players, might be a low-level skill but its effects were very good.

“I’ll add in the plants that slow them down later. I only have a few of those,” Justalyne barely said before the crystaminds stepped on the mixture she threw earlier.

“Holy shit,” I said as the crystaminds caught fire. Violet flames danced on their bodies, as if someone threw a Molotov cocktail at them, only that it was colored violet. They momentarily stopped when they caught fire but then they got a whiff of the potion I had on me and attacked me.

“Throw the poison now!” But I didn’t need to tell Justalyne that. I saw a late violet circular bottle flying over my head.

"This is my strongest poison," she said. "I hope you don't die."

My vision was slightly tinged red as I was poisoned, the negative status blinking aggressively in my interface. Relax, I intentionally got poisoned. Violet gas clouds enveloped me and the crystaminds that attacked me.

[Noxious Gazella Flower Poison]

75 poison damage/second while in area of effect

15 additional poison damage/second for every five seconds under poison status for a maximum of 60 additional poison damage/second.

We’re dying together you little shits! I almost screamed that out loud. My protection lasted for about ten seconds before it exploded. The shell actually lasted longer than I expected. I directed it towards where the pack was densest. Some of them were thrown back from the blast, their lives taking a large hit because the violet flames enhanced the effects of the explosion. Having supports made me feel stronger, adding an inch or two to my theoretical dick size.

I immediately recast it and started to drink my Solar Spirit potions so that I could spam the spell. I stabbed at the crystamind with the lowest life. I didn’t exactly stab to kill, rather I was methodically bringing their life low so that the shell explosion would get them.

“It’s working,” Mephisto said excitedly.

I grinned as I stabbed at the crystaminds. Duh, I’m so great of course it would work. The ‘shell’ of my skill was practically an additional life. All damage it took was reduced by my massively buffed armor, courtesy of Mephisto, and my block. I was actually surprised by how much Mephisto was able to increase my defenses and that the ‘shell’ held out for several seconds.

But it was only effective against physical damage. You know, when someone actually hit me.

Not this poison cloud enveloping me. And affecting the crystaminds as well. I don’t think clouds could actually hit people.

Even with my shell still intact, although it was not going to stay intact for long, my life was going down from the poison. The crystaminds were attacking my shell while the poison was damaging my life directly, bypassing the shell, but it was also killing the crystaminds at an alarming rate. My own regeneration tried to fight back the poison to no avail. I had to eat some of the fruits Justalyne gave me to keep my health up.

“Wow, they’re melting,” Mephisto said.

"Of course," Justalyne said. "That's the best poison I can brew currently.

The health of the crystaminds went down quickly from the from the violet flame thingy that Justalyne threw down earlier and the violet poison. Hey, lots of violet!

Based on the minimap, I could see that there were some crystaminds that were able to circle behind me. I craned my neck to look back while maintaining my Stance. Mephisto was killing the crystaminds that he could reach with his poleaxe while remaining outside the cloud. He was also glowing a slight metallic tinge, probably his Close Support skill. He waved at me after killing another one.

"I want to try stepping in the poison," he said.

Justalyne snorted while she was mixing potions. "Try it."

My shell exploded again, killing some of them. I directed my attention back to the front. But their numbers didn’t seem to go down. More and more were streaming from the hives. Apparently, their hive was huge, probably extending way below the ground. They scratched and bit me but the [Pyro Shell] stopped them from directly damaging me. My Solar Spirit was quickly refilled from blocking all their attacks. Each time I blocked, I regenerated a small percentage of Solar Spirit. I could actually continuously cast it thanks to my potions and the regeneration from block.

"Oww," Mephisto exclaimed. "My health's going down so fast."

"Get out of the cloud," Justalyne said, annoyed at Mephisto's antics.

“Hey, they’re getting faster,” I said. The skill of the crystaminds that made their fellows faster the more of them died was kicking in. Their mouths frothed, their eyes turned red with rage. As soon as I said it, vines sprouted from the ground, ensnaring the crystaminds that attacked me. The vines were thin and weren’t able to completely immobilize the monsters but it did slow down their speed.

“You should really level up that skill,” Mephisto said.

“When I have the time," Justalyne said. "It takes so much time and effort to tend those plants."

There were a couple of times when my shell broke and I didn't have enough Spirit to recast it. I think my heart fell to my stomach both times. The poison and the rabid crystaminds made short work of my health bar but Mephisto saved me both times with his [Steel Determination], making me hold on for dear life while I regenerated Spirit from all the blocked attacks.

Their support skills were insane, I was slightly jealous that they had a party of friends to play along. ChilliMaster probably made short work of powerful monsters if he received this much help from Mephisto and Justalyne.

"They're thinning out," Justalyne said. "I'll go to their hive to shake up the last few ones." She thundered back to their hive with her poison bottles to throw down their tunnels.

At the end of the day, we had dozens of loot ranging from fur, claws, and of course, the priced crystal skulls of these little fuckers.

"That was awesome," I said sincerely. There's nothing so as exhilarating as putting your virtual life on the line for virtual loot.

"I still can't believe your plan worked," Justalyne said.

"I had a hunch that the shell wouldn't be damaged by poison."

"Indeed that was a very awesome way to kill the crystaminds," Mephisto said.

"So we're going to divide this now?" I said, referring to all the loot.

"Let's see," Mephisto said. "How do I bring up the calculator app?"

While Justalyne and Mephisto were computing our shares, minus the loot we had to turn in to the Hunter-Warriors lodge, I received a text message from Mr. Cao.

The police ruled it as accidental death, it read. Their initial report was that a malfunctioning spinal port

That was surprising. I actually was expecting that he was killed by someone. No, I was not buying Mephisto's crazy theories about underground assassins. It was just that the circumstances gave the probability that he was killed by someone. Probably the neighbor? Some sort of foul play.

I didn't know that you could really die from a spinal port malfunction, or at least I haven't heard that one before. Spinal ports shut down their circuits and disconnect the moment there was a malfunction so I was not expecting it to be something as simple as an accident.

Let's see, what could I do about this situation...

My hands tapped the holo-keyboard. Mr. Cao, could you please obtain the forensic report? If there are some problems please inform me. I think they won't allow people who were not next of kin to obtain a report of accidental death. I will start drafting a letter demonstrating our legal interest on the report in case our request will be denied. I added the last line so that it wouldn't look like I'm bossing him around, although, technically, I could boss him around. It would make us look more like a team of equals if I added the last line.

The forensic report could be something that I could use in another problem of JYE

"I already divided the loot," Mephisto announced.

"Thanks for the hard work guys," Justalyne said. "Let's try again next time."

"Yeah, you should meet ChilliMaster."

"Well, I do hope I get to meet him because he sounds so strong. Also, both of you are strong supports. We only succeeded because of your skills," I said.

"Your idea with the pyro shell was brilliant," Mephisto said.

Justalyne said, "Let's go to town and turn this in. I have to call this a day. If you have any questions, you could just message us.

I looked down before following them back to town. "Justalyne," I called. "I think I want to be a Forager. Could you give me some tips?"