“Hey, man. Can I ask what’s up with the battle ax?” Norman said as he trotted up to Megiddo at the head of our bulky Mardukryon column. He jostled me as he went past and parked his wide molten ass in front of me. “What’s up with it?” Megiddo said. “You know, I mean, it’s just that you have been using that since the first time I saw you,” Norman said. Wharton, the forever sidekick, followed Norman. And then Keith, I think, the Forager of their team. Or Keif? Let’s go with Keith. I didn’t know what his game name was but I heard Norman and his friends called him Keith or Keif. As for the other Mardukryons in our advance exploration group, I have no idea who they were nor did they try to engage me in a conversation. I noticed that most Mardukryon players were quite cliquish with their group which was, more often than not, composed of their real-world friends. I think the anonymity aspect implemented in the game, where you couldn’t see the names of other players, have a huge impact in the dynamics of the player community. Anyway, the three fuckturds cut in front of me so that they could cozy up to Megiddo. The tunnel we travelled in was narrow, so I was pushed back a bit. Sighing, I closed the window floating in front of me. Since we were just walking, I figured I could use the time to edit the works submitted by the associates in my firm. But now, I wanted to listen to Megiddo speak because I might learn something. I tried to stay close enough to listen to their conversation. Megiddo’s axe should be pretty powerful if he wasn’t replacing it for a long time. “It was dropped by a monster here in the Ice Tunnel,” Megiddo said. “What? A monster dropped it? I thought monsters here only dropped at the most crafting items.” “And at the least, crap,” Wharton added. Keith said, “Those crappy loots could still be sold. And the most useful thing dropped would probably be Integral Bits.” “Oh yea. That’s probably the closest thing to equipment we can have as loot here.” “You guys have some respect for the great Megiddo. I’m trying to have a conversation here with our ace, our MVP, the most powerful of us all,” Norman said. I stifled a chuckle as he exerted great effort to put his arm around Megiddo’s shoulders because the latter was much taller than us lower levelled Mardukryons. In the end, he couldn’t do it because of Meggido’s cumbersome axe. What’s with this guy? I thought as looked at their backs. Megiddo said, “This is more of an exception, actually. On this mountain, monsters don’t drop equipment in contrast to…uh, the outside world, let’s call it that. But I supposes there are quest monsters in the Ice Tunnel which could help us along in our quest of finding a way out of the mountain.” “That axe is one of those items?” “It is. It has a bonus damage against Ice-type monsters and has additional effects if used here, on Mardukryon mountain.” "That's wicked!" "Can we look at the item description, pretty please?" I raised my brow. An item that became stronger in a specific area? Of course, I have seen those kinds of items before in RPGs of old. There were even items which activated bonus during events like Halloween. I was just surprised that there were those kinds of items in Mardukryon hellhole trash-item-mountain. “And your Integral Bit attached to it increases the crit chance and multiplier against Ice-type mountains,” Norman said. “Bro, all the monsters in this cave are your bitches.” "Most of them, anyway," Keith said. "Not all of them are pure ice-types. And maybe there are others that are not ice-types despite living here inside the Ice Tunnel." "Percentage of strength added as damage against monsters of Mardukryon mountain," Wharton said, apparently reading the item box Megiddo shared with them. "Critical multiplier and critical rating too." “Yes,” Megiddo said. “It has a scaling bonus. My other Integral Bits adds strength. My belt and bracers also give me plenty of strength.” Okay. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of Megiddo's attacks. “Damn, that’s powerful,” Norman said. I nodded. Indeed, that was a powerful item. Even if was a low-level item relative to Megiddo’s level, it would still be powerful if it scaled off strength. You wouldn’t even care about its base damage. And it even gave bonus against monster’s in this mountain? No wonder he kept on using his axe even though he has far outstripped it, level-wise. Keith asked, "So how much for it? Just kidding, hehe." Wharton said, "Even if we pooled all our money together, I'm sure we can't buy that." "Where did you find it, anyway?" Norman said. "Maybe we can find a strong item like that somewhere here too." “The area we turned into our headquarters, the huge cavern back there? That was where we found this axe. We, being me and my friends who used to play as Mardukryons but has long changed into other races.” Megiddo heaved a forlorn sigh. “And other veterans as well, who, I think stayed as Mardukryons, but just stopped playing a couple of months into the game. Got bored or became busy with real life. "There used to be an Ice Troll with poison gas skills guarding that place, if my memory serves me right. We died several times trying to take it out. We lost all of our experience points along with money. Fortunately, we don't level down no matter how many times we died. It took us quite a long time to figure out the mechanics of the Ice Troll and defeat it because of the penalty for dying; we had to wait it out before trying again. Plus, we also needed to farm money to repair our equipment." “Man, that’s kinda sad that our seniors have left us. At least we still have you, right?” Norman said. “It is hard playing as a Mardukryon,” Meggido said. “I think the hardest part is seeing all the enjoyable activities other players do in the outside world.” “Yeah, I see that in the online streams,” Wharton said. “That was the main reason why my friends gave up on being a Mardukryon and changed their characters into something else that would be more fun, I suppose,” Megiddo said wistfully. “We’re here, bro. You can count on us,” Norman said. His friends also assented. I nodded while listening to them. Sometimes, I also watched other players who streamed their gameplay ,and also the official game channel. It was really more fun in the 'outside world'. If you were just looking to play casually and enjoy the game, the Mardukryon race wasn't for you. Our place was just fall of ice and crabs living down the mines! Even if you were the complete-every-challenge type of person, I was sure there were other races who were more interesting. We do look cool though. For me who haven't played any RPG or VR games for a long time, every experience here was new and unique. And I was having fun. That might not be true for today's generation. Cough, old man talk, cough. VR games started to spread about the time I stopped playing computer games. And that was nearly twenty years ago. Which meant that the gamers of this generation were already used to VR games and it would take so much more to capture their attention. Me? Having a centaur body already entertained me. I was still wondering whether we had a penis or not because I couldn't bend down enough to look for it and I wouldn't try looking for the penis of other Mardukryons. But for most people, they would hate being trapped here in this stupid mountain. I looked around for Nicole and found her at the very back of our group looking bored. Why was she in their group, anyway? Like how the hell was she connected to them? Not judging or anything, just genuinely wondering how she ended up with their group. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a new status. “What the hell?” Lvl. 5 Chilled Grounds [Environment Effect] +7.5% additional Ice Damage taken +25% additional Ice Damage taken if Frozen -5% Attack speed -5% Movement speed “Bullshit environment status,” I said, as we went down a newly discovered tunnel. This was the furthest anyone of us has gone down the Ice Tunnel. The ice was bluer here, almost having a steely shade. The icicles pointing down at us from the high frozen ceiling looked like the pointy ends of a portcullis, waiting to slam our sorry asses. Twenty-five percent additional damage if Frozen? Damn, that would hurt a lot. I mentally noted that there were terrains that could affect us. This could be good when it came to finding farming spots later in the game. It was a given that there would be good spots for farming and levelling and people would flock to them, avoiding those places that could provide similar experience and loot but had very annoying status effects or disables. It would be good to invest and tailor fit my gear to handle a specific area. Obviously, I would be weak overall but I would be very strong in certain areas. With that, I could power level and solo the loot in those obscure, hard to get to, annoying places. Maybe inside the volcano or something. I was sure a high level Mardukryon would be fine with swimming in lava. Megiddo touched the walls of the tunnel and said, “This is the first time I’ve seen ice like this. And I have been exploring this Ice Tunnel for a long time. " “We must be going the right way then,” Norman said. He puffed his chest out and trotted proudly in front of us. “Let me bless this new area with my hooves.” His friends, except Nicole, laughed. The others just politely chuckled. I stopped myself from logging out. I just let out a derisive snort instead of puking at his stupidity. Actually, Norman was not stupid, I was just annoyed by him. I shrugged. I shouldn't let stuff like this bother me. I should just stick around and find out what I can with this new area until it was time for my virtual conference with some clients later. And then I had some drafts of legal opinions to review. Work, work. “Forward then, people,” Norman said pointing one of his broadswords to the far end of this freakishly bluish frozen path. We followed him. There were twenty-two of us in the group, the majority being Hunter-Warriors. We had Megiddo. Norman was also strong, I guess. And there might be other strong players in our group too, but were not on the same level as Megiddo. The other people in our groups were probably group of friends as well. I was confident that we could take on whatever weird monster showed up. At least, I was sure that I could escape alive, especially with my level three [Inner Grit] which would burst heal me with 1250 Health the moment my life got below thirty percent. I would also have added armor and regeneration for ten seconds after that. That provided me with a small window to escape. I also positioned myself in the middle of our group. It couldn’t be viewed as cowardice because I was one of the low levelled players, so it was kind of normal not to be on the frontlines. Dying right now would be one of the most stupid things to do. I don’t think anyone of our Healers was close to unlocking something like a reincarnation skill. Our village was just so fucking far away that if we died it would be a huge waste of time going back to where we were right now. “Wait,” Norman said. “The fuck, man?” What’s this idiot’s problem? [Desolate Freezing Aura] -10% Armor Rating -10% Resilience -100 Health/second (-850 Health/second if Frozen) 1% Chance to be Frozen when Attacking 3% Chance to be Frozen when using an Attack Skill Every one of us stopped when we stepped into this deleterious aura. “Don’t stand around,” Megiddo said. “We have to—” “Move!” Norman used [Charge] and with his arms wide open, plowed into his friends dragging them along. He barely moved them out of the way as something like a bluish grey furry monster truck ran past them, hitting another player. The player hit by the monster, somebody who was a nobody so I didn’t know his name, flew over us, slamming against the ceiling, shattering the icicles on top, then falling heavily to the ground. I raised my shield as the spears of ice fell all around us. My health regeneration took care of the damage from the falling icicles. “Are you alright?” Megiddo shouted at the guy who was thrown away. The player struggled to stand up and then didn’t move. “It’s a Brutal Strike,” Megiddo said, referring to the effect that we get momentarily paralyzed if we get damaged by more than eighty percent of our life in one hit. “Heal him.” Nicole hurried towards the injured player while the rest of us prepared to face the monster that interrupted our peaceful stroll. We encircled it as we read its name written in an ornate font colored in gold. And we all know what a fancily written name for a monster meant. Who the hell names these monsters? And this fucker has such a high level! A fucking giant mountain goat on steroids; its muscles were prominent even under the cover of its coat of glowing fur. It was almost hunching over because of the coils of muscles running from its shoulders to its back. Menacing curved black horns pointed threateningly at us as its red eyes glared at us like we were ants. To be fair, I was probably a cat or something in comparison to this bastard, not an ant. “I can’t heal him,” Nicole exclaimed from the back. “He’s cursed with—” “Watch out, the goat is doing something.” Mehubathar exhaled a sketchy looking smoke. Super sketchy smoke, like you would see that it was a super bad idea to get caught in the smoke. I backed away. The others also retreated from our formation encircling the stupid goat, but one didn’t back away far enough. “He got frozen,” a guy said, pointing to an ice encased Mardukryon. See, super sketchy smoke. “Guys,” Nicole said, trying to get our attention. “I can’t heal him. He’s afflicted with a status I have never seen before. His life is going down fast.” "Be careful not to get hit, everyone." “I can’t dispel the freeze on Marco,” a player said, a Healer who was trying to save this ‘Marco’ person, the dumbass who got frozen. Like I cared about the names of these people. “His health is going down, my heal can't keep up,” another player said. Probably a friend of popsicle-Marco. “Anyone has a strong dispel skill?” I pointed at the goat and said, “It’s pawing the ground with its hoof.” “Let’s run away.” The friends of popsicle-Marco left him as Mehubathar bulldozed him, throwing him against the ice wall. He wasn't killed in one hit becase he was one of the more powerful Hunter-Warrios in our group, but because he was frozen, the aura of the goat ate away at the small remainder of his life. And we couldn't do anything to save him. One dead. Another disabled. Wait. I looked over to where Nicole was. She stopped trying to heal her patient, stood up, and shook her head. Make that two dead players. There was no way I was going to try and tank this goat. It might curse me or something even if I could negate its attack. Actually, I wasn’t even sure if I could freeze this goat. It had a skill based on freeze, it should have resistance to freeze, right? And why the hell was there a goat in a tunnel? Shouldn't mountain goats be outside? “Threat on me,” Megiddo said. A Forager threw a potion at him. It broke and covered him with its slimy contents. I could easily make a joke here but for now, I'm gonna focus on Mr. Goat. The goat turned its head towards Megiddo. “This is not enough,” Megiddo said as he summoned a glowing red orb with runes. It floated over his head, presumably adding more Threat. “We also need decoy sigils. Pathfinders do your thing. Everyone else, formations around me. Support to the back. Everyone in front overlap your buffs. Let’s take this guy on Mardukryon style.” So far, this strategy has worked on all the powerful enemies that I have encountered but I felt uneasy doing this now. This goat might just be too powerful and there were weird mechanics at work here. I was especially wary of the aura and the environment status affecting us. I didn’t join the formation, instead, I threw poison bottles at Mehubathar, the goat who snorted whey protein, and then went with the Pathfinders to support them with coatings for their spears. I was a Forager, so, technically, my role was to support; it was just that I built my character to tank rather than fully support. Other Foragers threw fire bottles at Mr. Goat while also planting seeds that gave an AoE buff to the main group. If we managed to fight a herd of electric mammoths, then surely we could take on an oversized mountain goat who spent too much time at the gym. I was a bit worried because our healers weren’t strong enough to heal cursed players or dispel the Frozen status caused by this monster. If only we had ChilliMaster here, the highest levelled Mardukryon Healer. Mehubathar charged at our main group, aiming for Megiddo because of all the Threat on him, shrugging off the attacks of the Pathfinders, smashing all the traps sprinkled around. Megiddo cast a spell, turning him into a fierce shade of radiant red, ready to receive the attack. The other Hunter-Warriors began casting their buffs, summoning sigils, floating runes and symbols. I watched them from afar. Megiddo received the attack, skidding across the ground, his hooves digging furrows. The Healers immediately healed him. He probably had some skill that made him immune or negate the curse that prevented healing, which wouldn't surprise me. The Hunter-Warriors surrounded the goat and proceeded to bang it like a gang...yeah, rearrange that sentence. Then one of the Hunter-Warriors got Frozen. Ice crystals crept over his. Mr. Goat stomped the ground, sending a shockwave that pushed everyone away, including the Frozen player. Mr. Goat then turned to his target and pawed the ground, getting ready to charge. The others rushed to stop him, but couldn't. I think that Mr. Goat couldn't be disabled while it was charging. Another player died, sent flying across the air, smashing against an ice pillar. I have a feeling the goat only wanted to make a modern art installation on the ice wall with our bodies pasted on it. The others scattered as the goat exhaled the cloud of gas. Obviously, no one wanted to get Frozen. “It’s going for whoever is Frozen,” a player said. "So what do we do?" "Don't get Frozen then, stupid." “The potion and my aggro sigil is not working,” Megiddo said. “It doesn’t care for decoy sigils either.” “We're so fucked." “We have to kill this thing fast,” Megiddo said, running for the goat again as the icy smoke dissipated. The Hunter-Warriors followed, not even sparing a glance at the corpses of the deceased players. They attacked the goat, supported by Pathfinders who kept up the negative statuses on it. The other Foragers supported the damage dealers with potions that boosted their attack and movement speed. Sorry folks, I can’t do anything to help because I don’t have potions that buffed people. “Wait, don’t attack,” I said. But they didn’t listen, or more like I was too late to warn them, but still, it’s their fault they didn’t listen to me. I rolled my eyes as two of the Pathfinders froze up. Goat bastard focused on the frozen guy, pawing the ground again to prepare for a charge. Megiddo noticed it and placed himself in between Mr. Goat and the Pathfinder it targeted. What a hero, this guy. Goat fucker didn’t care about Megiddo, pushing him to the side with its charge, sort of like how our own [Charge] worked and then trashed the Pathfinder despite the best efforts of the other players to stop it. It seemed like we could't stun it or disable it. The negative status effects cast on it by the Pathfinders quickly disappeared. They needed to continuously attack Mr. Goat to make the negative status effects stick. Stuns only made it flinch a bit. Maybe a dozen stun attacks per second could disable it, but nothing in our arsenal could make it stop its charge. “Check your status,” I said. “The Chilled Ground is modified.” “Everyone scatter while we think of a plan,” Megiddo said while a Healer attended to him. “What the hell is this ‘Frostbite’?” “It wasn’t there before, right?” “Our chances of being frozen is increased!” Lvl. 5 Chilled Grounds [Environment Effect] (modified by Frostbite) +7.5%(10%) additional Ice Damage taken +25%(35%) additional Ice Damage taken if Frozen -5%(7.5%) Attack speed -5%(7.5%) Movement speed [Desolate Freezing Aura] (modifed by Frostbite) -10(12)% Armor Rating -10(15)% Resilience -100(120) Health/second (-850(975) Health/second if Frozen) 1%(2.5%) Chance to be Frozen when Attacking 3%(5%) Chance to be Frozen when using an Attack Skill I focused on the blinking icon on the upper right the two status. [Frostbite] Status Modifier Ice-type and Freezing-type debuffs, aura, and negative status effects will be amplified as time passes depending on the affected players attributes. I already felt slight static shocks throughout my body. If this went on for too long, the aura of Mr. Steroid Goat and the status from this environment would prove to be the end of us. I wonder if throwing poison bottles at Mr. Goat would count as attacking it. Perhaps it would. I stowed away my poison bottles. The Frostbite status modifier blinked as it went up another level and worsened the effects of Chilled Grounds and Desolate Freezing Aura. This was not okay at all. We have to run, otherwise, there would come a time where we couldn't even attack without getting certainly Frozen. And what if there other bullshit effects when Frostbite worsens? Maybe we could lose our limbs like how frostbite works in the real world? "This is too much!" a useless player said. "Yeah, we can't fight this," said another side character who I didn't care about. "We will just be frozen." Megiddo waved his axe. "Everyone retreat." We piled on top of each other in our haste to run away. Fortunately, Mr. Goat doesn't like coming out of his weird blue ice cave. I waved goodbye at him as we retreated to plan how to kill him.