"I play now and then," I said to Eclairs, "but I usually don't have the spare time these days."

"Busy, busy, busy", she said with a tune, rocking her head left and right.

She was wearing her Vanguard Gaming polo shirt uniform. Her messy bob haircut seemed to be messier compared to the last time I had seen her. Coupled with her noticeable eye bags, I surmised she might have a lot on her plate today. My gaze shifted up an inch and met her pale gray eyes. I still hadn't asked her if they were natural or colored contacts, although that was hardly my business.

The same as the first day we met, her eyes radiated an unsettling feeling. It was like the endless fall off the cliffs of the Mardukryon mountain, sucking my soul to its unknown depths. Adding to the perturbing sensation was how her eyes of doom contrasted with her attractive and slightly mischievous face. Make her eyes glow and stick them on a hunched hooded figure, and you'd have a cool NPC to hand out daily quests at the town square.

"Busy. Exactly." I nodded. In truth, I now had plenty of free time after Nelly became the CEO...time which I spent playing Mother Core Online. But since I was wearing a suit, I had to project the illusion of being busy. Not only would it add to my hard-working image, but it would also give me an excuse for why I hadn't played my supposed ‘human’ character that much.

That was my story to her, right? I didn't want to admit I chose the Mardukryon race because she might judge my 'poor' choice. Knowing more about the game now, I also wouldn't recommend Mardukryon to newer players. But then again, I had a specific goal for my decision.

If I remembered correctly, I told Eclairs I picked a human character. My cover story was that I was going to make a battle monk when I asked her about the Unarmed State.

"I did try dual-wielding shields with my monk," I said. "I know you mentioned last time monks don't use shields—"

"I wasn't discouraging you or anything, okay?" she cut in. "I hoped I didn't come off as snobbish. There are some very vocal people who look down on others trying something different, and I really don't want to be like them.”

"Don't worry," I told her. "I don't think you're snobbish, Ms. Manager." She gave me a smile that made me stop for a second. Then I forced myself to continue talking, "I still ended up equipping two shields because I thought it was fun."

"Best to enjoy the game the way you want to play it."

"My plan is to make a very tanky monk with dual-wielding shields," I explained. Since we were already talking about MCO, I figured I could ask her for some tips for tanking with a weak character. And thus, it was time to weave another cover story. "That might be overkill, especially with a monk's defensive skills, but I'm using that skill...um, the basic taunt skill?"

"Enraging Taunt?" she offered.

"That's the one." I didn't forget its name, but I wanted to project a level of cluelessness that'd make her more inclined to help me. But I also didn't want to appear as an absolute beginner. "I bought its Ocadule Shard and slotted it in my gear. Voila, a tank! I know battle monks don't usually take on a primary tanking role, but I did it so I won't have difficulties in joining parties."

"Oh, that's smart. Only a few people play tanks, yet they're very in demand."

"Exactly. Most people will put up with an unconventional tank like mine to quickly complete their parties." Funnily enough, this was the origin story of my love for tanking.

"If you went with the usual role of battle monks to be like half-and-half DPS and tanky—I think they're called 'bruisers'—then I'm sure you'll have a really hard time finding a party. That's why most battle monks are solo players."

"But I'm having a hard time tanking. I suppose it would've been better if I had an actual tanking Ocadule. Or it could be that my level, as well as my Cidule and Ocadules, are simply too low." I sighed. "Really busy these days," repeating what I had said as I slumped my shoulders down. I didn't exactly pose a question to her, but she'd help me because of the situation I had set up. Since I've been cooped up playing MCO these days, I missed situations where I'd predict and control people's actions. I'm sure Eclairs won't mind what I'm doing.

She pursed her lips. After a few seconds of thought, she said, "I'm not too familiar with tanking so take my advice with a grain of salt. You can try looking for an Ocadule with summoned minions."

"What about them?"

"They can help you tank. Soak up some of the damage so you'll have less to worry about. I think most summoner Ocadules have a minion with a skill to hold aggro."

"But I'm not planning to make a summoner build," I said. Her answer was logical. Since if I wasn't tanky myself, better get others to do it for me. That was why micromanagement was bad in business—this analogy might be too much of a stretch. I continued, "Wouldn't my summons die too fast because I don't have the necessary skills and gear to boost them?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Eclairs said with a shrug. "Still...it's a bit of help to make your life easier. Like you're plenty hard...erm, I mean tanky! Tanky! That's what I meant to say." She scrunched her slightly upturned nose, possibly in annoyance at herself.

"With two shields and monk skills, I do feel tanky," I said, keeping a straight face.

"Right? But you don't have the large health pool of the really tanky builds. And so, your minions will be fodder to soak up the damage for you. Give you several seconds of a breather while you heal up or maybe wait for your cooldowns. It's a band-aid solution."

I nodded. Nitana's barrier sprite came to mind. "It'll be great if I can just endlessly summon minions to protect me," I said, more to myself. Unfortunately, Nitana's spell had a cooldown of several seconds. It wasn't spammable enough to be the center-piece of a facetanking strategy for a low-level tank like me; I’d die by the next hit.

But perhaps if I can find a number of similar spells to rotate…

Lvl. 1 Spell Bonded Totem: A hefty payment of blood establishes a contract with the world beyond for the aid of a spectral totem. The totem will have 15% of the Offense and Defense attributes of its contractor, and it will continuously cast all damage-dealing linked Skill Shards.

Cost: 25% of Maximum Health

Duration: 45 Seconds

Cooldown: 1 Second

I clicked my tongue when I saw the price of [Spell Bonded Totem]. "Fifty-six million Artas. Wow, that is expensive."

And it had a day left until the expiration of its listing. The winning bid could end up in the seventy million Artas range or probably more given it was the only one currently available. No wonder Megan told us she didn't have any money. I wondered how much she ended up paying for her [Spell Bonded Totem].

With my synced WeeCee, I checked its price on the main auction of MCO, the one accessible to all races connected to the Gates of Hierakon. The latest concluded listing for [Spell Bonded Totem] on the integrated market had the winning bid of more than four hundred million Artas. Phew, that's insane!

Our tiny closed Mardukryon economy couldn't push prices that high even if this Shard was probably relatively scarcer on this mountain. It was items like these that were a good investment in anticipation of the time Mardukryons would escape our prison of ice.

Despite such a hefty price tag, I understood why DPS players would want this Ocadule Shard. Given a maximum of three slots per equipment, the best configuration was to have one Skill Shard and two Link Shards to boost its power. A tanky player or monster might shrug off three weaker skills, but one juiced-up skill might bring the necessary pain. And it was also a strain on LS points to have that many Skill Shards.

Assuming [Spell Bonded Totem] added fifteen percent of the caster's stats per level to the totem, at level five it would be seventy-five percent. Furthermore, it wasn't a straightforward percentage DPS boost like most of the other Link Shards. The totem could shoot at an enemy different from the one its summoner was targeting. Or if they were both attacking the same target, there was less chance of overkill and wasted excess DPS.

Theoretically, a minion with seventy-five percent of a full-tank character's defensive attributes would be very tanky in its own right.

The cogs in my brain started turning at the interesting nugget of an idea. The [Spell Bonded Totem] only applied to skills that dealt damage, but I hoped there was one that also taunted the target as an added effect. Or there might be other kinds of totems, perhaps support-type counterparts of the [Spell Bonded Totem].

However, that wouldn't solve my immediate problem because they'd be too squishy—the exact issue I mentioned to Eclairs. But there's something more to this...I can feel the start of something awesome...

Or I was feeling myself being awesome as usual.

"Leave this great idea for another time," I firmly told myself. I might get sucked into a black hole of theorycrafting and forget what I was supposed to do here. In a few minutes, my party was going to start our second practice session.

The reason I visited the auction house was to buy a shield with three slots for the Ocadule Shards Kezodilla had given me yesterday. I was going to slot them all in the same item so that both [Gnawing Rot] and [Withering Brand] would benefit from linking with [Enfeebling Burden]. For a bit over eight hundred thousand Artas, I bought myself a nice replacement for my [Thatched Buckler].

Reinforced Pavise | Item Level: 12

Rare | Shield | Off-hand

127 Armor

21% Chance to Block 130 Damage

Head-On Block 225 Damage

10% Physical Damage Reduction for 3 seconds when you execute a Head-On Block

45 Constitution Rating

Requires: 25 Might, 45 Vigor

--------------------

+20 Blocked Damage

+250 Health

+15 Vigor

I didn't want to overspend on my purchase because, more than likely, I wouldn't be able to resell this item. A new Mardukryon player only came once in a blue moon, and they probably wouldn't be interested in this shield anyway. I considered the Artas I spent for this to be sunk cost. At any rate, it was a very good shield, especially considering the price.

"I need to have more practice blocking," I said as I examined its stats. It incentivized successful Head-On Blocks. I might be able to keep the Physical Damage Reduction buff up all the time.

A notification popped up.

[Megantress: We’re here at our usual meeting place by the tunnels. Are you ready?]

[Herald Stone: I'm born ready. In fact, I was already ready in my mother's womb. The real question should be: is the world ready for me?]

Of course, I didn't send that message.

[Herald Stone: I'll be there in a minute.]—was my real reply.