Radiant Bulwark was looking at Carl solemnly, a volatile concoction of emotions brewing within him.

“That wasn't a system bug, was it?”

“No. It was something only available to players on full realism,” Carl freely admitted, shocking everyone once more.

“Thank you, brother Lionheart, for indulging this old man. You are too kind.” Radiant Bulwark nodded profoundly, sheathing his masterwork weapon.

“Hmm? You don't want to fight any more?” Carl was at a loss.

The burly warrior smiled wistfully.

“Brother Lionheart, I don't want to push you over the tip. I can tell it took a toll on you. Rest up, and I'll be happy to spar with you whenever you want.”

He was right, Carl wasn't in a good shape any more. And he didn't feel well, either. In retrospect, he realized that opting out of wearing the emergency chest belt, which came with his Cybercore VR helmet, might have been irresponsible of him. This hardware was especially designed with players like him in mind, implementing chest compressions, defibrillators and intracardiac adrenaline injections into the system. Should a crazy gamer like Carl appear – or simply one with underlying health conditions – these tools would be able to resuscitate them, or otherwise keep their blood oxygenated until an ambulance arrived.

“You have already given me what I asked for,” the man continued. “And it turned out to be more than I wished for. This one duel will suffice. As a sign of my gratitude–”

He stopped, respecting Carl's raised hand.

“Sincerity requires no payment,” the hero stated adamantly.

Radiant Bulwark bowed courteously with acknowledgment. “If you insist. Tell me, though, if I may ask for advice from you … how can I reach your level of mental fortitude?” he inquired with hopeful anticipation.

“I … don't know what got into me, actually.” Carl fell into deep thought. “I'm just this desperate.” He shrugged eventually. “Are you?”

“Ha!” The veteran warrior brightened up. “That sounds quite appropriate, I admit. My approach is probably too conservative, as I don't risk as much as you do, and I strive for a sustainable fighting style, while you pay danger no heed.”

“Mhm, the advantages of unrestrained freedom.” Carl smiled genially. “But you have the perfect tool in the arena” – he swept around with his hand – “are you taking full advantage of it while you can?”

“Oh, believe me! I've moved to the second degree of realism already, and I– … wait a second … what do you mean?” The man scowled abruptly, unsettled.

“You're fighting to defeat your opponents, aren't you?”

“Yes, I …” Radiant Bulwark didn't finish, as a realization dawned on him, and he stared at Carl wide-eyed.

“I've been mutilated a thousand times in full-dive implant-based VR of much higher fidelity than this. It conditioned my subconscious, though I'm still far from being done with it.”

“Are you saying – we should … ?”

“Hack each other into pieces, go full berserk, until your body crumbles into a useless pile of meat!” Carl laughed. “Take off your armor and let your opponents break every bone in your body! Let them massacre you, as you face them with impossible odds! Over and over, at full speed, every day until the end of the tutorial! Make it a point to suffer as much as you can handle, and then push yourselves through those limits!”

The unexpected recommendation had everyone balking. This sounded … insane! But it also sounded logical …

“Should we all … immediately switch to full–”

“No-no! Don't get me wrong. I did this one thousand runs with the pain turned off. Only by the end did I fully restore it. After all, there's only so much your body can handle, and you don't want to ruin your nervous system and strain your heart. Like you noticed, it takes a heavy toll. But if you cultivate your resolve, it will support you when you need it the most. Honing oneself is long and arduous work, interweaved with regular testing from time to time. And I'm still a beginner.”

Radiant Bulwark nodded solemnly.

“I should be ashamed to have forgotten this simple truth. Thank you once more, brother Lionheart. I will not forget this.”

“Don't mention it.” Carl waved with dismissal. “It's common knowledge. If you really have the desire, then you will make it. Well, unless fate decides to mock you … but then you should keep trying anyway.”

“Hmm … we have a lot to make up for, young Lions!”

“Hua!”

Everyone looked on with zeal in their eyes. Carl was quite satisfied.

“Brother Lionheart?” Amaranthine Bushido stepped forward. “Your combination skills … are quite terrifying, I have to say. Is it a result of maxed out mental constitution? I have yet to meet another fighter of your caliber who invested fully in magic.”

As a devout swordsman and a practitioner of traditional legacies, he pursued the mastery of finesse and fluency of movement. He found it striking, that Carl, who demonstrated a very crude martial art, could so effortlessly transition from one magical attack to another, when his own attempts still seemed so … artificial. He rewatched his personal recordings many times, correcting his mannerisms and trying to be more relaxed, but he inescapably fell short.

“Pure experimentation. I … cannot really answer this question, I'm sorry.” Seeing a crestfallen expression, Carl then clarified – “I can't really say for sure, as I don't know what it's like to have low mental constitution. Proper research would have to be conducted on that.”

“Mhm, we're already on it,” Radiant Bulwark revealed. “We'll let you know if we find something interesting.”

“All I can advise is … let loose for a time? Don't try to succeed, just have some fun. Maybe you'll stumble onto something, like I did. And I'm still failing frequently, so it's not something that can be instantly learned. It has to be refined, like every skill, and the one thing I do know for a fact, is the more I think about it, the worse my results,” Carl added, picking up on Bushido's predicament.

“Thank you, brother Lionheart.” Amaranthine Bushido bowed graciously, recognizing the wisdom in this elementary statement. He was indeed very rigorous and strict with himself, which might have narrowed his horizons too much.

“So … do we still have time to talk business?” Now that they were done with the issue at hand, Carl mentioned the bottom line.

“We can make all the time that you need, brother Lionheart,” Radiant Bulwark proclaimed. “Did you already have something in mind, or would you like us to go first?”

“Well, at first I planned to grind bosses for pelts, as I have 100% success rate, but then I thought about the valuable conquest rewards, and about all the guilds that have the capital, but might lack the ability to take down a horrid wolf …”

“Haha, we're on the same page, then!” The axeman disclosed gleefully. “But didn't you try to say earlier that it was a fluke?” he humorously jabbed with a smirk.

“It was, but I've worked out a strategy since then.”

“Oh?” The man raised his brows, and the others were also greatly interested. “Does it involve some kind of teamwork? I don't mean to pry, but if we end up doing business together, then we will find out anyway, which I'm sure you understand.”

“No, no teamwork. I can only rely on myself for this.”

Now the consternation was real. The difference between those two approaches was that the former would limit access to only the capable elite, while the latter would open it up to almost everyone. What guild wouldn't want to equip all its members with fine quality bound items at a discount?

“No offense, brother Lionheart, I've seen what you can do, but … do you really think you can solo that boss absent risk? You should know, that many specialist parties wiped on the horrid wolf, losing hundreds of gold worth of gear in the process, wasting the efforts of thousands of their guild members. Naturally, if your chances were good, we could equip you and provide you the funds to bind all the items. But the death penalties are no joke. 10% might not sound like much, but it compounds across all attributes, effectively halving your combat power. You would be out of commission for a day, downgraded to gray wolves or something similar,” Radiant Bulwark warned.

“I think I can make it work. I'll just need better gear, and maybe a few practice runs on the dire wolf prowler. Those are so easy I can instakill them.”

The warrior reeled back, pursing his lips.

“Wow … okay.” He looked around at his men, who shared his impression. They then paused, as Carl was rummaging in his previously discarded backpack.

“Oh! That's brilliant! Where did you find that thing, system shop?”

“That one is from the marketplace, but it's insufficient, only of good quality, and the materials are inferior. I'll get a much better one for conquering the gray wolves' den, and I'll buy the best bracers I can find. Together, they should hold … I think. I'll then refine my technique on the dire wolves, and I'm good to go.” Carl smiled.

“Ha! What an entrepreneurial spirit you are! I like your idea, and I like it a lot! And from our side, you'll be happy to know we have ways to increase the chances of boss spawn.” Radiant Bulwark grinned with contentment.

“Me too,” Carl said playfully, inciting even more astonishment.

“You are full of surprises, brother Lionheart.” The man shook his head in wonderment. “I'll go first, then. There's this item called spectral dust, which can be gathered into ampules from defeated and exorcised ghosts in the instanced dungeons, akin to skinning wolves for pelts. Those mobs are the favorite choice of mages, and that's whom they were designed for, as only magic can harm them. Now, I'm not sure if you're aware, but everything we loot has a market, and all materials are of use to some crafters out there–“

“Yeah, and all materials have a markup which is dictated by demand and supply, and are thus subject to trading and speculation. I know,” Carl, a veteran of Ethereal Empire, interjected. His interlocutor really had no clue who he was talking to.

“Yes, of course, pardon my blunt question.” Radiant Bulwark nodded politely. “So you must as well know, that instead of turning your loot in for bounties, you can sell it to traders or crafters, only the markup for tutorial items is so marginal, that it's a waste of time. However, that's not the case for all of them. For example, you could have gotten a couple extra Gold Crowns for that horrid wolf pelt if you searched hard enough. To you that's not worth the hassle, as you would rather go for another hunt, but there are dedicated traders out there who would have gladly taken it off your hands if they saw you with it. Even the dire wolf prowler pelts have a good few percent of markup. But I'm going off on a tangent here, so let's get back on track.”

He paused meaningfully.

“Turns out that spectral dust is quite useful, with high demand and insufficient supply, as ghosts are troublesome and – quite frankly – terrifying. Maybe not those in dungeons of low rank, but rank 5, which corresponds to black wolves' den, is currently a big wall. Nonetheless, the dust gathered from their evolved bosses, the spectral centurions, can be used to scribble a Scroll of Danger, which is what I was getting to. Reciting it inside a dungeon will greatly increase its threat level. Also, the dust from a peak mortal realm spectral optio can be used to scribble a potent Scroll of Threat, but its effects will be reduced in dungeons above rank 4.”

“Cost?” Carl immediately got to the point.

“10 gold for a base quality Scroll of Danger and 1 gold for a peak quality Scroll of Threat.”

Carl smirked, done with rough calculations. Sure, the margins would take a hit, but the turnover …

“That sounds worthwhile. What do you think about 50 gold per run, that is 12.5 gold for a Skyborne Lion?”