"What is this?" Sharulrath let his hands fall to his sides, dropping the dead monster he carried. "Is what I see true? A youngling, barely come of age, is practicing the Ancestral Flame Arts you have closely guarded?" The newcomer Mardukryon took a couple more steps forward, about to cross the border of Big M's hideout area.

"Nephew," Mehubanarath said in a serious yet gentle tone. "That is as far as you approach. No further, lest you taint our Ancestral Flames with the energies of this mountain you have embraced."

"Our?" his nephew demanded with incredulity. He took another step, his front leg leaving the snow-covered ground and about to touch the pristine grass.

Mehubanarath stretched his hand, and the pink-tinged wall he had shown me earlier blocked Sharulrath's path.

His nephew was displeased. "Our?" he repeated with more anger in his voice. "My eyes did not deceive me. This youngling..." He pointed at me.

"Hi, there!" I said with a cheery wave. "I seem to have come at a bad time."

"This youngling was manipulating the Ancestral Flame in the ways of our ancestors."

"Indeed," Mehubanarath said. "I deemed him worthy of learning the—"

"Uncle, I have hunted for you," Sharulrath cut in. "Delivered food, gathered materials for your experiments, all that I have consistently done since I became a Hunter-Warrior many, many moons ago. As a youngling, I helped you find the scrolls of our forefathers, digging through the long-abandoned libraries of our people in the caves. Not a single line from those scrolls have you taught me despite all that! Yet, this youngling here—"

"Sharu, my beloved nephew," Mehubanarath said. "Calm your heart. Let not anger cloud your judgment."

"But I am angry, Uncle Mehu," came the reply with a matching angry hoof stomp. "I want to aid you in completing the lost Ancient Flame Arts of our ancestors. I am aiding you right at this moment by bringing the body of the Spiked Tail you requested of me. And yet, you have taught a stranger to our family your most guarded secrets that you deny me? I have the right to be angry."

"Uh-oh," I said. I looked at Mehubanarath, then at his nephew, and back to him to check his reaction. "Is this some sort of family issue?" Were they going to make me choose sides, resulting in branching questlines?

"He has a pure Ancestral Flame," Mehubanarath said. "He is worthy."

"Only that?" countered his nephew. "Despite all I have done to help you, am I not worthier? Amongst our people, I accomplished numerous feats as a Hunter-Warrior. The three spears on my back prove it. But you don't know that because you aren’t interested in village matters. Each time I visit you, it’s only to bring you what you asked for or tell me your next order."

I raised a brow, muttering under my breath, "I feel like a kid here trapped between two adults arguing with each other," Both of them were so much bigger than me that I did look like a child in comparison. Youngling? Hold on, I was a child according to the lore of this game.

"If my memory does not fail me," the Big M said. "I extended my proud congratulations to you for earning your third spear. However, you asked that I teach you the Ancestral Flame Arts, a reward I could not grant, as you are well aware, my dear nephew."

Sharulrath pawed the ground with this front hoof to show his frustration. "I asked to be taught the knowledge of our ancestors because I feel worthy. I know I am. Tell me, Uncle, why is this youngling more worthy than me—a three-spear Hunter-Warrior who has helped you reconstitute the knowledge of our ancestors since I was a youngling, barely any older than he is right now?"

“I have a successful restaurant chain,” I said.

"His Ancestral Flame is pure," said the Big M.

“Let’s go with his answer.”

"Is that all?” Sharulrath demanded. “We could've grabbed any other youngling then. If you're not willing to teach me the Ancestral Flame Arts, then, at the least, value my opinion on which youngling is worthy. I know of others more worthy than he is."

"How dare you say that to the Great Herald Stone?" I said half-jokingly at the NPC, wondering what his reaction would be. They have been talking for some time, and I wanted to skip this cut scene. Well, it wasn't exactly a cut scene since I could walk away. What would these NPCs do if I left them?

"He has eliminated a pack of Mirdabons," said Mehubanarath. "All on his own, with only an old sling I had given him as a weapon."

"To be fair," I said, "it was more of gravity than my weapon."

"And what proof does he have for this claimed deed?" Sharulrath said, gesturing with his arms at me. "His words?"

“The emanations of his Ancestral Flame ring true, my nephew.”

“That’s not enough, Uncle Mehu.”

"Aha! I have proof." I opened my inventory, checking it. “I have patches of Mirdabon four, small teeth…" But I didn't know how to show him the items I looted.

Given the freedom in this game, I suspected I might be able to trade with NPCs. But if I did that, would the Big M consider my Ancestral Flame tainted? His nephew was bringing him items. I found it funny that I wasn’t allowed to trade with players or NPCs for it’d be considered contamination.

Surprisingly, Sharulrath directly answered me, "Those are not proof. You could've picked those off the forest floor from Mirdabon corpses half-eaten by Buvalu."

"Buvalu?" I said.

It was the high-level monster roaming the Golden Forest. Mehubanarath had mentioned it was the name of the most fearsome Mirdabon. If the normal Mirdabons, the supposedly weakest monster in this 'beginner area' were already strong, how much more was this area boss monster that snacked on them?

"And what was that about looting from corpses?" I said. "I did kill Mirdabons...sort of. I can do it again to show you. On second thought, you might not think I'm worthy if I reveal how I actually did it."

"What proof will satisfy you, Sharu, my dear nephew?"

"If he is to join us in rediscovering and preserving the ancient knowledge of our forefathers, then he should show that he can pull his own weight. Three of the beasts you tasked me to hunt for their body parts remain. They are of adequate difficulty to bring down for someone who had apparently killed a pack of Mirdabons on his own."

"Youngling," Mehubanarath said, turning to me. "Do you accept his challenge?"

"Herald Stone will not back down against anything...unless it's doing the dishes."

"I will provide you with directions where to hunt, youngling," said Sharulrath.

[ Quest: Proving Your Worth! Again! ]

Convince Sharulrath, the nephew of Mehubanarath, that his uncle made the right choice in sharing with you the secrets of the Ancestral Flame Arts. Show your prowess in fighting and willingness to aid Mehubanarath's efforts to reconstitute the lost knowledge of your forefathers by hunting the following three (3) monsters and gathering necessary magical materials.

[Lvl 10 Fulgurian Boarlet], [Lvl 11 Bashful Roridula], [Lvl 12 Craggy Crabore]

"And accept." I checked the clock on my docked WeeCee. I had spent a lot of hours on this game already. "With that, I think this is a good point to end my first day in Mother Core Online."

"I will be waiting here for your success or failure," said Sharulrath behind the pink barrier, arrogantly folding his arms across his chest.

"You do that. I'll come back tomorrow." I was about to log out when I stopped, recalling something I wanted to check. Oh, one last thing." I whipped myself four times to max [Ancestral Constitution].

Name: Herald Stone | Lvl 5 Exp: 16%

Base: Mardukryon

Health: 483/483

Energy: 130/130

Ancestral Shroud: 215/215

ATTRIBUTES:

Might....................15

Vigor.....................35

Spirit.....................15

Sense...................15

I cast [Greater Pyro Shell] and reapplied the [Ancestral Constitution] stacks that were about to expire. Then I unequipped the sling and spammed [Healing Touch], waiting for the second that all [Rejuvenation Charges] would be up.

OFFENSE

Physical Dmg...................42.5

Physical Dmg Inc.............9.5%

Magical Dmg....................42.5

Magical Dmg. Inc.............9.5%

Critical Hit Dmg...............130%

DEFENSE

Armor.................................180

HEALTH / ENERGY / AS

Health per Sec...............31.54

Energy per Sec................0.78

Healing Increase..............12%

Healing Received.............12%

AS per Sec.........................30

"Beautiful. I'll have sweet dreams with this."

Sometimes, I miss the days of signing a document on good old paper using a pen, I mused as I examined the next board resolution my secretary had emailed to me.

One of my former business partners, an old gentleman already retired for years now, had told me that in the past, everything, especially important documents like board resolutions, needed physical signatures. Of course, it was a challenge to gather the directors of a corporation in one place to sign the document—all of them likely had various matters to attend to all over the country and abroad. The resolution had to be sent to each director in turn for their physical signatures.

Nowadays, everything was digital. I could sign using the electronic signature I'd authenticate with my WeeCee. But it was extremely slow going through all the security processes each time I had to sign one document compared to signing with a pen that took probably a couple of seconds—some bullshit regulatory requirements of the SEC. If this were any other document, I'd turn off the authentication protocol for the entire day and shower my electronic signature everywhere as if I were tossing candies to children at a party.

"Grrwaaoogh!" A Mirdabon snarled. Using one of its bouncy siblings as a springboard, it jumped right up to my face. Its mouth lined with sharp fangs nibbled on my head, causing quite a surprise. My [Greater Pyro Shell] exploded, killing the bastard.

"Wait, did I press the wrong button? Dammit!" I had to repeat the security process. “Serves you right,” I told the fading corpses of the Mirdabon pack. Their Artas and loot went into my inventory.

The Bashful Roridula I was tasked to kill only took a smidgen of damage from the blast. It sprayed me with an acrid-smelling liquid that lowered attack speed and accuracy—both attributes didn’t matter for [Greater Pyro Shell]—and inflicted me with a poison damage status.

I sighed as I looked at the health bar above its head. After a bazillion years and I could only damage it this much.

I was tempted to choose the [Fiery War Stomp] for more DPS, but I wanted time to decide on my second Cidule skill. “How long will it take you to die?” I asked the plant monster.

The first monster on Sharulrath’s quest list was the [Lvl 10 Fulgurian Boarlet]. Although we had a gap of five levels, I went straight to its location because I wanted to try out how much my tankiness had improved.

Despite its name, the 'Boarlet' was as large as an average hog in the real world. If the babies were this big, I'd rather not meet the adults just yet. Its body was covered with wooly white fur like a sheep, and it had baseball-sized golden crystals growing all over its body, the same type as the much larger ones scattered in the Golden Forest.

At first, I tried to drag it to the cliffs. It wouldn’t follow me after a certain distance, running back to its spot in the forest. Switching plans, I decided to straight-up fight it.

I was butt-naked, so the Boarlet hit me hard despite my new skills. But it was slower than me. Some good old kiting did the trick.

With its charge attack, it'd close the distance and ram me with its snout. But I couldn't get one-shotted with my level five [Greater Pyro Shell] active and maximum [Ancestral Constitution] stacks—which I triggered myself.

I'd run away, heal and regenerate. When I filled my health bar, I'd reequip my sling and pelt the monster with stones until it charged me again. I noticed that I lost any [Rejuvenation Charge] I used my sling.

My damage was less than pathetic. But thankfully, the Boarlet didn't regenerate, and I was eventually able to kill it. I wasn't sure how long that lasted, probably ten or fifteen minutes. I was watching the early morning news while monotonously repeating my strategy again and again—the sad life of a tank solo leveling.

Next on the menu, or rather the quest list, was this abomination of a plant before me.

The fat plant with circular pods was rooted to the ground as if rubbing it in my face that I couldn't pull it to the cliffs to drop it. Unlike the Fulgurian Boarlet, the Bashful Roridula only had Damage-over-Time skills that bypassed [Greater Pyro Shell]. It was quite a low DoT; I could comfortably heal through its duration.

The problem was that the Roridula was incredibly tanky. My sling attacks could barely scratch it.

The solution I came up with was to drag a pack of Mirdabons to pop my [Greater Pyro Shell] because the damned plant couldn't. Given that [Greater Pyro Shell] damaged all nearby enemies, I could bring down the health of Mirdabons equally—they couldn't do their bullshit mechanic of getting stronger with each pack member dead.

"Hello, Jimmy?" I called the company driver who would pick me up for a meeting at the office later.

"Good morning, sir."

"Good morning to you too. Can you delay coming over here for about thirty minutes," I said, looking at the health bar of the Roridula and adding the time I needed to wash up and get dressed. "I'm just resting."

"Will do, sir."

I ended the call and turned to the Bashful Roridula. “And as for you, I’ll find another Mirdabon pack. I’ll be back.”