"Wait, we're still going to the Living Statue?" Megan asked in surprise.

"Time to get squished again," said Nitana, rolling her eyes.

Kezo raised his hands, "Relax, guys. We're going to return to the Living Statue. But Herald here has a plan so that it won't be a repeat of yesterday. He explained it to me, and I think it could work."

Only 'could work'? It was going to work because it was the plan of the Great Herald Stone. "We're going to try just a few rounds," I said to calm them down. "If it's not panning out, then we'll find some other boss."

A day had passed, and we gathered for our team practice.

We met deep in the Swinelings’ area to avoid Luds—assuming he was lurking around—before we warped to the area of Zoar Elab, the Living Statue. It was time to unveil my prototype build, the product of my quantum, five-dimensional, extra crispy with spicy sauce, gold-plated brain.

I bought another shield with three slots for my debuff Shards—I wasn't using my current three-slotted shield, [Reinforced Pavise], because it added health and Vigor, stats that I didn't want. I also bought two armor pieces, one of them with three slots, and the three Ocadule Shards I was eyeing yesterday—[Superior Replicant Totem], [Lesser Replicant Totem], and [Enraging Taunt]. The shield and my new armor pieces were part of a set that gave regeneration.

I also bought food buffs that would help me spam the Totems.

[Roasted Swineling: +25 HP per Second, +75 Armor for 30 Minutes] ★★☆☆☆

[Craboreling Meat Salad] : +25 HP per Second, +3% Physical and Magical Damage Reduction for 30 Minutes] ★★☆☆☆

[Tart Dapple Juice: +15 Energy per Second, +250 Energy for 30 Minutes] ★☆☆☆☆

It was difficult to find food that gave Health per Second that also didn't increase health. I was lucky to find two of them; there weren’t that many choices in the market because only a few Mardukryon food sellers were there. For my last food buff, I chose Energy per Second so I wouldn't rely on consumables. I was almost out of the Energy consumables Megan had given me because of yesterday's practice.

Then I paid the Mardukryon NPC at the Chief’s Lodge to reset my attributes points and remove all my LS points invested in [Greater Pyro Shell].

I transferred the LS points from [Greater Pyro Shell] to [Gnawing Rot] and [Withering Brand]. Whether I had a shell or not didn’t matter against the Living Statue. Any one of its attacks could kill me in one hit, so why bother being tanky? My LS points were better used to further increase our party DPS and also to reduce the boss' damage, making things a bit safer for Kezo in the rare event I’d mess up the Totem juggling.

Lvl. 7 Gnawing Rot: Spread a festering miasma over a small area (maximum of four), causing any enemies entering it to lose each second while inside it 97 Armor and Magic Armor (maximum 545), 2% Armor and Magic Armor (maximum 10%) . The effect of the decay persists for 13 seconds after leaving the area.

Cost: 85 Energy

Duration: 45 Seconds

Cooldown: 5 Seconds

Lvl. 6 Withering Brand: A long-forgotten incantation that targets an enemy with a curse, reducing its Movement Speed, Attack Power, and Magic Power by 30%.

Cost: 65 Energy

Duration: 15 Seconds

Cooldown: 7 Seconds

I didn't use any LS points on my three new Shards. I tested it and found that leveling up the Totems only increased the percentage of the offensive and defensive attributes they'd copy from the caster. Whether level one or maxed at level five, these Totems were still going to die in one hit just like me.

A level one [Enraging Taunt] was also sufficient. Higher levels reduced the attack boost of the taunted target, made the taunter tankier, and increased the taunts duration—all were useless because the Totem was immediately going to die after it cast the skill.

As for my attribute points, I dumped them all to Spirit because my debuffs were heavy Energy guzzlers. I removed them from Vigor since I unironically didn't want high health. I checked my health without proccing [Ancestral Constitution].

Name: Herald Stone | Lvl 12 Exp: 78.2%

Base: Mardukryon

Health: 556/556

Energy: 663/663

Ancestral Shroud: 1024/1,024

ATTRIBUTES:

Might....................27

Vigor.....................54

Spirit.....................77

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

In sum, I spent about eighteen million Artas, more than two-thirds of my money, on a borderline gimmicky build that had a crazy theory behind it.

But was it worth it?

Yes! I now had a rudimentary tank build useable against bosses and monsters way above my current level. And I could use this build not only for the Living Statue but presumably for the Great Hunt as well. Kezo, Megan, and Nitana did donate Artas to me. It was only fitting I spent it contributing to the party; being useless baggage was the last thing I wanted.

At any rate, I still had about eight million Artas left. I could do some more shopping to refine this build. And if everything worked out well enough, my party mates would probably give me more money to make myself stronger. I'd make sure to make several not-so-subtle hints about how much I spent on my new items so they'd get the message.

Investing in Herald Stone is investing for a successful Great Hunt!

"Um, okay then, Herald," Nitana said with a bored tone. "What is this plan of yours to stop us from getting killed over and over again?"

"It's not that we don't believe you, by the way," Megan hastily clarified. "It's that the boss is really hard, and I don't think there's anything we can do in a day to change the situation."

"Getting killed over and over again?" I asked, repeating Nitana's words. "That was a real rough time we had yesterday. My idea is to give the boss something to kill over and over again."

"Huh? What are you on about?" asked Nitana.

"Herald's plan is awesome," Kezo said. "I'm impressed when he explained it to me. And you'd think the same way too."

"Really?" Megan eagerly said. "Tell us about it."

"Before that," I said, "Nitana, I want to test out something first." I cast [Lesser Replicant Totem] on the ground, paying for it with fifteen percent of my health, which I quickly regenerated in a second.

A slightly transparent blue statue rose out of the snow about three Mirdabons high, one Mirdabon wide—what a weird unit of measurement. It depicted a two-faced, goblin-like creature, with one face facing front and the other back, sitting while hugging its bony knees.

"What do you want me to do?" she said, making a face at my weird-looking summon.

"Can you cast your barrier sprite on this?" I said. She nodded, and an orange barrier protected my Totem. I snapped my fingers in triumph. "So your skill does work on Totems. It will add a bit of longevity to them. Kezo, can you please attack the Totem?"

"Just strike it my sword?" he asked.

"Yes, a simple attack would do," I said. "I turned on my 'PvP' settings, so you can deal damage to me and my summons."

Kezo swung his sword at the blue Totem. Nitana's barrier shattered into dozens of crystal shards as it broke in one hit.

"Erm, are you thinking of using my barrier sprite to protect this ugly thing?" Nitana said, pointing at the Totem. "I already told you that it's a crappy skill."

"Yes, your barrier is going to protect the totem for one hit." I gestured at its health bar. "Look, no excess damage spilled over to its life." I turned to Kezo. "Can you attack it again?" He did and the Totem dissipated. "This is what I mean by giving the boss something to kill over and over again." Next, I summoned both versions of the Totem.

The [Superior Replicant Totem] had a more intricate appearance than its weaker version. The goblin creature had four faces, each face turned in one of the four cardinal directions. It also had four arms, all hugging its knees, and it was bulkier in form, with more muscle compared to its thinner counterpart.

"Are all Totems ugly?" Nitana said. She grinned at Megan. "Even your very expensive Totem looks—"

"Yeah, I know you think it's ugly," Megan said. "But no one is going to examine its face during a fight."

"These two totems are linked to an Enraging Taunt skill," I told them.

"So they're going to taunt the boss?" said Megan.

"But they'll just die in one hit," Nitana pointed out. "Two hits if I protect one of them with my barrier sprite."

"Yes, and so I'll summon them again," I said. “And again, and again…”

I placed a new [Superior Replicant Totem] in front of Kezo; the old one disappeared. I nodded at it, and he slashed it. I summoned a [Lesser Replicant Totem] behind Kezo. He turned around as quickly as he could, which wasn't easy to do with a Mardukryon body compared to a human simply spinning around, and hacked it. With the Lesser Totem still on cooldown for probably half a second, I summoned the Superior version again behind Kezo.

"And this is what's going to happen to the boss," Kezo said as he turned around again to kill the next Totem.

"The key is to make the Living Statue continue turning and turning around," I said. "If I summon the Totems in front of the boss, it'll just kill them and then quickly target Kezo because it has a very high attack speed. But that is negated if it turns to attack a target behind it.

“The movement speed reduction of my Withering Brand will also affect how fast the boss turns. The Living Statue will actually spend more time turning instead of attacking, giving Kezo the opportunity to safely fight the boss with his full DPS build. Well...relatively safely."

"I still have to dodge the vines, the quakes, and other AoE skills," Kezo said with a laugh.

"The energy ball too. But we have Nitana's barrier to counter it."

"Wow...that might just work," Megan said, all four eyes widening in amazement.

"But how can you continuously cast them like this?" Nitana asked. She didn't sound bored or disbelieving anymore.

"It's like my Spell Bonded Totem, isn't it?" Megan had a screen open in front of her as she checked her items. "It only has a one-second cooldown. If the other one also has a one-second cooldown—"

"That's not what I mean," Nitana cut in. "I was asking how could Herald pay for its cost?"

"Oh, I see what you mean. My Spell Bonded Totem costs twenty-five percent of max health to cast. Is that the same with your Totems?"

"The Superior Replicant Totem has the same cost," I said. "The Lesser Totem costs only fifteen percent."

Megan gasped. "That's a total of forty percent of your max health that you pay when casting both Totems! And that's per second if you cast them both every time they're off their cooldowns! How are you doing that?"

"I saw that he was regenerating very, very quickly," said Nitana.

"Herald, show them your items," Kezo excitedly said.

Buckler of the Invigorated Pygmy | Item Level: 10

Rare | Shield | Off-hand

75 Armor

25% Chance to Block 85 Damage

Head-On Block 160 Damage

33 Constitution Rating

Requires: 26 Might, 20 Vigor

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

+25 Health per Second

+15 Energy per Second

- 4% Physical/Magical Damage Reduction

Embrace of the Invigorated Pygmy | Item Level: 10

Rare | Light-Armor | Shoulder

63 Armor

25 Constitution Rating

Requires: 23 Might, 18 Vigor

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

+17 Health per Second

+ 7 Spirit

- 3% Physical/Magical Damage Reduction

Soles of the Invigorated Pygmy | Item Level: 10

Rare | Light-Armor | Feet

66 Armor

21 Constitution Rating

Requires: 22 Might, 17 Vigor

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

+18 Health per Second

+ 8 Spirit

- 3% Physical/Magical Damage Reduction

[Invigorated Pygmy] Set Bonuses:

(2 pieces) Adds 30 Health per Second

(3 pieces) Adds 50 Health per Second and 20 Energy per Second

(4 pieces) Removes damage reduction penalty and adds 200 Health

"Essentially, I aimed to have a low health pool and very high health regeneration," I explained. Funnily enough, this was the opposite of my original plan of having both high health and high regeneration.

"That's why he didn't complete the set," Kezo added.

"Correct. And I don't care about the damage reduction penalty since I'm already squishy. This way, I could continue casting the Totems despite their very, very steep cost that other builds likely won't be able to sustain." I didn't explain this to them, but with [Healing Touch], I didn't technically need this high of a regeneration. However, I also didn't want to 'waste time' casting heal instead of a Totem. A delayed Totem could spell the end of Kezo, and of our boss hunt.

"That’s so cool that you thought of this," said Megan.

“Yeah…this really might work,” Nitana slowly said.

Just a normal day of being Herald Stone, I thought. "Let's try fighting the Living Statue again!"