"You can insult me, you can attack me," I told the Blighted Borple that was punching my leg, "and I can forgive you. For Herald Stone's mercy knows no bounds."

The Borple sounded like it was gurgling something before it spewed green goo out of its mouth. My [Greater Pyro Shell] exploded, taking away a healthy chunk of its life.

"But touch my health regeneration," I continued my lecture, "and you've crossed a line!" The impertinent monster screeched before continuing to punch me. "You can touch anything but a tank's regeneration. Touch that and you're dead—wait a minute." Something funny was going on with its health bar.

I plopped down a [Lesser Replicant Totem], which then used [Enraging Taunt] on the Blighted Borple. The ugly mushroom man—no offense to the rest of the mushroom folk, but this guy looked like it was decaying—turned its attention to its new target. And then I realized it wasn't only its design that was made to look that way.

It was literally dying as it punched the Totem.

"I wasn't imagining things," I mused as I planted another Totem after it quickly killed the first one. While it was attacking me earlier, I noticed its health was steadily going down, punctuated by small bursts of damage whenever it punched me and got hit by my retribution damage.

This was its gimmick. It was stronger than its regular counterparts, with more effects and greater damage, but it was slowly dying. The lore was starting to unfold. Potion Brewer Bawu's experiments were more dangerous than turning some Mardukryon crazy, which was also harmful.

I skewered the Blighted Borple with the spear that Chief Nogras had gifted me, hastening its death. If I wanted to sweep away evidence of Bawu's illegal activities, I might have to kill more of these things. That sounded like a good offer in return for her teaching me the ways of dangerous chemistry.

For one, it'd be nifty if I could use the Blighted Degeneration the Borple had inflicted on me. For a tank, reduced Health per Second was Damage over Time from a different perspective. Debuffs could actually "deal" more damage to a tank, depending on the circumstances.

[ Loot: 236 Artas, (3 ) Decayed Mushroom Piece, (1) Toxic Goop ]

"Toxic Goop?" I said. Sounds dangerous, alright. It was up to Herald Stone, Toxic Pest Cleaner, to clear the tunnels of anything that could harm unsuspecting Mardukryon younglings frolicking here. I threw away my torch, for it was useless here, and galloped onwards, relying on my [Greater Pyro Shell] to light my way.

I killed all the Blighted Borples I ran into. I'd gather four or five at a time and drop [Gnawing Rot] on us. A couple of tests and I confirmed that their 'sickness'—I wasn't sure what to call it—wasn't affected by [Gnawing Rot]. Reduced Armor and Magic Resilience didn't increase its damage; maybe it wasn't considered damage but some sort of degeneration.

I also met a [Lvl 14 Blighted Borpillar]. The appearance of a normal one was already odd enough, a bunch of plate-sized mushrooms stringed in a line and given dozens of insect legs, but the diseased version was downright gross. Its fleshy mushroom parts were slimy and floppy that it made me rethink eating mushrooms for some time.

But the harmful ailment it inflicted on me overtook thoughts of dietary changes.

[ Status|Light Dizziness: Slightly Blurry Vision for 10 Seconds ]

"Woah! I didn't expect there was a status like this," I said.

I waved my hands in front of my face while the Blighted Borpillar was biting my ass with its mandibles. My hands were a bit blurry. I examined the surrounding rocks. It was as if I was staring through a window covered with mild condensation.

Initially, I thought that statuses, both good and bad, could only affect the attributes, the hard numbers. Even a debuff like slowing down my movement speed reduced a number. But what about this [Light Dizziness] status? It affected a player's perception of the game instead of just attributes.

Could there be illusions and the like in MCO?

"Okay, that's enough biting," I said as I turned around and started attacking the Blighted Borpillar.

Further on, I found more curiosities.

There was a [Lvl 11 Blighted Blue Crobel] fighting a [Lvl 9 Blighted Craboreling]. This wasn't their natural habitat. Bawu must've gathered them outside, risking getting caught by the villagers, and used them as test subjects. If I phrased it that way, she sounded like the bad guy, and she might very well be according to in-game lore, but I couldn't judge her given that I had killed hundreds of monsters.

The Crobel and Craboreling halted their comical tussle when they spotted me. They rushed forward to their doom as I turned them into sparkles of Essence and Gli.

I also met diseased versions of Swineling and Frost Macaques. There was even a lone [Lvl 5 Blighted Mirdabon], repeatedly rolling against the cave wall. It was hurting itself, in addition to its health slowly draining away because of its condition, letting me easily eliminate it before it could transform into its enraged mode.

Halfway on my journey through the labyrinthine caves to Bawu’s hideout, I spotted something glowing. It wasn’t the golden crystals, neither was it bioluminescent monsters.

"Test tubes?" I muttered as I bent my legs to lower myself to the ground to get a better look. About a dozen test tubes, most of them shattered, littered the rough ground. Three of them remain intact. Their contents looked like the green goo leaking out of the Blighted monsters littering this place.

Up ahead, another monster was hunched over something on the ground. This time, it was a normal Borple eating a glowing green object. It wasn't more test tubes, rather, it was the remains of a Blighted Borple.

"I didn't know you guys were cannibals," I told the soon-to-be-dead Borple.

Where was this whole quest heading?

This was starting to get out of hand, from simply giving Bawu a letter from Gula to stop the shit she was doing because she might get arrested into something like a zombie outbreak. It wasn't only a delivery task anymore. A science-fiction plotline in a fantasy world was par for the course in Mother Core Online. But where did that put me now?

The Borple, usually aggressive, didn't attack me. It was focused on ravenously consuming the corpse of its diseased brother. Did monsters turn to Essence and Gli only when players killed them?

"Halt! You there!" The call reverberated through the tunnel.

It was followed by the clip-clopping of hooves. Mardukryon NPCs with torches lit by blue flames were approaching. The light glimmered off the blades of the spears they wielded and their armor.

The village guards!

“Why the hell are they here?” I asked the cannibal Borple even though I could already guess the answer. Should I make a run for it? But I wasn't doing anything illegal—okay, I technically was.

Were they going to search me? Could they examine the contents of my inventory? I'd be in trouble if they found Healer Gula's letter. Using Gula's map, they would also hunt down Bawu, given this mess in the tunnels.

But if I did run away, was I confident of escape?

They had longer legs than I did as adult Mardukryons; likely faster speed by default. As the village guards, they might also have skills to help them chase and arrest criminals. I didn't have anything to increase movement speed or to help me escape sticky situations.

Mental note, search the auction house later for movement skills. Tanks shouldn't only be a hard wall but a wall that could also move. The battlefield was a dynamic setting. We could quickly save allies and save ourselves if we could move fast.

Deciding to stay, I pondered how I should handle this.

Should I play dumb, maybe say, Anything wrong, officer? There was nothing wrong at all…other than the suspicious test tubes, mysterious chemicals, and the zombified Borple. I had more chances of getting arrested than a naive teenager caught during a police raid of a party with drugs.

No, I shouldn't let the NPCs have the first move, or they'd force me into a story path set by the system for them. I had to take the initiative and present another line that was favorable to me. That was the lesson I learned from interacting with Mehubanarath and Healer Gula.

"Praise the ancestors that you have found me," I said before the guards could speak. "I have been praying for help to come!"

The four village guards blocked my way back with their massive bodies. "Youngling, what are you doing here?" said the guy in the lead.

“I heard rumors about odd monsters in these tunnels from…from friends of Balasi. Exactly. I got curious and decided to check them out myself to see if what they said was true.”

“Balasi?” said another guard. “He’s one of the reasons we are here.”

“We have received reports of beasts afflicted with a strange curse and have come to investigate,” the first guard explained.

"I have seen them,” I quickly volunteered. “While exploring, I was attacked by different monsters…and that’s how I got lost and ended up here. I think I saw a Swineling even though they don't live here. And there's something horribly wrong with them."

“Is that so?” He gestured down at the floor littered with evidence that could be used for my trial if I made a misstep. “Do you know anything about these?"

“I was running through the tunnels and just came here because I saw they were glowing,” I said. “I don’t know what they are.” Story-wise, I was just a youngling, perhaps another dumb one like Balasi. They wouldn’t suspect me of anything if I readily presented them with a plausible story. “I’m so thankful that you’re here to save me.”

“This area is dangerous for you, youngling,” he said. “Follow us, and we will lead you out.”

“I will,” I said with a shrug. For now, I was going to comply because I had no other choice. I was going to return later to find Bawu. “Thanks again. I would’ve been stuck here if you didn’t find me.”

“This is a dangerous place,” said the lead guard. “It is certain the ancestors watched over you and kept you safe until our paths crossed. We will seal this part of the tunnels to avoid untoward incidents while we conduct our investigation.”

Excuse me? I stopped in my tracks. “Wait…you won’t allow anyone here?”

“And also to prevent interference with our investigations.” He waved at me. “Come along now.”

“We should kill the infected monsters here,” I said, looking around for any excuse I could use to remain here.

“That is our duty. This is no place for—"

“There!” I pointed to the normal Borple that had finished eating the corpse. It had stood up and was slowly turning sickly. “We can work together—”

Boom!

A gust of wind blew past me and hit the new Blighted Borple, hurling it upwards. It went splat on the ceiling before dying.

“Let us move, youngling. We don’t have all day.”