"Chance to cast Healing Touch twice." Unfortunately, the Heal over Time didn't stack. But this made generating [Rejuvenation Charge], a resource from my Aritu Ocadule, more manageable.

Rejuvenation Charge (Base duration 10 seconds):

Each Charge will add (Max counter [4]):

+3% Healing Increase

+3% Healing Received

+5 Ancestral Shroud per Second

[Healing Touch], with a cooldown of three seconds, generated one charge per cast. That meant I could only have all four Charges up for a second. But it'd be longer if [Penitent Fortune Healing] procced its double heal. Higher levels of my new skill would increase the chances of double casting, leading to consistency in maintaining max stacks.

Nothing too game-changing. A skill that increased healing in exchange for debuffs. It was essentially just a twenty percent buff to [Healing Touch] that didn’t seem worth the penalty…is what a box would think!

I cast [Penitent Fortune Healing]. Golden chains coiled around me before disappearing, leaving me with a debuff that reduced my movement speed and evasion. I grinned when I saw that it was a status debuff—it probably meant I could share it with others to show my generous heart through [Cloak of the Plaguespreader].

Unfortunately, I couldn’t test this now because I didn’t have the slot or LSPs to spare for a Skill Shard. But there was something I could try.

I cast [Healing Touch] on the guards injured by the battle. [Penitent Fortune Healing] activated on my third cast. An ethereal image of the four Mardukryon horns, signaling the proc, appeared over my target's head. He did gain more health, and I got an extra [Rejuvenation Charge]. It seemed this Ocadule encouraged heal spamming.

"Many thanks again for your assistance, youngling."

"Don't mention it," I said. "Or you can mention it again. Gratitude for Herald Stone is always good."

"Perhaps you can consider joining the village guards?" He was more direct with his invitation this time.

"I'll think about it." A tanky healer? But joining the village guards felt too boxlike for me.

"Yes, youngling," said the next guard. "A protector of the village is a noble job."

"Woah, is this peer pressure?" However, even if I didn't join them, I still had the choice of leading them to Bawu and becoming the hero of the village. Before I could think more about my options, something caught my eye. "Look over there!" I pointed at the ceiling.

"What is it, youngling?"

"There!" said guard number two. Green smoke crept out of a hole made by one of the Spite Maggroths. "On the ceiling."

"What the hell?" I said. "I pointed it out first. Go find something else to point at."

My sister, Nelly, had told me before that the idiom 'canary in a coal mine' was from miners carrying birds to detect the buildup of poisonous gases in the tunnels that were invisible and odorless. If the birds died, then it was time to bail.

But I didn't need to sacrifice poor birds to know we should get out of here. The gas had the same green hue and glow as the chemicals in the test tube and the liquid oozing out of the Blighted monsters. And the smell...I inhaled deeply and then gagged at the overpowering odor. It was as if a rotten banana was shoved up my nose.

"Too much realism," I said with a cough. A notification popped up, asking whether I wanted to turn off the sense of smell. "No, no, it's fine—what's this?"

[ Status|Blighted Degeneration: Reduce Health Regeneration by 35% for 45 seconds ]

[ Status|Mild Blight: Lose 1% of Max Health per Second for 50 seconds ]

"This again?" I groaned. "Wait, this one's worse. And there's another ailment on top of that." My forehead furrowed as I read it. Max Health, it mentioned. It'd kill me in due time if I didn't have monstrous regeneration, but it was better not to bathe in this gas if there were other effects. "That settles it, guys. I'm the canary here, and I say, tweet, tweet, tweet—this is dangerous, and we need to move."

"Away from the noxious cloud, my brothers!" We turned around and ran back the same way we came. As our hooves thundered on the hard ground, the leader said, “Don't stray and get left behind. Stick together, men and youngling!" His subordinates shouted their assent.

"Why did I get singled out like that?" I said with amusement.

Monsters didn't make our escape easy. Many of them burst out of the ground like Jack-in-the-boxes lining the length of the tunnel. Are those toys still getting made?

With powerful thrusts of his spear, our leader sent bursts of wind forward to knock back the monsters attacking us. The guard behind him used [Fiery War Stomp], sending ripples of flames across the floor to stun them. Some of the monsters that weren't stunned took swipes at me, flinging their wormy bodies, punching, clawing, and leaping for a bite.

The monsters kept up my [Ancestral Constitution] stacks. My [Greater Pyro Shell] and the guard with the buff spells also gave me more protection. I raised my shield to block their attacks. Head-On Blocking significantly reduced the damage I'd receive.

What would happen if I died here?

Would I automatically fail Healer Gula's quest because the village guards would quarantine this place? Would the story move forward with Bawu getting arrested without me meeting her? Would I lose the chance to butter up these village guards and build my reputation in the village?

I didn’t want to find out the answer. Dying here was the last thing on my bucket list—wait, why would I have dying on a bucket list? This quest might be a one-time thing, and I didn't want to waste this opportunity because of—"Woah!" I exclaimed as a Sprite Maggroth burst out of the ground like a cork stopping a dolphin's blowhole. My analogies are also messed up.

"Careful, youngling!" A guard swatted away the worm. Then he pushed me. "Onwards, the noxious cloud continues to follow us!"

"Thanks for the help," I said.

"Do not stop to fight," instructed our leader up ahead. "Continue to run!"

Continue running where? It might be my imagination tricking me, and I'd expect nothing less from my imagination, but I could've sworn these rocks looked as familiar as a rock ever could. I might've passed this way before.

I was confirmed I was right—which wasn't surprising—after I checked my [Tattered Map]. Our group was retracing my earlier steps and heading in the direction of Bawu's hideout. We might accidentally find it if we stayed on our course.

Accidentally...but I bet there was nothing accidental about this.

A small tunnel that branched off from this one was coming up. I should decide now.

Was it possible to play both teams? I had high hopes for my planned build with [Cleansing Flames] at its core. My anti-boxlike senses were tingling—I should pursue it. Perhaps I could still act like the good guy, 'saving' the village guards from the poisonous smoke while leading them away from Bawu?

As soon as the opening to the side tunnel came up, I loudly yelled, "Let's go through here!" and dashed left before the guard behind me could react.

"Youngling, come back!" He called out. Their heavy hoofsteps abruptly came to a halt.

"Stay with the group, I say!"

I didn't heed their words, not even looking over my shoulder. "This way!" I shouted as I continued down the new tunnel.

It was a narrower path leading to...I don't know. The [Tattered Map] didn't show anything other than a vast circular cavern ahead. No details of anything past that.

If the guards followed me, I’d successfully lead them away from Bawu, thereby saving Gula from possible consequences for helping her sister hide. If they didn't follow me, I would have successfully escaped them, and I could try to find another route to Bawu.

Or I could run into a dead-end, get cornered by the poison, and eventually die.

I might come back to a tunnel saturated with dangerous gas and immediately die, or this place would be crawling with village guards to catch me for interfering with their business. Logging out crossed my mind, but I wasn't sure what its effect would be.

A couple of seconds later, the drumming of my hooves was joined by more beats. The guards had decided to follow me. It took them no time to catch up; I was right that it'd be nearly impossible to escape from them.

“Halt, youngling,” said a guard. “Let us tread more familiar paths.”

“Which way do we go?” asked another guard. “I do not know this area. Those who toil and gather the golden crystals certainly know, but we are running blindly.”

“Just follow me,” I insisted. “Staying back there is death.”

“You speak true words.”

"But where are we heading to, youngling?"

That’s a good question. "Away from the green smoke," I said. It was as if I answered him, 'not here.' Which wasn't much of an answer. "I think it's much, erm, safer here," was my lame explanation. I didn't need to come up with a good one because I already got them to follow me.

"We must head back," said the leader. He squeezed past me to retake his place at the front of our formation. "We are straying far from the safer passageways."

"Is it too late," replied the guard bringing up our rear. "The noxious cloud has blocked our path.”

"There is no going back for us," I said. “Going forward is our only option."

"Then let us make haste and pray that our ancestors guide our way."

"Amen!" I said. "Trust in the choice of Herald Stone."

After half a minute of hard galloping, we seemed to have outrun the dangerous smoke. Or it might have dissipated. There was no more eerie glow chasing us, but we continued onward.

Running in a tight formation with a group of Mardukryons was an exhilarating experience. Cavalry charge scenes in medieval war movies made my heart race, and this was probably the closest I'd get to it. The tunnels amplified the crash of our hooves, making it sound like there were more of us stampeding.

Our party reached the circular cavern I had spotted on the [Tattered Map].

It was bigger than I had expected, large enough to fit a standard-sized Dolly's restaurant, and had two other tunnels leading out of it. Even more impressive was its height. Darkness was above us, the actual ceiling covered by shadows.

We all stopped even without a command from our party leader. It wasn't because we didn't know which tunnel to pick—that too—but it was primarily because of what we found in the cavern.

Several cylindrical vats of varying sizes; most of them were broken. Those that weren't damaged contained different kinds of monsters floating in glowing green liquid. There were also cabinets filled with curious objects, rolls of parchments, and stacks of books. One corner had a pile of bones.

I might have picked the wrong way. Potion Brewer Bawu probably had yet to tell her sister that she had done some expansions since this place wasn't on the map.

"What is this wretched place?" said our leader, scanning our surroundings.

"A laboratory of some kind?" offered the guard beside him.

"We must report this! "

"You're not going anywhere," said a female voice.

The ground trembled, the liquid in the glass vats sloshed around, and the monsters they contained swayed. But it wasn't more worms tunneling beneath us. A colossal creature was coming out of the tunnel to our right. We could hear its noisy breathing.

A hairy hand, large enough to grip my upper body, grabbed the lip of the tunnel's opening. The rest of its body remained hidden in the darkness. The only other thing that was visible was its name. [Lvl 46 Carrion Golem: Ladambor]

"Divine bovine," I blurted out. "You're the one who talked?"

"No..." Hoofsteps. The hulking beast remained in the shadows, but someone else was coming forward. "It was me." An old female Mardukryon. [Lvl 51 Mardukryon | Mad Brewer: Bawu]