"Thi-this...this is why..." I huffed, my lungs burning, as I jogged at the speed of a cheetah. A cheetah that was leisurely walking through the savanna without a care in the world. "This…is why wheels were invented."

I headed to the benches overlooking the pristine Bobwhite River. Several people were there—my fellow joggers—watching the sunrise. I tried to calm my breath as I wiped the waterfall of sweat dripping down my face, pretending I wasn't literally dying as I neared them. And I have the audacity to call them 'fellow'?

Initially, I aimed to reach the corner of Ruffed Grouse Avenue and Falconet Street before resting. My mind was willing, but my flesh was weak. Actually, my mind was also screaming for me to rest.

I didn't have to walk—correction: jog. I didn't have to jog far before finding an empty bench.

As I sat my tired ass on the cool stone, the sunlight greeted me, framing the expensive boats sailing the river.

"This must be what it feels like drinking Morabodry," I said. My vision was slightly blurry, and I couldn’t feel my muscles. It reminded me of the sensation of a leg falling asleep. "But what a scenic view. This belongs on a postcard if people still used those."

When I was a kid, I used to bike this way to school further up the road. It was an unassuming street back then, lined by modest homes and accented by an occasional store. At present, it was one of the prime areas of Egret City. Expensive apartment buildings stood in line on this side, while vacation homes with docks and boats had taken over the opposite bank.

"Maybe I should buy a boat?" I muttered to myself.

The last time I swam—actual swimming, not merely relaxing in shallow water—was during Paul's birthday party. I vividly remembered it because I was envious of his family's large house with a swimming pool. That was also the last gathering with my friends I had attended before my family moved out of this city a week later.

Doubtful of my swimming skills, I dismissed the idea of boating.

Sticking to wheels and roads is best for me, I thought as I activated my WeeCee. A small screen appeared. I commanded, "Search for the history of the wheel."

Several pages of history websites popped up. I flipped through them, waving my fingers in the air. They all narrated that the first use of the wheel was for making pots. About three hundred years passed before people thought of using them for transportation.

"Turns out Herald Stone isn't a wheel expert," I said with a shrug. "That's enough about wheels. Time to use my legs."

As I tried to stand up, my legs wobbled like a child learning to walk. I sat back down.

Passing out while exercising at Mr. Armand's gym—which, by a weird string of events, led me to Mother Core Online—was already embarrassing as hell. Herald Stone fainting on the street, surrounded by many people, would be a humiliating spectacle.

"A few more minutes of rest," I told myself. I tapped my wrist, activating my WeeCee again to check my MCO character—the bestest character ever in the whole of Hierakon.

The source of that fact was my ass.

Players could access their character stats and inventory through the MCO site. It was amusing to me that I was more excited about this than viewing my stock market portfolio. Money shouldn't be the end goal of life. It was finding things that made us happy—as lectured by Herald Stone, the Enlightened Ponderer.

And what made me happy right now was the bottles of Morabodry I managed to craft this morning.

Pathfinder Gibil was kind enough to sell me the extra [Majalis] he had; I bought thirty of them at six hundred Artas apiece for a total of eighteen thousand Artas. That was already with a discount because I gifted him his favorite wine. While the price didn't sound high, and I assumed it would've been more expensive given Arakmad's possibly bullshit story of how to get it, I also had other ingredients to gather.

I got [Amberite] from the Miners selling them at two hundred Artas for each yellow crystal the size of my pinky. And I shouldn't forget to include in my calculations the [Poison Bottle] from Arakmad priced at fifty Artas each.

Fortunately, I managed to lower my expenses by farming the [Limerian Toad Skin] myself. The Eternally Unfrozen Pond was a few minutes of light trotting from the frozen pond where I learned how to fish. Those bright green toads were easy to spot against the background of the white snow. They weren't particularly beefy at level fourteen, and neither did they hit hard.

They would've been a breeze to farm were it not for those bastards healing each other!

I couldn't fight more than three at the same time, or my joke of a damage couldn't overcome their healing spells. If I didn't have [Mantle of Kindling] to help with Burn, I probably would've gone down to only two frogs. I also had to drag them away from the pond with [Enraging Call] so other passing frogs wouldn’t join in the healing fest!

Next came the poison-making part.

Weary of the tedious toads, I didn’t bother returning to Kurghal Village.

I sat right there on the banks of the Eternally Unfrozen Pond and took out my [Enlivened Mortar and Pestle] and [Bronze Cauldron]. The Limerian Toads witnessed first-hand the fate of the corpses of their kind. They didn't show any reaction other than their sonorous croaking as they cast heals even though no one was attacking them.

MCO crafting system provided an automated brewing option—the character would perform the action at a faster speed without a conscious thought from the player. It was for convenience and to cut down on repetitiveness.

But I decided to do it manually—it was my first time, after all. My first poison bottle would have my signature on it. No doubt it'd be a coveted collector's item someday when everyone recognized how hard I was…in a tanking sense.

I crushed a bunch of ingredients using the [Enlivened Mortar and Pestle]—I was limited to making five bottles worth of poison per batch. I had no idea how they all became a thick paste, including the crystals, after about fifteen seconds of pounding.

Then I dumped the resulting mixture into my tiny cauldron that was around twice the size of my helmet. Magical purple flames suddenly appeared beneath it, melting away the nearby snow and exposing a circular area of the earth around the cauldron.

A minute later, the paste turned into a thin green soup…which was a failure.

Lvl. 1 Research Akhos Poisons: Learn to create the five basic Akhos poisons. Inflict incapacitating effects, and make your enemies suffer. For each skill level, the crafting success chance increases by 3%, the chance to poison increases by 2%, and the duration increases by 3 seconds.

Brewable Poisons:

Morabodry – (22+3)% Success Chance. Ingredients: (20) Limerian Toad Skin, (2) Majalis, (1) Amberite, (1) Poison Bottle.

Requires: Enlivened Mortar and Pestle, Bronze Cauldron

I only had a one-in-four chance of successfully making the poison. All of the ingredients I used went down the drain!

This is going to burn a hole through my pocket, I thought with a sigh.

To level a crafting or profession Ocadule, a player needed to do the activities related to it to obtain Gli. For a fishing Ocadule, that was obviously fishing; for Gardeners, they’d have to cultivate plants; and for a Dreamweaver like Chimichangaroo, he needed to weave clothes.

As for me, making a buttload of poisons was the way.

I had previously encountered MMORPGs with crafting classes, and those players usually become rich by selling their wares. That wasn’t possible in my case because the Mardukryon area was closed off to the rest of Hierakon, and the other Mardukryon players far outstripped my level and wouldn’t care for my weak poisons.

I should be careful with my spending. To save my ingredients in case of failures, I made Morabodry one at a time. After three more duds, I managed to make one bottle.

I grinned as I examined the [Morabodry] displayed by my WeeCee.

A couple of women walked past me at that moment and gave me weird looks. They sped up, almost running away.

Great, I thought sarcastically. They probably thought I was creepily checking them out. I lowered my wrist and bowed down to examine the first poison I had made.

Morabodry | Item Level: 10

Rare | Consumable | No Requirement

A mild poison brewed from the extract of choice herbs and infused with toxic effects by arcane magic. It causes the poisoned unit to lose (1% of Max Health+24) per second. It also hinders the senses and induces sluggishness, reducing Accuracy and Attack Speed by (7%). (If applied to equipment, it has a 10% (+2%) chance of poisoning the enemy per damage instance. Poisoned Status lasts for 4 seconds.)

Duration: 15 Minutes

Uses: 5/5

“I think that’s good enough for a start,” I said as I stood up to resume my jog. I focused on the Morabodry to forget my tiredness.

As a Rare Quality item, it had a combination of a flat and a percentage value for its Damage over Time effect. In contrast, Epic Quality and higher usually were solely percentage values. Flat value damage was actually better in my current situation against low-level monsters because a percentage of their small health pools didn’t amount to much.

Against bosses and tank players, a high percentage of max Health DoTs would be better. If I progressed the rank of my poison Ocadule high enough, I might become a boss hunter.

I was going to apply [Morabodry] on my shield to inflict poison with retribution. With my new [Mantle of Kindling], I’d increase my minuscule DPS to help me farm faster. I’d have to test later if drinking [Morabodry] and inflicting it via [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] would stack with poison through retribution—I had a feeling it wouldn’t.

In any case, only one type of poison could be used to coat equipment.

As I unlocked stronger poisons, I’d use them for coating, and then drink [Morabodry]—the less potent one—to spread with [Cloak of the Plaguespreader]. I’d essentially trade a small portion of my Health per Second for the chance to reduce the Accuracy and Attack Speed of the enemy, the effects of [Morabodry], tangentially lowering their DPS and increasing my survivability. Regeneration for tankiness and DoTs.

It was like I was using a debuff Skill Shard without taking up an item slot and Lesser Skill Points. And this was just with the basic Morabodry.

The excitement for the poisons I’d unlock with the higher levels of [Research Akhos Poisons] motivated me to jog faster. I might have stumbled upon a nifty motivation technique.

I passed by stores as I neared Falconet Street. Plastered on their windows were posters of MotherCon scheduled for the first week of May.

“Will there be a Mardukryon stall there?” I wondered aloud. My voice came out as a croak, my throat parched like beef jerky. They did dry those, right? I can’t even come up with a proper metaphor.

Right at the corner of Ruffed Grouse Avenue and Falconet Street was a convenience store—the reason I set this as my destination—where I could buy water to cool off. Yes, I forgot to bring water; I only realized when I was already a couple blocks away from my apartment building.

The air-conditioner blasted me as I entered. It didn’t feel good to be suddenly in a cold place covered in sweat. I headed to the beverage coolers at the back, planning to get out quickly.

Unfortunately, someone was blocking the aisle. A woman was carrying a stack of boxes so high that it covered her head. She was wearing a shirt with the colors of the convenience store’s paint job, so I assumed she was an employee.

“Uh, excuse me…miss,” I said. “Can I pass?”

“Hey, you sound familiar.” She set the boxes down and looked at me with gray eyes of doom. She turned out to be Eclairs. “Herald? What the hell happened to you? Did you fall in the river?”