Snow-covered mountaintops pierced the rolling seas of clouds to greet me like a long-lost friend. They had beheld the dozens of times I had fallen to my death and witnessed my ultimate triumph over the Mirdabons. The memories of every jagged inch came back to me, echoes of the great battle ringing in my ears—Herald Stone versus murderous furballs.

On this spot, my statue should stand, one hoof stepping on a rabid Mirdabon and a balled fist raised to commemorate my great victory. The statue’s pedestal would have a golden plaque detailing my unboxlike strategy to defeat the Mirdabons. And this should be declared a pilgrimage site!

I could ask around how to build a statue. But for now, I have an essential duty: introducing newbies to the most helpful Mardukryon player—the Great Herald Stone.

A burst of light. Time for new players to get some divine aid.

A level one Mardukryon player popped into existence, naked as the day he was born.

Technically, this was his birth on the planet Hierakon. But story-wise, a new player was a Mardukryon youngling that had just come of age, performing a dream ritual by the cliffs. Like all Mardukryons, the new player’s humanoid upper body was covered by dried magma, bright embers radiating through the webs of cracks in his skin, while shaggy fur coated his four-legged lower body.

I gave him some time to get used to his body before approaching.

His immediate reaction was to examine his horns—Mardukryons had four ram-like horns curving forward—then his tusks jutting from the sides of his mouth. He felt his face, fingers running over the slits our race had for a nose and our four eyes. He seemed too excited about his inhuman body; he wasn’t a former Mardukryon player returning for the events.

The new player awkwardly plodded across the thick snow like a newborn calf learning to walk. I trotted down to meet him.

“Hello there, Spokeless Roda,” I said, reading the name hovering above the player’s head. “Welcome to this mountain. I assume this is your first time as a Mardukryon?” I drew to my full height as I stood in front of him. Because of my higher level, I was about a head and a half taller and had longer horns and tusks.

Unlike Spokeless Roda, I was fully covered with armor. My priced Blighted Vinereaver’s Revenge set—black metal tinged with an unearthly green glow adorned by stylized carvings of spiked vines—mixed nicely with the Fiery Devise pieces I wore—gleaming red metal embossed with flame designs.

My rectangular [Tower Shield] horizontally hung by my right flank, covering my entire broadside with how large it was. My equally wide [Reinforced Pavise] was by my left side. It had curved corners, leaning more into an oblong shape than a rectangle.

As frosting on the cake that was my imposing visage, [Blight Cloud], the skill given by the final set bonus of Blighted Vinereaver’s Revenge, activated once I left the village. A darkish green miasma curled around my hooves, spreading out a small radius around me as if I were the god of death… or the patron saint of smoke belchers.

Bottomline, I looked freaking badass.

Spokeless Roda seemed to agree. He wordlessly gaped as he stared up at me, taking a step back.

“Oh, you’re a player.” He found his voice a few seconds later. He paused again, probably surprised that he sounded like a demon from the abyss. He shook his head and continued, “For a moment, I thought you were the NPC who would teach me beginner stuff. Yeah, I’m a new Mardukryon. Just call me Spokeless.”

“Herald,” I said, offering my hand. He didn’t react to my name as we shook hands, so I continued. “Tourist or planning to stay?”

Many players of Mother Core Online were focused more on exploring the different fantasy environments on the planet of Hierakon than gameplay, so they’d constantly switch races. This came to be known as Character Tourism. With the spotlight currently on Mardukryons because of the world quest I started, many tourists visited our mountain to see what’s what.

“Not a tourist,” said Spokeless, “but going to look around first before deciding if I’ll stay. I saw Eugenuis—he’s an MCO streamer if you don’t know—do a video about a new Mardukryon world quest and another cool event coming up, the Great Hunt or something, so I thought might as well check it out.”

“I can give you an introduction to Mardukryons. Follow me to the Expeditionary Legion stall.”

“Are you a member of the Legion?” Spokeless pointed up at my name. “But you don’t have their guild icon? That map symbol thing?”

“I’m not one of them. Just filling in while they’re away. There are only two Mardukryon Expeditionary Legionnaires, and the guy who’s supposed to be on shift had an emergency at work. He’ll probably be back in half an hour. You can talk to him then if you want to make some Contracts for extra money.”

Spokeless followed me, mushing away from the cliffs and up a mound. My hooves sunk further into the snow compared to my pre-level twenty days, not only because of my size but also because of the weight of my armor. It wasn’t easy to walk, but I also had more of the Might attribute, giving me the strength to trudge through the snow without any problems.

“It feels weird breathing the air,” Spokeless said. “It’s so…”

“Thin? We’re past the clouds, so the air’s thin at this very high altitude, though Mardukryons have no trouble breathing here. And we also warm up the cold air we breathe.”

Spokeless inhaled deep. “You’re right. I don’t feel the cold at all. Very, very cozy.”

“You’d think this is the Mardukryon’s natural habitat,” I said, “given how well we seem to survive here. But the truth is that we’re imprisoned on this mountain.”

“I read up about that,” Spokeless replied. “Something about getting imprisoned and—”

“Hey, Herald’s bringing someone!” Clementropy28 shouted. “Over here! Introduce him to us.”

We had reached the stalls above the crest near the cliffs. Several Mardukryons had set up shop in the flat area, waiting for newbies to prey on—I mean, to help. Most players I had met were quite pleasant. It’d be more convenient to stay at Kurghal Village, but a new player could do plenty of things before reaching our village. Better to camp by the spawning point.

Clement and one of his friends, Shuwadee, sat on woven red mats they laid on the snow next to a roaring bonfire, having a magical barbecue. Stones etched with glowing runes lined the perimeter of the green flames licking the chunks of meat on brochettes.

“This is Spokeless,” I said. “He’s new to Mardukryons. Unfortunately for you, he’s not here for tourism.”

Clement stood up and went to his wooden stall beside the mats. “Shucks, too bad. What’s a man got to do to earn some Artas around here?”

“Didn’t I order burnt Swineling skewers and stale Crabore pies from you? That was a hundred pieces each, and I’m paying full price for them.”

“Have to earn Artas any way I can, my good friend. Times are changing for us, Mardukryons, and I want to be prepared with capital to expand my business. Food and tours sound good together, don’t they? I can entice tourists with Mardukryon delicacies.”

“Maybe the next guy who’ll come along will be a tourist,” I said. “You can ask him to taste Mardukryon cooking. Not the food I ordered, though.”

Clement laughed. “Obviously, not. I’m not even going to ask what you’ll use them for—you and your bizarre ideas. But without you, we wouldn’t have gotten the Blighted world quest, so there must be something to your crazy mind.”

We all chuckled, including Spokeless, who didn’t understand what was happening but played along. I said, “Anyway, I’m going to tell Spokeless here the basics of Mardukryons. I’ll come back later for my order.”

“If you need something to eat or drink while chatting,” Clement said, “don’t hesitate to tell me. I want to cook good food while watching meat burn to a barely edible char.”

“Is it going to be free?”

“Hell, no,” he said with a laugh.

Spokeless and I went to the stall opposite Clement’s and settled on comfortable mattresses, folding our legs beneath our bulky bodies.

“What was that about burnt and stale food?” Spokeless asked.

“Eating them is an easy way to get mild ailments,” I said. “I’m doing some experiments with negative statuses for a build. Nothing concrete, just messing around.”

It was difficult to explain my Plaguetank build to someone unfamiliar with the skills involved. He wouldn’t appreciate my unboxlike genius. Instead, I proceeded with the crash course about Mardukryons.

“To start the story of the Mardukryons—I suppose this is actually a backstory—our ancestors lost a great war ages ago. It was called the War of the Eight Titans if I’m not mistaken. I wasn’t paying much attention to the NPC who told me about it. As a result, our race was imprisoned on top of a snowy mountain.”

This was the story I got from Mehubanarath, the hermit Mardukryon living in the Golden Forest.

I continued, “I assume the War of the Eight Titans happened before the Dalkanus transferred our race to this planet because the Dalkanus said they only saved the survivors of our fallen empire. But instead of plopping us on a meadow or a nice beach, the Dalkanus recreated our prison of ice, complete with the monsters guarding it. No one knows how to get off this mountain.”

“I know about the last part,” Spokeless said. “My buddy warned me that I might get stuck here.”

“Hopefully, that won’t be the case soon,” I replied. Because Herald Stone is here to save the day, I added in my head, careful not to let my snarky thoughts get translated into words. “Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Mardukryons thrived on this mountain—I’ll show you later why—and had several settlements. Some were fairly large cities.”

“Really? But I’ve read in a guide that only one Mardukryon village exists. Kor-korgol? Kargal?”

“Kurghal Village. You’re right, we only have one village now. But that wasn’t always the case. The rise of the Mardukryons came to an end two hundred years ago when the Great Quake happened. Thousands of Mardukryons died. Probably even tens of thousands because there used to be several tribes.”

“Oh, I see. So, where’s the village?” Spokeless Rado looked around the snowy landscape, the blinding whiteness broken only by the camping Mardukryons.

“You’ll have to pass through the Golden Forest to reach Kurghal Village.” Somehow, I felt like an NPC giving an exposition dump. “Different quests are available inside the forest—that’s why you didn’t spawn at the village—but it’s also really dangerous there. Whether you want to go straight to the village or explore the forest first, you can get some freebies from the other stalls, food buffs, armor, and maybe weapons. They’re veteran players who want to help newbies.”

“That’s neat! People here seem really nice. When I tried that new race unlocked a month ago, the dark Romo, everyone was trying to steal each other’s farming spots. Just pure chaos trying to level when a dozen assholes want to kill the same monster you’re targeting.”

“The number of new Mardukryon players is low,” I said, “so you won’t have much competition farming. You’ll also have an easy early game with the freebies you’ll get.”

“I think I like it here,” Spokeless said, scratching the bottom of his tusk. He didn’t realize he was making a usual gesture of Mardukryons. “I might tell my friends to follow me as a Mardukryon.”

I held up a finger. “But do note there’s one quest in the Golden Forest that doesn’t want you to interact with other players or NPCs. You shouldn’t get any Artas or items from others until you finish it. We also can’t help you kill monsters or buff you, whether we’re in the same party or not.”

Spokeless frowned. “Man, that sounds like a pain in the ass to do. Is it okay to just go directly to the village?”

“You’re not required to do that quest,” I said. “There are other paths to follow. Come, I’ll introduce you around.” By doing this, I was subsuming the act of generosity of others into my own. It was like indirectly claiming credit for the freebies others would give. And I was going a step further. “Then let’s go to Kurghal Village. I’ll escort you through the Golden Forest.”