“Of course, I’ll be glad to join,” I said, recalling I hadn’t yet paid Megan, Nitana, and Kezo for the loot they gave me that I sold to Chimi.

Those were from the Blighted monsters we killed leading up to the world quest—some were Bawu’s test subjects she had captured from areas currently locked to players. The monsters dropped loot that Chimi needed for crafting various items but were unavailable on the market. The Blighted test subjects were gone after I completed Bawu’s quests; the new Arcane Blighted were mutated Mardukryons, monsters native to the tunnels, and some that were part of the coming Great Hunt.

As one of the whalest Mardukryons whales, Chimi was more than happy to pay a premium to get the materials before others could. I didn’t tell my party mates what I did with the loot. They didn’t care—it was my quest, after all, they had said—and didn’t want anything in return.

Nonetheless, I was Herald Stone. People should owe me, not the other way around.

“Hurray!” Megan enthusiastically celebrated, shooting sparks in the air. Other players looked our way, surprised at what she was doing. “Thanks a lot, Herald,” she said. “With you tanking, we can get a harder quest for more Blight Tokens. Can you wait for a bit? Gotta dive back into the craziness that’s the Chief’s Lodge.”

“Don’t want to go back there,” Nitana grumbled. “I liked it more when this whole place was a ghost town.”

“Aw, come on,” Megan said. “It’s so much more fun with all the people around.”

“Just tell me when you’re done picking a new quest. Got to fix some items. Actually, pick a couple more quests since we got a tank. Might as well.” Nitana questioningly tilted her head at me. “Herald, we’re not keeping you from anything, are we?”

“I’m riding a… cab… right now,” I said. “I’ll have to log out when I reach my apartment. Give me a few minutes then to go up to my room.”

“Oooh. Playing while riding,” Megan said, chuckling. “Nitana and I did that a lot during our vacation.”

“But other than that, I’m free,” I added. I planned to farm Blight Tokens anyway.

If Megan and her friends weren’t here, I would’ve partied with new players to help them. Sure, the Blight Tokens I’d farm would be fewer since we’d be constrained to choose easier quests, but spreading the word of my benevolence would make it worthwhile. I may not be good-looking—hard to be as a Mardukryon—but my reputation was fabulously fragrant.

It’s not the outside that counts, but what people think of you—this might not be an accurate paraphrasing of the saying.

“Want to go with us to the Chief’s Lodge?” Megan asked. “Or would you rather wait somewhere less crowded? Like you can go ahead to the tunnels if you want.”

“I think I’ll—” A notification popped in the corner of my eye. It was a message from Clement. “I just remembered I have to buy something,” I said. “Let’s meet by the tunnel entrance, okay? This won’t take long.”

I made my way to Clement’s stall in the village. He noticed I had logged on and told me my order was ready.

The area where players had set up their stalls next to merchant NPCs was an abstract mess. Everyone plopped their stalls wherever it was allowed by the system, and it’d occasionally lead to fights, especially with those who had been using a spot long before the world quest. Our village was too small. I didn’t want to imagine the mess during the height of Mardukryon’s popularity when MCO was new.

Clement and his friends took turns manning his stalls here and by the cliffs so no one would take over his spot. I squeezed myself through two much bigger Mardukryons to reach the counter of Clement’s stall. He had a good location at the corner of two streets; he wouldn’t get boxed out by competition and had healthy hoof traffic.

“Hello there, Clement!” I called, rapping my knuckles on the wood. “Business doing good?”

I flicked my eyes to PapaChugger, one of Clement’s friends, negotiating with a bunch of new players. They crowded the crossroads diagonal to the stall because there wasn’t any free space left. The traffic worsened. People jostled and shouted at each other. From the snatches of conversation I caught, they were tourists wanting to explore the mountains and were looking for a guide.

“Never been better,” Clement said, gesturing to the row of grilling meat and boiling pots behind him, squeezed between his and the neighboring stall. “And hoping for it to be better, my good friend.”

“I’m sure it will. The future is bright and full of Blight.” Nice joke, Herald Stone, I congratulated myself.

Clement laughed. “I hope so. Anyway, Mr. Blight, I’ve got your order right here, purposely flubbed as you wanted. No complaints about the taste, alright? They’re going to be bad because, you know…”

“You won’t hear anything from me. I won’t manually eat those… maybe a couple to try.”

“I thought you were crazy ordering burnt and spoiled food buffs.” Clement shook his helmeted head. “But eating them? That’s a different level of crazy there.”

“It’s called science,” I said. Bawu would be proud of me. Or maybe disappointed; this was far tamer than ingesting several types of poison.

“If this is some sort of fetish of yours,” said Clement, “then I’ll have no part in that. Here you go.”

[ Received: (100) Burnt Swineling Skewer, (100) Stale Crabore Pie ]

[Burnt Swineling Skewer: +150 Armor, +5% Physical and Magical Damage Reduction for 20 Minutes] ★★☆☆☆

[Stale Crabore Pie: +20 All Attributes (Might, Vitality, Spirit, Sense), +750 Health for 20 Minutes] ★★☆☆☆

“As a trustworthy salesman,” Clement said, putting his hand over his heart and bowing his head, “I’m going to be affront with you and explain more about your order. Think of it as a disclaimer in TV adverts, the fast-talking guy in the end.”

“I know about the debuffs they’d inflict if eaten,” I said. “You’ve told me multiple times. I won’t sue you if I end up living in the bathroom.”

“These are three-star recipes,” Clement went on, chuckling at my joke as the law required. “It’s much harder to botch two-star recipes because I’ve already mastered them—I have to turn off the automation setting. So, I used the next level. But they have only two stars, not three, because of the debuff side effects, and they have fewer buffs than the correct version. I’m saying that because you might compare this with other three-star meals and wonder. You paid in full for them as if they were correctly cooked.”

“I did that because we’re good friends,” I said. Also, Chimi had just paid me that time. Along with the Artas from SpartanDonkey, I had a bank to splurge.

Calculating everything, it’d still come out as a positive. Activating a stack of [Cleansing Flames] with a debuff was like eating another piece of food past the limit—players could only have three food buffs at a time without special skills. Factor in the chance to spread the debuffs, even if minor, as was the point of my Plaguetank build. More importantly, no one was selling overcooked or spoiled food for obvious reasons.

“That we are!” Clement leaned on the counter, his metal bracer thumping on the wood. “Anything else I can help you with?”

“Do you have anything sweet and cheap? The cheapest. I’m going to eat a lot for—”

“For a mild upset stomach?” Clement correctly guessed, tapping a finger on his helmet. “The cheapest I have is a one-star Sweet Wafer.”

“I’ll take another hundred of that,” I said. “Eat three sweet food buffs, isn’t it? I’ll burn through those quite fast.”

“If I may make a suggestion—instead of eating three Sweet Wafers, you only eat two. Then, for the last one to trigger the negative status, you eat a better food buff. More Armor? Damage? I’ll check which among my sweet meals has what you want.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you just trying to sell me more food?”

“It’s a good tip, my friend. Why waste a food buff slot on a Sweet Wafer? Eat something better while helping my business at the same time.”

“Okay then, I’ll buy uh… do you have anything for Ancestral Shroud regen? I’m having problems with it.”

“I have a two-star Thorny Melon Compote. I have nothing higher because most customers buy buffs that increase their DPS. Not much in the way of Health, Energy, or AS regeneration.”

“Fifty of that, please,” I said. “And don’t I get a discount? Any promos? I’m buying a lot of your products.”

“Hell yeah, my good friend!” Clement declared, stretching his arms as if to hug me, but the wooden counter was in the way. “Even if you didn’t ask, I was going to throw in ten Sweet Wafers and five Thorny Melon Compotes.” Clement initiated the trade, and I entered his quoted price.

[ Received: (110) Sweet Wafer, (55) Thorny Melon Compote ]

[Sweet Wafer: +5 Energy per 5 seconds for 20 Minutes] ★☆☆☆☆

[Thorny Melon Compote: +15 AS per second for 25 Minutes] ★★☆☆☆

“A pleasure doing business with—nah. Sounds too generic.” Clement grimaced, scratching his horn that jutted out the holes of his helmet. “I have to brainstorm more for a snappier line for ending business deals.”

“I’ll take some time to eat through my food stocks,” I said. “You’ll have better lines the next time we meet.”

“By the way, Herald,” Clement said, waving his hand to get my attention as I was about to dive back into the heavily-muscled river. “You probably already know this, but just in case you forgot—food will overwrite each other if you continue eating past three types. First one in… your stomach… first one out. Well, not out anywhere. The first effect erased.”

“Right, I remember,” I smoothly lied. I didn’t know about this. “I’ll eat two Sweet Wafers first, then the Compote, followed by the Swineling Skewers and Crabore Pie. If I ate the sweets thing last, I’d overwrite the other food buffs Thanks for the reminder, though.”

I stood next to the NPC guards standing watch by the tunnel not to get trampled by the hordes of players going in and out of the opening like busy ants. NPC Spirit Carvers were busy at work placing statues, burying wards, and carving magical runes on the stone walls to contain the green miasma spewed by the mouth of the tunnel.

Some groups of players would disappear after entering—they had quests and generated their own instances—while others would continue to the depths, farming the Arcane Blighted that do drop Tokens even without quests.

While waiting for Megan and her party, I checked my stats.

Name: Herald Stone | Lvl 24 Exp: 1.2%

Base: Mardukryon

Health: 4,893/4,893

Energy: 565/565

Ancestral Shroud: 1,709/1,709

ATTRIBUTES:

Might: 112

Vigor: 249

Spirit: 100

Sense: 15

OFFENSE

Attack Power: 408

Physical Dmg. Inc.: 38.6%

Magic Power: 417

Magical Dmg. Inc.: 35%

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

Movement Speed: 16%

Evasion Rating: 38

DEFENSE

Armor: 4,289

Magic Resilience: 1,615

Phys. Dmg. Red.: 27%

Mag. Dmg. Red.: 27%

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

Fire Resistance: 41%

Water Resistance: 50%

Earth Resistance: 39%

Wind Resistance: 18%

Poison Resistance: 16%

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

Freeze Resistance: 10%

Slow Resistance: 10%

Stun Resistance: 5%

All Ailment Resistance: 4%

RETRIBUTION

Neutral Damage: 357

Earth Damage: 397

Poison Damage: 1,062

HEALTH / ENERGY

Health per Second: 125

Health Regeneration: 4%

Energy per Second: 10

AS per Second: 41