From Garg-Ants, we moved on to clearing Blighted Goliath Magbeetles—giant insects with exoskeletons threaded with lava, reminiscent of a Mardukryon’s upper body—from the paths used by NPC Miners to rebuild the collapsed tunnel system.

The Goliath Magbeetles were level forty and challenging to kill, with hard bodies and long health bars—that’s what she said. Their bites and horn attacks were powerful, interspersed with caustic sprays that inflicted debuffs. They also radiated tremendous heat that dealt massive damage.

Part of me thought it was time to tap out, already coming up with excuses when we encountered enemies larger than Paritor. But the fight turned out easier than diving into Garg-Ant swarms.

Because they were so large, only four Goliath Magbeetles—five if they really squeezed themselves—could fit the width of the tunnel. It was easy to hold them back, with life-stealing hounds by my side and a powerful support toad behind. The Magbeetles’ scorching shells were twice more painful than that of the Bastions, but with at most three AoEs overlapping me, it wasn’t so bad.

Each attack could pop my [Greater Pyro] but was slow and labored. Their intermittent spraying of nasty goo offered windows to heal. I put [Withering Brand] on the Goliaht Magbeetle before me. The blue fire doggies shared the burden of tanking; Paritor was hard at work, converting his health to AS and resummoning them each time they got squished, with Melonomi backing him up with healing.

Keeping our heads on our shoulders, we weren’t in danger of failing. It was a boring quest.

Thankfully, the next one was anything but.

We were tasked with protecting NPC Miners digging through caved-in portions of the tunnels. Various Arcane Blighted monsters, several I had fought before, came to attack us, pouring out of side tunnels or boring out the earth. We had to defend a wide area and several NPCs, with just half the party capable of fighting and only one DPS—very exciting. And also hectic.

“Over here!” Audience #1 called from the end of the tunnel. “Something came out the ceiling!”

Paritor was busy on the opposite side. Melonomi was in another tunnel, playing tag with a few Blighted Maggroths, buying time until Paritor could get to her. I was holding an assortment of Blighted, waiting for them to die of poison.

There’s no one else. I dragged the monsters attacking me down the passage. “Out of the way!” I told Audience #1. “You might get attacked!”

I healed the Miner on the ground, then placed a Totem to hold the Blighted monsters tumbling from above, [Morabodry] and [Gnawing Rot] saturated the area as the Miner hobbled away. Poisoned and angry, the monsters charged at me.

But some didn’t want my autograph. I veered left to head them off from reaching the Miner.

The injured NPC bowed to me before rejoining his fellows. “Thank you for your help. I owe my life to you.”

“I accept credit cards as payment,” I quipped before facing the Blighted horde that had ballooned.

BAM! The [Greater Pyro Shell] explosion wiped out the monsters in the red from poison and Burn. The others banging on my shields were shredded by retribution.

More Blighted pressed on as those in front of them became sparkles of light. Then I slowly retreated, dropping [Gnawing Rot] on my trail to soften them. [Tongues of Flames] tickled them as if brushes of a drive-through carwash. I chugged Melonomi’s potions while spamming my heals.

I kept my eye on my good old pal, [Lvl 38 Detonating Blight Tick] from the Toady Token quest, ready to weaken it with [Withering Brand] before it hit me. There was no way I could stop it with my Totems. Given the number of monsters, the Totems wouldn’t last half a second to cast taunts. Thankfully, there were no disablers like the Buttresses among the enemy, or else I wouldn’t survive this.

“More coming over here!” The faint voice of Audience #2 could be barely heard over the din of the monsters hugging me. His shouts grew stronger as he exited another tunnel. “Miners need help this way!”

Paritor and Melonomi were out of sight, busy elsewhere. I groaned. It had to be me. This quest was really meant for a whole party. I was in such high demand tonight that I should charge an appearance fee. “I’m coming!” Begrudgingly adding, that’s what she said.

Eventually, Paritor made his way to me, chowing through the Blighted crowd I had gathered and pulled to a dead end, far from the NPCs we were protecting. Slowly but surely, his fire spirits reached me.

“Thanks for the assist,” I said. “I thought I was going to be buried here with all those monsters.”

“I could’ve been faster.” Paritor’s eyes jumped around as he was absorbed in his thoughts. “The damage of my Asipu spirits is lacking. I should—” Then his eyes landed on me as if he had just noticed me. “Is this Pyro Shell? No… it’s different.”

“Greater Pyro Shell. A hidden achievement reward from Mehubanarath for dying a hundred times before meeting him.”

“Dying a hundred—You shouldn’t have told me that. It’s a secret worth—”

“I trust you,” I cut in. “We’re both students of the Big M. And it’s a secret too funny not to share.”

Paritor nodded, smiling. “Students of the Big M? That, we are. And such an amusing hidden achievement indeed. I suppose you brute-forced the task of killing a Mirdabon pack on your lonesome, resulting in that many deaths?”

“You got that right. And you won’t believe how I—”

“Don’t tell me,” interjected Paritor. “It’s only fair we don’t know each other’s methods in attaining the hidden achievement that led to the three Ocadule options.”

“Alright then. But can I ask something about your Ancestral Shroud situation? I saw your health going down and AS going up. Were you converting health to AS?” I had slipped how I got my [Greater Pyro Shell] so he’d be more open talking about this.

“In a way.” Paritor narrowed his eyes. I kept my silence, encouraging him with a nod to continue. “Immaterial Counterpoise is the name of the skill,” he said after a couple of seconds. “I’d sacrifice health in return for AS. I obtained it from a recluse Spirit Carver who had heard about the Ancestral Flames from Mehubanarath when the latter still lived in the village.”

“That’s about a hundred years ago,” I said, recalling the Big M’s story of isolating himself to purify his Ancestral Flames.”

“This Spirit Carver studied the Ancestral Flames. He couldn’t recreate the recorded abilities of ancient Mardukryons but inadvertently invented a new branch of spells. I haven’t explored it in full because I was only interested in replenishing my AS.”

I was sure Paritor was waiting for me to ask how to get it. Call it instinct honed from dealing with tons of people. I intended to do exactly that but now wasn’t the time. Goodwill needed to be built. I went in another vein.

“By sacrificing health,” I said, “do you mean you’re damaging yourself? Or is it considered a cost, and a chunk of your health bar just automatically poofs away?”

“Why are you—? Ah, you’re wondering if defense modifiers like Armor could reduce health loss while retaining AS gained. An interesting thought, but I haven’t experimented with that yet.”

“There’s an easy way to test it. Do you have your Pyro Shell—”

Shouting interrupted us. Audiences #1, #2, and #3 appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, yelling that more monsters were coming and that Melonomi needed help. Paritor and I hurried to the battle.

“Phew, we’re finally done!” I clanged my shields together after rejoining the many players hanging around the cave’s entrance.

Our three Audiences noisily cheered, uncaring about weird glances from other people.

“Does anyone need more Blighted Tokens?” I asked. “I can help with more runs.” I had completed the fifty thousand needed to buy the skill I wanted from Chief Nogras’ reward shop, but Herald Stone was considerate of others, truly magnanimous. Perhaps I could aim for other reward Shards.

“We’re good,” said Audience #1. “Can already buy a few good Skill Shards for leveling. Then we’ll do the easy Blighted quests ourselves. We don’t want to impose further. A big thanks!” The other two Audiences also expressed how grateful they were, especially to Melonomi, who had been helping them for hours.

“If it’s okay with you, Herald,” Melonomi said, raising a hand, “I still need a few hundred more. Maybe two or three more quests, if you’re free?”

“Sure,” I said. “We can help three more new players while we’re at it. I still have time before dinner.” Dammit, I forgot to eat lunch!

This reminded me of my childhood when I’d skip lunch, playing without a break at Vanguard Gaming. Missing a meal this time wouldn’t incur Mum’s wrath but might affect my performance at the gym. Wow, talking about performance. I’d be lucky not to faint again.

“I’m also available to help,” Paritor firmly said, no longer stuttering or acting shyly toward Melonomi. “Give me five minutes to rearrange my items and Shards into a more DPS-oriented build since we have Herald to do the tanking. We’ll complete the quests at a quicker pace, I promise.”

“Imagine if you’re in a complete party,” I said. “I’ll ask my teammates tomorrow if they can run Blighted quests with us. We can try taking on the bosses.”

“Okay, last set!” Enrico said with much passion as if I were a few meters from reaching the finish line.

Why the cheesy baked potatoes did he show up? He was the son of the gym owner, Manuel Armand, but he didn’t need to come here. I thought one of the gym instructors would guide me like last time, but it turned out to be Enrico.

Did his father send him to keep an eye in case I fainted again and hurt myself? If so, Enrico didn’t read the full memo because I’d really faint if he kept this up.

“Ten!” Enrico yelled, sitting on the pulldown machine beside mine. He worked out with me as encouragement. “Slowly pull, feel your muscles.”

Ten? I groaned as I wrapped my fingers around both ends of the bar above me. Can’t we do eight or six since this is the last set?

Enrico was already beginning. I didn’t have a choice but to follow. I pulled with all my might, which wasn’t much at this point, my sides burning. That was supposed to be a good sign, he had told me.

“And down. Don’t let it fall. Deliberately lower it.”

I clenched my jaws. I was thinking of letting the stack of plates drop.

“Nine!” he shouted. “Don’t sway your body!”

“Nine…” I kept my torso straight, resisting the urge to lie back and drag the bar with my weight. I was too tired that I unconsciously cheated. I strained to pull the bar with just my arms.

“And down again. Slowly.”

Anyone has a time machine I could borrow? I thought as my glorious life flashed before my eyes. Instead of coming here, I should’ve stayed inside MCO and farmed Blighted Tokens with Paritor and Melonomi.