“I haven’t seen this skill before,” Enrico said. “Arcane Blight… Is the flavor text related to the Mardukryon world quest?”

“Yes, I bought it from a shop that opened this event with special currency.” Amusing that Chief Nogras sold me this. Thematically, the Blight Tokens and Blight-related rewards fit with the world quest. But Mad Brewer Bawu couldn’t be the one selling them, and the shop had to be somewhere accessible to all players. It ended up with the village chief selling bio-hazardous items. Game Logic.

“It’s wildly good for just an Epic Shard, sir.” Enrico scanned its description. “This could match the stats of lower-end Relic Shards. That’s often how it goes with world quest reward items; they incentivize players to participate in the event and move the story forward.”

I had noticed that. [Heaping Infections] would be worth millions of Artas in the auction, maybe tens of millions in the open Hierakon market. I should try to get at least one more item from the chief’s bargain store. My party was going to practice with the Blighted bosses. Might as well use the Blighted Tokens we’d farm before the event ended.

“Is this why you wanted a taunt with debuffs?” Enrico asked, raising a brow at me from across the WeeCee display. “Forced Frenzy—I feel like it’s actually Compelled Frenzy. Anyhow, the whatever-Frenzy will really synergize well with Heaping Infections, lowering enemy DPS too, while adding another debuff stack. And Heaping Infections improves your retri DPS by whittling enemy Armor. I love the combos you got going, sir.

“That’s why I didn’t hesitate to invest nine LSPs into Heaping Infections,” I said. Enrico wasn’t buttering me up. For me, [Heaping Infections] was better than [Gnawing Rot] and [Withering Brand] combined.

Well, maybe not the [Gnawing Rot] part… yet.

[Gnawing Rot], a Rare Quality Shard, had a mix of flat and percentage debuffs. An Epic or better Shard would have mostly percentage values, providing for scaling into the late game. If an enemy’s defense stats were low, it was better to subtract a flat number than reduce it by a percent. Against higher-leveled monsters, it’d be the reverse. I bet [Heaping Infections] would come out on top when it came to Great Hunt mobs.

More importantly, I didn’t need to wait several seconds for [Gnawing Rot] to gradually shred Armor and Magic Resilience. The moment I cast [Heaping Infections], the complete reduction would immediately bite. It more than made up for the limitation that it only affected those around the player, unlike [Gnawing Rot], which could simultaneously have several AoEs in different places.

Another downside—or more a precondition—was that my targets needed to be bathed in at least ten debuffs to get the full effect. Shouldn’t be a big problem when I become the Plagueyest of Plaguetanks. My party mates would also bring their debuffs to the ailments potluck.

Compared to [Withering Brand], [Heaping Infections] didn’t reduce Movement Speed debuff, which had been a huge lifesaver on many occasions. But [Heaping Infections] reduced Attack and Magic Power more and could affect several enemies, not just the one of [Withering Brand].

[Heaping Infections] had a hefty AS cost—an issue that might soon be solved—but it was worth it. I attached two maxed Link Shards to it, making it even more so, squeezing value out of every point of AS used. In addition to [Enfeebling Burden], I now had [Chorus of Delirium].

Lvl 5 Enfeebling Burden (Link): Enemies under the effect of linked debuff-type skills will suffer an extra 25% more of their debilitating effects.

Lvl 5 Chorus of Delirium (Link): Enemies under the effect of linked debuff-type skills will suffer Delirium, with a 25% chance of not attacking or confusing their allies as enemies. Increases the duration of linked debuff-type skills by 15%.

“So, this Link adds another debuff stack,” Enrico said, his brows bunched together as he read the info of [Chorus of Delirium]. “Let’s see, with this and the enchant Ailments Duration on your footgear, the fifteen seconds of Heaping Infection becomes nineteen point six or seven seconds, almost its cooldown of twenty.”

I nodded. Number fest! Enrico was hecking fast at mental calculations. Was he some math prodigy? “Since it’s linked to Heaping Infections,” I said, “Delirium will have an almost hundred percent uptime. Compare that to a Stun, Petrify, or Freeze Link, for example.”

“Yes, sir,” Enrico hesitantly nodded. “Stun normally lasts a few seconds. However, Delirium only has a one-in-four chance of working. And it’s not complete immobilization. My old guildies had tested this. If the ‘not attacking’ part is rolled, the monster might cast other spells like buffs or heals. And even if it attacks other monsters with cleave or AoE skills, it can still hit you.”

Thanks for answering those questions. I didn’t have time to test [Chorus of Delirium] after buying it because I logged out to have a huge dinner and tackle a pile of work before gym time.

“I can’t recall anyone using this in their builds,” Enrico said. “If you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Herald, sir, why did you choose this?”

I smiled. He tried hard to sound respectful, but his face made clear his low opinion of [Chorus of Delirium]. “Well, the main reason is,” I said, holding up a finger, “it’s cheap. I bought it for three and a half million Artas—a low price for what it could do. I couldn’t resist such a huge discount.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re going f2p, sir.” That got a laugh out of Enrico, as I knew it would. “If Mardukryons aren’t isolated, I’d give you Artas.”

I chuckled with him.

It wasn’t a particularly funny joke or an actual joke at that. But talking about being a cheapskate among the rich was unironically considered a joke to some degree, like, ‘Look at me, I’m doing a poor people thing.’ I noticed that as our business grew and our family entered the crusty upper crust of society. Interesting and bizarre.

“Seriously, though,” I said. “While not meta, Chorus of Delirium isn’t bad. You can think of it as reducing incoming damage by twenty-five percent. Sure, even if Delirious, the enemy can do other things; it might even clip you with splash damage. Let’s say twenty percent, then? Still quite good.”

“But the issue is consistency, sir,” Enrico pressed. “When you use a stun skill, you know it will work, even if only for a few seconds. But in Delirium’s case, you’ll never know if you’ll get a string of procs or just duds when you need it the most.”

“You’re right about that,” I said. “The thing is, I don’t need that high level of consistency. Rather, I won’t put myself in a position where I’ll need it. And I’ll shore up other parts of the build to lessen the chances I’ll be in a pinch where a better CC skill would’ve saved me. I don’t need to go for the best option if the middlingly good alternative works—in that situation, they’re both equal in my eyes, save for specific circumstances.”

“I guess so…” Enrico cast his unconvinced eyes on the floor.

Getting this point across to most people locked in boxlike thinking was hard. Meta was meta for a reason, and people naturally gravitated to it. But the objectively ‘best’ didn’t mean others were automatically worse in all cases—sounds simple, but difficult to process.

I didn’t want to waste time explaining. But I decided to leave Enrico with an easier-to-absorb lesson before segueing back to our workout. I put on the hat of Herald Stone, Mentor of the Next Generation,

Turning off my WeeCee, I looked Enrico in the eye and said, “Chorus of Delirium is middlingly good, maybe slightly above average. But it’s relatively very cheap. Why is that? See, if there’s an auction system in a game, people with money—not just the whales, but anyone who can afford it—will try to aim for the best, the meta, pushing their prices way past what they should be. It happens in the real world as well, with various economic bubbles.

“As a result of money going to what the majority chases, the not-as-good options are devalued, sometimes, very heavily. For me, Chorus of Delirium is incredibly discounted. Can it match meta alternatives? Nope. But it doesn’t need to, and I don’t intend it to. If there’s anything you can take away from our MCO discussion that’s cutting into our workout time, it’s that you shouldn’t go with the flow because you’ll miss out on a lot of… whatever else it may be.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Mr. Herald!” Enrico exclaimed, almost jumping from his bench. “I completely forgot about—”

“Let me just finish our short lesson,” I interjected. “Not going against the flow is too broad of an advice and might be harmful most of the time. What I mean to say is that you make your own flow rather than be swept by the bigger flow of the collective. Sometimes, you might go where others go. Sometimes, you’ll be alone.

“Not just in business but in life as a whole, there’ll be a lot of doubts, a lot of mistakes. Many times, your flow goes the wrong way. That’s fine. Really. As long as it’s your own. A certain level of conviction is needed to fix your mistakes and rise to success. You’ll discover paths others can’t even see by having your own flow.”

Divine Bovine! That could inspire a cat to turn into a lion!

It was entirely impromptu. One second, my mind was busy analyzing [Heaping Infections], then it just clicked, and I went into a grand speech that should merit a standing ovation.

Apparently, it resonated with Enrico. He slowly nodded as his eyes glazed over. He stared at an empty part of the gym and continued nodding for a few seconds. Then he looked back at me. “Thanks for that, Mr. Herald. I appreciate the lesson.”

“Gotta tie our MCO conversation back to the real world somehow,” I said, “or Manuel might get angry.”

Enrico grinned, scratching the back of his head. “Right, right…”

“Time to return to our workout,” I said so Enrico wouldn’t realize I was buying time. Surprising, but I felt refreshed. Theorycrafting energized me. Was this the mind-over-body thing?

Enrico pushed himself off the bench and stretched as he stood. “We shouldn’t have stayed too long on the machines because someone might use them. I’m repaying your life advice with gym etiquette advice, sir.” He pointed down the gym. “Let’s head over to the squat racks. Lower body, next.”

Squats? I didn’t like the sound of that. I wasn’t strong like a Mardukryon that could squat maybe a few hundred kilos with no problem. I might end up just squatting the weight bar with puny plates.

Wait, could a Mardukryon squat? Would four legs count?

A question that gym instructors should answer.