I ascended the tunnel to the loud cheering of the crowd. My five party mates were a crowd, weren’t they?

Besides our party, a dozen players were milling about, yelling to form teams, or trying to sell buffs or consumables to venturing parties. Several NPCs shoveled dirt, rocks, and snow away from the exit. I could count them as part of my welcoming committee, though they weren’t facing my way, busy with their busy business. Their loss, not basking in my fabulous presence.

Only one cheered my arrival—Megan, as expected. Kezo gave me a double thumbs up. Was that cheering too?

“This place has changed a lot,” I said, surveying my surroundings.

Thick blankets of snow hid much of the destruction caused by the explosion that Bawu engineered, but I could remember what the area used to look like. I couldn’t recognize it now. Vast sections of the cliff walls had collapsed, sending immense boulders and thick blankets of earth cascading down to bury parts of the ruins of an ancient Mardukryon city.

The avalanche also swept away many plants and trees, destroying the lush ecosystem that used to thrive amid the snow. With the flora lost, the fauna—the Cedarlyons, Laphisheres, and Frost Imps—migrated elsewhere.

The good news was that there were no traces of the Blight. The collapsed exit luckily isolated this side of the mountain from Bawu’s Blighted bioterrorism.

“It sure did change,” said Kezo. “This is how it’ll be from now on, after the world quest. What’s important is that the NPCs have reopened the tunnels and repaired that.” He jabbed his thumb at the statue of a Mirdabon on top of a Snowy Swineling on top of a Crabore several steps away.

It was the first waypoint beyond the cliff walls players could teleport to using Sigil Totems. A lone NPC—a Spirit Carver, according to his floating name—waved his glowing blue hands over it. Recalibrating it, maybe?

“I’m so good at timing,” Megan said, jostling Kezo. She pointed a wand at me. “I told them I sensed you’re about to complete your quest, so we should come here to wait for you. And, like, two minutes later, you’re here! Ta-da! Nitana wouldn’t believe me, but this proves I could see the future.”

“You’re not some psychic, okay?” Nitana said with an exasperated sigh. “Just a coincidence.”

“Oh yeah? I predict you’re getting a hug!”

“What? Hey, don’t do—”

“Here I come!” Megan chased her best friend, comically flailing her arms.

After watching them for a moment weave through the NPCs trying to work in peace, Kezo turned to me and asked, “Did you get it?”

“I sure did.” I shared with them the details screen of [Embers of Rebirth.]

“Nice work!” And another thumbs up from him.

“We now have two people with ress,” added Melonomi. “The party wouldn’t be immediately helpless if you or I died. We can save each other.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have LSPs for it,” I said, heading off anyone suggesting otherwise.

At level one, [Embers of Rebirth] would revive a player at only ten percent health. Very dangerous—they might immediately get killed again. The skill also had a casting time of ten seconds. Plenty of room to get interrupted, wasting the long cooldown of three minutes. Higher levels of [Embers of Rebirth] would likely have shorter cooldowns and casting times. I bet it’d also give the target player more health upon returning to life.

I did have some free Lesser Skill Points—a small white lie—but I didn’t want to spend them on leveling it. If I solely had the ress in our team, then I would’ve. But Melonomi was also here.

My LSPs were better spent elsewhere than on minor boosts to [Embers of Rebirth] that wouldn’t matter much in the bigger picture. I just needed to be more mindful of when and where to use it. In the implausible off-chance our party would get wiped specifically because of my level one [Embers of Rebirth], we could retry whatever we were doing.

This wasn’t moping—this was min-maxing. Okay, maybe it’s a bit of moping.

“It’s really not worth leveling it when you’re strapped for LSPs at your level,” Melonomi said. “It’ll be mostly me who’d cast ress anyway because you’ll be tanking in front. You’re just the backup ress.”

Just… the backup? My two right eyelids twitched. “One of my Ocadules also Ranked up while farming the Maggroths,” I said, nodding at Paritor. “It’s the Ancestral Flames one from Mehubanarath.”

“The Aritu Form Ocadule?” he asked, stepping forward from behind Melonomi. “How interesting. Do show us your new skill.”

“Here goes.” I cast [Healing Embrace].

“Oh! What’s happening?” Megan came running back to us when she saw ethereal arms of flames growing out of my body, leaving Nitana behind with the NPCs. “Is that your skill, Herald?”

“My new healing skill.” I stressed the word ‘healing.’

The fiery green arms wrapped around my party mates like giant snakes before fading into shimmers. None of us were injured, so they didn’t see my pitiful amount of healing. They shouldn’t expect much, anyway. I spied Melonomi’s reaction in my peripheral vision. She was frowning. Maybe. It was hard to tell with Mardukryons.

“It’s an AoE heal,” I said.

Megan looked over her shoulder at Nitana. “You weren’t included in it.”

“No way those freaky hands are touching me,” Nitana spat in disgust as she trotted over to us. “I’d rather die.”

“Great, I’m gonna lose my job soon,” Melonomi groaned. “I should’ve listened to my mom when she told me to get a different course. How will I pay all my student loans when I’m a replaceable employee?”

“Different course?” asked Paritor, his brows met in confusion.

“I’m just joking that I shouldn’t have specialized in Potion Brewing. Actual Healers are in demand on the job market.”

“You’re not a replaceable employee,” said Kezo. “You’re our teammate and friend.”

“If we’re replacing anyone, it’ll be Megan,” muttered Nitana.

“No, you can’t kick me out.” Megan crossed her wands. “I’m mediocre enough to pass, aren’t I? Like that worked fine for my grades back in college.”

“No one’s going anywhere,” Kezo firmly said. “All of you are important. We may not be hardcore strong players like Luds’ and his party—”

“You are,” cut in Nitana.

“—but we’re doing our best, and that’s what counts,” He continued. “No pressure. We play at our own pace and have fun. That said, we’re doing very well. I consider us a competitive team. Above average, even.”

“Because of you,” said Nitana. “You’re basically carrying us like grocery bags.”

“And I can’t do it alone,” he smoothly replied. It made me wonder what his real-life job was. An inspirational speaker? A cult recruiter? “That’s why you’re important to the party, Melonomi. Your healing keeps all of us alive to do our parts.”

“If you say so…” A hint of a smile crossed her face.

“My heals are tiny in comparison to yours,” I said. “I’m not saving anyone with them. I just hope to contribute some when we’re in a pinch.”

I sensed Melonomi wasn’t ready to stop her drama. She got a taste of praise and wanted some more. My bad for starting this. As much as I wanted to continue talking about my Ocadule to segue into asking Paritor about his, I had to change the topic.

Melonomi opened her mouth. I spoke first before she could. “By the way, does anyone have a spare Perceiving Glass? I got an Unidentified Ocadule Shard from the Maggroths.”

“I do.” Nitana initiated trade with me. She placed the item on her side of the trade interface.

I didn’t accept just yet. I typed a one in the Artas space of the screen and looked at her. Then I slowly inputted a zero and another, hoping she’d speak up soon.

“No need to pay me for this,” she said.

Works every time, I smugly thought. I didn’t know how much to pay her if she didn’t stop me. Of course, I didn’t immediately relent. I argued that I should buy it off her, just enough pushback to show I wasn’t a parasite.

Only once. Twice would have more impact, but I’d risk her accepting it.

[ Received: Perceiving Glass ]

“Thanks for this, Nitana,” I said. “I’ll remember the favor.” I won't, I added in my head.

“Identify it and show us,” Megan excitedly said.

I used [Perceiving Glass] on the Shard from Mommy Maggroth and held my breath.

“Damn, just Rare,” I muttered, sighing. I hoped for at least an Epic Quality Skill Shard, given it came from a boss monster of sorts. I read the skill description, and my heart sank some more.

Lvl. 1 Lesser Precision Aura: Invoking the deities of Order, paying the patron god of precision with your energies, generate an aura that grants you and nearby allies (+85) and (+5%) Accuracy Rating.

Reservation: 10% of your Highest Secondary Resource

“Accuracy?” I blurted, half-chuckling. I twirled my fingers, flipping the screen so my party mates could see it. The game was sending me more mixed signals than a co-worker at the convenience store I worked at years ago. Good thing I didn’t try courting her and focused on myself. Look at where I was now.

But it seemed I was at crossroads again. Stick with healing or try Health on Hit? Then again, even if I chose the latter, it wasn’t like [Lesser Precision Aura] was sufficient for a build transition. I’d need more pieces and didn’t know what those were.

“Hmmm… Precision Aura.” Kezo stroked his tusks as he leaned forward to read.

I could tell what was on his mind. “You’re a crit build, Kezo, so this isn’t helpful to you. How about you, Paritor? Aren’t your summons focused on crits too?”

“Yes, they are,” replied Paritor. “However, they have low Critical Ratings before I fully buff them. Perhaps in the short interim, this Aura could help them land their attacks.”

I sighed. Just a backup plan. Again. But Paritor was just trying to be nice; I shouldn’t take out my annoyance on him.

“How about Megan and Nitana?” I asked. “This’ll help you two, wouldn’t it? I take it that you don’t have much investment in Accuracy?”

“Guilty,” mumbled Nitana.

“Nope, not really,” said Megan with a sheepish grimace. “And by ‘not really,’ I mean none.”

“Like, we haven’t fought many super high-level monsters,” explained Nitana. “We had no problems relying on our inherent Accuracy Rating before all this party for the Great Hunt thing. But now that we’re hitting strong monsters way above our levels, I notice I miss sometimes.”

“Don’t you miss—” Megan began to say.

“No,” Nitana cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say. I don’t miss him.”

“So, this aura benefits only you two,” I said. “Also me, but I shouldn’t count that.”

[Greater Pyro Shell], [Blight Cloud], and [Tongues of Flames] needed Accuracy. But whether I could hit enemies or not didn’t matter because my DPS was just a pinky finger’s cuticle compared to my party mates, especially Kezo. It was my poison, dealing a percentage of health DoT, that allowed my DPS to be somewhat relevant.

“The problem I’m seeing,” I went on, “is that you must be near me to benefit from this aura. However, I’m usually next to the boss, and that’s a dangerous spot for you.”

“Oh…” Megan’s face fell. “I mean, we can try coming closer to—”

“Maybe I should just sell it?”