“Divine sausages from the windows of heaven!” I stopped my automated brewing to pump both fists in the air. [Proficient Battle Brewer] was a fulfilling reward for long hours of pounding demon tree materials into a paste, boosting both crafting and combat aspects of my Akhos Ocadule.

The first line of [Proficient Battle Brewer] jumped out at me. It rectified the colossal injustice of [Poison Bottle Cast] requiring bottles as cost. Sure, it was in its name, but it was a mediocre skill that didn’t have the right to demand payment to cast. Much more potent AoE debuff and DoT skills didn’t expend items to use them.

Doubtful that a max-leveled [Proficient Battle Brewer] would eliminate the consumables cost of [Poison Bottle Cast], but it’d still be a big help in my finances. Bottles saved could be sold so I could buy more materials and craft more bottles—the cycle of life.

The next line of my new skill was middlingly good—I couldn’t recall encountering poison damage on this mountain. I was the one dealing it with [Arcane Poison Empowerment] Linked to [Greater Pyro Shell].

Lvl. 5 Arcane Poison Empowerment (Link): Arcane Brewers, armed with ancient knowledge, could enhance the power of Skill Shards, imbuing them with enchanted Poison. Increase the level of one (1) damage-dealing linked Skill Shard by six (6). All linked Skill Shard gain (110%) of their non-Poison damage as extra Poison Damage—casting cost of the linked Skill Shard will increase by (21%).

The poisons I chugged were DoT debuffs, not counting as hits. Still, the added Poison Damage Resistance made me tankier and might come in handy in the future. There’s a hardness for everything.

The final effect of [Proficient Battle Brewer] was the best of the three—poisoned enemies would hit me for less. Great, overall, but sad that it wouldn’t be effective against open-world bosses and other monsters with insane resistance against poison ailment. I’d need to boost my poison chance and duration to overcome it, a definite challenge I was willing to undertake because poison, along with retribution, was my damage source as a tank.

“What’s the cause for celebration, Herald?” Paritor asked, competing with the battle din. He trotted over, likely bored with the battle and looking for a conversation. “Did an Ocadule of yours Rank up?”

“I unlocked a new skill from my poison brewing Ocadule.”

“The Ocadule you obtained from Mad Brewer Bawu, the villain of the world quest? I’d wager she knows something about our Ichor mystery. Such an important NPC is bound to have clues.”

“Well, I can’t ask her now because she has fled,” I replied, resuming brewing. “If only I met Melonomi before I started the world quest, and she told me about it. Maybe I’ll get to ask Bawu about it if we find her.”

I didn’t reveal to my party mates what I knew about the cure-all potion Melonomi was attempting to recreate. Yes, I committed to help complete its recipe, but I never mentioned I’d tell them about it if I succeeded. Such a potion would be among the most powerful in the game—the strongest anti-ailment consumable—explaining Ichor's limited supply. The implications of releasing such a potion to the market were mind-boggling, and I’d be there to boggle minds, reaping all the benefits.

It wasn’t time for my arc of opening up and completely trusting others. I wasn’t sure if such an aspect of Herald Stone survived the hardships I’d gone through. Perhaps not. I couldn’t recall having any real friends after high school.

“Ichor, a drop of the Mountain Guardian’s blood,” said Paritor, “used as an ingredient to counteract the Mountain Guardian’s power. Quite ironic.”

“It’s like a snake’s venom used to make an antidote.”

“The NPC who made this potion must be a true humanitarian—”

“Humanitarian? I don’t think you could call this mystery Brewer that.”

“Erm, Mardukryonitarian, if such is a word,” said Paritor, though it wasn’t what I disagreed with him. He smiled at the rare pun he made. “Unfortunate that this NPC was exiled, no doubt, for using Ichor in her brews.”

“I think you’re right,” I said straight. Using an illegal ingredient was the least of the reasons why the villagers chased out Bawu.

Thinking more about Bawu’s story, she has never been the philanthropic type, so why make something for the good of Mardukryons? The answer was that it wasn’t for helping others. The potion was for getting close to the Mountain Guardian without getting turned into a Mardukryon popsicle. A mere coincidence that the potion had other effects.

And if we succeed in killing the Mountain Guardian, there’d also be other ramifications beyond Mardukryons escaping the mountain. Most likely, the whole ecosystem of the mountain would change from an icy landscape to lush greenery, vibrant life fueled by the countless golden crystals around.

“A fresh wave of Swine Lords come,” said Paritor. “I’ll be off, Herald. Do alert me when you run out of ingredients.”

I gave him a salute and returned to my research about auras, specifically about the reservation mechanic, the same as that used by my [Lesser Precision Aura].

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.

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Reservation: 10% of your Highest Secondary Resource

The RPGs I had played in ancient times didn’t have this mechanic for auras and other continuous effect skills. The more I read up on it, the more I understood the necessity of reservation for balancing. The olden RPGs had set skill trees for each playable class. Balancing builds was easy to manage. But later RPGs allowed players to choose various skills available to everyone, like how it was in Mother Core Online, opening the possibilities to all sorts of builds.

One of those possibilities was piling all the strongest auras in the game on one character—absolutely broken if allowed. Continuous skills were powerful because debuffs and CCs couldn’t stop them, more so if they didn’t cost anything.

Reservation was the answer.

Instead of paying with Health or Energy or other resources, whether upfront or continuously, a portion was permanently sequestered to maintain the ongoing effect. If it was just an Energy cost, for example, high Energy regeneration builds could trivialize outright paying for it. Reservation limited how many auras a player could have, balancing with how much of said resource they wanted to remain for their use.

It’d probably be unwise for a player to reserve ninety-five percent of their Health unless they relied on some mechanic to protect the five percent, like barriers.

[Lesser Precision Aura] reserved the ‘highest secondary resource,’ making it fair for races with only Energy, unlike Mardukryons with Ancestral Shroud. Targeting the highest also meant that the secondary resource reserved would likely be the one the player used for his build, adding to balancing.

[Lesser Precision Aura] reserved ten percent of Ancestral Shroud. A resource Conversion Shard wouldn’t work because the reservation wasn’t a cost in the usual sense. Better convert the cost of skills away from the resource used for the reservation to avoid problems, like [Health Conversion Shard] linked to my [Greater Pyro Shell].

Lvl. 1 Health Conversion (Link): Replaces the cost of linked Active Skills with Health, with a multiplier of (220%).

Lvl. 10 Greater Pyro Shell: Glorious blessings of the ancestors coat you with a formidable barrier of protective flames that boosts your defenses and absorbs (75% of incoming damage) up to the amount of Ancestral Shroud/Energy spent to summon it added by (36% of Armor). When the barrier expires or is depleted, the damage it has absorbed is dealt to nearby enemies.

Grants: +425 Armor, +20% Armor

Cost: 30% of Max Ancestral Shroud for Mardukryon; 20% of Max Energy for other Races

Duration: 25 Seconds

Cooldown: 5 Seconds

Some more research confirmed that the reservation of [Lesser Precision Aura] didn’t affect the thickness of [Greater Pyro Shell] since it was based on my maximum Ancestral Shroud, including the reserved portion. Unboxlike shenanigans abound, juggling maximum values and reservation; I could feel it in my pancreas.

An hour and several completed Blighted missions later, I told Paritor I ran out of ingredients. “I’m going to check the auction house if some of my items were sold to pinch some budget for restocking. I’ll also try to sell my crafted items to players in the village. Are you okay with waiting for me a bit?”

“I’m fine,” said Paritor. “Take your time to finish your business. Before meeting you earlier, I accepted a few Blighted missions in my level range. I’ll finish those while waiting. And I also extend my contribution to your funds.”

[ Received: 4,700,000 Artas ]

“I hope that will suffice,” he said. “I intend to invest in upgrades, so I don’t have much Artas to spare.”

“You shouldn’t have,” I said, looking concerned. It was a struggle to keep down a smile. I loved getting freebies.

Yes, I could whale and buy mountains of Artas, but that was different. No matter how many warblers I threw at the game, the items I’d get wouldn’t be for free. Plus, I was free-to-play, reliving my high school days with only enough money to rent a PC at Vanguard Gaming.

“I’m already taking your time,” I added. “That’s more than enough help.”

“This is my aid not only to a friend but also to our party at large. A very worthwhile expenditure.”

He gets it. Helping Herald Stone was for the greater good. Be it on record that Paritor gave me money. I didn’t ask for it. He did it out of the goodness of his heart. Just rewards await him in heaven.

Galloping to the village, I went to find Clement instead of going to the auction house. Convince him to retail my [Frigid Yew Salve] might be a hard sell, but it was time to put Herald Stone’s business powers to the test.

“I’ll be glad to,” said Clement.

“I know this isn’t an actual health potion, but this is also—wait, what? You’re willing to buy these salves?”

“Thirty percent max health over six seconds is excellent. The Silence is iffy, but it’s just to balance the powerful healing.”

I jumped on his lead, saying, “Exactly. Almost a third of your health back is much better than the flat-value healing of lesser health potions. If a player worries about the drawbacks, sit out the battle for a few seconds.”

“True that.” Clement nodded at the floating screen displaying [Frigid Yew Salve]. “It’s not all the time a player is fighting. This can be used between waves or before moving to the next dungeon room.”

“And it’s not unusable during combat. Even if Silenced, the player can continue shooting or whacking the enemy. It even has the added protection of Freezing enemies. What’s six seconds of Silence to heal so much in return? For routine dungeon runs or just grinding, there’s no danger.”

[Frigid Yew Salve] had more market potential than I had thought because I was stuck in the mindset of a tank. For other builds, there shouldn’t be much issue using [Frigid Yew Salve] in the middle of a fight, except in the most dangerous situations.

“You got me hooked, my good friend,” Clement said, extending his hand. “I can do a test run of a hundred units.”

We shook on it, and I headed to the Chief’s Lodge to pick up more Blighted quests. While there, I browsed the event shop to scout my next purchase. It cost thirty-five thousand Blighted Tokens. I already had seven thousand Tokens. It would be hectic, but I should be able to gather the amount before leaving in the morning to pick up Mum and Sawyer. I wanted this new skill because it tickled my unboxlike brain to plan some unboxlike shenanigans. I simply had to get it.

No sleep for Herald Stone, I thought, heading back to the tunnels.