I cautiously peered out of a narrow side tunnel, looking left and right. No Blighted monsters, no village guards. “Coast is clear.” I cast [Horde Stampede] and rushed in the direction opposite where the village guards went. “Go, go, before they return.”
Kezo, Megan, and Nitana were on my heels… or hooves. Probably heels still worked for the expression.
“Do cows have heels?” I asked the others.
“What? Heels?” Kezo said.
“Like high heels?” Megan said. “Cows in stilettos?”
“Ah, never mind,” I said. “Just wondering about something random.”
“Why would you wonder about cows in stilettos?”
I was the party’s point person because I was the smallest and least likely to get spotted by the village guards. The number of patrols had increased, an indication of the Blight outbreak story progressing with my every action, especially my recent visit to Bawu. With any luck, no one else would get kidnapped because Bawu was busy with her experiments. I had a nagging feeling I should investigate what she was using the [Toxic Goop] for.
An even zombier outbreak?
“Down here,” I said, turning right. “Let’s loop back to the first area we cleared.”
“Yes, the Blighted should’ve already respawned there,” Kezo said.
Our party was having difficulties farming [Toxic Goop]. Given that I delayed tackling the main source of the outbreak, infected monsters ran rampant, even returning to places we previously cleared. Unfortunately, the village guards have penetrated deep into the tunnels—that’s what she said—and were also killing the Blighted.
Obviously, we couldn’t join the guards, helping them with their job while continuing to farm. They’d likely force us to leave the dangerous tunnels. We had to find areas infested by the Blighted with no Mardukryon NPCs.
“If that place is empty,” Nitana said, “where do we go next?”
“We’ll revisit the other caves one by one,” Kezo said. “We can also try the tunnels outside Bawu’s labs.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to be anywhere near there,” Megan said. “Those poor experiments…”
“Our last option is the location of the mini-boss,” I said. “If Kezo’s right, there should be Blighted monsters there too.”
“One of the three mini-bosses in the tunnels,” Kezo clarified. “Just a caveat. My hunch may be wrong—I haven’t fought that golem, only saw it a few times—but I’m about, let’s say, ninety-five percent sure it’s a Vinereaver.”
“How did you calculate that percentage?” Megan wondered.
“Just throwing a number out there,” Kezo replied while chuckling. “It’s been a long time since I last saw that particular mini-boss, though I distinctly recall it’s a stone golem with plant vines growing out of it. Unless Bawu captured a Vinereaver and brought it here, that guy is my best bet for a secret Vinereaver.”
“A quest modifying a mini-boss?” Nitana said. “I didn’t know that’s possible.”
“The story can sometimes pull an open-world boss or mini-boss into its narrative instead of spawning a quest boss. I’ve had that happen to me a few times.”
“I suppose it’s not surprising that a mini-boss got infected with the Blight,” I said, “seeing what’s happening to the other monsters we’ve met.” I also had an experience of a boss joining the story—Buvalu ambushed my weak ass so that Sharulrath would save me, leading to a conflict with Mehubanarath. “This might be a difficult fight if a mini-boss was corrupted by the Blight. I can’t poison it.”
“No worries,” Kezo said. “The golem’s level is just around mid-twenties. Even if the Blight buffs it, we should be able to handle it.” He gave us an assuring thumbs-up. “It’ll take longer to kill than the Rotted Cedarlyon. We should be mindful of that.”
“Even if it has a lower level than the Rotted Cedarlyon? Why so?”
“That golem is famous for having insanely high reflect—probably has a multiplier on the damage it throws back at you—so it’s dangerous for a DPS like me to fight. People avoid it even if it gives quite good equipment. I have seen it because Jensen targeted it for a set it dropped. I’d sometimes pass by to say hello while he’s soloing it.”
“Jensen’s a tank, right?” I said. I could guess how he fought the reflect mini-boss—grind it down with attacks so weak that the reflected damage would be survivable for a tank. “It must’ve taken him a long time to kill.”
“About an hour. Jensen’s very dedicated, visiting the golem each time it respawned. His hard work did pay off. He managed to collect three out of the set of five and luckily snapped the remaining two from the auction. The set served him well. Its item levels are in the mid-twenties, but Jensen replaced them only when he reached level forty.”
“Probably too much to ask that I get a drop later,” I said, “Though I do hope it has the Blighted Vinereaver Essence.”
“Just going to interrupt your Vinereaver talk to mention there’s a green glow in that tunnel we just passed,” Nitana said.
“The Blighted?”
“I’m ninety-four point sixty-nine percent sure,” Nitana said, her voice wavering as she kept down a giggle.
“Hey, don’t make fun of Kezo,” Megan said.
“It’s fine,” Kezo said. He and Nitana looked at each other and then laughed. “Let’s go there to make it a hundred percent sure it’s the Blight.”
“I’m done here,” I said after killing a small troop of [Lvl 46 Blighted Saurian Axeman].
They had ranged attacks in the form of throwing axes—like other Saurians, the Axemen also pulled infinite weapons out of their asses—so I could do my herding-into-poison-clouds strategy. Poison herding? That sounded better. I just had to find the sweet spot where they’d decide to hurl axes instead of chasing and chopping me to death.
I’d be in a pinch if the Saurian Axemen were strictly melee fighters. They had a skill that made them run faster than I did with [Horde Stampede]. I survived their initial surprising burst of speed only because Nitana protected me with her sprite barrier, buying me a couple of seconds to plop Totems and flee a safe distance.
“All clear in my area,” Nitana said. Several fairies followed her with no more targets to attack. “I think everyone’s done cleaning up.”
“Lucky there’s a whole bunch of these icky lizards tucked away here,” Megan said.
“How many Toxic Goop do we have now?” Kezo asked.
Kezo, Megan, and Nitana had farmed a hundred and twenty [Toxic Goop] in total, while I had ninety-five, including our leftovers from the previous quest. Thirty minutes on our timer had already passed—we needed to step up our game. The Blighted and the Mardukryon guards weren’t cooperating.
“They’re so annoying,” Megan complained after we dodged another patrol.
“To be fair,” said Nitana. “They’re just doing their job.”
“We’re actually the bad guys here,” Kezo said.
Megan frowned. “Somehow… I’m conflicted about this. We’re killing the zombie thingies like the guards, but unlike them, we’re doing it for evil.”
“The important thing is we got the Blighted here before they did,” I said, deciding it was better not to preach that the side of Herald Stone was always on the right. “Let’s get going. How about we check this area?” I marked the location on my [Tattered Map] and shared it with my party.
“We haven’t been there yet,” Kezo said. “That cave should be filled with Blighted monsters unless the guards got there first.”
“Is it possible other players are killing the zombie thingies before us?” Megan asked.
“No one besides us should be able to encounter the Blighted, right?” I turned to Kezo. “Isn’t this a separate instance only accessible by joining my party? This is my storyline.” And what a great story the life of Herald Stone was. My party mates should be honored to live a part of it.
“This isn’t a world quest, as far as I can tell,” Kezo said. “Barely anyone passes through these tunnels because we can use Sigil Totems to reach the other side. But there are people that farm mushrooms and mine ores here. We’ve been running all over that place that we should’ve seen players if this was a world quest.”
“And everyone will be messaging everyone when they see zombies or the village guards doing something different,” Nitana added.
“World quest?” I asked. “Is that like the Aviarii discovering how to leave their giant tree homes?”
Kezo nodded. “World quests affect everyone, not just the player who’s doing it, and will often result in permanent changes to the world—hence, the term. All players can participate in a world quest if someone has started one. In fact, finding a way to the other side of this tunnel system was a world quest. That happened before I joined as a Mardukryon, so I only heard stories about it.
“SpartanDonkey told me that players had to work together to rid the tunnels of Crystaminds—worms with crystalline bodies that are probably extinct now—while protecting the Miners digging new tunnels. Took them a couple of weeks of constant guard duty. Expectedly, everyone was disorganized, so the Expeditionary Legion took charge using—”
“Money?” I guessed.
“Exactly. They essentially made Contracts with most players so they could organize shifts to ensure that the NPC Miners always had protection.”
“Nitana and I also joined a world quest before,” Megan said. “I think that was a world quest… The Buvalu thing?”
“It was,” Nitana confirmed. “Someone did something, dunno what, that made Buvalu and a horde of Elite Mirdabons attack the village. Megan and I were newbies then, so we didn’t know what to do while everyone else was fighting off the invasion.”
“Oh, I was offline that time,” Kezo said. “Mom’s birthday. Promised not to play the weekend we were on vacation, so I didn’t log in even though Jensen was non-stop calling me. Who knows, we might stumble upon a world quest with Bawu? Seeing many guards running around makes me think this could blow up to something big.”
We encountered another gathering of the Blighted and promptly gatecrashed their party. We didn’t split up because there were no side caves. Our party was a conga line of destruction, flattening the monsters that lined up to their deaths.
“I was thinking…” I began to say. “What if we stop killing the Blighted? If we let the Blight spread uncontrolled, it’ll eventually reach the village. Likely it’ll turn into a world quest and—”
“No way we’re going to do that!” Megan vehemently said.
“I was just wondering,” I said. “Of course, we’re not going to do that because—”
“We’re not going to let more villagers come to harm,” Megan said. I was going to say, ‘because I need Bawu to be alive,’ but her reasoning was better. She continued, “We can’t help those poor guards turned into monsters, but we can save other NPCs.”
“Right, we’re going to save the village,” I firmly said. Sure, that’s the plan all along.
“What was that?” Kezo raised his arms, signaling us to stop. “You hear that?” The Blighted arrayed in front of him surged forward to attack.
“Hear what?” I asked.
“These guys are so loud.” Nitana blew up the screeching Blighted near us.
As the explosions died down, distant shouting became evident. “Help! Help us!” someone called. The only Mardukryons other than us were—
“The village guards,” I said.
“We have to help them,” Megan said.
“Wait, we have to think—” I began to say, but Megan already broke formation and rushed to the sound of the voice, burning the Blighted that tried to stop her. I shrugged. “Well, let’s go save the village guards.” An unexpected turn of events.
Temple Maybe Herald will find legendary cow high heels in the future. And a possible world quest in the future? Some old MMORPGs have their versions of world quests. Though I suppose it isn't that popular thing to do nowadays.
Fifteen advanced chapters on Patreon. Thanks to all patrons, especially Cidule tier Teeneet (aka Whale)
Read my other story: REND - a psychological novel with an atypical protagonist
Join our Discord
I cautiously peered out of a narrow side tunnel, looking left and right. No Blighted monsters, no village guards. “Coast is clear.” I cast [Horde Stampede] and rushed in the direction opposite where the village guards went. “Go, go, before they return.”
Kezo, Megan, and Nitana were on my heels… or hooves. Probably heels still worked for the expression.
“Do cows have heels?” I asked the others.
“What? Heels?” Kezo said.
“Like high heels?” Megan said. “Cows in stilettos?”
“Ah, never mind,” I said. “Just wondering about something random.”
“Why would you wonder about cows in stilettos?”
I was the party’s point person because I was the smallest and least likely to get spotted by the village guards. The number of patrols had increased, an indication of the Blight outbreak story progressing with my every action, especially my recent visit to Bawu. With any luck, no one else would get kidnapped because Bawu was busy with her experiments. I had a nagging feeling I should investigate what she was using the [Toxic Goop] for.
An even zombier outbreak?
“Down here,” I said, turning right. “Let’s loop back to the first area we cleared.”
“Yes, the Blighted should’ve already respawned there,” Kezo said.
Our party was having difficulties farming [Toxic Goop]. Given that I delayed tackling the main source of the outbreak, infected monsters ran rampant, even returning to places we previously cleared. Unfortunately, the village guards have penetrated deep into the tunnels—that’s what she said—and were also killing the Blighted.
Obviously, we couldn’t join the guards, helping them with their job while continuing to farm. They’d likely force us to leave the dangerous tunnels. We had to find areas infested by the Blighted with no Mardukryon NPCs.
“If that place is empty,” Nitana said, “where do we go next?”
“We’ll revisit the other caves one by one,” Kezo said. “We can also try the tunnels outside Bawu’s labs.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to be anywhere near there,” Megan said. “Those poor experiments…”
“Our last option is the location of the mini-boss,” I said. “If Kezo’s right, there should be Blighted monsters there too.”
“One of the three mini-bosses in the tunnels,” Kezo clarified. “Just a caveat. My hunch may be wrong—I haven’t fought that golem, only saw it a few times—but I’m about, let’s say, ninety-five percent sure it’s a Vinereaver.”
“How did you calculate that percentage?” Megan wondered.
“Just throwing a number out there,” Kezo replied while chuckling. “It’s been a long time since I last saw that particular mini-boss, though I distinctly recall it’s a stone golem with plant vines growing out of it. Unless Bawu captured a Vinereaver and brought it here, that guy is my best bet for a secret Vinereaver.”
“A quest modifying a mini-boss?” Nitana said. “I didn’t know that’s possible.”
“The story can sometimes pull an open-world boss or mini-boss into its narrative instead of spawning a quest boss. I’ve had that happen to me a few times.”
“I suppose it’s not surprising that a mini-boss got infected with the Blight,” I said, “seeing what’s happening to the other monsters we’ve met.” I also had an experience of a boss joining the story—Buvalu ambushed my weak ass so that Sharulrath would save me, leading to a conflict with Mehubanarath. “This might be a difficult fight if a mini-boss was corrupted by the Blight. I can’t poison it.”
“No worries,” Kezo said. “The golem’s level is just around mid-twenties. Even if the Blight buffs it, we should be able to handle it.” He gave us an assuring thumbs-up. “It’ll take longer to kill than the Rotted Cedarlyon. We should be mindful of that.”
“Even if it has a lower level than the Rotted Cedarlyon? Why so?”
“That golem is famous for having insanely high reflect—probably has a multiplier on the damage it throws back at you—so it’s dangerous for a DPS like me to fight. People avoid it even if it gives quite good equipment. I have seen it because Jensen targeted it for a set it dropped. I’d sometimes pass by to say hello while he’s soloing it.”
“Jensen’s a tank, right?” I said. I could guess how he fought the reflect mini-boss—grind it down with attacks so weak that the reflected damage would be survivable for a tank. “It must’ve taken him a long time to kill.”
“About an hour. Jensen’s very dedicated, visiting the golem each time it respawned. His hard work did pay off. He managed to collect three out of the set of five and luckily snapped the remaining two from the auction. The set served him well. Its item levels are in the mid-twenties, but Jensen replaced them only when he reached level forty.”
“Probably too much to ask that I get a drop later,” I said, “Though I do hope it has the Blighted Vinereaver Essence.”
“Just going to interrupt your Vinereaver talk to mention there’s a green glow in that tunnel we just passed,” Nitana said.
“The Blighted?”
“I’m ninety-four point sixty-nine percent sure,” Nitana said, her voice wavering as she kept down a giggle.
“Hey, don’t make fun of Kezo,” Megan said.
“It’s fine,” Kezo said. He and Nitana looked at each other and then laughed. “Let’s go there to make it a hundred percent sure it’s the Blight.”
“I’m done here,” I said after killing a small troop of [Lvl 46 Blighted Saurian Axeman].
They had ranged attacks in the form of throwing axes—like other Saurians, the Axemen also pulled infinite weapons out of their asses—so I could do my herding-into-poison-clouds strategy. Poison herding? That sounded better. I just had to find the sweet spot where they’d decide to hurl axes instead of chasing and chopping me to death.
I’d be in a pinch if the Saurian Axemen were strictly melee fighters. They had a skill that made them run faster than I did with [Horde Stampede]. I survived their initial surprising burst of speed only because Nitana protected me with her sprite barrier, buying me a couple of seconds to plop Totems and flee a safe distance.
“All clear in my area,” Nitana said. Several fairies followed her with no more targets to attack. “I think everyone’s done cleaning up.”
“Lucky there’s a whole bunch of these icky lizards tucked away here,” Megan said.
“How many Toxic Goop do we have now?” Kezo asked.
Kezo, Megan, and Nitana had farmed a hundred and twenty [Toxic Goop] in total, while I had ninety-five, including our leftovers from the previous quest. Thirty minutes on our timer had already passed—we needed to step up our game. The Blighted and the Mardukryon guards weren’t cooperating.
“They’re so annoying,” Megan complained after we dodged another patrol.
“To be fair,” said Nitana. “They’re just doing their job.”
“We’re actually the bad guys here,” Kezo said.
Megan frowned. “Somehow… I’m conflicted about this. We’re killing the zombie thingies like the guards, but unlike them, we’re doing it for evil.”
“The important thing is we got the Blighted here before they did,” I said, deciding it was better not to preach that the side of Herald Stone was always on the right. “Let’s get going. How about we check this area?” I marked the location on my [Tattered Map] and shared it with my party.
“We haven’t been there yet,” Kezo said. “That cave should be filled with Blighted monsters unless the guards got there first.”
“Is it possible other players are killing the zombie thingies before us?” Megan asked.
“No one besides us should be able to encounter the Blighted, right?” I turned to Kezo. “Isn’t this a separate instance only accessible by joining my party? This is my storyline.” And what a great story the life of Herald Stone was. My party mates should be honored to live a part of it.
“This isn’t a world quest, as far as I can tell,” Kezo said. “Barely anyone passes through these tunnels because we can use Sigil Totems to reach the other side. But there are people that farm mushrooms and mine ores here. We’ve been running all over that place that we should’ve seen players if this was a world quest.”
“And everyone will be messaging everyone when they see zombies or the village guards doing something different,” Nitana added.
“World quest?” I asked. “Is that like the Aviarii discovering how to leave their giant tree homes?”
Kezo nodded. “World quests affect everyone, not just the player who’s doing it, and will often result in permanent changes to the world—hence, the term. All players can participate in a world quest if someone has started one. In fact, finding a way to the other side of this tunnel system was a world quest. That happened before I joined as a Mardukryon, so I only heard stories about it.
“SpartanDonkey told me that players had to work together to rid the tunnels of Crystaminds—worms with crystalline bodies that are probably extinct now—while protecting the Miners digging new tunnels. Took them a couple of weeks of constant guard duty. Expectedly, everyone was disorganized, so the Expeditionary Legion took charge using—”
“Money?” I guessed.
“Exactly. They essentially made Contracts with most players so they could organize shifts to ensure that the NPC Miners always had protection.”
“Nitana and I also joined a world quest before,” Megan said. “I think that was a world quest… The Buvalu thing?”
“It was,” Nitana confirmed. “Someone did something, dunno what, that made Buvalu and a horde of Elite Mirdabons attack the village. Megan and I were newbies then, so we didn’t know what to do while everyone else was fighting off the invasion.”
“Oh, I was offline that time,” Kezo said. “Mom’s birthday. Promised not to play the weekend we were on vacation, so I didn’t log in even though Jensen was non-stop calling me. Who knows, we might stumble upon a world quest with Bawu? Seeing many guards running around makes me think this could blow up to something big.”
We encountered another gathering of the Blighted and promptly gatecrashed their party. We didn’t split up because there were no side caves. Our party was a conga line of destruction, flattening the monsters that lined up to their deaths.
“I was thinking…” I began to say. “What if we stop killing the Blighted? If we let the Blight spread uncontrolled, it’ll eventually reach the village. Likely it’ll turn into a world quest and—”
“No way we’re going to do that!” Megan vehemently said.
“I was just wondering,” I said. “Of course, we’re not going to do that because—”
“We’re not going to let more villagers come to harm,” Megan said. I was going to say, ‘because I need Bawu to be alive,’ but her reasoning was better. She continued, “We can’t help those poor guards turned into monsters, but we can save other NPCs.”
“Right, we’re going to save the village,” I firmly said. Sure, that’s the plan all along.
“What was that?” Kezo raised his arms, signaling us to stop. “You hear that?” The Blighted arrayed in front of him surged forward to attack.
“Hear what?” I asked.
“These guys are so loud.” Nitana blew up the screeching Blighted near us.
As the explosions died down, distant shouting became evident. “Help! Help us!” someone called. The only Mardukryons other than us were—
“The village guards,” I said.
“We have to help them,” Megan said.
“Wait, we have to think—” I began to say, but Megan already broke formation and rushed to the sound of the voice, burning the Blighted that tried to stop her. I shrugged. “Well, let’s go save the village guards.” An unexpected turn of events.
Temple Maybe Herald will find legendary cow high heels in the future. And a possible world quest in the future? Some old MMORPGs have their versions of world quests. Though I suppose it isn't that popular thing to do nowadays.
Fifteen advanced chapters on Patreon. Thanks to all patrons, especially Cidule tier Teeneet (aka Whale)
Read my other story: REND - a psychological novel with an atypical protagonist
Join our Discord
