“Hey, knock that off you two,” I said as I stabbed at a black Mirdabon who was fighting with a snow spider. Both of them were level sixteen. The black Mirdabon was just a more durable version of a normal one which also does lots of critical attacks, while the snow spider looked like a snow-white tarantula who tries to stab its targets with it fangs inflicting some shitty poison status.

The monsters around here sometimes don’t get along with each other. I initially thought that all of them were out to get players, but sometimes they fight against each other for food.

Right now, the two of them were fighting over some fruits.

Fruits from fruit-bearing plants that I was supposed to guard as part of my quest.

Fortunately, the two of them stopped fighting and turned their attention on me. I put up my shell so that I could kill them while I was doing something. I opened my extra inventory to check out the items that I got from the Forager’s Lodge. I got the extra inventory when I signed up as a Forager. It was sort of like a pouch for my gardening stuff.

I would receive more items that were needed by Foragers as I rise in Faction Rank. Justalyne said that it was important that I reach Rank fifteen as a Forager before I leave the mountain because Rank fifteen granted an item that I couldn’t obtain outside the mountain that would be extremely useful to progress my Faction Skills.

Well, it wasn’t like we were going to leave the mountain anytime soon, although there were rumors that the high levels were organizing a massive Hunt soon, timing it with a weekend when a boosted experience event would be held, where everyone could join to level up all the players in preparation for assaulting the Ice Tunnel.

Maybe I should read the game website for updates like that? I didn’t read the game news because there was a large chance that it wasn’t going to affect Mardukryons, anyway.

Seeing that we were stuck up in this mountain and all.

I sighed and recast my shell after the three more snow spiders appeared, increasing the damage to my shell, popping it. One of them was able to bite me before I got the shell up again, giving me poison status.

"Slow and damage over time," I said reading the status. My Ancestral Constitution was activated by the initial bite but it wasn't procced by the succeeding damage from the poison. Seems like all types of poison doesn't proc Ancestral Constitution and not just a poison cloud type. It was nice to know more game mechanics surrounding poison since I wanted to be a master poison maker. Getting myself poisoned along with the enemy finding out which one of us would die first was probably one of the most badass ways to fight.

I imagined myself in a Player versus Player arena participating in a free-for-all type of tournament. Lots of players around, then I release my most powerful poison akin to a nuclear fart. Then we would see who dies first...dies last, I mean.

But I would need a very powerful poison to do that. Better get going in progressing along my Faction Skill Tree.

I was on my first task as a Forager. I had five seeds which I planted on the ground. “That’s okay, I think,” I said as a pawed the dirt on the ground with my hooves to cover the seeds. My shell exploded, killing one stupid snow spider. I furiously stabbed at another one that was nearly dying before recasting my shell.

I know, I know, what I did was not efficient. I was just creeped out by that tarantula bastard. Moving on in my noble quest to plant poisonous plants.

[Quest Completed]

The Gardener's Touch- Plant your first seed.

Experience +30

Forager Experience +20

I have a Job Level of sorts. For now, I only have Forager under my Job Tab. Forager Experience raises my Job Level. I have no idea what would happen if my Forager Job Level increases. Do my plants get healthier? Do they give more fruit? Dunno... All I know was that Job Level wasn't the way to unlock more Skills, well, plants really, or skill to plant plants? If planting plants was a skill.

That was a good tongue twister, I thought sarcastically with a snort.

[Quest Updated 1/2]

Use the Growth Essence to speed up the growth of your plants by burying it near them.

[Quest Updated 2/2]

Feed the Growth Essence with monster corpses

“Growth Essence…hmmm…I wonder if I can get more of this thing later.” Since it sped up the growth rate of plants, it was a very important item. I think this was the tutorial part of a quest where they give you an expensive item to use just so that you can see its effects.

This was going to be obviously wasted on my low-level plants that would only bear fruit that gave a tiny amount of health when eaten but I have to use it to progress the chain quest along.

Fortunately, Justalyne gave me some other low-level seeds to speed up my growth so might as well plant them to so that they could benefit from the Growth Essence.

“Let’s see. This is the seed for the vine thing she has that was wrapping around her armor.” I didn’t get to see the effects of that one but she said it had a return attack damage. What she had was a low level one and she couldn’t even cast it on others; given how strong their main guy, ChilliMaster was, they really didn’t need to use that plant.

At least she gave me a few of its seeds.

I dug the ground with the tip of my spear. Actually, I could just plant this using the “Plant Seed” option, but I wanted to rake the ground for no particular reason. My Shell exploded again. Instead of recasting it, I just stabbed the remaining monsters attacking me to kill them all, adding a kickstart to each of my normal attacks to double its strength.

Then I went back to digging the ground. Actions in the game could be done using interface options or you could perform the action itself for people who want to roleplay or immerse deeply in the game. I dropped the seeds in the hole I dug and kicked the dirt over it.

Another seed Justalyne gave me was the weak form of her Greenwind Sapling. The plants that healed the persons standing near them. What I have were seeds of Dullwind plants. I also dug another hole for them and planted them.

I took out the Growth Essence, a glowing green crystal, and buried it near my clump of seeds.

Now, I needed corpses to add to the Growth Essence.

I kicked the corpses and the snow spiders and the black Mirdabon over the mound where I buried the Growth Essence. Corpses of monsters don’t immediately disappear in this game, rather, they slowly decay or disappear, depending on the gore setting you had.

The corpses withered quickly when I placed them near the essence. The ground was permeated by a green glow as soon as the corpses turn to dust and joined the earth.

“What is this, some kind of magical compost pit?” I said as the green of the plants peeked over the ground, breaking the soil. The Quest prompt appeared adding a new objective for me. I had to add more fuel to the Growth Essence to hasten the plant growth. I looked around for more monsters to turn into fertilizer.

A couple of Frost Wolves wandered near the group of plants, including my own, that I was protecting. Guess they would have to do. Sorry doggies, you were about to become my next biodegradable material since I was going green now.

They howled at me after I kickstarted. Then they attacked. I matched their leap with my charge. I smashed away one of them with my shield while I skewered the other. I cast my shell and continued stabbing my target. His fellow tried to bite me but my shield and shell kept him at bay.

After my skills cooldowned I circled around them and charged once again, dragging on of the Frost Wolves along towards the Growth Essence. The other one followed me. The first one was already dead after my charge. I kicked it over the mound for it to be one with the earth and help me in my quest to be the immortal god that I should be.

“All your lives are but a stepping stone for me, the foundation upon which a stage will be built. On this stage I will stand and sneer upon the weaklings who will attack me and fail to bring me down,” I said in a majestic tone. I raised pointed my spear forward, signally a charge, and raised my shield. I reared up on my hind legs and tried to hold my dramatic pose until the other Frost Wolf broke my shell, causing an explosion.

Unfortunately, the lone Frost Wolf couldn’t quickly break my shell. My pose was all for nothing. Time to die, stupid wolf.

Might as well try out something that I thought of doing before. I held my spear near the base of the blade and stabbed my own shield with it.

The life bar of the shell went down!

I stabbed it a couple more times before leaving it to the Frost Wolf to break. The explosion killed the monster and melted all the snow at its feet.

This has got to be one of the most versatile skills on this stupid mountain, I thought as I rolled the corpse towards the Growth Essence using my spear. I loved working around game mechanics just like how I loved working around the law. Not breaking the law, mind you.

My next quest update was to wait for the plants to fully grow. They would have probably grown by now if I didn't add in those other seeds. I guessed that the other seeds also sapped the growing boost given off by the Growth Essence. Maybe I should feed more monsters to it? But there were no monsters around. I sat down to read some documents while waiting for some other poor suckers to arrive.

It was going to be a fertilizer bonanza for all monsters who passed by me. Except a Lord Mirdabon. I really hoped a Lord Mirdabon wouldn't pass by or else I would be the one turned into a fertilizer.

After about ten minutes of reading, a scratching sound made me turn my head.

“Bastard furballs, get away from those plants!” I immediately stood up and charged at a pack of Mirdabons, targeting the one at the back of the group, throwing away those in my path. They were many! About a couple of dozen and they included colored Mirdabons not just the usual white ones. I charged back and forth to keep them away from the plants and to make them attack me.

The white ones turned into a familiar shade of red and snarled at me before surrounding me. After getting all their aggro, I looked around for more monsters trying to eat the plants but found none.

Space was getting a bit tight with all the colored furballs around me. My shell was popped when the higher levelled Mirdabons pushed their way to the front of the crowd to attack me. I couldn’t let these bastards surround me so I leaped over them and ran to one side, turned around and faced them with my shield.

They rushed towards me, crowding in front of me. I continuously stabbed them because I wanted them dead fast so that I could offer their corpses to my fertilizer altar. With another explosion, a few of them died. They were about to surround me again when I leapt over the small ones and ran to another clearing to repeat the process.

I steadily drew them away from the plants because some of them kept returning back to eat the plants even after I attacked them.

These were the plants that the Foragers planted during the first major Hunt of the month. I had to keep them safe to be harvested during the second major hunt.

There were two big Hunts every month. Both these Hunts follow the mapped pathways of the Lord Mirdabons. Pathfinders have kept the records of where Lord Mirdabons go when they wake up once a month, from the time they exit from their lair up to the time they go back. Those paths normally stay the same across several months, deviating ever so slightly. Even if they do change, it doesn’t result in a large deviation. Normally, the Lord Mirdabons change their path it the landscape itself changed; for example, an avalanche destroyed their usual path.

The exception to this was that bastard Buvalu, the asshole Lord Mirdabon. Buvalu went where it pleased. I learned from Justalyne and Mephisto that Lord Mirdabons were colossal. They could probably swallow a Mardukryon house in one bite. They didn’t know why Buvalu remained small and looked like a basic Mirdabon.

My hunch was there was a storyline hidden here somewhere.

Buvalu was intricately connected to several occurrences in the game to be dismissed as a mere add-on to increase the difficulty. Since we probably couldn’t kill it even if all the Marudkryons worked together, I shoved those thoughts away. I suspect that Buvalu should die or at least be trapped or injured or something to progress its storyline.

Going back to the paths of the Lord Mirdabons, the ground they tread on would be energized by immense power. These Lord Mirdabons were direct descendants of the monster guarding this mountain. And that monster was the pet of the Ice Titans. It came as no surprise that these Lord Mirdabons had those godlike powers to give life on the land they tread upon.

Their paths stuck out like green sore thumbs in the blanket of white covering the mountains.

In these little patches of greenery, the Mardukryon Foragers plant crops. The energies of these lands help accelerate the growth of the plants. After a couple of weeks, they would be ready for harvest, just in time to feed the thriving village. Another large hunting party would set out to collect the plants and kill all the monsters they find along their way and bring back the carcasses of the edible ones.

Such was the Mardukryon way of life.

Since the Lord Mirdabon pathways teemed of life, beasts would often wander to them and eat the plants. Or eat the animals eating the plants.

Which was why Mardukryons would go out and clear the beasts who come close to the plant patches. We couldn’t save all the plants, and there were patches which could only be safely be visited by a large number of Hunters but we do all we could to save most of the plants.

And I was doing my part!

Nah, not really. I wasn't that altruistic in this virtual world. I was only doing this because of the tip Justalyne gave me. To progress my Forager Skills quickly it was best to do quests that required guarding the plants of the Mardukryons. I could plant my own plants alongside the ones I was supposed to guard, benefitting from the energized patches of soil they were on.

In addition, I would also get rewards from doing that quest. It was killing two birds with one stone.

I finally killed all the Mirdabons around me. Now I have to drag their bodies to feed the Growth Essence.

My shoulders slumped. All in a day's work, I guess?