“Let’s see if there’s anything good inside,” I said as I reared up. My hind legs carried the weight of my entire body as I pedaled my front legs in the air as horses in medieval war movies did before a charge.

Why? Because it looked cool. The strain on the muscles of my hind legs was also a fantastic experience as I felt body parts a human didn’t have. I brought my hooves down on an old wooden crate, smashing it with a loud crash.

Raking away the broken planks and splinters, I found small objects highlighted by a subtle golden glow. A sense of giddiness filled my brain. Without consciously realizing it until now, the game had already conditioned my mind to get excited when I saw the glow of loot. Marketing tactics like this were applicable in various industries, not just gaming.

[ Loot: 553 Artas, (2) Toxic Goop, (1) Petrified Wood ]

“Bawu sure does have a lot of Artas lying around,” I said.

It was customary for RPGs to have loot sprinkled in various places for the player to find. But if I viewed this through a storytelling lens, Bawu was very forgetful, leaving spare change in the tunnels. It was like forgetting about coins in the pockets of my pants, only to find them later when they clanged in the washer.

Perhaps this was lore accurate. Bawu admitted she forgot about her other experiments, which was why we had this sort of zombie outbreak.

[ Quest: Clearing Operations I ]

Prove to Mad Brewer Bawu that your help is valuable and that you can be trusted. Eliminate all the Blighted creatures in the tunnels to halt the outbreak and hide Bawu’s tracks from the village guards. Bawu advises you to start at a small cavern that she once used as a storage area.

After being reformed in prison and learning the error of my ways, I asked Bawu beforehand if I could loot this place. I didn’t want to become her next test subject because of a stupid mistake.

She told me that she did not need anything here. It had been long since she had last visited this room, and several monsters had moved in, now calling it their home. Unfortunately for them, this area was close to the laboratory Bawu suspected to be the source of the Blight spreading.

As I moved to the next pile of crates waiting to get turned into firewood, I heard the faint sound of scratching. A familiar green glow emanated from behind the boxes.

"Come out with your hands up," I said, "you literally sick bastard."

A [Lvl 21 Blighted Sprite Maggroth] toppled the crates as it revealed itself. It waved its fat body at me, green slime oozing from punctured boils on its purple skin. Facing forward, the worm opened its mouth and displayed its numerous teeth.

"I see that you have no hands." I buffed myself and placed [Gnawing Rot] at my feet. "Come out anyway. Don't get your virus on my loot."

The Sprite Maggroth feebly crawled towards me. It didn't have the speed of its healthy counterparts. Casting [Withering Brand] on it made it even slower. This would've been easy pickings for a ranged DPS, simply kiting it until it was dead. But Herald Stone wasn't going anywhere except ascending to greatness!

Though I'm going to run away if I get close to dying.

I raised my shield to block its lunging mouth. Grating noises echoed as its teeth scraped my shield. Even though I had executed a Head-On Block with my shield, around fifteen percent of my life still disappeared. My massive regeneration filled my health bar in an instant.

Blighted monsters packed a punch in comparison to normal ones; it must be because of their infection. To sort of balance them, they were slowly dying because of it.

The Blighted Spite Maggroth anchored itself on the ground with the spike at the tip of its tail. After stabilizing its base, it whipped its body back and forth like a freestanding punching bag after getting hit. It would either try to bite as it lunged forward or slam its underbelly against me.

It attacked so slowly that its infection was killing it faster than my retribution damage, which could only trigger each time it hit me. I switched out my second shield for a spear to poke it, helping it die faster.

"You have a very long health bar, don't you?" I said as I thrust my spear into its body. "Shouldn't you be healthier if you have high health?"

That was a question best left for history's greatest philosophers to answer. As for me, I readied myself for battle as a couple more Blighted Sprite Maggroths showed up to take the place of their dying friend.

To speed up the process of killing them, I didn't bother blocking attacks anymore. My [Greater Pyro Shell], essentially a layer of pseudo-health, popped faster the more damage I received. As a tank with a laughable DPS, I had to be creative in squeezing out every drop of damage I could.

Killing the three Sprite Maggroths didn't complete Bawu's quest. There were more infected monsters hiding here.

My eyes spied faint green light peeking from the cover of boulders, crates, and cabinets. I followed the slime trails on the rocky ground to root out those trying to escape Herald Stone's wrath.

Okay, the Blighted monsters weren't trying to flee.

In fact, they were such huge fans of mine that they jumped out and rushed towards me. Granted, they were attacking me instead of asking for an autograph, but they still made my job easier. I thanked them for my continued support by giving them the sweet release of death.

"They give a high amount of Essence and Gli," I observed. I was so close to leveling up my Cidule that I could almost taste it—I hoped it’d taste good.

Gli was a problem for me, and the basic quests I had been doing barely gave any.

On top of my Mardukryon Cidule and Aritu Ocadule needing it, the unlocked skills from those modules also required the same resource. The Ocadules that didn't require were the crafting-related ones. It'd be great to get a potion brewing Ocadule from Bawu, probably for dangerous chemicals, so I could start building it early.

I searched every inch of this cavern, killing all the Blighted monsters I met, except for its furthest portion. A tall pile of trash—broken furniture along with discarded instruments and machines—awaited me at the end. It couldn't be more evident that an enormous monster, likely the quest boss, was hiding there.

As I approached, the pile shivered. There was a low rumbling, and the trash tumbled down.

"Wakey, wakey," I said, retreating from the mini-avalanche. "I'm here with your eviction notice."

It was fortunate I moved back because a giant claw burst out of the pile and snipped at the spot where I stood.

“Divine, dung! That’s a huge claw!”

The claw was obviously attached to a monster—it would've been amusing if it was just a floating claw.

Shaking off the smaller pieces of garbage, the [Lvl 26 (Elite) Blighted Hermit Crabore] stood on its many legs and towered over me. The many humanoid hands growing out of its carapace securely held onto rocks and debris to cover its body, making it look even more prominent.

"Bawu captured an Elite monster and experimented on it?" And she must've fed it copious amounts of steroids as the previous Elite Hermit Crabores I encountered certainly weren't bigger than a Mardukryon.

Elites appeared when too many of a specific type of mob were killed. The Elite version of the overly-hunted monster, expectedly stronger than its regular counterparts, was meant to shake up the players having a too-easy time farming an area. The stronger players could take on the higher-leveled Elites for more rewards and likely no level gap penalty, leaving the normal mobs to the weaker players.

"Curdling milk in my fridge," I whispered as I recalled the mechanics of Hermit Crabores. "Can I defeat this overgrown crustacean?"

The Blighted Crabore snapped its claws in the air before bringing it down at me. I moved out of the way, rejecting the free pancake makeover. The tremors on the ground ran up through my hooves and legs.

Facetanking was definitely a bad idea; I had low health because I was still in my Totem Juggling build. Even if I switched to a tankier build—returning to town to reset my skills and switching my equipment—I wasn't confident I'd survive a close encounter with the crabby kind.

I had fought Hermit Crabores before, and they packed quite a punch. Its Blighted status meant more incoming pain. On top of that, it had more than ten levels over me.

My enemy suddenly charged at me, giving me a mini-heart attack. I barely recalled that Crabores could move forward, unlike the usual crabs that only walked sideways.

I instinctively cast my ever-trusty [Withering Brand] on it and ran for my life. This was another point of the need for a skill that helped with movement. Since I currently didn’t have a way to increase my running speed, slowing down the enemy was the next best thing.

Or is it the same thing from another perspective?

This wasn’t the time for philosophizing. As I ran for my life, with snipping and snapping claws trying to end it, I assessed my situation.

Given that facetanking was off the table, there was no way I could kill this giant zombie crab. I needed to get hit to deal retribution damage and to pop my [Greater Pyro Shell] for its AoE explosion. And I’d probably merely tickle it even then. Hermit Crabores had increased Armor while wearing the crude shells they put together with the garbage they could find.

My Totem Juggling could hold this big guy—Hermit Crabores couldn't attack behind them except with their AoE body slam move—but what was I going to do after that? I didn't have any party mates or summons to deal damage.

Would bringing outside help—Kezo, Megan, or Nitana would undoubtedly be willing to join—affect the quest?

I suspected it might.

When Mehubanarath tasked me with leveling without interacting with the village, it counted both players and NPCs to be consistent with Mardukryon lore. Juxtaposing that with Bawu's quest, I was supposed to be the only one who knew about her secrets. I'd rather not risk it.

Given that I couldn't ask my DPS friends to carry me—an ancient tradition for tanks that dealt next to no damage—my only other choice was to do some good old leveling, more like over-leveling. I had to increase my tankiness, massively boost my retribution, and find other ways to deal damage.

That was also my strategy, if it even counted as such, when I fought the Craggy Crabore at the Scholar's Lodge. Unlike Healer Gula's quest that adjusted in relation to a player's level, Bawu's quest was a sort of level check, or a DPS check to be more accurate, of the player.

I swerved left, dodging a claw and heading for the exit. "I'll be back with butter and garlic to cook you. But I’m uncertain if cooking a diseased crab is a good idea. Adios, for—wait just a damn second here. I almost forgot that you're Blighted!"