Eclairs Fawn

Eclairs' first impression of Herald was that he was just some random guy with a white-collar job, climbing the corporate ladder like the other people she'd see in Egret City's financial district.

His brown hair, darker than hers, was styled in a neat side comb, and he had a clean-shaven face. Nothing noteworthy about his looks other than his strong jaw and a stoic expression amplified by his intense eyes.

She wouldn't be surprised to find him in a stock photo for 'corporate employees' or something like that. Like he'd blend in with the young professionals walking amongst the skyscrapers in the city's heart.

When she first met him in front of Vanguard Gaming, Eclairs found him suspicious because his forehead was wrapped with bandages. He might have escaped from a psychiatric ward or something and was going to kidnap the kids at their store—that was a dumb-as-hell assumption in retrospect.

Remembering how she acted towards him at that time made her internally cringe with embarrassment.

To be fair, she was feeling especially bitchy that day because a couple of her employees were absent without advance notice, and there was plenty of work to be done. She took out her frustrations on the suspicious man she met—okay, that wasn't fair at all.

Even before Derrick told her more about Herald, Eclairs had assumed that he was 'somebody' from his mannerisms and way of speaking. Herald seemed to be projecting a face for the public. She should know since she had to deal with customers and had to fake being nice from time to time. Instead of being miffed by the facade, she somehow felt a feeling of camaraderie with Herald.

That must be why I subconsciously curse when talking to him, Eclairs thought. She got that way when she was too relaxed with her company. She hoped that Herald wouldn't think too badly of her.

She didn't feel vulnerable showing some parts of her real side because she could also glimpse Herald’s true personality whenever they talked about Mother Core Online. It sort of evened things out between them.

Still, she sensed something off about him, like he wasn’t a hundred percent his true self.

Herald might be reluctant to completely open himself up when it came to MCO, and she could see why.

A guy his age and with his background playing MCO? He’d fit right in with the ‘experts’ on HTV talking about the harmful effects of gaming on the economy. He should be on about financial matters, starting a business or whatever, and branding gaming as a waste of time.

The usual 'adulting.’

Wow, I'm judging him like I'm not an adult myself, Eclairs thought.

"So, you changed your character?" she asked. She was proud of herself for taking the time to chat with him.

He probably didn't have anyone to talk to about MCO stuff. Derrick told him that Herald didn't maintain contact with him and their group of friends over the years because he was focused on work. Other businessmen might not be too keen on talking about VR gaming.

"Did you get bored with your human one?" Eclairs continued. She giggled at the thought of a group of businessmen in suits discussing MCO after their serious meeting. Then she realized something. "Hang on, this isn't because your Kishin battle monk with shields didn't work out?"

"Well, it was working...to some extent." Herald shrugged. "I did tank for a few parties. But I suppose you could say it didn't work out in the end. There’s a big difference between my pretend tank and an actual tank."

Eclairs gasped. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!”

“What are you apologizing for? It’s not the first time I’m changing characters.”

“I should've told you not to continue with your plan. Dual-wielding shields is really not for battle monks. Um, I did say to have fun and play the way you want to, but…"

“And I had fun. Don’t feel bad. It was my own choice to build my human Kishin monk that way. I wanted to explore on my own instead of copying what everyone else was doing. When trying different things, it’s only normal for some of them not to work out, as you put it."

"I guess you're right." Eclairs weakly chuckled. "I also tried many builds before settling on what I'm using now." It sounded like she was trying to console him, but it was more for herself. She felt a bit guilty about the whole thing. Should she have been more forceful in trying to dissuade him?

"The fun is learning and exploring what works and doesn't. Right now, I enjoy using two shields without building a conventional tank. Let’s see what’ll happen with my Mardukryon character."

"By the way—this is not like it's wrong or anything—but why did you choose Mardukryon?" Eclairs didn't want Herald to be disappointed with his choice. He might not be fully aware of the current situation.

"I like their character design,” Herald replied. “Are you worried that I didn't know that we don't have activated Gates?"

"A bit...yeah. A small closed-off economy is very different from what you’re used to," she said. Herald might think that the only downside was that he couldn't explore other areas and hadn’t considered its implications.

She explained that there would be fewer items available for auction, fewer Contracts to earn, fewer people to party with, and those kinds of stuff. She also told him that most players would have way higher levels than him, so he might have difficulty interacting with them. Most importantly, she emphasized that he shouldn't hope that the Mardukryon Gate would get Linked to the Hierakon Warp System anytime soon.

"Sorry, I've rattled on for too long," Eclairs said. Hopefully, she didn't sound too negative or like she was bossily lecturing him. "As I've said, it's not a wrong choice. But you should know what you're getting into."

"I appreciate that you told me about it, Eclairs," said Herald. She slightly smiled when he mentioned her name. It did sound a bit weird coming from him. "But I'm sticking with my decision," he continued. "You see, I got lucky and found a Masterwork Ocadule."

"Really? What is it?"

"A poison-brewing Ocadule. It can probably also make healing and defensive consumables at higher Ranks, but it’s only poison for now. I'm fairly certain that not many players have found it; no one seemed to know about it, and there were no copies for sale. It might be my ticket to making a fortune."

"But that's..." Eclairs paused, unsure if she should continue. "I mean, you shouldn't immediately think it's going to be big."

"I get what you're saying," Herald replied. "My only buyers would be other Mardukryon players. But eventually, I'm sure someone would figure out how to Link the Gates. By that time, my Ocadule would have a high Rank, and I could sell stronger poisons to the rest of Hierakon. For now, I’ll try selling to other Mardukryons."

"Um…yeah. That’s good business," she lied through her teeth. She couldn't bring herself to dash Herald's happiness with his Masterwork Ocadule.

People should normally be happy about finding something like that, but not all Masterwork Quality items were equally valuable. The truth was that poisons weren't in-demand.

In MCO, the defining trait of poisons was their Damage over Time based on a percentage of health, usually the maximum, of the target. This meant that poisons typically didn't add much to DPSers because they were too slow in racking up damage. For general farming purposes, players preferred taking out their targets in one hit to kill as many as possible during their grind. It was too slow to wait for poisons to chip away at the monster's health per tick. Better coat a weapon with something that added flat damage to reach the one-hit-kill threshold.

A beginner might assume that poisons would work better on boss monsters because of their massive health pools. After all, the strong bosses take time to kill—wouldn't it be neat to poison them and just sit back while the DoTs did their job?

However, the devs also thought of how broken that would be.

Bosses and mini-bosses have naturally high resistance to negative status by default, but they were exceptionally resilient to poisons. Not only was it challenging to poison them and make the status stick, but they also reduced the DoTs. Last month, a few popular streamers on the MCO channel did a challenge of making poison boss hunters. Those guys ended up investing a lot of Artas for sub-par results.

The only niche for poisons was in PvP, killing tanks. Even if tanks would expectedly prepare anti-poison measures, it was still the most accessible percentage of maximum health damage available for all players.

Were Mardukryon players into PvP, given their small numbers? Eclairs didn’t think so. And even among avid PvPers, the main consumables they'd buy were buffs rather than poison.

I think other players have found this Ocadule too, Eclairs thought. Just that no one bothered to Rank it up or sell poisons, making Herald think he stumbled upon something rare.

"Good business?" Herald said. "Unfortunately, not." Her heart stopped, thinking that he knew she was bullshitting him. She was about to apologize when he said, "I'm way behind in level compared to other Mardukryons. They wouldn't want my weak poisons. I'll have to see at higher Ocadule Ranks if I can make something marketable.”

"Oh yeah, that's right," Eclairs said, latching on to his explanation. It was a real bummer that most players of his chosen race were way above his level. But should she tell him that poison-brewing wasn't a good crafting Ocadule?

Maybe not right now. He’s so happy with it.

"At any rate, I have to brew poisons even if no one will buy them to raise the Rank of my Ocadule."

"True, true. " Eclairs gave him what she thought to be a comforting grin. “I guess you can just sell those to the NPCs so they won’t fill up your inventory?”

"The NPCs would give me only a pittance for the poison bottles. It’s as if I threw them away. And so, I decided to incorporate poison in my planned build."

"Poison? With dual-wielding shields? Huh, how does that work?"

"A dual-wielding shield tank that uses retribution to inflict poison on those attacking me."

Eclairs' mouth gaped open as she processed Herald's idea. "That's fucking insane!" She gasped and hurriedly covered my mouth. Stupid, stupid! I actually said that out loud? "I'm really sorry!"

Herald burst out laughing. "I was interested to see your reaction after hearing my plan. I didn't expect it to be this…extreme.”

"I was just caught off-guard." She could feel her cheeks heating up. Her guildmates wouldn't mind her calling their ideas fucking insane. It was a whole 'nother thing to say that to someone she was barely acquainted with. "I'm super sorry. It just came out because I was surprised."

"It's that bad, huh?"

"Retri-builds are kinda popular among tanks, but your way... Erm, I'm not going to say it's bad because I haven't heard anyone doing it. "

"You mean to say it's bad because no one is doing it."

"Yes." Her eyes widened. "No! I mean, no! I'm not an expert on retri-builds or anything like that, so I can't say. That’s what I mean." I should be honest and tell him that his idea sounds dumb. Perhaps she could be more diplomatic about it. How should she say it without contradicting her earlier statements about just enjoying the game?

"Don't worry. I'm just experimenting with it. You know what else I tried?"

“I’m worried to ask… Okay, what is it?”

“I drank the poison I made.”

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Eclairs blurted out.