[ Received: (3) Morabodry ]

“Three out of five? That’s a welcome surprise after two rotten eggs in a row. Is my luck finally turning?” My health bar dropped past its midpoint. The bombardment intensified as new monkeys replaced those who had died. “Though I should stop brewing for a bit.”

I toggled the automatic crafting feature off so I could use [Healing Touch] and drink a potion. Since I halted crafting, I might as well cast [Greater Pyro Shell], [Penitent Fortune Healing], and refresh [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] while patching myself up.

“Okay, let’s turn the factory back on.”

I planned to brew [Morabodry] while tanking and killing Feral Frost Macaques. In the middle of an area with sparse trees to provide the monkeys with a clear line of sight to shoot me, I stirred my small cauldron while getting attacked. I was killing two birds with one stone.

To be accurate, it was the monkeys killing me with stones—numerous stones imbued with ice magic.

I made [Morabodry] in batches of five, using automated crafting to speed up the process and to remove the need to control my character consciously. Crafting, AFK-leveling, and reading financial reports while becoming stronger—that was actually three birds!

Too bad it wasn’t as smooth sailing as I imagined.

While brewing, I couldn’t cast spells—if I did, the process would stop. Crafting was meant to be done away from danger and distractions. The only skill I intended to use was [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] every forty seconds or so in between Morabodry batches.

Yes, I’d lack healing and my shell, but the meal buffs I bought and [Cleansing Flames] were supposed to shore up my defenses. Reflecting [Minor Chill] back to the monkeys should lower their DPS too. Supposed to… should… I underestimated the safety that [Greater Pyro Shell] provided. A few narrow shaves with death later, I decided to stop brewing whenever my health fell below half.

Also, I couldn’t maximize the four stacks of [Cleansing Flames] as I had only three negative statuses: [Minor Chill], [Shattering Ice], and [Nam-Go Poisoning]. It’d be four if I cast [Penitent Fortune Healing]—the [Penitence Misfortune] status was considered a debuff. Though it had too short of a duration to be worth the bother.

What made matters worse was the freaking [Nam-Go Poisoning]!

I chose to drink the [Nam-Go Poison Bottle] so that all attacking monkeys would have a chance to get poisoned with [Cloak of the Plaguespreader]. Coating a specific piece of equipment would only poison those hitting it. Furthermore, the status I’d generously share wasn’t the sort caused by an injury that’d disappear in a few seconds—rather, it’d be the full effect of [Nam-Go Poisoning] as if I forced the Feral Frost Macaques to chug the bottle themselves. That was the result of my testing earlier—I removed my equipment coated with [Morabodry] to isolate Nam-Go poisoning from [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] and observed its duration on the monkeys.

This was the huge benefit of [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] over normal means of inflicting poison.

It would’ve been a waste if I drank [Morabodry] because the poisoning from retribution and [Cloak of the Plaguespreader] wouldn’t stack. They’d override each other if inflicted on the same target.

The ideal scenario was that [Nam-Go Poisoning] would increase my killing speed, which meant more Essence and Gli. That did work—I was leveling up faster. But… I was also killing myself faster.

Not so ideal.

To AFK-level, I should’ve drunk something less potent, probably even milder than [Morabodry]. Nam-Go reducing my health regeneration and Armor was especially bad because I couldn’t Head-On Block the ice balls hitting my head while grounding paste or stirring the cauldron.

“What’s done is done,” I sighed. After the Nam-Go expired, I didn’t drink it again.

Leveling as a Mardukryon was a slog, a race-specific limitation. Add in the dearth of progress in the Mardukryon storyline—many higher-level areas were inaccessible for grinding. That explained the lack of max-leveled Mardukryon players. At least I wasn’t a giant; they needed entire guilds to babysit and leech them.

SpartanDonkey mentioned he was currently the highest-leveled Mardukryon. Perusing my very short friends list, I saw that he was eighty-five. Perhaps there were some higher in the old past, but they had quit and shifted to other races.

Leveling solo as a tank was also a slog. A Mardukryon tank was a double whammy in slogginess.

Slogginess? It sounds like it should be a word, but it probably isn’t.

Yusa’s quest was a huge boon to my unenviable struggle. I was going to milk this whole thing like almonds. Those were nuts and weren’t supposed to be milked. Yet, almond milk was fast becoming popular with the fitness crowd, with sales growing yearly.

Milking everything was a good business tactic.

About two-thirds through my stock of Morabodry ingredients, [Penitent Fortune Healing] leveled up.

Lvl. 2 Penitent Fortune Healing: Concentrating on a penitent prayer to the ancestors slows your movement (-20% Movement Speed) and reaction speed (-60 Evasion Rating). But in return, good fortune showered upon you by the ancestors allows you to perform healing feats beyond your skills. When using [Healing Touch], there is a 40% chance to cast it twice on the same target. (Heal over Time buff does not stack for a target.) If it does, generate +1 additional Rejuvenation Charge.

Requires: Healing Touch Lvl. 3

Duration: 7 Seconds

Cooldown: 14 Seconds

Forty-percent chance to double heal? Very nice!

The downsides, however, were quite punishing. This skill was really serious with being penitent. If only there was a way to remove—wait! Maybe there was?

Ethereal golden chains bound me before fading away as I cast the upgraded [Penitent Fortune Healing].

[ Status | Penitence Misfortune: Reduce Movement Speed by 20%, Reduce Evasions Rating by 60 points for 7 seconds ]

Instead of using [Healing Touch] to see if I could get it to double cast, I went for [Cleansing Flames].

On my first try, [Minor Chill] and [Shattering Ice] got cleansed. They came back shortly because of the continuous stream of ice balls massaging my body. Then I have to wait for another round of cooldown. The next cast was also unlucky, only removing [Minor Chill]. I did a few more tests to check whether it was only bad luck that [Cleansing Flames] didn’t roll to remove [Penitence Misfortune] or it was really impossible to cleanse it.

Then [Penitence Misfortune] disappeared before its duration was up—[Cleansing Flames] wasn’t only for enemy debuffs. Wouldn’t it be fun to look for skills with self-debuffs as downsides to share with the enemies attacking me and cleanse them away if things get too dangerous?

Masochist Plaguetank?

Eventually, I used up all of my ingredients. “Wow, I just blew a million Artas in less than fifty minutes?” That included the times I had to pause and use skills because I was dying.

Blew probably wasn’t the correct term; this wasn’t a wasteful expense. I was leveling my Ocadule and using the [Morabodry] for farming. Burned was the better word. Sounded much cooler too.

The Frost Feral Macaques did drop Artas and loot when they died, though that couldn’t make up for the rapid rate I burned Artas. But it didn’t bother me. Most businesses didn’t make any profit in their first year. In my case, I might not make any profit at all… and that was fine.

The profit was a stronger Plaguetank.

My meal buffs, the second set I’d eaten, had about ten minutes left on their duration. I took a drink from my [Nam-Go Poison Bottle] and continued to farm until the timer was up. Mum always told me to finish my food—food buffs, in this instance. It’d be wasteful otherwise.

I didn’t rush back to town to resupply after leaving the forest.

Cautiously approaching the western gate, I craned my neck to check if Yusa was there. Behind the guards, I spotted her walking about, still waiting for the fruits I didn’t have. She was an NPC, and I shouldn’t feel guilty about putting off her quest. But I somehow did—any inadequacy of Herald Stone was unsightly, even if witnessed by a bunch of pixels.

I took the long way around, following the walls to the front gates where the Mirdabons rolled in droves so she wouldn’t spot me. Then I stuck to the roads on the eastern part of the village, curving to the southern gates as I headed to the cliff walls.

Arakmad required help with a couple of errands before he’d sell me more [Majalis]. Thankfully, it only involved delivering parcels to other NPCs in the Cliff Village, so there was no risk of running into Yusa.

I also had to be careful to avoid Gibil—I saw him a couple of times, running about—for I’d be forced to tell him that I found his beloved. They shouldn’t meet before Yusa had her bottle of homebrewed [Peely Fruit Wine] ready.

Armed with ingredients for another batch of two hundred and fifty [Morabodry], I exited the northern gate and returned to the Feral Frost Macaques’ territory. The next million Artas burned, and [Research Akhos Poisons] leveled up.

Lvl. 2 Research Akhos Poisons: Learn to create the five basic Akhos poisons. Inflict incapacitating effects, and make your enemies suffer. Poison duration increases by 4 seconds. For each skill level, the crafting success chance increases by 4%, the chance to poison increases by 2.5%.

Brewable Poisons:

Morabodry – (22+8)% Success Chance. Ingredients: (20) Limerian Toad Skin, (2) Majalis, (1) Amberite, (1) Poison Bottle.

Requires: Enlivened Mortar and Pestle, Bronze Cauldron

“No new poisons? Oh, come on. This Ocadule is telling me to spend more Artas.”

The monkeys’ chattering sounded like jeers at my disappointment.

A new poison would probably appear at every other level of [Research Akhos Poisons]—the next upgrade was millions of Artas away, the Gli bar exponentially increasing each time. It also made me laugh out loud that I was impoverishing myself to make poisons to drink.

For now, I had to be contented with this. An increased crafting success did mean fewer failed brews and wasted ingredients—an Artas saved is another coin I’d burn in the future.

I shifted my sight to unlocking the second Rank of [Akhos Arcane Poison Research] Ocadule. At about halfway through its progress, I should be able to Rank it up before dinnertime. I was going with Mum and Sawyer again—son duties. The two of them spent the day touring a neighboring city, so they should have plenty of topics ready instead of pestering me about Eclairs.

Tomorrow, when Nelly arrives in the city, she could go with them to have a girl’s night out, or whatever was supposed to be called, and I’d be free to play MCO.

“Yes, I think I have time,” I said, checking my WeeCee clock as monkeys pelted me with ice balls. Well, it depended on how annoying Arakmad was going to be with his quests.

And, man, was he annoying as hell!

He sent me on a chain quest to find another Pathfinder. It was an incredibly long process, with a bunch of NPCs to talk to and exploring to do. I ended up in the bowels of the Scholar’s Lodge, down the tunnel that unlocked after I defeated the Craggy Crabore.

Not sure what the storyline there was supposed to be about, but I found a couple of Pathfinders trapped by a cave-in. I had to call the Miners for help to dig them out. It was fortunate that I had bought plenty of [Amberite] from the Miners before, so they had grown to like me. If it weren’t for that, I’d need to do plenty more tasks before they’d come to save the Pathfinders that the villagers generally didn’t like.

[ Unlocked: Akhos Arcane Poison Research Ocadule Rank to 2 ]

Lvl. 1 Poison Bottle Cast: Throw an Akhos Poison bottle and a vaporizing reagent, turning the specific poison into a gas cloud that spreads over a small area (maximum of two). The Akhos Poison in cloud form has a 15% increased chance of inflicting its negative status, with its duration increasing by 3 seconds. Enemies in the affected area have their poison resistance reduced by 10%.

Item Cost: 1 Akhos Poison Bottle, 1 Vaporizing Reagent

Duration: 40 Seconds

Cooldown: 10 Seconds

Two more sessions of brewing presented me with this…weird skill. I didn’t know what to make of this.

“Blazing meatballs! That’s one hell of an expensive skill to use.” My WeeCee’s alarm told me it was time for Herald Stone, the Dutiful Son and Caring Brother, to take center stage.