[Clementropy28: Don’t forget practice, 4 pm.]

[PapaChugger: Can move 5? Have a date with Stella.]

[Clementropy28: Why didn’t you say that earlier?!]

[PapaChugger: I forgot. Sorry. Sorry.]

[Shuwadee: Forgetting your date? Not cool.]

[Shuwadee: Ruining plans. Also not cool.]

They’re treating this like their own private chatroom, thought, scrolling through the messages. Didn’t even care that I could see their conversation. I closed the window, not caring about their personal affairs. I’d just message them later after my victory to express gratitude like the appreciative fellow I was.

Probably connected to its name, [Horde Stampede] had a passive effect that increased movement speed if there were other Mardukryons in the party. However, three other Mardukryons didn’t sound like an impressive horde. How many people are needed to be considered a horde?

I asked Clement if he and his friends would join my party. The skill didn’t require party members to be nearby, just online.

They could continue lounging or go somewhere else—but not where I was headed. I deflected Clement’s offer to help, not wanting them to know about the Blighted gatecrashing my quests. He wasn’t pushy about it, unlike how SpartanDonkey usually was, making me think he wasn’t in on Luds’ and SpartanDonkey’s bullshittery to uncover my secrets.

I took a roundabout route back to the tunnels, visiting various NPCs in the village, making sure I wasn’t tailed before exiting the southern gate. I also toured the Cliff Village for a few minutes, looking down from the bridges to spot anyone suspicious.

No one. They really didn’t care. Back to the Blighted Mud Golem, it is.

My drumming hooves had a perceptibly faster cadence, the tunnel walls a greyish blur tinged in the yellow of my radiant [Greater Pyro Shell] as I blew past. My increased speed—twenty-five percent from [Sour Litchi Juice] and fifteen from the passive of [Horde Stampede]—threw off my balance at curves and bends, like the time I tested the prized sports car of a business partner from Ellyce and nearly crashed it.

And I did tumble once, rolling for several meters before picking myself back up. I killed the only witness to my embarrassing accident—a Blighted Crabore. Slowing down would prevent such mishaps, but I paid for this movement speed, so I will fully use it!

My Ellycean friend said a similar thing about the speedometer of his sports car.

The boss area was a better place for testing. Stretching my practice time, I didn’t poison the Mud Golem, simply waiting for its health to halve from Blight. Casting [Horde Stampede], I stuck close to the boss, intent on avoiding its attacks without any thought or planning but speed alone.

A chorus of phantom hooves joined mine throughout the duration of [Horde Stampede] as if several Mardukryons galloped alongside me. It also added a dust cloud effect, even if the compacted, almost rocky ground didn’t have loose dirt: a certain dopamine pumper worth the price just for these effects.

“This is my new favorite skill!” I yelled, laughing like an idiot.

First pass! The ground exploded behind me, the punches of the Mud Golem were crashing comets.

Another pass! Not even a scratch.

And again! It was like exploring a trap-filled dungeon with giant pendulum axes blocking the path, but instead of timing my movements, I blasted through without a thought.

After [Horde Stampede] expired, I tried stepping on a tuddle.

[ Status|Persistent Blight: Lose 2% of Max Health per Second, Reduce Armor and Magic Resilience by 20% for 15 seconds ]

[ Status|Slowed Reflexes: Reduce Accuracy and Evasion Rating by 180 points and Movement Speed by 35% for 15 seconds ]

“Bad, but not that bad.” In a pinch, I could run across a tuddle to avoid the boss. “Cleansing Flames!” Embarrassing to say my moves out loud, but I was the only one here, and I was exhilarated by the sound effects of [Horde Stampede]. The two debuffs were dispelled.

Even though I had a way of countering the tuddle’s debuffs, I still practiced navigating around them while running as fast as possible. The debuffs made me tanky through the passive effect of [Cleansing Flames], but that was far from sufficient to survive the pinball phase.

I’d rather avoid getting slowed if I could. What if I got unlucky and failed to remove the debuffs?

The boss began eating the corpses.

I didn’t mind, continuing my practice, tempting fate by dancing within range of its attacks. Its girthy arms never came close to hitting me, but thrice the numerous tentacle hands succeeded. They destroyed my [Greater Pyro Shell] and bound me to the ground with sticky ropes.

Handy-dandy [Horde Stampede] was there to save the day!

Casting it freed me from the pesky trap, countering another weakness of tanks, particularly if we were ensnared far from allies we should be protecting. It made me love this skill more.

“Here we go…” I said through gritted teeth as the Blighted Mud Golem collapsed into a ball. If not for the Blight, I doubted it’d have this phase. Kezo would’ve mentioned it. Whatever challenge may come, Herald Stone was always ready. “Let’s do this!”

The mudball hurtled at me.

I zigzagged through the network of tendrils spread like a spider’s web, ducking and leaping through them while minding the tuddles. Don’t look at the mud ball! I loudly chanted in my head. Trying to anticipate its movements was a mistake. That frigging thing always went for me like a magnet. It'd be too late if I moved only after it was already coming. Just run whichever way and hope for the best. Hope for Herald Stone!

“Dammit!” My left hindleg snagged on a tendril as I tried to clear it. Vines of earth coiled around my leg and pulled me down. [Horde Stampede] blasted the vines away, and I zoomed off just in the nick of time, the mud ball zipping past popped my [Greater Pyro Shell].

Left, right, left, right. Didn’t know where I was heading or where the boss was. None of that didn’t matter. Run, run, run! Staying in place was death. [Horde Stampede] and [Cleansing Flames] were at the ready. Wooshing and crashing noises. The mud ball was hitting things that weren’t me.

A wall? I halted as the edge of the cavern greeted me. Tunnel-visioned by preemptively avoiding the mud ball, I didn’t realize I had reached the side of the boss area.

Left? Right? Choose! I hopped right.

WHAM! BOOM!

Clouds of dust obscured everything. My shell was gone, along with a chunk of health. Debris from the massive explosion hit me, causing more damage. I cast [Healing Touch] but didn’t flee. Herald Stone didn’t look away from explosions. I always took them straight to the face! That and the health bar of the Blighted Mud Golem was visible through the haze—the little left of it. I was engrossed with survival that I didn’t realize that my opponent was about to die.

“Herald Stone win!” I yelled. The dirt began to settle, revealing an angry spinning mud ball lodged deep in the cave wall. It reversed its roll and plopped back out. “Too early? Let’s try again. Herald Stone wins!”

The Mud Golem’s health dropped to zero, and it crumbled into hundreds of pieces, sending another wave of dust washing over me. I used [Horde Stampede] to add even more dust, the sound effects making everything cinematic.

[ Loot: 1,250 Artas, (3) Toxic Goop, (5) Clay Fragments, (1) Concentrated Fulguris Extract ]

There wasn’t a notification for a completed quest because there wasn’t an actual tunnel quest. Rather, it was a bunch of quests given by different NPCs who needed something past the tunnels.

“Toxic Goop again?” I bet Bawu would need more [Toxic Goop] in the future. I would've gotten more if this boss had been close to my level. “This Concentrated Fulguris Extract seems familiar…”

I already had one in my inventory. If I wasn’t mistaken, this came from the Blighted Elite Crabore that I killed—that I watched kill itself, to be more accurate. This might be an essential item for future quests dropped by Blighted bosses.

“And what’s this?” A beam of light shot up from the pile of gravel that was formerly the Mud Golem. It shone so brightly that a player wouldn’t miss it. “An item? Wha—? Why is this here?”

[ Obtained: Piece of the Tattered Map ]

“Guess it’s less tattered now,” I said, excitedly opening the [Tattered Map] the Chief had given me to see what was different. The lit portion has expanded, the patch at the bottom left stretching to the right, tracing the map’s border. “It’s past the tunnels now…”

Focusing on the new area brought up an interface reminiscent of the standard maps in RPGs. I recognized these places when my party—the one with Kezo and the others, not Clement and the gossipy chatterbots—practiced boss hunting for the Great Hunt.

[Herald Stone: I’m done with my quest. Thanks for the help!]

[Clementropy28: No prob!]

[PapaChugger: Who’s this guy?]

[Shuwadee: Welcome! GL with other quests.]

[Shuwadee: He partied with us for Horde Stampede bonus. You didn’t notice?]

[PapaChugger: No. Oops.]

[PapaChugger: GL GL Happy questing!}

“A weird bunch,” I muttered, typing one last word of thanks before leaving the party because I should always have the last say. “But I like them.”

“Is this the last tunnel?” This seemed to be the remaining area highlighted on the [Tattered Map] that I should cleanse of the Blighted for Bawu’s quest—Clearing Operations II. “I would’ve already completed this if not for the meeting.”

After defeating the Blighted Mud Golem yesterday, I returned to Kurghal Village. Luckily, the blocked passage opened up after I defeated the quest boss, which meant no more crawling. I left the rest of the tunnel quests for when I’d team up with Kezo, Megan, and Nitana. Kezo told me they’d help me quickly complete it. Instead of struggling to blindly do it on my own, needlessly wasting time when I could wait for my party, I moved on to other things.

Adding the proceeds from the sales of my Crabore and Swineling loot to the remaining couple million Artas Kezo gave me, I went on a shopping spree for [Morabodry] ingredients. Too bad I couldn’t level [Research Akhos Poison] after my brewing session, though it was close.

I could’ve splurged the money I set aside for level twenty gear to push [Research Akhos Poison] to level three, but I had this rare trait called self-control. Only a few people had that, even among adults.

To earn money, I continued with Bawu’s quests. The [Large Fragile Bundle] from Healer Gula’s delivery quest seemed to draw more Blighted monsters to me. Couldn’t say for sure as I didn’t know what Clearing Operations II looked like if I didn’t have other quests that affected it. I could’ve delivered the [Large Fragile Bundle] first, but I preferred the increased monster spawn for leveling up.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get much done because I had a face-to-face meeting with Nelly—she had arrived in Egret City the day before—about the duties and projects I was handing her. It went on for longer than expected, and I was too pooped to return to MCO by night.

Here I was the following day, set on progressing Bawu’s story.

“Come out! I see you guys over there!” I trotted to a large rock hiding a bunch of the Blighted, as evident by the glowing green lights. “Let’s get this over with.”