I wore a politely surprised face at Kezodilla’s generous gesture, hiding a greedy grin behind it. His act wasn't entirely altruistic. Giving me good items was also in his interests as it'd help our party become stronger as a whole.
"The biggest hurdle in your case is juggling LSPs," Kezo said while examining his inventory. His fingers danced across a floating screen in front of him. "At level twelve, you only have eleven free skill points. We'll help you level so that by the Great Hunt starts, you'll have more LS to play with."
"Right, right." I nodded.
"I’m not pressuring you now, okay? Farming low-level monsters for their loot is awesome Artas income. Just call us when you're ready to increase your level quickly."
"It's definitely good business," I said with a chuckle. "I plan to use this week to earn as much as I can for gears. Next week I'll power level for more skill points." I'd forego several million Artas, but I'd hopefully earn more during the Great Hunt to compensate for the loss. And I didn't want to be a pathetic burden during the event.
"Sounds good to me," he said. "Where have you spent your LS points so far? Rusting Grounds and what else?"
"Three points on Rusting Grounds because I don't have the Energy regeneration for higher levels. Six points on my shield skill. And I have two LS free." I didn't elaborate on what [Greater Pyro Shell] was because I wanted to keep my quest related to Mehubanarath a secret.
I doubted if Kezo was interested in my skill since it popped from only a hit or two. Facing monsters three times my level wasn't a good stage for my shell's performance.
"I see. I'm thinking of changing your Rusting Ground to something better and adding one more debuff or CC skill."
"How about a taunt like the one you're using?" I asked.
"Enraging Call? It has too small of an AoE for you to use safely."
That's fair. What good was a taunt skill if I'd die walking up to a monster I wanted to taunt? I'd leave taunt skills for when I was tankier.
Kezo initiated a trade with me. He placed three Ocadule Shards and began typing in the Artas amount.
Show me the money!
[ Received: Ocadule Skill Shard: Gnawing Rot, Ocadule Skill Shard: Withering Brand, Ocadule Link Shard: Enfeebling Burden, 5,000,000 Artas ]
"This is too much!" The hypocrisy wasn't lost when I said that after accepting the trade. “I don’t think I could've earned this much if I spent my time to farm Snowy Swinelings instead."
"Consider it as me investing in our party," he said.
"How many Artas did you give him?" Megan inquired of Kezo.
"Five million."
"I'll give you money too!" she excitedly told me, raising her hand like she was answering a question in class. "Though I don't have much right now since I used almost all my savings to buy Spell Bonded Totem."
Kezo whistled. "That is very expensive. But an investment that will last you a long time."
"Err, yeah." Megan sheepishly grinned. "I'm not really planning to stay long as a Mardukryon anyway. I told you that, didn't I? More like I bought it to give this Great Hunt my all. Go out with a bang! So yeah, hmm...I can give Herald two million Artas."
"I-I don't know what to say," I said. Seriously, what do I say here? Should I keep pretending to reject their gifts while hesitantly receiving them? Past a certain limit, it'd become annoying on the giver's part. "Thank you very much," I said, going for being simply grateful.
Megan looked at Nitana. "Huh?" her friend said. "Oh...okay, whatever. I'll also donate two million Artas." She grinned at me. "We do make a good combo."
"Thank you too, Nitana." Herald Stone plus anyone was going to be a good combo. Herald Stone alone was a good combo, even if solo. It just works.
[ Received: 2,000,000 Artas ]
[ Received: 2,000,000 Artas ]
Wow, this is much easier money than if I stayed with the Swinelings. More importantly, I knew why they were giving me money. Yes, they wanted our party to be stronger, but they also did it out of friendship. A single boss hunt with them, and I already had an idea of their personalities. In contrast, I wasn't so sure of SpartanDonkey's intentions. And he only offered to give me fifty thousand Artas. What a cheapskate.
"Let's talk a bit about the Ocadules I gave you," Kezo said. "Two Skill Shards and one Link Shard."
‘Gave’—I like that word. I opened my inventory to examine them.
Lvl. 1 Gnawing Rot: Spread a festering miasma over a small area (limited to two), causing any enemies entering it to lose 15 Armor and 15 Magic Resilience each second, up to a maximum of 105. The effect of the decay persists for 10 seconds after leaving the area.
Cost: 40 Energy
Duration: 20 Seconds
Cooldown: 5 Seconds
Lvl. 1 Withering Brand: A long-forgotten incantation that targets an enemy with a curse, reducing its Movement Speed, Attack Power, and Magic Power by 5%.
Cost: 35 Energy
Duration: 10 Seconds
Cooldown: 7 Seconds
Lvl 1 Enfeebling Burden (Link): Enemies under the effect of linked debuff-type skills will suffer an extra 5% more of their debilitating effects.
"Those are the Shards I have in my inventory that boost both physical and magic damage," Kezo explained. "I'm a physical DPS, while Megan and Nitana are magic-based. Some monsters are strong against physical attacks but weak against magic, and vice versa, so it's important that we have both damage types in our party."
"The Armor decay caused by Rusting Grounds only benefitted you."
"But with Gnawing Rot, the enemy's Magic Resilience will also go down."
"I can't wait to see how much my damage will increase if you use that," said Megan as she clapped in excitement.
"The next skill, Withering Brand, is also a debuff. But instead of increasing our damage to the enemy, you'll decrease the enemy's damage, making everything a bit safer for us. I wanted to use this for tanking, but I didn't have the free LSPs to make it worthwhile."
"This looks great—wait, it's an Epic Quality Shard?" I said. It was the same Quality as my [Greater Pyro Shell].
While browsing the auction house listings, I noticed that Common Shards usually had flat values, like [Rusting Grounds]. Skills with percentages were better than flat numbers because they'd scale to the late game. If Common Shards had beneficial effects like [Enraging Call], they'd have corresponding downsides like increasing the attack of taunted enemies.
Rare Quality Shards were a step above that, mixing flat values and low percentages. And Epic Quality Shards, like [Withering Brand], usually only had percentage values.
The three stats [Withering Brand] reduced—Movement Speed, Attack Power, and Magic Power—were also very impactful. Unlike [Gnawing Rot], which would increase the DPS of the party but wouldn't directly benefit me as a tank unless the boss dying faster counted, [Withering Brand] helped my survivability by reducing the enemy's damage dealt to me. Reducing Movement Speed would also help with kiting.
"Isn't this too expensive to give to me?" I said. But don't take it back.
A ‘thank you’ wouldn't suffice for a gift like this. I wanted him to know how I was fully aware of his generosity—I had encountered people who were appeased by that. And by asking this question, I also confirmed that this was indeed a gift.
Kezo sighed and looked up at the sky, probably recalling an emotional memory. This was the first time I saw him show any kind of...not negative, but not that positive expression either.
Megan, Nitana, and I looked at each other, puzzled by his reaction.
After a few seconds, he shrugged and turned back to us. He said, "To be honest...those are old items from my friends."
"They gave them all to you before they quit?" I asked, recalling what Megan had told me when she invited me to join their party.
Kezo nodded. "And I sold most of them at the auction and then went on a buying spree to upgrade my DPS gears. In hindsight, I should've kept the equipment of my tank friend so I'll have something high-end to use for our party instead of whatever I'm currently wearing.
"Since those Ocadule Shards were just given to me, it's not a big deal to give them away. I'll be happy if you can use them to help our party. That's a much better fate than rotting in my inventory or getting sold to buy gear I can't even wear because I have to tank for our party."
Oof, now that's a sad story on many levels. I changed the topic to blow away the awkward air hovering above us. "What about this Enfeebling Burden? I'll use it with the two other Shards you gave me?"
"That's right," he said, smiling again. "With the money I gave you, you can buy a good piece of armor with three slots and put them in. You did mention that you have Energy consumption problems, and yes, this will exacerbate it, but I think you can buy potions or—"
"I have potions!" Megan chimed in. "Finally, something I can help Herald with. I don't have any useful Shards or gear to give you, but I have a lot of Energy consumables in my inventory that I'll never use."
She gave me nearly three hundred Energy potions and about a hundred herbs that give Energy, and I thanked her profusely.
"You guys up for another go at the Rotted Cedarlyon?" Kezo said. "Since it's a mini-boss, it'll respawn thirty minutes after it dies. A good ten minutes had passed already. Maybe we can kill other bosses or mini-bosses and then return to it."
"Is there a reason we're focusing on the Rotted Cedarlyon?" I asked.
"I chose it for our practice because it's the closest to a Fulgurian Mammoth in terms of health, tankiness, and damage," Kezo explained. To my benefit, he added. "They're the most numerous monsters during the Great Hunt, and they'll be our main target to farm Reward Totems."
I recalled that Mehubanarath had mentioned the name 'Fulgurian Mammoth'. Our Mardukryon tribe must be hunting them like the ancient humans hunted migrating wooly mammoths during the Ice Age.
Kezo continued, "We'll do the same thing we did towards the end of our first run. I bet we could finish the boss in a couple of waves if I go with a tanky DPS build. And it'll be safer for Herald to herd the mobs if we finish early."
I wore a politely surprised face at Kezodilla’s generous gesture, hiding a greedy grin behind it. His act wasn't entirely altruistic. Giving me good items was also in his interests as it'd help our party become stronger as a whole.
"The biggest hurdle in your case is juggling LSPs," Kezo said while examining his inventory. His fingers danced across a floating screen in front of him. "At level twelve, you only have eleven free skill points. We'll help you level so that by the Great Hunt starts, you'll have more LS to play with."
"Right, right." I nodded.
"I’m not pressuring you now, okay? Farming low-level monsters for their loot is awesome Artas income. Just call us when you're ready to increase your level quickly."
"It's definitely good business," I said with a chuckle. "I plan to use this week to earn as much as I can for gears. Next week I'll power level for more skill points." I'd forego several million Artas, but I'd hopefully earn more during the Great Hunt to compensate for the loss. And I didn't want to be a pathetic burden during the event.
"Sounds good to me," he said. "Where have you spent your LS points so far? Rusting Grounds and what else?"
"Three points on Rusting Grounds because I don't have the Energy regeneration for higher levels. Six points on my shield skill. And I have two LS free." I didn't elaborate on what [Greater Pyro Shell] was because I wanted to keep my quest related to Mehubanarath a secret.
I doubted if Kezo was interested in my skill since it popped from only a hit or two. Facing monsters three times my level wasn't a good stage for my shell's performance.
"I see. I'm thinking of changing your Rusting Ground to something better and adding one more debuff or CC skill."
"How about a taunt like the one you're using?" I asked.
"Enraging Call? It has too small of an AoE for you to use safely."
That's fair. What good was a taunt skill if I'd die walking up to a monster I wanted to taunt? I'd leave taunt skills for when I was tankier.
Kezo initiated a trade with me. He placed three Ocadule Shards and began typing in the Artas amount.
Show me the money!
[ Received: Ocadule Skill Shard: Gnawing Rot, Ocadule Skill Shard: Withering Brand, Ocadule Link Shard: Enfeebling Burden, 5,000,000 Artas ]
"This is too much!" The hypocrisy wasn't lost when I said that after accepting the trade. “I don’t think I could've earned this much if I spent my time to farm Snowy Swinelings instead."
"Consider it as me investing in our party," he said.
"How many Artas did you give him?" Megan inquired of Kezo.
"Five million."
"I'll give you money too!" she excitedly told me, raising her hand like she was answering a question in class. "Though I don't have much right now since I used almost all my savings to buy Spell Bonded Totem."
Kezo whistled. "That is very expensive. But an investment that will last you a long time."
"Err, yeah." Megan sheepishly grinned. "I'm not really planning to stay long as a Mardukryon anyway. I told you that, didn't I? More like I bought it to give this Great Hunt my all. Go out with a bang! So yeah, hmm...I can give Herald two million Artas."
"I-I don't know what to say," I said. Seriously, what do I say here? Should I keep pretending to reject their gifts while hesitantly receiving them? Past a certain limit, it'd become annoying on the giver's part. "Thank you very much," I said, going for being simply grateful.
Megan looked at Nitana. "Huh?" her friend said. "Oh...okay, whatever. I'll also donate two million Artas." She grinned at me. "We do make a good combo."
"Thank you too, Nitana." Herald Stone plus anyone was going to be a good combo. Herald Stone alone was a good combo, even if solo. It just works.
[ Received: 2,000,000 Artas ]
[ Received: 2,000,000 Artas ]
Wow, this is much easier money than if I stayed with the Swinelings. More importantly, I knew why they were giving me money. Yes, they wanted our party to be stronger, but they also did it out of friendship. A single boss hunt with them, and I already had an idea of their personalities. In contrast, I wasn't so sure of SpartanDonkey's intentions. And he only offered to give me fifty thousand Artas. What a cheapskate.
"Let's talk a bit about the Ocadules I gave you," Kezo said. "Two Skill Shards and one Link Shard."
‘Gave’—I like that word. I opened my inventory to examine them.
Lvl. 1 Gnawing Rot: Spread a festering miasma over a small area (limited to two), causing any enemies entering it to lose 15 Armor and 15 Magic Resilience each second, up to a maximum of 105. The effect of the decay persists for 10 seconds after leaving the area.
Cost: 40 Energy
Duration: 20 Seconds
Cooldown: 5 Seconds
Lvl. 1 Withering Brand: A long-forgotten incantation that targets an enemy with a curse, reducing its Movement Speed, Attack Power, and Magic Power by 5%.
Cost: 35 Energy
Duration: 10 Seconds
Cooldown: 7 Seconds
Lvl 1 Enfeebling Burden (Link): Enemies under the effect of linked debuff-type skills will suffer an extra 5% more of their debilitating effects.
"Those are the Shards I have in my inventory that boost both physical and magic damage," Kezo explained. "I'm a physical DPS, while Megan and Nitana are magic-based. Some monsters are strong against physical attacks but weak against magic, and vice versa, so it's important that we have both damage types in our party."
"The Armor decay caused by Rusting Grounds only benefitted you."
"But with Gnawing Rot, the enemy's Magic Resilience will also go down."
"I can't wait to see how much my damage will increase if you use that," said Megan as she clapped in excitement.
"The next skill, Withering Brand, is also a debuff. But instead of increasing our damage to the enemy, you'll decrease the enemy's damage, making everything a bit safer for us. I wanted to use this for tanking, but I didn't have the free LSPs to make it worthwhile."
"This looks great—wait, it's an Epic Quality Shard?" I said. It was the same Quality as my [Greater Pyro Shell].
While browsing the auction house listings, I noticed that Common Shards usually had flat values, like [Rusting Grounds]. Skills with percentages were better than flat numbers because they'd scale to the late game. If Common Shards had beneficial effects like [Enraging Call], they'd have corresponding downsides like increasing the attack of taunted enemies.
Rare Quality Shards were a step above that, mixing flat values and low percentages. And Epic Quality Shards, like [Withering Brand], usually only had percentage values.
The three stats [Withering Brand] reduced—Movement Speed, Attack Power, and Magic Power—were also very impactful. Unlike [Gnawing Rot], which would increase the DPS of the party but wouldn't directly benefit me as a tank unless the boss dying faster counted, [Withering Brand] helped my survivability by reducing the enemy's damage dealt to me. Reducing Movement Speed would also help with kiting.
"Isn't this too expensive to give to me?" I said. But don't take it back.
A ‘thank you’ wouldn't suffice for a gift like this. I wanted him to know how I was fully aware of his generosity—I had encountered people who were appeased by that. And by asking this question, I also confirmed that this was indeed a gift.
Kezo sighed and looked up at the sky, probably recalling an emotional memory. This was the first time I saw him show any kind of...not negative, but not that positive expression either.
Megan, Nitana, and I looked at each other, puzzled by his reaction.
After a few seconds, he shrugged and turned back to us. He said, "To be honest...those are old items from my friends."
"They gave them all to you before they quit?" I asked, recalling what Megan had told me when she invited me to join their party.
Kezo nodded. "And I sold most of them at the auction and then went on a buying spree to upgrade my DPS gears. In hindsight, I should've kept the equipment of my tank friend so I'll have something high-end to use for our party instead of whatever I'm currently wearing.
"Since those Ocadule Shards were just given to me, it's not a big deal to give them away. I'll be happy if you can use them to help our party. That's a much better fate than rotting in my inventory or getting sold to buy gear I can't even wear because I have to tank for our party."
Oof, now that's a sad story on many levels. I changed the topic to blow away the awkward air hovering above us. "What about this Enfeebling Burden? I'll use it with the two other Shards you gave me?"
"That's right," he said, smiling again. "With the money I gave you, you can buy a good piece of armor with three slots and put them in. You did mention that you have Energy consumption problems, and yes, this will exacerbate it, but I think you can buy potions or—"
"I have potions!" Megan chimed in. "Finally, something I can help Herald with. I don't have any useful Shards or gear to give you, but I have a lot of Energy consumables in my inventory that I'll never use."
She gave me nearly three hundred Energy potions and about a hundred herbs that give Energy, and I thanked her profusely.
"You guys up for another go at the Rotted Cedarlyon?" Kezo said. "Since it's a mini-boss, it'll respawn thirty minutes after it dies. A good ten minutes had passed already. Maybe we can kill other bosses or mini-bosses and then return to it."
"Is there a reason we're focusing on the Rotted Cedarlyon?" I asked.
"I chose it for our practice because it's the closest to a Fulgurian Mammoth in terms of health, tankiness, and damage," Kezo explained. To my benefit, he added. "They're the most numerous monsters during the Great Hunt, and they'll be our main target to farm Reward Totems."
I recalled that Mehubanarath had mentioned the name 'Fulgurian Mammoth'. Our Mardukryon tribe must be hunting them like the ancient humans hunted migrating wooly mammoths during the Ice Age.
Kezo continued, "We'll do the same thing we did towards the end of our first run. I bet we could finish the boss in a couple of waves if I go with a tanky DPS build. And it'll be safer for Herald to herd the mobs if we finish early."
