GH - 234

“My bros! My dudes!” I called out while laughing. I was ecstatic. Never in my wildest imagination did I consider that I, Herald Stone, would find the other Mardukryon tribes when I woke up this morning, which was wrong. Greatness should always be expected of my truly great self.

Some of the Mardukryons slowed down. They shone light my way, though the smoldering forest provided plenty of illumination. However, the smoke was starting to cloud the surroundings.

“Who goes there!” boomed Luvarci, level fifty-one, according to the details above his head. He had three spears, a Hunter-Warrior perhaps using the same ranking system as Kurghal Village. One spear levitated off his back and quickly rotated in place while pointing at me. The resulting whirlwind sucked up all the smoke. “Halt, stranger! Come no closer.”

Other Mardukryons leveled their spears at me while the rest of their hunting party chased the monster offspring of the Mountain Guardian.

I stowed my shields in my inventory and raised my hands as I slowly approached them. Not sure of the layout of the place, but my presence was questionable to them. This would be the worst time to die. “My name is Herald Stone. I come in peace!”

Luvarci approached me. Nodding down at me, seeing that I was barely past a youngling in size, he dismissed his flying spear and it returned to its place on his back. “Young lad, what are you doing here so far from safety? How did you even reach this place in one piece, passing Mezhu Nue and dangers so many?”

“I didn’t come from that way, oh great, Three Spears. Awesome spears, by the way. I’m from the other side of the mountain, from Kurghal Village.”

“Kurghal Village, you say?” Luvarci turned to his companions and they conferred with each other. In the distance, the battle against Vanushra raged on. These guys must be confident of winning that they weren’t worried about what their main forces were up to.

Some of the Mardukryons muttered that they hadn’t heard of Kurghal Village before. Others say that I must be pranking them or making excuses so I wouldn’t get scolded and punished for wandering far from the herd.

“I’m from a lost tribe,” I asserted. “Well, from our perspective, everyone else was lost. Our village was cut off from other Mardukryons for two hundred years.”

Luvarci turned around, stroking his tusk in thought. “What do you mean?”

“No one from Kurghal Village has met a Mardukryon from anywhere else on this mountain and vice-versa. The Mountain Guardian’s breath blocked all our paths since the Great Quake. Most of the people in Kurghal Village think that no one else has survived. Our meeting will be great news to them.”

“What is this Great Quake you speak of?”

“Immense Heave was what I meant to say. When the Mountain Guardian stirred and caused a ton of destruction? That was two hundred years ago, so I was just told about it. Anyway, according to my elders, we were isolated from everyone else since that time. You’re the first Mardukryons not from my village that I have seen… that anyone from Kurghal village has seen!”

Luvarci frowned, still not convinced. It was a wild story to spring on someone. He looked at his confused brothers and then back to me. “I’m aware certain parts of the mountain are rendered unreachable by the Mountain Guardian. It is plausible other Mardukryons persist thereabouts after the Immense Heave without our knowledge. But that doesn’t mean I believe your story, strange lad. How did you reach this place then, if your village has been isolated all this time?”

“Did any of you feel that huge quake several days ago?” I asked, referring to Mad Brewer Bawu’s bioterrorism with her dirty bomb. “That was from our village.”

“Indeed, we have felt it faintly,” said Luvarci. The other Mardukryons murmured their assent. “Did the tremors change the layout of the earth and afford you new passage to previously unpassable lands?”

“That’s exactly what happened.” I vigorously nodded. “I was exploring a cave and found this new tunnel that wasn’t there before.” I didn’t bother telling them about getting chased by a PKer into the cave. They wouldn’t understand that. But I did narrate about my adventures with [Lvl 81 Musical Goat|High Minstrel: Inuus]. Just a summary, ending with, “Mr. Inuus, bless his brave heart, saved me from the giant snake offspring of the Mountain Guardian. I managed to get out of the cave, but Mr. Inuus was still there, fighting Karnon. We have to save him.”

“Calm down, lad,” Luvarci said. “I’m not calling you untruthful. However, we can’t go exploring dangerous caves with only your word.”

“And in the middle of the Great Hunt at that,” added another Mardukryon. “The risk is too great.”

“Great Hunt. Great risk. Heh.” I chuckled while noting that they were also holding a Great Hunt same as Kurghal Village. The Big M did mention during his info dump when we first met that he started taking part in the Great Hunt at a young age. That should have been way before the Great Quake. There was a lot of ‘great’ stuff here. “Anyway, great Three Spears, who’s the higher-up I need to convince to save Mr. Inuus?”

“That would be Five Spears Methuselah,” replied Luvarci. “He would be—”

A powerful explosion shook the forest, leveling many of the burning trees. A fountain of blue and purple sparkles blossomed in the distance. Some of the sparkling light headed our way. Victorious shouting by Mardukryons out of sight followed. Luvarci’s group answered with their cheers. Vanushra, one of the children of the Mountain Guardian, was vanquished.

They are all one big party? I thought parties could have only six members maximum for balancing purposes. There were around two dozen of the Hunter-Warriors, all dividing the Essence and Gli from killing Vanushra. Was this something only NPCs could do? The buffs shared among a party that huge would be insane.

Too bad I wasn’t able to kill steal that big lizard—it had very little health when it passed me. Not that I’d succeed in doing so. Still worth a try. Or I could’ve asked to join their party with a made-up reason to get some of the loot. Damn, I realized that only now.

“Come, lad from a lost village,” said Luvarci. “Follow us to our camp.”

----

Their camp further down the mountain was a group of dome tents over dug burrows, similar to what the Hunter-Warriors of Kurghal Village have constructed for our Great Hunt. But there were some differences. First, there were no players here, obviously. And their tents and fortifications looked very battered; they seemed to have suffered attacks recently. The last difference was that these NPCs had very high levels, like the Five Spears Methuselah with level eighty-three.

This huge guy has an even higher level than Mr. Inuus. The giant lizard never had a chance of winning, much less escaping. I was in the big leagues now.

I sat in the middle of their main tent, surrounded by hulking Hunter-Warriors. Their armor and weapons were formidable. Very cramped here. I had just finished repeating the story that I told Luvarci, adding more details to make it more believable. I also mentioned the names Mehubanarath and Chief Nogras—they were very old and well-known that I hoped some of the elderly Mardukryons here have heard of them. That was the right move.

“They live?” Methuselah’s voice rumbled, shaking the tent.

The Five Spears was even larger than Chief Nogras, looming above me with his head scraping the tent’s ceiling, yet his molten skin burned bright like a younger Mardukryon. His ginormous horns and tusks had several rings piercing them. The five spears that were not only his weapons but also symbolized his rank leaned against the back of the tent.

Methuselah continued, “Nogras and Mehubanarath are my friends… and my elders. They have taught me the martial ways of my people. A great joy fills my heart! This a monumental news to celebrate… but now is not the time. We also cannot save the esteemed Inuus.”

“You believe my story?” I asked. “So why can’t you save Mr. Inuus? Time is of the essence. Then we’ll continue to Kurghal Village.”

“We lack the runecrafters to traverse this vast chasm you spoke of,” answered Methuselah.

“Let’s go get them at… Uh, where do you live now with Mezhu Nue overtaken by monsters?”

“In Sajilis,” the giant of a Mardukryon replied. “A new city we have built with the help of runecrafters who will be very eager to aid your cause. That is, if we reach them. However, this is not a safe time to travel back to Sajiliis. The Great Hunt is afoot.”

“I don’t mean to sound impertinent,” I said, “especially given my age. But isn’t your group strong enough to take on any challenge? Or are you saying that you can’t leave the Great Hunt? There’ll be more to come in the future.”

Methuselah grunted. “It is not a simple matter—”

“If you really need to hunt for resources, then spare me a few of your Hunter-Warriors for the trip back to Sajilis. You can continue the Great Hunt, and I’ll be with the rest of your herd, sharing the good news and asking them for help.”

“The way to Sajilis is froth with danger,” Methuselah said, shaking his head, his rings jiggling. “And it is not simply from the powerful beasts agitated by the mountain’s energies. This Great Hunt is unlike any we have experienced before, and I have participated in so many I could no longer recall the count. There is an evil plague spreading.”

“Evil plague?” I could guess what, or who, he was talking about.

“A dark miasma that makes vile monsters out of the beasts we hunt, turning them into wretched and diseased forms. Exceedingly difficult to fight them head-on as we risk getting infected ourselves. We lost some of our numbers to these malignant monsters. We thought our brothers dead as we retreated, but we found them later… or rather, they found us. They have turned into monstrous shadows of their former selves and we have to put them down.”

“Let me guess,” I said, “the closer they get to Sajilis, the more of this evil plague and infected monsters there are?”

“More accurately, the evil plague seemed to originate from Mezhu Nue, which is on the way to Sajilis. To preserve ourselves, we set up camp and hunt powerful monsters that stray nearby before they get turned by this evil plague. We plan to wait out the Great Hunt and return to Sajilis afterward. We pray to the ancestors the malignant monsters and the evil plague subside by then.”

“That’s not going to happen, honored Five Spears,” I said. “I know what’s happening, and it’s not connected to the Great Hunt.”