GH - 230

“A literal legendary gift!” I exclaimed. “And it’s level thirty to boot. I can equip it soon. It scaled with the player’s level since it’s a reward. Thank you very—wait a second. It’s two-handed?”

Drumming needed two hands—at least, this sort of drum does—but why remove the off-hand slot? Would it be too strong otherwise? The [Lowan Oud] given by the crimson goat of Kurghal village was one-handed even though it required a hand to strum and another to press the strings on the fretboard for the desired notes. I’d lose huge amounts of defenses without a shield, not to mention Head-On Blocking which would reduce damage even more.

“Well, playing a drum while using a shield will look pretty awkward,” I said with a shrug. “If only this item had inherent base Armor rather than Attack Power. Going to look funny bashing a monster with this. Anyway, thank you very much for the gift, Mr. Inuus. I’ll be your most studious student ever.”

(That instrument rolls notes of healing amid battle,) Mr. Inuus explained. (Perfect for you who is a student of the healing arts, as well as music. May it aid you well in battles to come.)

Scanning the effects of the [Abosom Shrine Drum], I saw what Mr. Inuus was talking about. If I was attacked while performing, the drum would cast [Healing Touch] on me, since that was my only single target heal. This effect wasn’t based on chance but rather limited by a cooldown of two and a half seconds—I reckoned this was separate from the cooldown of the healing skill.    

This merited its Legendary Quality! [Healing Touch] had a cooldown of three seconds. If [Abosom Shrine Drum] could cast [Healing Touch] independently, it’d be as if the skill’s cooldown was effectively cut in half.

However, the payment for balancing was pretty heft—losing an off-hand slot. I’d say it was very much worth it if this mechanic was abused. Picture a single target healing spell with a twenty-five-second cooldown. Not that long, but also not spammable because it's strong. If the effect of [Abosom Shrine Drum] was continually activated, it would turn that cooldown into two and a half seconds, casting the heal ten times more than it was balanced for.

What if I found a stupefyingly powerful heal with a minute-long cooldown? The stronger and longer, the better. The possibilities were endless! Not really. But the ceiling was way up there. I could use this drum up to the mid-game if I have a good heal to pair with it.

Nonetheless, the lack of an off-hand piece for defense couldn’t be ignored. Tied to that was the fewer slots for Shards, though this wasn’t a big problem since I’d still be LSP-starved until later. I’d have to add defense with other pieces of equipment to make up for it.

The other inherent effect of the drum was fairly good too. Like [Lowan Oud], [Abosom Shrine Drum] made the user tankier while playing a Song spell. This might be the feature of all instruments.

And there was a very big icing on top—the drum came with three awesome defensive enchants suited for music magic, probably because it was one of Mr. Inuus’ instruments. The first enchant, adding armor when playing music, somewhat made up for the lack of base Armor. The second enchantment was Health gain when attacked. This’d be very helpful when tanking mobs, though I didn’t have a Song Skill Shard to put into the drum to activate it. The last enchant was also currently useless to me because I didn’t have the required Song type.

“Mr. Inuus, can you teach me a drum-based Song?” I asked. “This chance to negate incoming damage is quite wild.”

(When we meet the rest of my herd, I will,) said Mr. Inuus. (The appropriate Ocadule, I lack at present. Patience.)

“I have plenty of patience. Now, to reach Mezhu Nue as fast as possible. What to do next? Oho!”

The attacks of the first Glacial Ifrit destroyed stretches of the ice sheets covering the tunnel’s walls, exposing rocks… and holes. The earth was porous, like Swiss cheese. The Glacial Ifrit could drastically change its forms, but I wasn’t sure if it made these holes. I checked the walls, looking for a possible passage.

“This one looks deep enough.” I tried to squeeze myself into a thin tunnel. The light of my [Greater Pyro Shell] and [Healing Touch] could reach only darkness; this was a path that continued onward.

More good news—I couldn’t fit through the tunnel because its insides had a thick layer of ice, narrowing the path like cholesterol clogging the bloodstream. That analogy worked, didn’t it? Mental note to eat healthier. But back to the tunnel, if this stupid ice was gone, the passage would be roomy enough for Mardukryons bigger than me to pass through. Very possible that the dead merchant and wardcrafter went through here before this ice apocalypse happened.

“Mr. Inuus, can you use your magical spears to break down the ice?”

(Your ancestors led you to the right path yet again, my dear student. The path, I will widen.)

“I, Herald Stone, did this on my own. No ancestral aid needed. I mean, the Glacial Ifrit uncovered this path, but I killed it. By the transitive property of math or something, I get to claim discovery of this tunnel.”

Mr. Inuus sent his spears spiraling into the tunnel—that’s what she said—shredding thick slabs of ice into snow, even melting it into puddles.

I led our group of two, trudging through the mixture of slush and mud. I was certain this was the right way! I could barely contain my excitement. Images of people cheering on my name as I progressed the Mardukryon race yet again filled my mind. But how long until we’d reach the surface?

More tunnels and ice. Still no clues about what caused this phenomenon.

We also passed frozen corpses of various creatures, though none were Mardukryon. I bet some of them were monsters yet to be encountered by players. Maybe the way to the areas where Bawu collected her test subjects was somewhere here too? I wouldn’t be surprised if these tunnels were made by Bawu’s grunts. She told me her chimeras were created to reach the deeply buried remnants of the Arcane Brewer Lodge.

In her excavation projects, she could’ve disturbed something that should’ve been left alone. This could also be the aftermath of a failed experiment of hers. She was a walking disaster, that crazy woman. When would I meet her again? Like Mr. Inuus, Mad Brewer Bawu was also my teacher.

Curiously, the corpses were broken apart as if they got knocked over or trampled. I couldn’t do my looting gig. On the flip side, this confirmed that monsters wandered this area after the ice apocalypse. Their way in was our way out.

After several minutes, we found a way… and another, and another.

The tunnels branched into many paths and we didn’t know where to go. We tried some, met a dead end, and returned to the intersection. Frustrating? A bit. However, I wasn’t too bothered because it reminded me of my childhood gaming friends who’d check every corner of the dungeon. I also realized that exploring a cave from a top-down view, as in playing on a computer screen, was exciting, but doing it was confusing and boring.  

We eventually ran into the likely culprits of the shattered corpse popsicles and also our possible guides—three [Lvl 37 Spiked Ice Crabores]. Fitting their name, they have a thick layer of icicles on top of their shells, making them look like blue porcupines with claws. They were also quite big, around the height of Mr. Inuus counting their spikes, and about five times wider.

(Careful, student. Those shelled-creatures are dangerous.) Mr. Inuus was ready with his spears.

“Wait, don’t kill them. I don’t know if this is going to work, but let’s try scaring them away. We’ll follow where they’ll go. Hopefully, their chosen path can accommodate my size.”

I switched to my sling and pondered how to go about my plan. If I attacked them, they’d attack me. I decided to shoot the ground a few feet away from them. A loud crack. Ice and dirt scattered. The Crabores, unharmed, retreated as they clicked their claws. Like the Hermit Crabores, they could move forward and backward, not sideways like most crabs in the real world.

I fired at the ground again. They scuttled away some more. I continued firing, herding them back and back. They turned around and fled.

“That worked nicely.” They’d lead us to the surface or their lair, either way, that was out of here—not here was our destination.

The ice was getting thinner and thinner. Soon, it was gone. Just plain old rock. The path also seemed to be angling upward. My plan was the right call, as expected of Herald Stone.

“Run on your many legs!” I laughed. “Run, my—hey, why are you stopping?”

The Spiked Ice Crabores snapped their claws at something in the shadows. An enemy? I couldn’t have it killing my ticket to success. I stepped forward, [Greater Pyro Shell] on and [Healing Touch] pulsing. However, the light from skills couldn’t push back the shadows.

It wasn’t a shadow behind the rocks. It was a [Lvl 64 Glacial Ifrit] without a possessed body, a floating black mass that alternated between a fluffy cloud-like state and a watery blob. The Crabores fled back into the depths of the ice caves. Mr. Inuus and I stayed.

“Kill it!”

The naked Glacial Ifrit zipped away before the spears of Mr. Inuus solidified. I chased after the Glacial Ifrit, trusting that Mr. Inuus would follow me. I tried to catch it with my taunting Totems, but it was too fast. We entered a cave so humongous its far end and ceiling above were complete darkness. But I wasn’t focused on the new location because the black mass was zooming to a heap of what seemed to be a corpse.

“Mr. Inuus—” I looked over my shoulder, finding him just rounding the far corner of the tunnel. He couldn’t stop the Glacial Ifrit from wearing a new body. I groaned, thinking about the long process of killing it. “This is going to suck.”

I barely finished my sentence when a bright orb emerged from the corpse. The orb fired lances of light that poked holes into the enemy as if a giant eraser wiped the dark mistake.

(Author’s Notes: I tweaked the drum that Herald received the last chapter to be level 30 and lowered its stats so he can use it sooner.)