Tier had played games where undead were one of the themes presented. However, this was the first time he was ever fully present in such a setting. Thanks to AdVRSe technology, he could completely sense how unsettling the feel of such an area was.

After all the sense of urgency had faded due to the ambiguous agreement with Akengrad, Tier was rather disturbed by the setting where he set his foot on. Even when he was talking to Zackhs or Renma, he still couldn’t set aside the eeriness of his immediate surroundings.

If Rottendor was not an undead city complete with their aesthetics - which means stains of blood and decay left on the partially destroyed buildings - this city would be one hell of a majestic one. The magical blue torches set all over the city added to the uneasiness of the place. Further, the sky was always under a thick overcast, causing it to appear to be under eternal night. And every shadowy corner caught Tier’s attention, who wondered if some evil spirits would jump out of it.

When Krysta happily opened a portal for them to the location Zackhs recommended to continue levelling, Tier had hoped they would go to somewhere less oppressive to his senses. Yet, it was not some relief he faced when he stepped out of the portal.

It was some measly camp on the side of a very thick but dead forest. Just one second was all that Tier needed to feel all of his hair standing on one’s end. The place was far worse than the wicked spirit forest.

This was the only time he regretted taking hunter and Predator Tactics that sharpened his senses.

“Why on earth would a wizard open a portal to the middle of nowhere like this?” Tier groaned in protest as he opened his map. This location was named Wicked Front Expedition Camp, located right at the western side of the forest named as Twin Demon’s Domain. The whole area itself was somewhere far southwest of Rottendor.

“Welcome to the Plagued Continent,” Krysta answered calmly. Before jumping out to a newly casted portal she explained, “Small villages and outposts are filled with the mindless undeads, so camps like this are the safer ones other than major cities and fortresses.”

“Chillax, buddy.” Zackhs patted Tier’s shoulder. “The monsters around this area are two levels higher but we should be fine.”

The mention of level had propelled Tier to quickly scan the levels of his teammate. Zackhs was 59 while Renma was around 55, Tier himself stuck in 57 due to the prohibition from playing. He did have some urge to just use Steven’s item now to catch up with Zackhs, but he felt it might be better used next weekend when he had more remaining time to play.

Also the two levels higher that Zackhs mentioned was probably using the avenger’s level instead of the rest of the team. His overly positive attitude was like a weird beacon in the middle of the continent’s sorrow. This was the second most contradicting thing he had ever seen since Manna and Esferta.

“Fine, you lead the way.”

“Atta go, buddy.”

Zackhs shared his quest and asked him and Renma to pick the rest from the NPCs around the camp. Surprisingly, there were members of several races staying in the camp, not just plagued ones.

It seems that the camp was part of an expedition to study more about the undead plague and how to counter it. This camp was led by a dwarven paladin who wished to stop the undead from the forest from being unleashed to the surrounding areas. A rakhs from the camp pointed out that he wanted to study the plague more and see if at least there was something that could be done to make the undead more sane like those of Rottendor.

The three rode into the forest afterwards, though Tier still struggled with his uneasiness of the place. The forest was akin to that of Wicked Spirit Forest. The soil was dry but somehow chilling, the trees were pale with dehydrated husks, and the animals - like bears, deers, wolves, pumas, and even bunnies - were sickly and mutated. The place was also unusually dark which they could get through due to Renma’s ability to summon light balls that function as a beacon and the flares that Tier released once in while.

Their quest started with taking down some of those animals and collecting the samples from their skin or teeth. As Tier had expected, those animals were two levels higher than Zackhs, but thankfully they had no troublesome encounters. Zackhs did his job to tank and direct the attention of the monsters far better than Manna usually does.

One might argue that was because Manna was more of an offtank or bruiser like she had claimed, while Zackhs picked a class which was a true tank. However, there were several other factors that made the avenger the superior choice in tanking. Which became very clear when they fought their first elite opponent in this place called Starless Canopy.

It was a darker side of the forest, supposedly around the western part. However, Tier sensed a distortion of space right when they stepped into a line between two massive dying acacia trees.

“Something’s amiss,” Tier said to his two companions who were completely oblivious about all of it.

Renma turned, his cat shaped mask turned questioning, “The whole continent is amiss, my bro.”

“Plagued Continent is not that bad, buddy, as long as you get used to it,” Zackhs chimed in casually. His positivity never failed to irk Tier.

Tier quickly looked around, especially where they walked in before. Most of the time he would be completely aware of what direction it was where he was looking. However, this time he wasn't even sure that the direction he was coming from was east. His eyes quickly gazed on his minimap and noticed that, though the map alignment was unchanged, there were no signs of points of compass.

“I can’t sense the cardinal directions here, and the compass in our minimap is off,” Tier told his companions. He crouched and touched the ground. It was still dry, yet lacked the signature chilling grave feel. Above him was still dark as always, no star nor moon, but this time it was due to the thickness of leafless branches.

“To be honest, I uh… barely take heed of these cardinal directions,” Zackhs commented shyly. Renma nodded and mumbles in agreement, signifying that he was not much different. Both cases weren’t surprising for Tier.

“Let me check one more thing,” Tier said. “[Flare].”

The hunter pulled an arrow equipped with chemical concoction and shot it into the air through the space between branches. It flew past the canopy, but no bright light appeared.

“I guess that means you guys gotta stick really close to me,” Renma chuckled, clearly with a bit of a sign of fright.

“Then, lead the way, Tier my buddy. Don’t get too far though. I guess you still need’s Renma’s light bulb.”

“Sure.”

Tier tried to track the demon called Geminateriun through his tracking on the minimap while killing some undeads and demons along the way. However, their targeted demon seemed to teleport to another place after they killed several undeads or demons. After some discussion and endless chase, they decided to just go towards the last direction Tier saw the demon in the map.

There, they saw nothing.

“Maybe we should try something else,” Renma said as he approached the exact supposed spot on the map. “I mean, this mission doesn’t supposedly require hunters, right? Maybe there are some requirements that we miss?”

“Like what, buddy?”

Knowing his good friend’s mind for so long, Tier rambled a guess, “Don’t tell me you want to walk to a straight lane to find it or do something dangerous like walking alone. Anyway, Zackhs, can you please check the trees there? Maybe there’s a clue we need to check.”

Zackhs nodded in agreement, yet Renma was keen with his dangerous idea. “No harm in trying, right?” said the priest.

Tier could only mumble some curses to his friend whose footstep sounds implied that the priest was indeed walking away. Tier couldn’t bother much, he kept checking the bark of a tree, expecting for a clue. Seriously, the whole space distortion thing had really disoriented him. As usual, being disoriented really got him on his nerves since it made him feel powerless.

However, it was at this panic moment that his senses shuddered at a strong killing intent. And it came from Renma’s direction. Before he could shout a warning, there was a loud clang heard. Normally it would mean something had hit some part of Renma’s partially steel plated armour. But not this time.

There, between Renma and the Geminateriun, a giant imp with the shape similar to a wingless bat, stood the ever positive avenger. He blocked the furry demon's long claws with his shield and cloak. There was a different yet serious mood radiating from the avenger.

With an ever confident smile, he mumbled, “Geminateriun, eh? That means…”

Tier was about to draw his arrow when he felt something coming from behind. He tried to roll forward while activating [Cobra’s Manoeuvre] as avoidance though he knew that he would be too late.

“[Gripping Shadow]”

A shadow from Zackhs grabbed Tier and yanked him away before the hit happened. The shadow dragged him to near Zackhs. Though he tumbled due to the sheer force, he quickly got on his feet. While the time dilated, he used the opportunity to gauge the situation.

The creature that almost attacked him was a splitting image of the one being held by Zackhs. It’s just the name that was a bit different. That one was named Geminaterium. Tier also realised that Zackhs had already moved away from Tier and Renma while pointing his sword at Geminaterium.

Aware of the Avenger’s intent, Tier released [Threatening Shot] combined with [Misdirection] to draw the attention of Geminaterium to Zackhs. On the other hand, he also quickly dispatched a point blank [Insularis Assault] to Geminateriun.

Zackhs quickly adapted to the situation and stood his ground, waiting for the incoming assault of Geminaterium while Tier and Renma moved away to gain some distance. The three of them focused their attack on the active twin demon. Zackhs positioned himself so that none of his splash damage would damage the disabled one until the effect of [Insularis’ Assault] wears off. Then, it was a breeze.

Though Tier’s damage was not that high, the battle went smoothly due to Zackhs receiving relatively less damage than what Tier would expect. The avenger might not be as great as Manna when parrying attacks, but he certainly could keep it up with the timing on his debuff to reduce the effect of incoming attack, his calls on Renma’s [Guarding Radiance] as well as how he took advantage of it, and how he used his cloak to distract and blind opponent.

Tier even barely realised any difference in the elite monster’s phase changes because Zackhs kept skillfully positioning himself thus their area of attack damage won’t hit Tier nor Renma. When one of the monsters teleported behind the two, Zackhs would just use his [Gripping Shadow] to relocate them.

The fight barely felt like a battle against an elite monster 4 levels above Tier.

“That is one hell of a tanking, Zackhs,” Renma leaped happily towards the bodies of the twin demons. He gave a thumbs up to their resident tanker avenger before taking the items from the demons.

“Getting used to it even more and more,” Zackhs grinned happily. He sat down on the dry land, using a recovery item.

Tier was rather delighted with the whole fight in general. “I barely had to do anything defensive, really, that’s something,” he complimented. He wondered that Nubram might be right about having Zackhs as their main tank when tackling dungeons would make it easier. Manna is good, but she has chaotic tendencies and lacks several capabilities that Tier would never have thought a tank wouldn’t have. Yet, he felt that she definitely excelled at being the offtank.

“Didn’t you guys play with Manna the Manna?” Zackhs questioned with a rather confused tone. “She’s one hell of a…”

“Offtank,” Tier replied. “She’s a guardian paladin now, the lack of taunt is really not working well for her.”

“Perhaps she knows that you have her back, buddy,” Zackhs giggled. “Come on, it's almost valentine already, go show her your deepest feelings.”

“Stop with your positivity already.” Tier groaned and looked away. He gazed at the canopy and realised that the branches slowly faded away as well as his sense of direction.

Along with it, he heard the incoming of a humanoid creature blanketed with killing intent.