“Nothing, duh,” Ega protested at the questioning. “Why would I tell her anything?”

Realising he was unleashing his anger to the wrong person, Pras groaned, “Sorry. I still….”

“I know, bro, I know. Anyway, from my point of view, she didn’t seem like she wanted to cause more problems. To be honest, she looked kinda concerned.”

“You tell me, if she was really concerned, none of this would have happened.”

“But you know how sheltered she seems. Anyway, let’s change the topic,” Ega sighed. “I’m not here to defend her, just telling you what happened.”

“I know, and thanks for that.”

However, instead of actually changing the topic. Ega squinted his eyes and told Pras, “You know how scary you are when you are angry? Especially your… I don't know, aura or something? The air just changed when you got angry. So, I think it is normal for Mana to hesitate in trying to apologise or something?”

“Aren’t we changing topics?”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.”

As promised, they finally changed the topic to Pitoy’s plan in trying to get the items asked by Steven since they are all around level 78 and 79 now. It would be risky to try the dungeon later on as some of them might reach level 80 earlier and thus hinder the process for Nubram. As previously discussed, their tank will be Zackhs.

Despite all his anger, Pras still felt that it might be too mean to leave Mana alone later on. However, Ega told him that Mana herself said that she got something else to do during the promised time..

Pras smirked at the statement, “Of course, she’s level 79 now, she doesn’t need us anymore.”

“Uhmm, I don’t think I should comment, bro.”

“Whatever.”

In the night, Tier tried another attempt at taming the snow jaguar while riding towards the entrance to the yeti’s lair located at the northern part of Nefelein Valley. However, he saw people gathering around the spawn location earlier than him when he was still at the slope of the valley.

There they started killing each other, until Lyra’s gang finally showed up and murdered everyone else. Nevertheless, one salty hunter managed to kill the snow jaguar before he died at the hands of Lyra.

Seeing the gang seemingly angry, Tier quickly rode towards the yeti nest. Though his heart sank again at the sight of the fallen jaguar, Tier knew he still had to get himself to safety rather than being the target of a random angry player.

Not that Lyra’s gang were actually random players, but the source of their anger seemed random enough.

There at the front of the dungeon, whose cave entrance had stalactites and stalagmites somehow arranged in a fang shape, Tier met Zackhs who was all pumped up for the dungeon run. They quickly used the summoning statue to get their friends to reduce the risk of any of them getting slaughtered by Lyra. Thankfully, this time no one was too late. Macepaw was the last one to come, but he’s only a few minutes late.

Before they entered the dungeon, Zackhs suddenly asked, “Not inviting Manna? I’d be more comfortable with an offtank.”

None of them answered, they just nervously glanced at Tier who was confused and started fuming when he opened his friend’s list and saw Manna was online somewhere around Hammerthorn. Tier turned to Renma, “You said she was busy or something?”

“Not my fault, bro, that’s what she said,” Renma shook his head dismissively. “Who knows if she decided to log on.”

Tier sighed, he turned at the summoning statue and begrudgingly walked towards it. However, Zackhs stopped him.

“It’s okay, buddy,” said the ever positive avenger, “Maybe her business is in the game, let's start.”

The group quickly break their way into the dungeon filled with angry yetis. Soon, they will reach level 80 and get their starting equipment, thus they didn’t bother much with going through all the nooks and crannies of the dungeon. Their aim was Bakrugan, a huge yeti with three horns -one of it made of pure arcane crystal- and flat face, located at the far northern end of the dungeon. By beating the yeti, Nubram will receive Bakrugan’s Pristine Horn that he needed for his custom ability. Its drop rate was supposedly 100% and the horn itself could be used by jewelcrafters to make stat or ability enhancing gems.

They finally met Bakrugan at the designated location, a circular enclave in the cave, as what Tier had studied from the records of other loremasters. They came from a southern entry of the area. The entry itself was elevated several metres above the ground, thus giving them a nice full view of the location.

There, the massive yeti was strolling unawarely on top of a silvery ice-covered pond formed around the western part of the room. It somehow managed to walk around the clearly slippery ice floor without any problem. It has bright silver hair all over its body which was much thicker than other yetis.

Outside the ice pond, there were 6 yetis strolling around on guard. Zackhs, Flick, and Rushvatte quickly jumped down while the ranged characters stayed above at the entrance. This way, they reduced the risk of the yetis attacking Nubram, Macepaw, or Renma while the three melee fighters could move more freely.

After the guarding yetis were dealt with, Tier and Zackhs drew Bakrugan away from the ice pond and fought it on a firm ground. Once in a while, it would run back to the ice pond to regain power and cause massive shaking that dropped ice stalactites at them. While the melee characters could move to avoid it, the ranged ones depended on Renma’s shielding spell to avoid damage or extensive crowd control. After several cycles were through, Bakrugan was finally defeated by Flick and Rushvatte’s finishing move when the yeti tried to summon another quake.

As Tier had read before, the next phase of the dungeon is where the real problem would start. They have to quickly loot Bakrugan then continue their journey northward to the secret exit. The yetis they face got angrier and reckless due to the death of Bakrugan as if they were throwing their lives to stop the murderers from fleeing. To make matters worse, the remaining yetis and bosses from all over the cave were also chasing them during the runaway process.

It was here that a glimpse of the true extent of Nubram’s DPS capability was shown. The undead wizard continuously threw devastating spells at their adversaries in quick succession, making it easier to take down each angry yeti one at a time.

Rushvatte and Flick’s fighting prowess also showed their progress. The mystic was more than capable in switching between forms, either to land punishing attacks with his tiger form, or to stop the yetis on their track with his bear form.

Meanwhile, Flick himself was able to fight two to three yetis at once without getting too much damage. Even if he couldn’t keep up with Nubram’s threat level, he was also more than capable in disabling the yetis that ran towards Nubram in order to let the undead wizard finish them.

The two melee fighters also got their effectiveness increased due to the ingenuous abilities employed by Macepaw. The utilities provided by his spells and unique elements really put their opponents into disarray, though sometimes confuses allies alike.

As for Renma and Zackhs, there was no further question needed. Tier saw firsthand how the two could easily be put into any team in need of a tank and healer. Zackhs, with his superior awareness, was even able to give shot calls to Renma on who might need healing, thus eliminating Renma’s biggest weakness.

Through the heated battle during the runaway, Tier felt a chilling pang in his heart. Among these people, his position was the easiest one to replace. He could only drop some traps, warn them about long incoming mobs, or unleash some utility based move. Yet those seemed to not have as much effect, as it would have been irreplaceable for the team otherwise.

His traps often got overwhelmed by the sheer number of opponents, his disabling abilities were sometimes overshadowed by Flick, and his damage was mediocre at best. Even his damage amplifying capabilities were arguable. If there was another damage dealer replacing him, then the damage output might have been much higher. There were even moments when Zackhs had to use shadows to drag the opponent that Tier failed to hinder.

Therefore the hunter strayed further and further back from the rest of the group just to give everyone a bigger breathing room to react in case he failed to stop the incoming horde of angry yetis.

Though lost in his thoughts, the hunter could still fight tooth and nail with everything he had. He would hold on until his friends could escape the cave. The path laid ahead would direct them straight to the azure drake whom Nubram sought. They won’t need him anymore, thus he assured himself that they would be fine. Even if he couldn’t make it to Clashing Realms, they would do great there.

Yet, he secretly still longed to fight side by side with them on such a grand scale.

A light barrier from [Guarding Radiance] blocked the attack of an elite yeti right before it hit Tier. Then darkness developed the hunter momentarily before he appeared again right next to his friends near the exit.

“Don’t worry,” said Zackhs, he nudged Tier with his elbow. The avenger’s smile widened, his face caressed by the light coming from the exit of the cave as he continued, “We got ya, buddy.”