“Defend our brother from these treacherous kinds!”

“By Valrosh’s sacrifice!”

The orcish guards of Grandar roared their fury at Zullvic and DeusVult who were dragged by Tier through the portal. DeusVult managed to smack Tier’s shoulder right when the hunter fell flat on the unpaved road of Grandar.

“[Shield of Faith], [Flash Mend]!”

Renma quickly came to the rescue before the two assaulters could finish Tier - which they tried to do before the guards caught up to them. Fortunately, other players in Grandar joined the fray and helped the guards deal with Zullvic and DeusVult.

“[Primal Unleash: Cease],” Tier whispered. He breathed a bit frantically, but tried to joke to his friends, “Added two PvP kills against level 80 players to our resume.”

“That makes a total of three for me,” Nubram snickered. He offered a fist to Tier which the hunter quickly answered with a fistbump.

“Hey, I got three as well, man,” Rushvatte protested. Behind him, Flick just shrugged in an all knowing fashion.

Helped by Zackhs, Tier rose up to his feet and glanced at his teammates. They were all safe and sound. A little bit of a more careful levelling would get them there and they have a whole week to finish it.

Then, he felt the cold embrace of void when he saw Manna. The girl was clearly frowning in concern, yet Tier was still very conflicted about her. One part of him felt like Manna had wasted the efforts and sacrifices done to help her. However, another part of him pointed out that Manna never asked for such a thing. She clearly said it doesn’t bother her much if her position were to be taken away.

It was just Tier’s own decision and presumption that led to this. His own fault. And that was exactly why he couldn’t deal with the crashing waves of his feelings.

“P-pras, I can explain…” Manna tried to talk.

However, Tier looked away as he still couldn’t face her straight. He took a deep breath to embrace himself with whatever words he could muster, “You saved Ega, that’s what matters.”

“I….”

Tier shook his head slowly as a sign for her that he was not ready for a talk. He himself was rather confused and he was afraid he would burst out of anger at her again. That would be unsightly to behold for anyone.

“By the way,” Tier said again, lying, “I-I need to rest. The Primal Unleash still took some toll on me. Cya.”

“Me too, Bro, too tired.”

Tier logged out almost at the same time with Renma. He then quickly lied down on his bed after letting Galung get in his room. His sleep was still an uneasy one as he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night without a clear reason why. He didn’t even remember his dream. With nothing else to do, he joined his father and brother to watch a La Liga match.

On Sunday, Pras didn’t bother to play in Zurefgar and chose to take a break. He spent most of the day just sitting around on the terrace facing the backyard while scratching the back of Danzo and Bozter’s ears.

“It is rare to see Pras not playing with friends,” said his mother who also sat down on the terrace, eating a fried banana. The sight of the fried banana had propelled Danzo and Bozer to sit facing her, hoping for a share of the snack.

“Pras is just feeling lazy, Mom,” answered Pras with a flat tone.

“Pras isn’t having a fight with Pras’ friends, right?”

“Of course, not.”

“Then? Pras’ face is gloomy.”

Pras sighed, he tried to let out the burden in his heart. “Pras just thought that sometimes we are not as great as we think, or we sometimes presume something but then in the end it’s just our assumption.”

“Well, for the first part, mother always told you,” his mother chuckled.

“Pras knows.” The teenager nodded lazily. “Don’t be too full of yourself, let other people acknowledge.”

“The latter part?”

Pras fell silent. He just nodded. The proverb’s second part is often neglected. It was telling people that learning is a lifelong process akin to the act of sweeping. Even if one had swept away all the trash, there will still and always be dust left.

Those kinds of things are always easier to be said than done. Only now did he realise that there are many things to learn from his friends. Even Manna’s often self centred approach on things. His problems might as well have started because of himself.

“And… for the second part, it’s definitely about a girl,” Pras’ mother snickered, “And my mother instinct told me that it’s Mana.”

Pras almost choked on his own breath when the guess was a clean headshot. He was unable to muster a single word of denial.

“She got a boyfriend or something?” his Mom pressed on.

“P-Pras doesn’t know.”

“Owh, then she must have done something that Pras assumed she wouldn’t do?”

Another shot, and it almost strikes clean to the target. Any more bugging from his mother would be too harsh on his mentality.

Pras stood up, and tried to find a reason while walking away, “Oh, yes, P-Pras has homework to finish. Ahahahaha….”

His mother just chuckled knowingly at the action of her third child. However, after Pras walked a few steps back into the house, his mother called, “Pras if Mother may tell Pras….”

“Y-yes?”

While patting Bozter, his mother told him, “Falling in love is normal, and it might let people be prolific. And that is okay. But you always have to respect relationships made between people. It’s not something to toy around and must be faced responsibly. Also….”

His mother turned to him and smiled. “A partner is someone who is willing to sync their pace with us.”

Pras nodded at the advice. Yet he cackled a bit, “Pras is still not allowed to have a girlfriend yet, right?”

“Mom will think twice if it’s Mana.”

Though those words were clearly a soft and simple joke, it did have a funny effect on Pras. He felt a bit warm and fuzzy yet melancholic since his condition with Mana didn’t improve at all. Even his assumptions on their closeness as friends was just his own.

His following days in life were rather uneventful. He still didn't talk as much with Mana, not even a greeting. Also, as he had expected, his friends reached level 80 before him which was on Tuesday night.

Pras continued his levelling as Tier with Renma on the remaining of the weekdays, along with the full protection from their friends who lurked around the area that they were levelling on, the far eastern mountains of Grand continent. They were fighting draconic creatures who were some sort of humanoid dragons. Some stood up on two feet, some were on four feet and had two extra hands.

Once in a while he saw his friends duelling each other to test their strength with their new equipment. Nubram took the Enlightened Catastrophe set. It’a a purple colored garb complete with cloak and a flame crown that makes his bald head shine even more.

Rushvatte took Swiftpaw's Primal Hide that was made from hardened leather which would take shape even when he changes forms, complete with a turtle shell shoulder pad. In his elven form, he has a grey cloak made of fur. He wears a claw weapon with one tip facing forward and two tips facing backwards which would serve as a wrist guard when he changes to animal form. There were some instances when he would combine the tip of his weapons and lunge like a drill.

Flick took the Rougeslayer set which has mixed parts but generally has a brownish red colour. The chest is made of a somewhat hardened leather, there is a scarf on his neck, and the lower legs part is covered in mail.

As for Macepaw, he took a lizard-themed armour named Wise Dragon’s Scales. And yes, he has another of those lizard-shaped helmets again.

Manna’s armour was the most distracting for Tier. She kept them all company and stood on guard when Tier and Renma were levelling, though she still didn’t talk much.

She wore the Sky Gladiator’s set which seemed rather heavy. It’s full plate armour completely colored in white and red with black crosses. Similar colour can be seen on the cloth she wears on top of her armour. She also wears a red scarf that emboldened her cuteness. Her full plated helmet was enchanted to change shape into a steel tiara.

And above all, she chose a pair of wings as her special equipment. The sight of her made it seem as if a valkyrie was really watching them all this time.

Her beauty had made Tier agonised about their current condition even more.

Finally, Tier and Renma reached level 80 during Friday night. Nubram quickly opened the portal for them and the two rushed to meet Steven. However, Tier already knew how things would turn out.

“I’m sorry dude, the best I can do is give you the equip, but it might not be enough for Clashing Realms,” Steven shook his head defeatedly when they finally registered. “You would need at least the snow jaguar as one of your abilities is designed specifically for it. Characters that aren’t complete are not allowed.”

“H-hey, can you make an exception?” Renma tried to protest.

Yet, Tier raised his hand a bit to stop his friend. “Even if I didn’t unlock its full potential?”

“What counts is that you have the right pet for the custom ability, whether you can use it or not, doesn't matter,” Steven said. He sighed. “I mean, I don’t know, dude, I still think you might have one final chance to get it before the registration closes on Saturday, but that might need a sheer amount of luck. And here I am hoping that another of Rosdan’s kind could join in Clashing Realms.”

Rosdan’s kind… the word made him remember the first time Steven approached him to talk about his anomalies. Seems that some players do have tendencies like him, which was first observed to happen with Rosdan - the supreme commander of Zurefgar’s side in Clashing Realms.

“So, uh…, what equip do you want?” Steven asked again. “Dude, that’s the least I can do.”

Tier fell silent for a moment. He knew this outcome would happen. But, why does he feel so much pain and disappointment? He wasn’t supposed to have some sort of expectation on this anyway.

With a rather shaky voice, he answered, “Royalstriker Spiked Carapace, Phantom’s Pillar for melee weapon, and Jaggedsteel Arc for bow.”

“Perfect choice,” Steven nodded. “Dude, you still have a chance tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Tier nodded and excused himself before the line before him got longer. Renma tried to approach and console him as they walked towards their friends. But then Tier decided to just log out before even talking with them. He just can’t face them all for now.