Pras finished playing with Ega around 9 PM then lied down on his bed after letting in Galung and Bozter to his room. Levelling with his friend does feel better than going alone. At least he spent less time thinking about all sort of things. Though, now he started to think about that one female paladin he saw earlier.

“It’s impossible that it was her, right?”

No one answered his question.

Well, he’d be freaked out if there was a reply anyway since the only creature that can speak human language in this room is only him. He fell asleep not long after deciding that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. As for the two creatures mentioned by Steven, he’ll check on it later.

The sequential school days happened quite smoothly because Pras didn’t need to avoid his friends unless Eggi started persuading Pras to join Clashing Realms again.

His morning at school started with a short archery training at the archery club room in the gym building. The building itself consists of 3 separate areas, which is the basketball court, badminton court area - which also serves as volleyball court - and the supposedly gymnastic areas. Rumor has it that the ‘founding fathers’ of the archery club claimed the room for their club usage. Some legends even mentioned that they locked themselves in the room until their demand was given.

Pras wondered if some of it were true considering some cynical views people had towards members of the archery club.

Usually, after short training or when he felt lazy, Pras spent his time playing a monster card game with Ega. The first break is usually spent with similar activity or playing chess against Pitoy. The first break is when Pras finished the toast he brought from home.

The lunch break was rather hectic as Pras and his friends often had to rush to the cafeteria and strategize to get a good place to sit together. After that, back to card games and chess again.

As for studies, things went quite well. None was too hard for him.

Of course his days won't be complete without some random madness happening in his class like the rubber band war that happened because one boy randomly hit another. It also won't be satisfactory without him taking chances to admire Mana from afar as always. Weirdly enough, Pras saw Mana glancing at him several times.

While that might cause some boys at his age to feel happy and confident, it had the reverse effect on Pras. First, he would’ve thought that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Then he would assume that he had done something wrong that offended her. And in the end, would accept that everything happened not due anything else but him being a fool.

Also, because a new semester has just started, on every dinner Pras parents kept on advising Pras to be able to manage his time well and be diligent in his studies.

“Remember our proverb,” said his father while munching a gado-gado - an Indonesian kind of salad with peanut dressing.

“Eda ngaden awak bisa, depang anake ngadanin, Pras know,” Pras cut his father’s word by inciting the exact proverb that his parents kept telling him since childhood. The words meant that someone shouldn’t not be so full of himself and should let other people admit one’s proficiency.

Pras didn’t know if that proverb was telling the right advice or not. But he did fall hard due to him being full of himself. Pride is not something he should have even the slightest trace of in his heart. Lest, he would be once again like that time.

“Don’t forget the later part,” his mom snickered. “geginane buka nyampat, anak sai tumbuh luhu….”

“... ilang luu buke katah, Yadin ririh, Enu liu pelajahin,” Pras’ father mused, closing the proverb.

Pras sighed. The parts mentioned by his parents simply meant that learning is similar to sweeping, there will be trash to sweep away every day. Even when the trash was gone, there would still be dust. Someone who is knowledgeable would still have a lot of things he would need to learn.

He decided to just mumble in agreement, nod, and continue eating while his parents changed the topic of conversation soon after.

Pras continued his study after dinner before continuing to level up Tier’s character whether his friends play with him or not. When alone, he chose to fight the weaker opponents and easier missions in the Grand Savannah.

However, sometimes he tried fighting opponents with the same or higher level to gain more information for his profession, thus eventually making the fight against those opponents easier later on when he played with his friends. Anything that he thought would make his friend’s levelling experience smoother will be performed and viewed as his core duty in the game.

Among his friends, Fathan is the most diligent one in playing, followed by Eggi. However, they often play late in the night. Alvin is the least often seen. According to Fathan, he once saw Macepaw only very early in the morning with a level slightly higher than everyone in their group barring Tier. Of course, Alvin would just avoid the questioning when being confronted.

That information actually made Pras wonder who was more crazy, Alvin who played very early in the morning or Fathan who accidentally saw him at such an hour - which would imply a rather concerning condition where the handsome teenager could not sleep until morning or only sleep so little.

During Saturdays, only extracurricular activities are performed at their school. In the morning, Pras took a French language class which happened to be taken by Mana as well. He would then proceed with archery.

The archery room was located at the western part of the gym and lengthwise covered the entire length of the gym building. As a result, they would always need to turn on the lights in the morning due to the sun's position making the room too dim. At least it was wide enough to let 4 people shoot simultaneously.

The thing about the archery room is that the only entry to the place was connected to the badminton court. Mana took badminton extracurricular, therefore Pras often would find himself seeing Mana when he went to the room or when he was taking a break.

The sight of Mana playing in friendly matches was always breathtaking for Pras. She would appear to be more beautiful with how she was so energetic and ‘alive’ when she played badminton. There was a certain brightness in her eyes that captivated Pras.

Because he was too tired with archery on the 20th of January, Pras fell asleep a bit early and only played very late in the night while his friends played much earlier.

Tier finally reached level 40 and took the chance to reset his path by discussing with Bur’ru since the [Eagle Aim] ability was apparently finished and ready to be used.

“I’m sure you be having great thoughts about this, my good friend. Be sure to return to me when you be having a change of mind,” said Bur’ru when helping Tier resetting his points allocation.

Due to his rather extra confidence in the new ability, Tier ventured a little deeper into the savannah. There, the savannah was inhabited by some sort of a standing bull named minotauros. Their level was around 44 to 46 with their HP, abilities, and stats still hidden because this is the first time he faced them. Thus his profession hasn't revealed those details to him.

It was rather risky, but Tier considered that he might still survive several hits with his current HP - which was 4100 points.

Nevertheless, Tier chose to be a bit careful by setting [Claw Trap], attacking the minotauros who was the furthest from the others, then continuing unleashing arrows when it got trapped.

Currently, Tier’s attack dealt around 800 damage to the minotauros. He saw it cut around one tenth of the minotauros HP bar. He predicted they might have around 9000 hit points. This should be relatively quick with the help of his poisoned arrow shot.

Thinking too much about the minotauros' unknown power had caused Tier to not realise that the creature had already broken free from his trap much faster than expected.

“What the… [Ankle…”

The creature was far faster than what it seemed for it’s massive body. Tier cancelled his attack and tried to step aside. However, he was too late. The massive momentum of the standing bull hit him hard.