Renma went to Zurefgar earlier than his friends to take the boat to Gur’ash Marsh. He landed on Krussank Outpost.

The outpost was in a semi-circular shape, fenced by huge chunks of sharpened wood. There were watchtowers on every entry of the post, even the pier. There were small circular huts spread across the outpost, with one big and round main building situated at the post’ coast.

Renma’s quest tracker showed that the main building was the location where Ril’Dil stayed.

Just as Renma was about to enter the building, he wondered why he hadn't seen Tier yet. And his wishes came true in a rather annoying way.

That moment, there was a sudden chill running down Renma’s spine. He stopped when he saw a huge shadow in front of him.

The creature behind him snorted loudly near his ears.

Fearing the unknown, Renma leaped forward and turned towards the creature. It was a freaking gorilla. A huge one indeed.

“What the….”

Renma didn’t have the chance to finish his words when the Gorilla roared loudly and pounded its own chest ferociously.

It approached Renma and whispered menacingly, “Ba… na... na.”

“S-sure,” Renma opened his item and luckily he had some bananas that he offered towards the gorilla.

The gorilla snickered, “You know gorillas don’t really eat bananas, right?”

“Huh?”

The gorilla pointed at the space above his head which had clear letters of ‘T-I-E-R’. Now, Renma felt like a dumbass.

“How did you turn into a gorilla?”

“Apparently Ril’Dil sold some weird magic potion that can be used in this area, only for rakhs and orcs. That old NPC is kinda racist.”

“You spent your hard earned gold for that?”

“Worth it.”

Renma could only sigh. Ril’Dil selling something weird, why wasn’t he surprised? In any case, he still needed to meet that funky old priest trainer and just entered the main building. Tier followed him, he stopped talking and just acted like a real pet gorilla.

Renma had to admit it was kinda hilarious seeing people looking at him confused. He was clearly clad in cloth and wore a mask like priests do, but Tier’s acting was convincing enough for them to think that Tier was a sort of companion beast.

Before he talked to Ril’Dil - who was sitting away from other priest trainers - Renma whispered to Tier, “Remember to turn and act normal when Mana arrives.”

Tier the gorilla just snorted mockingly. He just picked his nose while smiling at Renma.

“At your own risk, bro,” Renma grumbled, then began talking with Ril’Dil.

Renma didn’t listen to the priest trainer at all since he was busy holding himself from laughing. The main reason was that Tier's acting was getting crazier.

The gorilla was messing around with his lips and created all sorts of weird grins. He picked a twig and started making horrifyingly bad drawings on the soil floor. He also jumped around and made some gorilla noises before rolling forward and lying down with his belly facing up.

Sometimes Renma wondered why he befriended Tier in the first place. Well, it’s been a while since Renma saw his friend that happy anyway, so he’ll let him be. His actions were still hilarious anyway.

It’s just that he didn’t know Manna could have such an impact on his friend. Though, Renma had to admit that Tier did seem to have cheered up a bit since they all started playing and levelling together. It’s pretty clear since he did throw more cynical remarks lately and concoct mischief on top of the weird stuff he did.

Anyway, Ril’Dil’s long lecture about spirit and stuff was just to ask Renma to gather some materials which are nine black wolf fangs, ten blood cherries, five peculiar citrus leaves, and 3 shards of sky crystal. Seemed like he would need to beat down a lot of various creatures to get those items.

“So, are you here to help me?” Renma asked at Tier.

The gorilla impersonator just clapped his hands and pointed towards the entrance. There, Renma saw Flick had just entered the main building. The most bizarre part was that Flick passed two elven female players that giggled after seeing him.

Flick’s really that handsome, huh?

“Yo, mah frenz.” Flick approached them with his ever confident grin. It took him a moment to observe Tier before asking, “How?”

Tier pointed at Ril’Dil. And as Renma would have guessed, Flick bought the potion and turned himself into a gorilla. Then, the two began to jump around frantically in excitement. Flick even followed Tier’s tendency to not talk in human language.

The peer pressure was too strong, therefore Renma also bought one. Which was kinda annoying for him since Ril’Dil babled about the materials Renma should’ve brought for his quest before letting him choose the option to buy stuff from the old rakhs.

Renma was disappointed that there were no other shape changing potions were being sold. Although there was a potion that seemed to cause the movement of a character to go haywire. Who would’ve bought that potion? Are they trying to get drunk in the game without really getting drunk?

Both Tier and Flick exclaimed in approval when they saw Renma turned into one of them. Then, accompanied by gorilla noises, Tier guided them towards the NPCs that gave them quests inside and outside the main building.

While Renma and Flick took the quests, the actions of the three steadily attracted the attention of other players around the camp. Including the two giggling elves that were infatuated with Flick earlier.

“How did you guys turn into a gorilla?” asked a male dark haired elf named Aiseman.

Renma was the first to break his gorilla character and answered, “Oh we bought potions from Ril’Dil, cost a gold, but I don’t think he would sell it to non-orcs and elves.”

“Aw, too bad.”

“95 silver,” Tier finally made a humanlike voice. He extended his arm asking for money.

“You sure?” Aiseman was clearly confused. So was Renma since the price Tier asked was lower than what the NPC offered.

Tier the gorilla pounded his chest in affirmation.

“Cool, I’ll buy five,” said Aiseman. The two quickly complete their transaction and Aiseman turned himself into a gorilla. “Awesome! Thanks for the discount, man.”

The word discount suddenly causes players to flock towards them. Tier happily sell them those gorilla potions. Some even asked him for some other items from Ril’Dil which they gladly would pay above the price.

It took Tier a while and several visits to Ril’Dil before people were done with their orders and the whole camp turned into gorillas. Even the two pretty female elves that were giggling at Flick were now gorillas.

During the whole ruckus, Renma and Flick continued to ask the NPC for quests.

“Don’t you lose money because of that?” Renma asked after the last customer turned into a Gorilla. Renma himself was still a gorilla just like other people.

Tier only answered with a smile while picking his nose using his pinky.

“Nevermind, I need to do these quests now,” Renma sighed. “Where are the others? Are we that early?”

“Yeeah,” Flick answered. “Ain't a problem, mate. These two lovebirds finished the majority of da quests here yesterday while having a romantic date. They gonna split up to help us today.”

At the mention of the romantic date by Flick, Tier scratched his head shyly. Renma’s head slightly twitched at that sight.

Flick continued, “A group of three it is, unless Alvin shows up.”

“When did you guys discuss that?”

“This mornin',” Flick affirmed. “You ain't listening.”

“Uhh… well.”

“Anywayz, let’z get going, boyz, Pras show da way.”

Tier nodded, then dashed northwards while giving signs for Renma and Flick to follow him. The latter two just realised the form was not just for show, it apparently increases their movement speed significantly. Not as fast as mount would, but fast enough for them to reach their target location in a relatively short time.

Renma had to admit that it was also much easier to handle the form’s movement than riding a mount. Which actually was very useful considering the field that they were passing through was obstructed by trees, roots, and rocks.

Apparently, Ril’Dil’s potion was actually useful. What a surprise.

They stopped at the first sight of a black wolf. Without further hesitation, Flick turned back to his real shape and opened the fight with [Sleek Strike]. Renma quickly helped him with [Holy Shock] and [Shadowblast].

It was a refreshing thing to play with Flick since he doesn’t receive much damage during fights, thus Renma could help on attacks though not much.

It’s just that Renma forgot Flick’s bad habit.

Right when Renma picked the loots - including black wolf's fang and surprisingly blood cherry - Flick had already started another fight with 2 wolves at once.

Renma scrambled to heal the rogue. Fick was definitely good against 1 opponent since he could evade swiftly. But against 2, whenever he evaded, the other opponent would take the opportunity to strike him.

In turn, Renma would just focus on healing. This caused the fights to become longer.

It was then, Renma felt a sudden pang in his head. He turned at Tier and saw the gorilla impostor was completely still. Tier’s eyes were blankly staring at the ground.

“Aren’t you here to help?” Renma protested.

Tier turned his massive head slowly at Renma. He grinned menacingly then started picking his nose with his pinky again.

“Bro, what the….”

“Ega, heal!”

“Damnit, [Guarding Radiance]! [Heal]!”

Renma regretted trying to make sense of what Tier was doing. He even started to get pissed at Flick because the rogue would jump into the next opponent right after they just beat the three wolves.

Further, he saw locations of hostile creatures appearing in his minimap even before the fight started. Was that a glitch?

They continued their plight against all sorts of creatures of the marsh with Flick finally agreeing to slow down while Tier was still acting like a passive gorilla. However, sometimes Flick did use his [Sleek Strike] to attack a target somewhere behind Renma.

Renma was not sure why Flick would do that and waste his gap closing ability just like that. Thankfully, everything went safely until they saw something rather bizarre.

There was a creature named Citruzea which was shaped like a walking citrus tree. Renma didn’t see any face so he didn’t know where the tree was facing, but it clearly was busy smacking its own branches at a mangrove tree.

“Let me guess, that thing had the citrus lead that I am currently looking for?”

“Ain't nobody got time to think for that? Let's just yolo,” Flick shrugged with supreme confidence then struck with [Sleek Strike].

The fight started awkwardly with Flick’s axe stuck on the tree’s bark. He struggled to pick it off while being whipped by the angry branches of the citrus tree. Renma was frantically trying to heal and give him a basic shield since [Guarding Radiance] was completely useless against a barrage of attacks coming from the branches.

It was a lengthy fight since Flick had to strike carefully to avoid his axe getting stuck again. In a stroke of a seemingly presence of mind, Flick even got the idea to start cutting the citruzea’s branches. The branches indeed kept regrowing, but Flick was consumed in a maddened rampage that he finally obliterated all of its branches before it could regrow again.

It happened when the tree had its HP drop to around a third of maximum. Which also miraculously causes the tree to stop moving. Flick didn’t bother with it and continued attacking even when the branches rapidly regrew.

“Bro, I think you should be worried about those things?” Renma warned. The tree also seemed to barely lose any HP from Flick’s relentless attack.

“Don't think, keep attacking mate. Before this weird ass tree goin' nutz.”

“Well, it actually did something weird.”

The tree shuddered, causing every single leaf of the regrown branches to fall. Then it went completely still. Flick was finally forced to stop as he realised his attacks were futile. Then a weird whistling sound was heard.

“Argh!”

Flick yelled in pain. The leaves suddenly created a vortex, causing rapid health decrease for Flick. Renma was lucky he’s outside the vortex of sharpened leaf blades.

Also, luckily Renma had long foresaw the weakness in focusing on shields. It even proved more true during the fight against Slicer yesterday. Thus, for the first time he will use this one well thought custom ability.

“[Righteous Devotion]!”

A circle and octagram pattern appeared around Flick as Renma extended his arms to point at the rogue. With the expense of his MP kept being drained, Flick's HP was constantly healed.

“Ultra nice!” realising that, Flick started his rampage on the now still tree.

The problem was, Renma forgot his mana was almost completely drained. Causing his ability to cease less than ten seconds after being casted.

“Really, Ega? At this kind of timing, mate?” Flick protested, though he kept attacking without caring for his HP.

“Well, duh! You attacked before I got the chance to properly restore my mana,”

“You ain't saying anything.”

Suddenly, Renma heard a movement from behind him.

“For real, guys? You wasted my potion’s duration. [Mark of Prey], [Quick shot], [Eagle Aim]!”