“Now, jokes aside, you sure you’re okay, my man?” Eggi asked once more. There were even more clear wrinkles of worry painted on his face.

Pras was fully aware that Mana’s encounter with her soon to be boyfriend might not be long. If he and Eggi stayed too long in this area, then the newly formed couple would see them and quickly deduce them as culprits of eavesdropping.

“Said it, you stink,” Pras quickly answered though his voice was rather shaky.

He stepped forward as fast as he could and turned at the corner towards the front corridor of the gym hall where there were more students around. Eggi followed him, grumbling in protest, calling Pras’ words detestable slander.

“What slander?”

Of course, as usual, Ega would just appear out of nowhere and jump into the conversation without knowing the context.

“He said I stink!” Eggi answered Ega with a furious tone as if Ega was the one who said he stinks.

“Physically? I am the one who stinks,” Ega cackled. “Personality wise, yeah, you stink.”

“Goddamnit, Ega!”

No matter how troubled his heart is, Pras somehow found it rather soothing to watch his friends interact. Sometimes he just forgot that he always had them around.

“Anyway,” Eggi turned to Pras as he strangled Ega with his arms like a pro wrestler - a strange sight considering Ega is the one more well versed in martial arts. With a chuckle, Eggi asked, “Wanna get lunch, my future brother-in-la….”

The last part of the sentence just triggers the anger that Pras had been holding down. He growled angrily like a rhino, causing the two Eg-s to step back cautiously.

“Geez, calm down, bro.”

“Ega, is it just me or a silhouette of a rhino just flashed in my eyes?”

Pras snorted, ignoring his friends’ comments and walked away. “I’ll take a quick lunch,” he said hastily.

Ega and Eggi scrambled to follow him without another word. Even after Pras had calmed down a bit and started joking, Eggi was still a bit awkward about it. Ega was rather quick to adjust nonetheless.

Pras got something quick to grab and ate as fast as he could while trying his best to joke and interact with the two Eg-s. Nevertheless, he was still not really in the mood to ease down. His mind kept wandering about Mana. He was also worried that Mana and her supposedly new boyfriend would land in the school cafeteria.

His expectation was half true. Mana appeared to step into the cafeteria soon after. But, she was alone.

“Sorry, gotta go,” Pras said hastily and he chugged down the remaining iced tea. “See you in Zurefgar.”

Before Ega nor Eggi managed to reply, he quickly took a complicated detouring route to put away the dirty dishes in order to avoid meeting Mana. His worry of Mana almost caught him off guard.

At the exit gate, he saw Diana casually walking into the school after talking with the guard. Not taking any chances of her forcing to drive him home, Pras hid in the library until Diana walked away towards the cafeteria.

As he walked past the gate, Pras started to wonder if Mana was using him to distract Diana away from her true candidate.

“Was she that evil, though?” Pras asked himself. Doubt started to grow within him, slowly dragging him into confusion of what to trust.

Inevitably, Pras' remaining days on that particular weekend was an uneasy one. He tried everything as sanely as possible to avoid thinking about the confession and the inevitable loss of his deskmate. He tried to take a longer route when he walked back home, wander aimlessly at the night market, and even went to the mall alone on Sunday to play a card game at a hobby shop as well as the fighter plane simulator at the arcade only to find that none of it worked.

He still felt miserable.

Even worse, Manna suddenly joined him during his playtime in Zurefgar on Sunday night. The paladin just appeared out of the blue, or darkness considering the condition of the plague continent, to rendezvous with Tier and Nubram on their quest at a dead marsh near Wanggar’s Landing - an outpost built by rakhs’ expeditionary force to help study and cleanse the wicked land. She even tried to interact with Tier only to get an awkward response.

Worst part was that she was tying her hair in a ponytail. This had caused a weird reaction in Tier’s heart. Part of him was still always in awe when he saw her, especially with the ponytail. However, a huge portion of his feelings turned to hatred, disgust, jealousy, and disappointment. The main target of those negative emotions was not Manna, though. It was him. He detested himself for ever longing to hold her hands.

Also, Tier couldn’t fathom as to why Manna suddenly approached him again. Didn’t she just get a boyfriend? Shouldn’t she focus on spending her time with that person instead? Did she come here all happy and go lucky just to taunt Tier even more?

Nubram seemed to sense something wrong as he arranged for Manna to help Rushvatte and Macepaw instead.

Nevertheless, Manna insisted, “Owh, I fail to see that any of you two have melee capabilities.”

“We don’t need melee,” Nubram hissed. “We can deal with most things from afar before it gets close. Eggi and Alvin are the worst things you could see working together.”

“They shall be fine,” Manna pressed on, “If things go south, you two are the most worrisome. My deskmate has not tamed any creature, he will have a harder wayforward.”

Tier stood motionless, also irked with Manna’s comment though it was true nonetheless. He is slowly being aware of that, especially after levelling up with Zackhs last week. Monsters and players are getting more deadly and bulky. If one could break through his traps and disabling capabilities, then he would be defenceless. He was in dire need of a companion beast. One that can finish the kill in one bite. A jaguar in the truest sense of the name.

He could just randomly tame a beast, but the timeframe won’t allow him to just do it. He won’t have time to change his pet if he is to be eligible for Clashing Realms. His character won’t be considered complete, and it wouldn’t be complete anyway. Therefore, he would just put his bet on what Steven said. The snow jaguar, even if he failed to unlock its true potential, he could do that later while at least having his character being considered complete.

Tier was stunned as his thoughts came into a weird direction. Since when did he get so invested to join Clashing Realms?

“Deskmate, I am asking you.”

Manna’s voice woke Tier from his bewilderment of his own thoughts. She seemed keen to stay with Tier and Nubram as she questioned again, “Hunters are vulnerable without their companion beast, am I right? Both of you need a melle assurance at higher levels like this.”

Tier sighed, at this point he just wanted to be as far from Manna as possible. He lied as he walked away, “No. Predator’s Tactics is the path of survivalist. I don’t need a companion beast nor any other companion…”

“Alas, was it because you have your senior, O’ deskmate?” Manna mocked him with her ever proud tone. Tier ignored it and kept walking away.

It was Nubram who retorted at her, “He has a name you know?”

And then, he warped away to chase Tier.

Manna didn’t pursue nor did she walk away based on what the minimap showed Tier. She just stood there as if motionless.

There was a hint of pity and regret striking Tier’s heart as he saw her unmoving until she was out of minimap range. He wondered if he was too harsh on her, yet also knew he couldn’t stand being around her too long for levelling because they had to interact in any way. Also, he felt bad for being too close around someone else’s girlfriend.

Nevertheless, it was his regret that haunted him for the rest of the night.