The centre of Evermist Ocean always drew Nubram’s attention whenever he got sight of it during his seaborne trips across the continents. It was a mysterious part of the middle ocean in Zurefgar that had an ever present thick swirling mist.

Rumor has it that a player that tried to canoe his way to it got attacked by vicious kaiju-like monsters and had trouble getting resurrected since they have to walk as a spirit all the way from the ocean to the nearest dry land. Several more attempts were performed only to meet the same fate.

The developers kept their mouths shut about it, thus the players wondered if it would be part of an upcoming expansion named ‘Phantom Radiance’.

Nubram himself was stoked by the idea of fighting a kaiju-like monster. If the developers were to ever open the area, that would be one hell of a raid.

Lost in his thoughts, the cold northern wind slapped Nubram back to his immediate surroundings. Standing at the front of the deck, Nubram now could see the silhouette of silvery landmass. It was also then that he realised there was something missing.

He turned around and saw barely anyone else was there with him at the front deck. “Where are they?” he mused to himself.

There was a strong pulse of disappointment on his forehead when he realised his friends left him behind just like that. Even other players disappeared. Nubram swore he saw many of them boarding the ship. Did they all jump down the ship midway to try to fight the kaiju?

That might be something his friends would do, especially with Tier, Flick, and Macepaw on board. However, one condition had cancelled that possibility.

There was one soul left on the front deck, located near the right stairs towards the middle part of the deck. Manna was there, sitting solemnly doing God knows what.

As far as Nubram was concerned, the insane paladin would be the first one to jump at the opportunity of fighting a giant kaiju. Thus, her still being here would prove otherwise. That is, unless her recent conflict with Tier was strong enough to stop her from a kaiju fight. Which Nubram was sure won't be a sufficient reason.

Thus he walked steadily towards Manna, with an intention to ask about the others. Yet, something had stopped him.

Manna was weird… beyond what she usually was. She was staring down lifelessly at the blades of her pollaxe. Her hand absentmindedly sharpened the blades with some sort of glowing crystals. There was an eerie serenity emanating from her, menacing enough to make Nubram shiver from head to toe and promptly cast a mobilisation spell to get out.

“[Warp], uagh!”

Nubram failed to take precautions on the movement of the ship when he warped to the back part of the ship, causing the fence on the deck to smack him hard in the face.

“For real, Toy? You are too lazy to walk here?” Renma commented while scratching the nose part of his mask. “You could’ve fallen to the sea, you know?”

“Shut up, boar!” Nubram growled angrily. He then turned to Tier who was clearly struggling with seasickness. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, you know! Just apologise already,” he said.

“For what?” Tier snapped back. “For her lies?”

Nubram realised how Tier’s mood turned foul recently after they duelled and Manna appeared before they boarded the ship to Farenoth. Therefore he didn’t press on the demand. However, there was another soul who had no awareness of such things and just talked his mind out.

“What lies?” Renma sighed, somehow the expression on his mask changed. “Also you definitely need to apologise for dissing her chocolates and good gestures. I’m pretty sure the whole chocolate thing was aimed for you specifically and she just used the whole class as a facade.”

“Oh! Sure, an elaborate joke and lies specifically aimed at me. What a wonderful gesture. And just a reminder, that chocolate wasn’t even mine.”

“Yeah, bro, but you did diss her chocolate in general.”

“She was the one who lied to me first!” Tier roared and stomped away towards the middle part of the deck. He didn’t bother to listen to any more words from his friends who tried to calm him down.

However, soon after he returned and grumbled, “I did ask for forgiveness and she didn’t budge. She just stared at her pollaxe as if she was preparing that very thing to skewer me. Am I still the bad guy here?!”

Then he stormed off again. With that, Nubram and the others just sighed in unison and changed the topic.

Nubram started to think that it might not be a good idea to continue tonight's gaming session. Or, perhaps he needed to split Manna from going together with Tier. The two could kill each other in this kind of condition.

Not long after, the ship disembarked at the only port city of the continent, Silveraxe.

Like its name implied, the city was silvery due to the polished metal structures and the blanketing snow. The buildings were shaped similar to an igloo made of stone and metal, complete with their own chimneys. And, since it’s Valentine’s day, there were also many heart and red colored ornaments being put.

As far as Nubram was concerned, there were also costumes on sale in relation to this celebration. There were also some special raids available for max levelled players and, most importantly, more EXP gain for people in a group.

Thus Nubram steeled himself to continue with the plan to keep playing despite the disharmony that happened between two of the groups’ members. However, the issue seemed to be quickly solved when Tier quickly disappeared among the crowds after telling Nubram that he wanted to be alone.

“If you need help, just tell us,” said Nubram as he waved at Tier. There was nothing much he could do. Perhaps going alone might be a better choice for Tier. Not to mention the hunter seemed to have a knack of getting a group with random people. Tier should be safe.

Aside from getting missions from NPCs, Nubram was also busy looking for the wizard trainer NPC who should teach him how to make a portal and teleportation spell to this city. However, the NPC was nowhere to be seen around the supposed place of the trainer.

Luckily, Tier suddenly told him via long range whisper telling him that the wizard trainer might be at the bar. As expected of the loremaster, the trainer was indeed in the bar.

Surprisingly, the wizard trainer was an elven guy who was dead drunk among the dwarves.

“Culture shock, huh?” Nubram mumbled to himself as he sighed at the sight. It took him a while to finally get the spells he wanted because the trainer kept getting distracted during conversation. Nubram never thought that the developers would go an extra mile to make such a drunk elf feel realistic.

After they were all done getting their quests, they gathered near the stone gate on the northern part of Silveraxe. Surprisingly, Manna opened the conversation with a question that Nubram thought she wouldn’t ask in such a condition.

“Where’s my deskma…” Manna stopped halfway and switched her words when she glanced at Nubram, “... Pras?”