The call for afternoon prayer was heard from a nearby mosque as Pras finished cooling his head down. It reminded him that the day was already late and he might need to take Mana home as ordered by his mother.

When he returned to Mana, she was calmly watching the futsal game. Perhaps she was indeed possessed earlier, or maybe it was Pras’ own twisted thoughts that made him suspect that Mana tried to kiss him. In his own logic, it was way overboard for Mana to do that. However, half of him was assuring that he was facing Mana in this condition, a girl who jumped headstrong into something once she felt the moment was right.

Yet, what kind of thing had triggered her to think that it was the right moment to throw a kiss? They are not even dating. Does suspecting him as the person she saved years ago had such an impact?

If the latter was true, then Pras had to embolden his grit to never tell Mana about that truth.

“H-hey, i-it's getting late, should I fetch you back home?” Pras asked,” I-I mean, my mother would hang me upside down if I didn’t make sure you reached home safely.”

Mana looked up at Pras, she nodded a bit. “That is kind of you both.”

She was unmoving. Her eyes were still gazing towards the futsal players who took a break. Pras was standing still next to her, he was on his toes, ready to move towards the LRT station. He didn’t dare to push Mana and decided to just silently wait for her to start moving.

He promptly decided that Mana might not want to move yet because she was kind of exhausted. As far as he knows, exhaustion is a common symptom of people who are possessed.

Pras’ eyes started to wander around in search of any topic or distraction against his own thoughts. How could he even forget that, though? The way she breathed heavily still rang very clearly in his ears. The emboldening of the sweet fragrance he caught when she slowly got closer was unforgettable. Part of him started to regret his passiveness. And that’s why he rapidly shook his head to clear his mind.

When his eyes caught a glimpse of an orange flavoured soda can on a nearby vending machine, his thoughts blabbered an idea.

“Hey,” he said to Mana, “Is orange called orange because orange is orange?”

Finally, there was a reaction from Mana. She turned her head at Pras and stared blankly. That moment, Pras knew he had made a total mess.

Mana looked away disappointedly. She said in an almost whispering manner, “My mistake, that must have been traumatising for you to force yourself to forget it.”

“Eh?” Pras frowned in confusion. He started to wonder if Mana’s silence was a sign of expectation of a proper response after the incident. Almost being kissed by someone he liked so much wouldn’t be a traumatising event.

Grasping for words, he tried to clear up the misunderstanding, “No, no, I mean….”

“My apologies,” Mana said sternly as she stood up, “Please forget my recent action, I was… confused… It was a heat of the moment kind of thing. I do not mean it that way.”

It hurt. The words from Mana stabbed Pras’ heart more deeply than he thought it would. Perhaps, this was the pain that Mana felt earlier due to his actions. Enforcing himself the idea that he was a fool, he confirmed that at least the core issue with Mana had been solved. There was a misunderstanding before as well as now, though the current one might not seem as fatal.

“You loved the person you saved before, didn't you?” Pras stepped forward then turned to Mana, forcing a smile he continued, “Wouldn’t it be better for you to save it for them or perhaps someone who you love deeply? Someone worthy.”

In that instant, Pras could’ve sworn he saw a bit of tears start to swell in Mana’s eyes. The image had been etched in his mind, and continued making him question if he had said the right words. He couldn’t stop himself to wonder if the one that Mana loved was him.

Alas, perhaps it was just a tall tale for him to dream. Yet, he couldn’t just stop the flooding feelings that asked him to act. He wanted to stride forward and hug her, telling her how much he had admired and wished to hold her hand as her lover.

He could do that and he might succeed, but he thought that she was confused. Performing exactly that would just mean he took advantage of her condition. And he couldn’t stomach the feeling of manipulating someone so precious in such a manner and aim.

And that moment, he could only reaffirm his stance and swallowed the clear pain from Mana’s visage. For truth to be told, the words he said hurt him more than it might have hurt her.

Mana nodded, she walked forward while looking down, “Yes. I-I have to go home now, Dia-nee would be worried.”

“I’ll accompany you.”

“Thank you, deskmate. You are always considerate.”

“I-I’m just following my mother’s advice, or threat.”

The two walked to the nearest LRT station without a single word thrown between the two other than necessary stuff. Pras at first mused if the decision might be a bad one since it seemed to make both of them uneasy. But then, he was thankful that he followed his mother’s advice. Mana was a bit clueless regarding the LRT as this is the first time she actually rode it.

She’s a smart girl, Pras knew she would figure it out in no time even if she went alone. It was just that accompanying her and helping her kind of made it easier for him to come to terms with his choice.

They went to Damar Kecil station and then walked towards an rather elite residential area which previously was part of an island named Damar Kecil.

Mana’s house was located quite near Eggi’s home. It was a medium sized two-story house painted in white. There was Diana’s SUV parked in the front garage.

Diana herself was stoked to see Pras accompanying Mana home. She even insisted for Pras to have dinner there or even sleep over. Both options were definitely a no-go for Pras, thus he refused by bringing up his mother’s threat to him.

Before Pras left, Mana finally spoke to him, “Deskmate, regarding Clashing Realms… I have checked it, snow jaguar should respawn before the registration closes. I can help.”

“It’s okay,” Pras said with a forced smile. “We can always play together with everyone even outside Clashing Realms, you know?”

Mana drew a deep breath then said with a sincere smile, “I did not lie when I said I will wait.”

Pras nodded and waved her a bye-bye. He walked hastily towards the LRT station. For weeks of making problems with and recently hurting her, Pras didn’t have the courage to trouble her anymore. Yet, it was her recent visage that had been etched to his mind.

After he was sure Mana couldn’t see him, he stopped, turned to look at her house and asked, “Why do you have to be so beautiful that it hurts to love you?”

“I really want to thank you properly,” he whimpered, “I want to tell you how much I liked you since the first time we met at school. Perhaps, from your eyes, it's always seen as the other way around is it?”

“Damnit, you coward!”

Pras cursed at himself. He took a moment to control his breath and continued his journey back home with haste. After that emotion he let out, there was a brand new determination that flared within him.

Everyone had been worried about him the last few weeks. He felt that it would be such a waste to not try once more.

“No,” he whispered to himself, “This is not for other people, this is for you.”

After he went home, took shower, and had his dinner; Pras logged in to Zurefgar.

First step he did was to recheck on the respawn time, confirmed with Steven that he would be eligible for Clashing Realms even if he didn’t managed to unlock the full potential of snow jaguar as long as he tamed it, and took the equipment sent to him via mail for his levelling rewards.

The Royal Striker Spiked Carapace set was a dark colored brigandine armour with several blades sprouting from it - mainly from the back. The helmet was crowned with three blades protruding backwards. The armour set was the heaviest yet gave significant bonus in armour value, dexterity, and intelligence as well as reflect damage to melee attackers.

His staff was the Phantom’s Pillar, a steel staff which was semi invisible. It has a huge bonus on intelligence followed by dexterity and strength. The weapon has rather high base damage on itself since it can phase through any hard surfaces, thus could act as a pseudo spear. It was supposedly an item on par with the best weapons around. But, since nobody would use it due to its weird stats, it was allowed to be given to players who managed to fulfil the levelling challenge.

As for his bow, it was the Jaggedsteel Arc, a rather massive longbow with a front cover full of spikes. Not the best in slot for most hunters, but definitely great for hunters like him with its higher critical strike chance bonuses and higher damage per shot.

Then he paid a wizard to open up a portal to Coalslope. However the orcish wizard named Gurgah saw him talking with Steven earlier and guessed that Tier would want to tame the snow jaguar, thus he gave it for free.

Tier really started to wonder if he had some weird luck with meeting overly nice people in this game.

Coalslope was a miner city located at the outer valley of the mountain surrounding Nefelein Valley. It was akin to Silveraxe but the buildings were made of stone and steel. There was a massive blizzard when he arrived, which caused the dwarven guards of the city to warn him not to go out.

Tier of course ignored it and galloped as fast as he could towards the location of the snow jaguar. Yes, it was dangerous. But, it gave him the perfect opportunity since it would stave off people from trying to get snow jaguar.

He arrived at the location mere moments before the jaguar respawned. And, despite the harsh cold blizzard, he felt a little bit of warmth when the jaguar finally respawned and he didn't see anyone else around.

The way the jaguar appeared was rather unique. First it appeared in an ethereal form, thus making it semi-transparent. It walked in a circle over the location where its supposed dead body was located, then slowly became corporeal.

The sight made Tier wonder regarding the puzzle to unlock its true potential, not to mention the feline soul-like shape near the northern light pillar in graylands and the weird labyrinth he saw there.

Nevertheless, Tier had something else to think of now. He could try to break the mystery later as now he needed to tame the jaguar. Slowly, he walked crouching to not startle the creature.

Then, his instinct kicked in. He jumped evasively as he felt something accelerating towards him from the side.

It was two axes that almost hit him. The two pierced the snowy land before him and created a net made of lightning between him and the jaguar. The sight of the ability made Tier’s heart sink.

“Seriously, trash? You stormed off the blizzard alone for that thing? Too bad, our client wanted it first.”

Slicer’s shouting was heard among the howling wind of the blizzard. Moments later, he felt the rogue had lunged on him. He was late to avoid, thus making him struck by Slicer’s attack while also damaging the rogue due to the spikes on his armour.

“Who on earth uses that armour set? You really are trash!” Slicer spat then lunged once more.

This time, Tier was ready to avoid. However, there was a loud clang heard as Arkengrad appeared between him and Slicer and parried the latter’s attack.

“What are you doing here coward?!” Slicer protested.

“Getting merits,” Arkengrad said calmly while Tier struck an arrow at Slicer.

Utilising her glowing swords, Arkengrad pressed forward and managed to push Slicer back. She then turned southwards at the silhouette of other players walking towards her and Tier. From the silhouette, Tier could guess they were Lyra’s gang with few extras.

Arkengrad shouted, “You can finish your contract with that bastard later, Lyra, let us have this one!”

Lyra appeared from the thick blizzard accompanied by Xildur, Zullvic, and DeusVult. The extra people who were with her was Mal’esh and two of his fans, probably. They were a female human priest named Hilbot and a dark haired elven rogue named Ikillyou.

“In the end you also betrayed me,” said Lyra with a disappointed grunt, “You really that eager to be accepted again by the same people who threw you away? They will do the same thing.”

“Being thrown away or not,” Arkengrad prepared her stance defensively. “I’ll try it once more, and save thinking of regrets for later. Now, this boi here also needs the jaguar to qualify, let us have it for now.”

“I have more reasons to stop that kid getting the same treatment like us as well as getting to fulfil my contract,” said Lyra menacingly. Embers and lightning started to swirl around her arms.

“Enough talk, let it be finished! [Faith Shaker!]”

DeusVult seemed to lose his patience and finally dashed forward. The elf smacked the ground with his weapon, causing heavy shaking and a big wave of light to dash towards Tier and Arkengrad.

Tier rolled sideways to avoid. But, when he recovered, he saw Slicer was already in front of him with both weapons ready to kill.

“Time to die, trash.”