Nia's 6th qualifier match proceeded smoothly. She got some kills on Bot and Mid and also chased away the Monk, who has been dominating Top. The enemy team couldn't establish their footing for the rest of the game and Nia's team rode their momentum all the way to victory.

『VICTORY』

"Ok," Nia nodded. Now, she had 2 wins and 4 losses. Not exactly an amazing score but she was getting toward that sweet 50-50 ratio. The last thing she wanted was to end up in Bronze. Everybody said that place was MMR hell. Scary.

For her 7th match, some schmuck stole her Jungler role again. Nia called the role as soon as the selection screen loaded but the guy just went ahead and took it anyway. Everybody online was a bully.

This time, she ended up as the Carry. This wasn't so bad, actually. Marksmen were kinda like ranged assassins. They usually didn't have as much single-target burst, but their basics were fast and hit like a truck, so they were fun to play.

"Ranger is ok?" Nia asked.

"Yeah, it's fine," Yuel nodded. "What's wrong? You’re not consulting Tipmancer's tier list this time?"

"Figured you know the tier list like the back of your hand so it’s faster to ask."

"Heh, I see," Yuel wasn't sure how to feel about it but it was probably a good thing, right? Little by little, Nia grew to trust his knowledge and opened up to him. That’ll make it easier to teach her new things going forward.

Yuel is a pretty good app. Nia nodded to herself. It's faster to ask him stuff than to search on Tipmancer. I better use him for everything. Ez life.

The upcoming match seemed promising. She nabbed herself a Ranger and she had the trusty Yuelmancer app in hand, which knew literally everything there was to know about the game. The odds were in her favor. Or, so she thought.

"Eh? What's he doing?" Nia blinked. Her Support, the Paladin, just straight up charged into enemy territory all by himself. Um, hello? You forgot to ping that you’ll be attacking...

『An ally has been killed!』

"Derp," Nia mumbled.

"Derp indeed," Yuel nodded. "I have a bad feeling about this match."

Unfortunately, Yuel's hunch was on point. That Paladin was a total wack. He kept aggressing during random situations without any shot-calls. He always either wound up dead or get heavily injured, barely getting away thanks to Nia’s help. It was a shitshow.

"Supports are the worst," Nia pouted.

"Ahem," Yuel cleared his throat. "I play Support."

"Ah. Well, I hope you play good Support."

"I'm much better than this Paladin, that much I guarantee."

Thanks to the Paladin's amazing supporting, Nia constantly found herself in 1v2 situations and eventually lost the lane.

『An allied Turret has been destroyed!』

No amount of advice from Yuel could possibly fix this predicament. When one player on the team was playing stupid and it was the Support of all people, the team was doomed.

『DEFEAT』

"Fun," Nia dropped back on the chair and put down the controller. "That's enough for today."

"You've only played three matches," Yuel said.

"Yeah, that's a lot..." Nia used her small palm to cover a yawn. "Nap time." She curled into a ball on top of the chair and fell silent.

"Don't sleep here."

"Zzz."

Wait, did she literally fall asleep like that? Yuel raised an eyebrow.

The girl became a black hairball. Her faint breathing could barely be heard under her long spaghetti hair. It was such an odd sleeping posture. Did she practice it at home? If not, it was a miracle she could fall asleep like this.

"What's wrong?" Kai asked. "Did you knock her out with your lectures?"

"I did no such thing. She just said she needed a nap so there she is, napping."

"Huh?"

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Yeah, exactly. She flat out passed out in this awkward posture."

"Huh, alright then," Kai didn't even know what else to say. "So, how is her qualifier?"

"Two wins, five losses"

"I thought you’re here to help her glide through it."

"I'm no magician. Not much I can do about Junglers who don't gank and Supports who have no brain."

"Fair enough," Kai nodded. "So, how is she? Pretty good, right?"

"She's alright," Yuel said. "There's still a lot to work on but she's willing to learn, that's the most important thing."

"Yeah, exactly," Kai nodded. "So, it's official. Nia is the new member of Stratus."

"No objections here," Yuel said.

"Splendid!" Vincent spread his arms theatrically. "The Vanishing Phantom joins the Den of Undiscovered Potential! With her on the team, we shall be able to deliver invisible ganks!"

"Sick, yo!" Lars exclaimed even though he probably had no idea what this was even about.

"That's cool and all," Luke said. "But, that'll only be relevant in like two years, right? After all, you got yours truly for jungling."

"Oh," Vincent lowered his hands. "Yes, indeed. We already got ourselves the Meme Jedi! Maybe the Vanishing Phantom can be a secret tech in some matchups or something."

The Meme Jedi, huh. Yuel wondered. There was no denying that Luke was a solid player and he played his memes well. But, memes were memes. No matter how effectively one could wield a Rogue in Ranked, the enemies at the competitive scene will eat it alive. Luke’s memeing skills might be enough to take out some weaker teams but they'll not work on the strongest teams in the region.

So, something had to change. Either Luke will have to pick classes which were at least mid-tier or, perhaps, Nia will have to play Jungler instead.

Can we really entrust her with something like that? Yuel shuddered. It sounded like suicide. With that said, Nia definitely had the knack for being an assassin-type Jungler and she was willing to learn. If Yuel tutors her well, Nia might become strong enough to play as the team’s Jungler this year.

But, Luke is one year of experience ahead of her and he can learn new things as well. Decisions, decisions. Yuel couldn’t tell what will be the best for the team. The best-case scenario would be for Luke to start using legit Jungler classes while Nia improves enough to be a viable secret tech. I need to try working on both fronts at the same time. Though, I promised to not nag Luke about his meme picks for a while, so I’ll focus on Nia for now.

Time passed by. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours. Nia kept sleeping on the chair like a hairball. It was bizarre but apparently it worked for her.

Meanwhile, Yuel joined the others for a few games in Ranked. After they finished five games, the spaghetti hair monster woke up from her extended slumber.

“Ah,” Nia’s little eyes peered through her long bangs. She looked kinda drunk. “Ah, oh.” She fished in her bag and took out a bar of chocolate. Crunch. Crunch. She slowly bit away at it like a hamster.

“You awake?” Kai asked.

“Yep,” Nia nodded. An electrifying jolt shot through her after she finished the bar of chocolate. The sweetness spread through her body and tickled her senses.

“We’re wrapping up for today,” Kai announced.

“Oh, I see.”

“You should keep playing at home,” Yuel said. “Finish that qualifier so you can join us in Ranked tomorrow. If you need more advice, you can come play at my place.”

“Whew whew!” Luke whistled. “Somebody here is a predator!”

“Huh?” Yuel blinked.

“Disgusting,” Kai scoffed at him for some reason.

“What did I do now?” Yuel frowned. “I just want to help her in the qualifier and teach her new things along the way.”

“Oh, I’m sure you gonna teach her aaaaall sorts of stuff.” Luke winked.

“Shame on you, inviting a lady you’ve just met to your place,” Vincent shook his head. “Not very gentlemanlike of you.”

“Yeah, Yuel is a bold bro,” Luke nodded. “The girl just joined and dude is already hitting on her! Haha.”

“Scary,” Nia created some distance and eyed Yuel with suspicion.

“Wha, that’s not...” Yuel sighed. “She just got a lot to learn about the game and I’m sure I can teach her. There are no ulterior motives here. Besides, we won’t even be alone. Lars will be there as well.”

“So, it’s a threesome!?” Luke jumped.

“I’m disappointed in you,” Kai averted her eyes as if Yuel was too disgusting to even look at.

“Hey now,” Lars intervened. “Don’t do my dude dirty like that. He’s already married.”

“Oh, so you two already married? Congrats” Luke clapped.

“Haha, dude, pls,” Lars lightly smacked Luke on the back. “Our dude Yuel here is married to Mancers! He ain’t gonna cheat on the game with some girl.”

“Indeed, indeed,” Vincent nodded with profound understanding.

“Yeah, he’s a total Mancer nerd,” Luke agreed. “We shall dub him Nerdmancer!”

“Makes sense,” Kai nodded. “Sorry for doubting you like that.”

“So,” Yuel narrowed his eyes. “Are we done with the ‘making fun of Yuel’ hour? I just wanted to help Nia improve but okay, fine. I suppose it was indeed premature of me to ask a girl I’ve just met to come to my place. No need to make me out like some Cassanova for it. I guess Lars and Ben are the only ones who believe in me.”

“Oh, um, I just...” Ben mumbled. He has been standing on the side the whole time without saying a word. “You really like giving advice so I figured it’s just that.”

“Yes, exactly. At least somebody here is on my side,” Yuel scoffed. “Anyway, jokes aside, feel free to come over if you want some help.”

“I dunno about that,” Nia was still giving him funny looks. She didn’t happen to take the jokes seriously, did she? Sigh.

“It’s alright, no need for that,” Kai said. “You can come to play at my place instead. I’ll teach you stuff. That’s safer than staying at that predator’s place, don’t you agree?”

Will these guys drop it already!? Yuel waved an angry fist.

“Hm, ok,” Nia nodded to Kai’s words.

And she accepted, just like that. Yuel sighed. He had to admit defeat here. All he wanted was to help Nia with learning Classmancers. He had no ulterior motives whatsoever. Sigh. Whatever.

Yuel just had to wait until Nia trusts him enough to start joining him and Lars for their afternoon practice. At her current level, she definitely needed that extra boost of training to catch up to the rest. Hopefully, she’ll understand that eventually...