Tier finally jumped into the fray, a target mark appeared on the tree followed by an arrow hitting its bark. Renma could only watch and hope the actions of the now level 45 hunter could turn the tide.

Renma didn’t fully understand why, but Tier’s barrage had somehow helped Flick to deal more damage. Especially when occasionally a soft golden mark appeared at the point where Tier’s attack had landed.

“Than, now!”

“Giga nice!”

Flick quickly understood the meaning of the mark. He struck with all his might to the point, causing a critical hit and an even bigger damage than usual. Not long after, the citruzea was finally defeated by Flick’s [Extreme Collision].

And Flick was still alive.

“Extreme!” both Flick and Tier exclaimed as they turned away from the citruzea. They crossed their arms, shaping the letter ‘X’.

“You could’ve done that sooner, you know?” Renma protested while taking the loots - especially citrus leaves - from the bark of citruzea. He tried to ignore the posing being performed by the other two rakhs.

“Come on, I thought you guys could handle that, and I also don’t want to waste my potion’s duration. At least I marked them for you before the fights. Except this one tree,” Tier defended himself with flurry of excuses,

Renma didn’t answer and just stared menacingly at Tier. On the other hand, Flick was very excited.

“Ay yo, was that the Flawed Scale talent from Predator’s Tactics?”

“Yup, yup.”

“Mate, that’s Tera nice. Guaranteed critical with extra damage is awesome.”

“Your reflex to it is also nice, brudda.”

The two attacker-classed rakhs pointed at each other using both of their index fingers while raising their shoulders. Considering all this mess, Renma could’ve sworn that the two would gladly keep their gorilla form if they could.

Also the sight had revealed something weird. Renma just realised when seeing the characters of his two friends side by side. Flick has a rather striking look with his inexplicable handsomeness and stylish fighting style. On the other hand, the clearly bigger Tier was rather plain despite his stern expression. That was clearly opposite of his real world counterpart that had a gloomily menacing look.

Though, whichever form Tier took, Renma often had problems feeling or spotting that peculiar friend’s presence around him. Tier and Pras could easily blend and sneak away in a lot of situations.

“Anywayz, still got more gorilla potion here, want some?” Flick offered.

“Nah, it’s okay. I guess it’s time to be more active and fasten things up. Since, a certain someone forgot to use his standard abilities. I could just buy the potion later. I got a lot of profits anyway.”

“Command on: use item, dew tea. Profits?” Renma frowned while sitting on the root of a mangrove tree. “Didn’t you sell it below the price?”

“Below the normal price,” Tier grinned greedily. “I have some nice reputation for this rakhs priest and orc shaman’s factions. They give me 15% discount on all purchases, 17% for bulk amount.”

“Profit, so all of it for profit? I thought you were genuinely being happy, bro!”

“I’m happy, I got more than 50 golds of net profit.”

“Screw it….”

After the short respite, they continued their hunt for quest targets and materials. Renma’s annoyance of Tier dissipated a bit. But after he saw his two companions' effective combination, it ticked him off again.

No. It was not because the combination was bad. But, because it was super awesome.

Renma didn’t know what was the exact thing that Tier did, but the two attacker’s damage output combined was almost two and a half times bigger. Flawed Scale was one part of it, but there were other things that Renma seemed to have failed to decipher. Since the majority of the damage was still done by Flick, Renma knew it was not Tier’s direct damage output being the case.

“You know? Our journey would be even faster if you’d done this from the start, instead of doing nothing,” Renma protested after they had beaten their fourth citruzea. Other than the citrus seed, there was an axe that gave 15 agility that he quickly passed to Flick. The item had a blue mark on it which meant it is a rare item.

As far as Renma knew, item rarities are divided into normal with normal text on its name, uncommon with green text, rare with blue text, epic with purple text, and legendaries with golden text. The more rare the item, the better stat that they give. However, most end game items are usually epic with only a few legendaries. Kinda makes sense. Legendary stuff is supposedly extremely rare, aren’t they?

“Ey, Pras did something, though,” Flick assured as he tested the new axe by whirling it around, “He marked our foes and put traps when he felt like something was approaching ya.”

Tier shrugged and let out a sinister chuckle. “Keep your tunnel vision, Ega, it definitely will help you in the long run.”

Something struck Renma’s mind again. “So the reason sometimes Fathan jumped to attack a creature near me was because….”

Holding back from giving a compliment to Tier, Renma stopped his sentence to sigh and quickly changed to a protest, “... but still!, things would go much swifter if you just actively joined the fights.”

“Told ya, I want to preserve my potion’s duration.”

“Damnit, bro.”

No more complaints were expressed. Renma finally just went with how his two friends rolled. At least the hunt experience was smooth.

The best thing about doing quests in Zurefgar, was the presence of messenger NPC who they could talk to in order to complete their quest. The messenger NPC would give them the proper rewards as well as give more quests if the quest being finished was chained to another quest.

Almost all quests could be treated this way, barring the class or ability specific quest like the one Rill’Dil gave to Renma. Well, at least Renma himself hadn't finished gathering the materials.

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Only one material left, the shards of sky crystal which Tier mentioned they could get from a creature located just south of the outpost. Tier also said he hadn't done the quest that requires them to beat the creature.

By the way, despite fights being relatively smooth, Renma found out that some creatures in this area applied debuff in the forms of poison or some twisted magic. It made him wonder if he should create such an ability that purifies all debuffs on a character.

“Wow, you are actually using your brain,” Tier teased jokingly when Renma mentioned the idea. But Renma knew that just meant he agreed.

“Ain’t that overpowered?” Flick questioned as he slashed a citruzea that happened to be in their path. They didn't need any more quest loot from it, but the creature attacked them first.

Tier released a [Quick Shot], then suggested, “How about if the ability deletes everything? Including buffs, that would be easier to be accepted eh?”

“[Shield of Faith]!” Renma casted a light shield at Flick to block the damage from the citruzea’s whipping. Worst part was that Renma forgot he had this ability. Perhaps he did rely on his custom abilities too much.

“But, bro,” He frowned in protest. “If it also deletes buffs, it will make it unusable, no?”

“To be honest, it does sound like a great drawback, [Backpace].”

“[Quick Shot], how about if you are dealing with those paladins and other classes with a lot of self buff? [Eagle Aim].”

“Clearly a death sentence for them. [Cross Slash].”

“[Flash Mend]. Damn, I didn’t think of it before. Let me propose that to Steven.”

“That’s ultra nice.”

Ultra, giga, and tera. Sometimes Renma wondered what other exaggerating adjective would Flick fit to his catchphrase. Anyway, they kept continuing their rampage until there was no quest left and returned to the outpost.

To Renma’s surprise, there were still few gorillas left on sight.

Also, Tier apparently didn’t bother to turn to gorilla again. Perhaps he made enough profit already. The hunter was just suspiciously minding his own business by checking the mailbox while Renma and Flick stored their quest and took the quest that Tier mentioned earlier.

The quest was given by an orcish lieutenant leading the outpost. They must defeat the rock giants roaming on the edge southwest of Krussank Outpost. But, before they commenced the quest, all three took a short break to drink some water or went to the toilet in the real world.

It was when they returned that Rushvatte and Nubram also returned from their questing at the northern part of the marsh. Manna apparently just logged in, she apologised since she said she had to have dinner first before logging in.

Renma imagined that levelling with Manna would be much easier compared to with Tier, despite being with Tier also made it very smooth.

He was expecting some testimony from Rushvatte and Nubram, but apparently he would need to wait for it.

Despite just logging in, Manna seemed to be lost in thoughts even when she walked towards an NPC to talk. She also approached Tier and engaged him in what looked like a serious topic.

Perhaps they were talking about studies. Who knows?

They finally went together to fight the rock giants that apparently had faces similar to the statues in easter island. This time Renma felt like he was being the luckiest person around since he would finish two missions at once by doing this.

Not to mention that they finally had a proper player that can tank damage. If only Rushvatte had taken bear form, they would have two of those kinds of players. Three if they count Zackhs.

However, things didn’t really go as planned.

“[Stardust Lancer]!”

“[Blaze Bolt].”

“Toy, wait! Guardian paladins don’t have taunting abilities at this level!”

Tier warned as Manna dashed towards the rock giant. Nubram didn’t heed the warning and unleashed his furious blue fireball towards the giant.

The giant raged. Right as it broke free from Manna’s spear, it stampeded towards Nubram. Its pace didn’t slow down in the slightest even after Manna tried to trip it and Tier used [Ankle Break].

Renma knew the problem. The game employed a system called threat that causes a creature to attack someone with the highest potential of causing danger. Every active ability, even healing, increases a player’s threat. The higher the damage or heal, the higher the threat caused.

Some tanking focused classes have abilities that purposely increase their threat so DPS players can spam attacks. But apparently guardian paladins at this level don’t have it yet.

“[Prowl].”

“[Sneak].”

Knowing the danger, Flick and Rushvatte both turned stealth. Meanwhile, Nubram teleported away while he kept throwing any disabling magic he could to no avail.

“Stop attacking! No heals!” Tier roared a command. He quickly positioned himself behind Manna. “Racial active, [Mimic switch: Rhino]!“

Though Tier was ready to distract the creature, Renma saw that the giant was a bit too close to Nubram. It swung its massive fist at Nubram.

Renma pointed to Nubram and casted, “[Guarding Radiance].”

The ground shook as the attack hit Renma’s shield. As Renma had guessed, the giant didn’t turn at Renma. Shielding abilities do not create any threat.

“Good thinking, Ega. Now, deskmate.”

“[Tools of survival: Misdirection], target Manna. [Threatening Shot], [Quick Shot], [Insularis’ Assault], [Eagle Aim].”

Renma never saw Tier move that fast in unleashing a barrage of arrows. The attacks managed to draw the giant’s attention to Manna.

“Ega!”

“I know, Pras! [Fearless Shield of Faith]!”

Renma swung his hand, sending a light shield at Manna that absorbed at least half of the damage done by the flurry of attacks done by the giant. The shield itself flashed brightly at the attack whenever an attack hits. It caused the attacker to get angrier at the shielded target.

A swell of pride filled Renma’s heart. That modified version of the shield was gained from the Discipline path that Renma took.

The shield didn’t last forever, after a certain amount of damage, it finally broke accompanied by a bright flash of light.

“Everyone, attack now! [Valorous Counter].”

Manna blocked the fist of the giant with her spear, unleashing another blinding light and shockwave that bounced the giant’s arm away.

“[Blaze Bolt].”

“[Pounce].”

“[Ambush].”

Nubram, Rushvatte, and Flick struck with all their might but with enough care to not cause the giant to turn at them. The only problem was that Flick was far too reckless that he often got hit by the giant’s sweeping arms. Not to mention that his [Backpace] caused him to get stuck in awkward situations.

At least Renma’s burden to heal was reduced because Rushvatte was clever enough to stick behind the giant and only got damaged by some area of effect damage.

When it’s HP was almost finished, the giant suddenly rumbled loudly stomping the ground. The shockwave threw everyone around him at least 10 meters away. Renma himself was almost thrown off the cliff.

Everyone except one person.

Flick miraculously reversed the usage of his [Backpace] and landed right at the rock giant’s front side. The giant punched at him, but Flick jumped and landed on the giant’s arm. He dashed forward, slashed twice at the giant’s head, then used [Backpace] again to launch himself to the air. This time, after a graceful somersault in the air, he used [Extreme Collision] vertically downward to finish the giant.

“Extreme!”

Tier and Flick performed their ‘X’-pose again, this time joined by Rushvatte who was still in his tiger form.

“Shallow people be shallow,” Nubram sighed as he walked away towards another giant, then sat down to use some mana replenishing items.

Renma himself couldn’t protest much. Flick’s action just now was indeed astonishing to watch. He himself was a bit curious about Manna's reaction at their absurdity.

While everyone was joining Nubram and sitting using restorative items, Renma took the items he needed from the rock piles of the rock giant.

Curious as she hadn't moved an inch, Renma looked at Mana who was still standing between Renma and the others.

“Extreme…”

Away from anyone’s gaze and still with her so flat and bored expression, Manna was copycatting the pose performed by Tier, Flick, and Rushvatte.

Renma shuddered and looked away, pretending he didn’t see anything.