The impression he had during his first taste of Zurefgar had tempted Pras to keep on playing the game. Fortunately, the semester break allowed him to play more freely, not to mention the accelerated time in game gave him even more leeway in deciding when and how much he could play without hampering his duties.
And by duties, that meant walking the dogs, bathing their pets, helping his mom cook, and sometimes cleaning the house. All the children in their family were subject to random summoning from their mother, though Kristya would be the one who could get away most of the time. Perhaps their mother already half gave up considering how slow Kristya responded to such summons or simply because he was more busy than the others due to his study in medicine.
Pras prefered playing after lunch or at night which has the least disturbance, though sometimes he snuck a couple of minutes of gameplay in the morning. Despite playing it quite often, he was nowhere near the daily or recommended limit of using AdVRSe - which is 6 hours per day or 24 hours per week. At most, he would just play a maximum of 3 hours per day.
His adventure as Tier also went rather smoothly but not easy by any means. After all, the game seemed keen to make life easier if people group up. Tier had met a few people he grouped up with, but he didn’t continue far with them as they often moved to other regions or locations quicker than him.
The main reason was rather simple: Pras had taken the scholar profession and intended to advance to the loremaster profession around the time the new semester started. Based on what he had read in forums and guides so far, Darukun Jungle was one of the best locations to rank up the profession due to the sheer variety of flora and fauna there.
Another reason was that it was definitely much easier for him to gain experience against weaker opponents if he had to do it alone. Additionally, he could trade some of the items he got there to increase his reputation towards the orc faction, rakhs faction, and ‘The Siblings of Spirits’ faction - that consist of the shamans and priests from the two allied races.
Pras also started to read some guides about his class as well as utilising the path calculator to read more about future bonuses he can get from a certain path and simulate how he should spend it. Naturally, when he reached level 20, Pras unceremoniously bought the game. At least it was still on sale.
It was not just the joys and the engagement that propelled him to play more and perform extended research. There was fear lingering at the darkest corners of his heart. He was afraid that he would not be good enough to support his friends in their quest to reach Clashing Realms. The same reason also caused him to avoid his friends and their invitation to play together.
“Bozter need some trimming.”
“Galung disappeared!”
“I need to teach Danzo how to protect the house from malevolent spirits.”
“I’m on an extensive training regime from my mom to be a proper chef. She said that a guy who can cook can get a girlfriend easier.”
Those are some of the borderline ridiculous reasons he had to throw at his friends. Except for Eggi, the others had already given up. One of his friends, Pitoy, even acted as if he didn’t care at all and asked Pras to play some RTS together, which Pras gladly accepted.
Pras thought that he needed to reach loremaster which would be beneficial in helping his friends gain more EXP and easier time fighting opponents. Based on his friends' discussion in their group chat, Pras projected that they might reach around level 30 to 34 right before school starts. Thus, he thought that he at least needed level 30 before joining them in order to not be a burden.
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He still had these kinds of thoughts despite his friends mentioning again and again that they don’t mind helping him boost his level. It just didn’t feel right for him.
Finally, at the eve before the new semester started, Pras managed to get Tier to level 34. Even though he failed in ranking up his profession.
“I’ll do it tomorrow,” said Pras to himself as he lay on the bed around 8 PM. His heart raced a bit remembering that starting tomorrow he could see Mana again. Fortunately, the fatigue from playing for long hours had helped in diminishing the effects of such thought. He fell asleep not long after with a rather peaceful dream.
Yet, the early dawn of January 15 was not that peaceful. Pras frantically woke up at half past four due to Galung’s constant protest. When he let Galung out, Danzo and Bozter took the chance to jump on him and start licking him as a good morning greeting.
“Yeah, yeah, good morning, you overly energetic beasts, now get out!”
Obeying Pras' commanding roar, the two hounds quickly ran downstairs. Pras took the chance to quickly sneak to the bathroom to take a shower. Apparently, Danzo had returned and waited for him outside the bathroom.
Just as Pras got out from the bathroom, the american bully stood up on its hind legs in a gesture asking Pras to hold its forepaws. And as he did so, it happily licked its own paws and Pras hands.
“Satisfied?” Pras asked when Danzo finally let his hands go.
The hound barked loudly, then dashed downstairs. On the other hand, Pras begrudgingly washed his hands before returning to his room and got dressed. It was Monday, thus he had to wear a uniform of white shirt with white trousers.
Breakfast, in the form of fried rice with leftover shredded chicken, was ready when he descended. Pras took a full plate and ate it fast before packing the banana-with-blueberry-jam toast which was also prepared by his mother.
He then took off to school after kissing his father and mother’s hand, a sign of respect and asking for blessing as well as permission to go out - a custom for Indonesian people.
Pras didn’t take any public transport and just walked to his school, which usually takes around 30 minutes. He enjoyed the fresh morning air with the scent of sea. The sun was still away from giving it’s full blissful light thus making the air still rather chilling. The old blue jeans jacket Pras wore - which he inherited from Kristya - was effective enough to cancel some of the cold, giving him just the nice feeling of chill.
There was also another reason why he walked to school, a rather borderline crazy one. Somehow, he wondered if he walks to school, he might be able to meet his saviour again. She’s probably around highschool now, and perhaps went to the same school with him. It was just that he might not have known which one was her yet.
At a quarter to six, Pras finally reached the gate of his school. He smiled bitterly at how his mind kept being occupied with such vague hope during the whole trip and also at how this morning he didn’t manage to see her once more.
However something outside the boundaries of his expectation happened when a faint fragrance of vanilla struck him as he stood before the gate of the still rather empty school. His heart raced as he vaguely knew who might wear such fragrance, yet he tried his best to put away such thought as the person shouldn’t be here at such an early hour.
Nevertheless, there was a greeting that finally sealed his doubt away.
“Good morning, classmate,” said a rather soft voice with a proud yet bored tone.
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