Apart from the trap they hand sprung today against him, Pras' friends were not going to be online tonight. Only Ega would present at a reasonable time, around 8 PM. Pitoy said he had something else to do while Eggi and Fathan might be online much later in the night.

From what Pras  had heard, Ega’s character was a rakhs priest named Renma. Since they first befriended each other, Pras saw this particular friend really keen in playing as the healer kind of character.

“It is less of a hassle.”

He remembered how his friend always has that reasoning, despite that healers are often complicated. But Ega always made it look easy. Pras couldn’t lie that he was actually very interested to see Renma’s play style in Zurefgar, as well as his other friends' capabilities.

Though, he also feared the kind of antics and disadvantages each of them would bring due to their personalities. Yet, it might also be a saving grace that made them won’t protest much about Pras’ choice for his own build.

Tier started today’s session a bit earlier than the promised time. One of the reasons being that he was still in Darukun Jungle and the meeting place was at Grandar, the orc’s capital city. Renma wanted to meet a lead GM to discuss his custom ability. Tier might also need to do the same thing.

The other reason was his profession. Tier needed a few more species to take down before he could advance to the next step of the profession, Loremaster.

The hunt was rather simple at first since he had faced most of them during levelling. However, one proven to give quite a challenge was a creature named cliff monitor lizard which lived on the huge upwards cliff just north of Darukun Jungle.

As far as Tier knew, the cliff itself is a part of a giant rock formation which hid the orc’s capital.

Those lizards would easily avoid his arrows and hide themselves at rocks protruding on the cliff side. Thus Tier had to climb the cliff, and tie himself to rocks and branches, and shoot downwards - which is actually harder to do than normal shooting. It took him several tries to finally adapt to the condition, which also meant that on each failed try he had to switch location and find another place to tie himself.

At least the tracking ability helped him spot those reddish-brown-scaled lizards which almost perfectly blended with the cliff.

It was almost 8 when Tier finally met the final lizard he needed to take down. This time, he managed to stand almost horizontally against the cliff due to a big branch protruding from a tree on the cliff.

Thirty metres below him, there was a cliff monitor lizard with 4500 HP. It hid in some sort of enclave made by digging some protruding rocks.

Tier pointed at the lizard and whispered, “[Mark of Prey], [Mimic set: Eagle].”

A dark blue silhouette of an eagle appeared briefly above him accompanied by its high pitched vocalisations. At that time, Tier felt his visions were more clear and sharp while the targeting cursor moved more accurately with his aim.

Tier released [Ankle Break] followed by another shot. He couldn’t release shots in very quick succession like usual due to the current bow he used was some sort of bigger longbow categorised as a grand arc. However, it gives higher damage per shot. Each hit dealt 600 to 700 damage to the severely lower levelled lizard. It also benefits Tier a lot since lesser attack speed meant his bloodlust would take longer to build up.

“Tch,” Tier scoffed as his arrow missed the final shot. He begrudgingly pulled another heavy draw and tried to spot the lizard that had quickly run down the cliff. This was the biggest weakness of such a weapon, a miss would mean quite a number of DPS drops.

The hunter was too lazy to search for another lizard or place to tie himself, thus he opted for a more risky move. Being a rakhs, also as someone taking Predator’s Tactics, Tier knew he could shoot farther than his aiming cursor had allowed. He just needed more keen eyes and a bit of better adjustment.

He knew one ability that might help. Therefore, he whispered, “[Eagle eye].”

Tier’s vision zoomed, giving him a clear sight over his target. The lizard ran as quickly as it could with around 300 HP left.

The first shot missed.

“This is not an archery range,” he mumbled to himself. Focusing once more, he drew another shot. This time, he took his time to watch the movement of his target and aimed ahead.

Tier didn’t realise clearly whether it was his expertise from extracurricular activity at school, predictions, or intuition that finally guided him to shoot towards a spot which made his arrow hit the skull of the lizard - causing a critical hit and finishing its struggle.

Study complete!

Said the announcer in his head. It was the voice of a male rakhs with a rather cold and raspy voice. Tier sighed in relief as his efforts finally reached it’s first goal.

When Tier tried to go down slowly, he was a bit too clumsy and tripped. His body rolled down the remaining height among the sharp edges of the cliff, causing severe damage and almost killed him.

“Damnit,” Tier cursed as he lay motionlessly on his back. “Thank God, this is not the real world. Else, I might have died for real.”

Catching his breath while writing in pain, Tier’s eyes gazed at the bright sky above. He remembered what Bingo had said regarding the requirements to be eligible for Clashing Realms.

“Imagine, dying five times for something stupid like this,” Tier mumbled to himself. He kept lying down even when using food items to heal his HP. Only when Tier remembered that the lizard he just defeated might drop some item, he scrambled in blazing speed.

The lizard dropped a new chest armour for him. Still relatively a low level equipment compared to his level, but at least better than the one he currently wore. The bonus stats were a bit weird since it gave higher armour but also gave 3 strength.

Tier couldn’t be bothered much about the stats bonus. From what he saw in forums and discussions, it was suggested that new players shouldn’t really care much about stats other than the armour given by equipment or damage of weapons. And even for weapons, some argued that it would be better to choose a weapon which is to someone’s liking than just blindly take the one with bigger damage.

Only at level 50 and above, where the bonus stats are more significant and when the character build starts to show it’s true nature that a player is suggested to start thinking about bonus stats.

Nevertheless, based on the research he has done so far, Tier knew that strength was definitely not the stats he needed to heed much. He might need to invest later on dexterity, intelligence and a bit of stamina. He thought he would need to increase a lot of critical strike chances considering  the kind of bow he was going to use. Not to mention he had some image of a custom ability based on the bonuses in the path he took.

 Thinking of custom abilities made him remember something. He looked up the branch on the cliff where he had tied himself earlier. 

“Eagle eye, huh? I think I got an idea."