“Good boyz.”

Steven exclaimed happily as both Tier and Renma approached him. His little dragon assistant was busy scanning both players.

”It’s always exciting to see new players, especially the ones who talk about life and death in such a game, how merry. I bet you guys are real friends, like for real.”

The electrons in Tier’s brain twitched at Steven’s comment. He couldn’t fathom someone decided a friendship level based on such weird talk.

“So, Sami said you're going for Clashing Realms?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Whut?” Renma spun to Tier, protesting, “why? I thought you promised?”

Tier shrugged. “The deal was to try the game and level with you guys.”

“That’s… ah, whatever, at least you still play here.”

“Duude.” Steven’s arm grabbed Tier’s shoulder. The GM then leaned to Tier as if trying to whisper. “You can get good equips by participating, PvP points, and if you win, you’ll get awesome stuff for the next expansion.”

Tier sighed, “As far as I am concerned, equips can be achieved by raids and also PvP points, no problem. Also the equipment given by reaching level 80 is also the 2nd best tier around isn’t it?”

“You can have better ones as a participation reward.”

“Still farmable.”

“This is a rare chance for epic battles against other games!”

“Bet the toxicity is high.”

“Toxicity is low, dude. But we do have some cuties.”

Tier sighed, again. He started to wonder if Steven was actually a pervert.

On the other hand Renma chuckled, “Won’t work, he got his sights on someone.”

“Duude.” Steven embraced Tier shoulder to shoulder. He waved his right hand to the sky as he continued to argue, “Fishes, dude, fishes everywhere and you obsessed yourself with catching a specific one?”

“Speaking of many fishes,” Tier snickered. “There are a lot of people waiting in line behind us.”

“Hey, even I need a break sometimes.” Steven shook his head. He then returned to his original position and cleared his throat. “Ahem, anyway, are you here for custom ability? I don’t really recommend building it so early, but if you have a clear vision of what you want to be, I’m all ears.”

“An archangel,” Renma answered excitedly. “Just like Tsalazar.”

“Pfft!”

Someone from the line behind them snickered. He turned to the crowds, “You heard that newbie wanna be like Tsalazar?”

“Fool!”

Some players laughed at Renma’s answer to Steven. It did greatly irk Tier more than Renma. In reflex he drew an arrow from the tube on his waist.

“Bro, you don’t need to reduce your reputation point,” Renma stopped Tier’s hand. “And they can definitely pummell you, at least the guard NPC will.”

“Tch.”

Tier growled. He was still unable to completely control his emotion due to the earlier encounter. There are always people who comment and scorn those who have a goal that might be different or slightly unrealistic than most. His hostility towards such people was just amplified by their laughter.

For him, the ‘sheeps’ who only followed the lead of other people without thinking much was not much different. If someone deemed a person different, then they would gladly follow to jeer at the different person.

“Your friend is right,” Steven sighed. He subsequently shouted at the other players, “No eavesdropping!”

With a wave of his hand, he whispered a command, “Command on: private chat, Renma, Tier, Steven.”

“Gee, thanks, Steven.”

Steven smiled proudly. “No problem, Ren. Continue with your custom ability.”

Renma nodded, he explained his plan, “Other than archangel, I have two in mind. The first one is based on [Light Shield] and named [Guarding Radiance], so instead of absorbing a certain amount of damage, I want it to absorb any amount of the first instance of damage. Perhaps a low cost and low cooldown kind of ability”

Steven typed furiously in excitement. “Interesting, but needs limitations. The shield’s block should be direction based and last a few seconds. We’ll keep the low cooldown and MP cost as a trade off. You okay with that? What’s the next one?”

“Sure. This one’s based on [Holy Nova], so I kinda shoot a light beam at a target, the light will get diffracted when hitting a target then anyone in the area of the diffraction will get a shield based on the damage done.”

“Good, we will just balance the cooldown and MP cost later. About the archangel thing, you decided to become offensive like Tsalazar?”

“Well,” Renma rubbed his chin. “I want to be a more pure defensive type with increased healing or shield or reduced cooldown or better casting speed.”

Steven raised one of his eyebrows. There was a spark of interest in his eyes. “Discipline?”

“Yes, hundred to hundred twenty points to Discipline, the others are on Atonement.”

There was a wide smile on Steven's face due to Renma’s answer. “If I may suggest, do it like Tsalazar, save two kinds of custom buff abilities which when used on yourself will enable you to transform with increased effect of the buffs.”

“Sounds great! I’ll think of the buff custom ability.”

“Awesome!” Steven pointed both of his index fingers at Renma and winked. “So, what's the name of your angel, definitely not Michael like Tsalazar, right? Angel of protection eh, Gabriel? Raphael?”

“Malak al-Mawt, Azrael,” Tier chirped nonchalantly.

Both the excitement from Renma and Steven disappeared as if being dragged into a hollow grave.

Renma mumbled, “Oh yeah, you said that earlier, bro.”

On the other hand, Steven questioned, “The angel of death? For real? Why?”

Tier scratched his head. It was indeed a rather crazy idea even for him as he told that to Renma earlier just to confuse the priest. Yet, some part of him also kind of like the idea.

“I mean, it was said that Azrael was the one who braved hordes of demons to go down to earth and to take the soil from the earth which would be used as the material to make humans. So… I think it would be cool that the brave angel of death who truly knew what we were made of and the one who would guide the spirits of the dead would be the one who is the most merciful and knows how to heal and protect us?”

Tier continued while laughing nervously, “Ahahaha… I mean, imagine seeing that in a battlefield, it strikes terror to the opponent but also a source of inspiration as if the angel of death is on your side, being merciful, giving you second chances and protecting you until you claim your objective?”

Steven and Renma glanced at each other in silence. Then it was them both that broke the awkwardness in furor. They shook Tier’s shoulder excitedly.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier, bro?!”

“Duuude, that was awesooomeee!”

Tier didn’t know how to feel right now. He was definitely nauseous due to the horrible shaking, but at the same time he felt a bit of warmth when his crazy idea was being acknowledged. Other people were looking at them with a huge concerned expression.

It took a while for them to calm down and finally release Tier. Steven and Renma talked a bit more and finally concluded their current discussion.

Subsequently, Steven turned to Tier while reading the data about Tier - which probably was gained by the scanning dragon. 

“So, hunter, eh? Are you going to go for Beast Mastery or Hawke… wait a minute… Predator’s Tactics? Loremaster?”

Steven stopped for a moment. He kept reading the info about Tier's character, and seemed very serious. Later he smiled confidently at Tier.

“What would be your custom abilities, Tier?”

Tier nodded. “There are three that I have thought of. The first one is kinda basic, [Insularis’ Assault] based on [Ankle Break] and [Toxic Sting], a rather rapid fire of seven poisonous arrows, low damage, each arrow would slow the opponent by six or seven percent. If all the arrows hit, the opponent will be disabled for 10 seconds or until they receive damage. After that they will be subjected to minor bleed damage and a bit disoriented.”

“Pretty standard but interesting application, that would need a quite hefty cooldown. Also, I’d recommend taking Endurance Warfare and Careful Preparation talent from Predator’s Tactics, but it seems you already took it. By the way, what is insularis?”

Tier scratched his head and answered shyly, “Sunda Island pit viper. Kinda poisonous but pretty vipers with colours ranging from bright yellow, green, to blue.”

“Cool, I’m feeling good, how about each shot is accompanied by a different colour of viper silhouette? That would make it cool but more obvious to your opponent that attack is dangerous.”

“Thanks, that would be great.”

“No biggie, dude, next?”

“Yes, the next one is based on [Eagle Eye], so it’s kinda an aiming ability that causes my vision to zoom in on the opponent’s weak spots to increase accuracy and critical strike.”

“Oh, so some sort of shot strengthening ability?”

“No, it is not the shot that is being improved, but the aim itself.”

Steven took his time to think what Tier had just said. He was grumbling but then quickly changed to a bright smile. “Which means you can use it for other weapons or attacks? Aim, huh, not a shot. I’ll take it. But you need at least 15 points in Hawkeye and take Precision Aim before you can access this ability. The creation should be quick.”

Tier sighed, “So I need to take that path?”

“Of course. Such ability would easily be associated with Hawkeye talents, having a full on Predator’s Tactics user of all people to use it would be seen as weird and unfair.

“Alright. I’ll reset my path at level 40 and allocate accordingly.” Tier nodded begrudgingly. “The last one will be [Slither Drag] and based on the Venomed Armaments path which I am definitely going to take later. So each crit strike would have the chance to weaken the opponent with one of six random effects that I haven't fully given more thoughts about. And I think if the crit strike is scored with the help of [Eagle Aim], the chance of triggering the effect will be doubled?”

Steven grinned. “Now that sounds a lot more like Predator’s Tactics. We’ll discuss the randomness and the chance internally. Probably we would give you a guaranteed trigger if you use [Eagle Aim]. However, we would have to forbid the same effect of [Slighter Drag] to trigger twice before all other effects had been triggered to make it balanced. Also, you’ll need to take the Flawed Scales talent as well. You agree?”

Tier had nothing to lose if the ability is too weak due to the limitations as long as it could still work. He’s not aiming to be the best of the best anyway. Thus he nodded in agreement, “Sure, no problem.”

“Utility DPS, eh?” Steven's intonation suddenly changed. He looked at Tier with a rather sly smile. He then diverted his gaze to Renma. “So, only two of you going for Clashing Realms? Like no additional friend?”

Tier snorted. “I told you I am not going for Clashing Realms.”

Steven ignored Tier’s protest. He kept on pestering Renma, “Come on, ask more of your friends to join.”

“Actually, I think you already met them when they created custom abilities.”

“Huh?”

Twirling his right index finger, Renma mentioned their other friends, “Nubram an undead wizard, then an rakhs rogue named Flick, also Rushvatte as mystic.”

“Wait…”

Steven opened up a half transparent window before him and it shows the three characters mentioned by Renma. As far as Tier knew, Nubram is Pitoy, Flick is Fathan, and Rushvatte is Eggi. However, Renma forgot to mention Alvin’s character. Perhaps no one knew whether he already met Steven or not.

In the meantime, before he forgot again, Tier added those names to his friend list so he could see if they’re online or where they are currently. He also saw a friend request from a human paladin named Arkengrad which he just randomly accepted.

“Ah, I remember,” Steven mumbled to himself, “A seemingly smart wizard with balance of fire and ice, that rogue asking for custom still with high skill floor, this mystic haven’t show any much potential perhaps he would need a proper second form, now we have an archangel and….”

Steven was back with his sly smile when looking at Tier, “... and a survivalist hunter.”

“By the way, you might want to tackle some dungeons or minibosses once in a while for missions or item drops to help you level up. However, you guys clearly lack a tank or a bruiser, unless that mystic took a bear or boar form.”

“So, since you don’t have one, yet, how about I introduce you to a certain guardian paladin? She wanted to go for Clashing Realms again and currently doesn’t have a party. I think she plays in a similar time zone to you guys. I guarantee that she’s a really good tank or bruiser.”

Steven stopped a bit, then winked at Tier, “She’s very weird, but one hell of a cutie. She shouldn’t be far since she was recently here.”

“Eh?”

Steven’s words reminded Tier of the paladin she saw earlier at the entrance of Cliff Labyrinth. His heart raced in that instant.

“Owh, I think I hit the mark this time? Just add her, I bet you’d want to go to Clashing Realms side by side with her. Her name is….”

Good morning, how do you do? My name is Mana.

Tier didn’t know exactly why, but suddenly his brain replayed the moment when he first met Mana. The memory of the smile that had enraptured him, had forced him to avoid the conversation going further.

“Macepaw, have you met Macepaw?” Tier interrupted.

Steven shuddered, his expression turned somber as if he had met unspeakable horror.

“I remembered him,” Steven reminisced quietly. “He used all 7 of his custom ability slots at once. He asked for those things, those unspeakable abilities. Creative indeed, but… it was a torture.”

Tier and Renma exchanged glances, they didn’t know that mentioning Alvin’s character name would create such an effect on Steven.

“Should we take our leave now? The line’s getting longer. Haha,” Renma awkwardly said while trying to leave. Steven didn’t answer and kept mumbling to himself.

“Oh finally, you two are done!”

Apparently the people that were queuing up did appear to be quite agitated considering Tier and Rema took quite a while when talking to Steven. The GM’s weird gestures and reaction definitely agitated them further as it seems the delay happened because of unimportant discussions.

“Wait!” Steven suddenly exclaimed. He spun to face Tier despite his eyes reading stuff on a semi-transparent window before him.

“Tier, the first time you played….”

“It was on the 6th of January. I met Bingo back then.” 

The eccentric GM kept silent for a moment before he shook his head. “Nevermind.” He then winked at Tier. “By the way, since you are on Predator’s Tactics and have no companion beast yet, try to look up for snow jaguar or Togo the pristine peak alpha.”

Steven didn’t heed the confused frowns of both Tier and Renma. He just waved at them and then commanded the next person in queue to proceed. He left a curious feeling on both rakhs. Especially Tier because of the name of the beasts he mentioned and the weird question about the first time he played.

Nevertheless, he shook it off and rode eastward to continue levelling. This time, with a friend.