“By the way, what sort of dungeon is this?” Max decided to ask after they teleported.

  “You’re just asking that now?” Rafael shook his head with disapproval.

  A cobbled stone hallway extended into the distance, dimly illuminated by torches in sces.

  “This is a 4-person hobgoblin dungeon, for levels 5-15,” Lemonade answered. “It’s supposed to be the easiest one in the capital, so we might actually stand a ce this time.”

  “I see.” Max remembered hobgoblins; they were strohan regur goblins, but still weaker than orcs. They shouldn’t be too difficult to defeat. “Wait, this time?”

  “We tried to do a dungeon before this and failed miserably,” Jasmine shared text. “Unfortunately, our warrior-css pyer is really bad at the game.”

  “Ah, is that the ‘Ruby’ pyer you mentioned earlier?”

  “No, that’s Lemonade.”

  “...Oh.”

  “Hey, e on, I’m not that bad.” Lemonade protested.

  “I had to heal you like 50 times. You know I levelled up twice from that?”

  “See! I’m helping you level!”

  “...”

  “Haha, that sounds rough.” Max spotted a goblin in the distand took it down. “Was it too many enemies, or were they just to?”

  “It was- huh?”

  Jasmine and Rafael simultaneously stopped to look at the distant hobgoblin, which was now turning into particles, before turning to face Max.

  “Hey, did you just shoot that goblin?” Jasmine poio the y area in the distance.

  “Hm? Yeah.”

  “That was like forty metres away.”

  “It was 36.” Max tilted his head, “Is something wrong?”

  “...?” Jasmiared at him wordlessly. Moving over to Lemonade, she tugged his sleeve and poi Max while whispering, “What is he? Expin!”

  “I told you, he’s good with the bow.” Lemonade smiled knowingly.

  “No, but like, he didn’t even stop walking. Aren’t you meant to stay still when you try to shoot with a bow?”

  “Uh... I dunno.”

  “Why are you guys making a big deal over this? He just shot something that was slightly far away.” Rafael looked annoyed. “Not being as bad as you guys doesn’t make him hot sh*t and all, you do realise?”

  “Says the person losing.” Lemonade shrugged.

  “Huh? Losing?”

  “Yeah, he has more kills than yht now.”

  “...”

  Max was amused. He didn’t expect his offhand shot to elicit this much attention at all. He noticed that Rafael was ag a bit bative toward him, but it robably just to eain the viewers, so he would py along. “Well, I don’t think a 1-kill lead will faze him much.”

  “Oh yeah? Look at his face.”

  Max looked just in time to catch a glimpse of Rafael’s eye twitg slightly.

  “Rafael hates losing. Whenever he enters someoer than him at something, it’s like an itch he ’t scratch, as really irritated. Oime when he ying a ranked game, he got so frustrated that he brought out a saw and-”

  “That was years ago.” Rafael interrupted. “I’m more mature than that now.”

  “Well, that remains to be seen.” Lemonade said puckishly. “I think that- Mm?”

  Max uedly started drawing his bow, prompting Lemoo pause.

  Woosh!

  An arrow flew down the corridor in a long ararrowly avoiding the ceiling before striking a goblin far away. The goblin fell over ft on the ground and disappeared.

  “...” Lemonade, Jasmine and Rafael stopped walking and stared at Max wordlessly.

  Max also stopped, “...What?" he pyed dumb, "Is something on my face?”

  “Yes, a very handso-”

  “What the f*ck was that?” Rafael asked interrogatively. “That was a skill, right?” Rafael’s eyes bore into him.

  “No?” Max responded with rising iion. “I don’t have any of those yet... Why do you ask?”

  Lemonade barely trolled his expression but roared with ughter on the inside. Not only did Gun vastly overshadow Rafael with his ability; but he also acted like he knew nothing about it, f Rafael to spell out exactly how great he was.

  “There’s no way that’s possible without a skill... no, is that a homing bow or something? How did you do it?”

  “This is just the starter bow... Why are you freaking out over this? I just shot normally.”

  Lemonade made a noise and hunched over his krembling.

  “Normally?!” Rafael was incredulous. “Don’t f*ck with me! ...Show me your stat panel, I want to see proof!”

  Max shrugged and brought up his stats for Rafael to see.

  “...That’s- You’re really not using any skills... Wait, what the hell is a Deadshot?”

  ‘Oh, oops.’ Max betedly realised Rafael could see everything. ‘Well, it’s not like I was really trying to hide it, anyways.’

  “Hm?” Jasmine and Lemonade approached. “You have a special css?”

  “Wait, I’ve heard that word before...” Rafael clicked his fingers impatiently, like he was trying to retrieve an old memory. “Deadshot... Deadshot...” He raised his hand, “Aha! That’s it! Deadshot Daiquiri!”

  “Daiquiri?” Jessiterjected. “Like the cocktail?”

  “No, it’s a perk mae in Call of Duty; the ohat gives aim-assist!” Rafael thrust his fi Max, “That’s it, isn’t it! Your css is giving you aim-assistance!”

  “Eh?” Max was taken aback at the sudden accusation. He’d never pyed Call of Duty.

  ‘Aim assist...’ Lemonade massaged his and thought, ‘That would expin a lot, actually.’

  “No... it doesn’t give any sort of aim assist; the Deadshot css just boosts damage.”

  “Prove it!” Rafael challenged.

  “Sure,” Max easily agreed. “...Uh, how though?”

  “Show the css description.”

  “ht, there was that.” Max brought it up.

  Css: Deadshrade: Unique

  Effects: When using a bow, all final base damage is increased by 100%. Additionally, all final oint ahal damage is increased by a further 50%.

  Description: ‘Masterful’ is not suffit to describe the owner of this css. To the pyer incapable of missing: Your as will be watched closely by the powers of this world. Good luck.

  “WHAT?!” Jasmine’s eyes bulged. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! UNIQUE???”

  Rafael and Lemonade read through the text with shock.

  “Is that good?” Max scratched his ned asked ily.

  “Good?!” She stared at Max with horror. “It doesn’t eve! We thought there were only 'rare' csses!”

  “Oh... nice!” Max did a fist pump. “It must be fairly good then!”

  “Jasmine, does your chat know about any other unique csses?” Lemonade broke out of his stupor. “I ’t read mine.”

  Jasmine made some swiping movements with her finger. “No, I ’t read either. The chat have lost their minds.”

  —???????

  —*Holding infinity gau* - “Is it good?”

  —HUH

  —WHAT

  —How?! Ask him how he got it!

  —I was here!

  —Damn that’s a huge damage bonus

  —Mom, I have a unique css for Christmas?

  The stream chat was scrolling past at a speed so fast that the messages were pletely illegible to the streamers. Jasmiried for a while before she got dizzy and decided to just look it up ter.

  Max’s chat could still be read, but his viewers didn’t know about any unique csses.

  ‘Maybe I should stop pying blindly...’ Max regretted not ever cheg the forums. Unless people thought he retending not to know anything, they would think he was an ignorant fool who lived under a rock. ‘Well, they wouldn’t be wrong thinking that, but like...’

  Interrupting Max’s thoughts, Rafael walked in front of him and did a 45-degree bow. “Gun, right? I baselessly accused you of lying and even forced you to reveal your css. Though it might not mean muow, I sincerely apologise...”

  “Ah, it’s fine, you rex.” Max’s eyes wide the sudden attitude ge, and he waved his hands. “I showed the css because I wao, so you don’t o worry.”

  Revealing his css hadn’t been a thoughtless decision. In his mind, dispying the special css in front of three popur streamers would be a surefire way to give himself exposure. If anything, it could be said that he was shamelessly stealing the limelight from them.

  “Bahaha!” Lemonade walked between them and patted their shoulders. “Then are you vinow, Rafael? Archers aren’t so weak, after all!” Lemonade puffed out his chest, as though the skilled dispy of bowmanship had been his own doing. “As for that meal you so generously offered to shout, I’m craving seafood, so I think we’ll go to-”

  “What are you talking about?” Rafael interrupted.

  “Huh?”

  “Why would I do that?” He g Lemoh disdain. “I only lose the bet if Gun fihe dungeon with more kills than me.”

  “You mean...”

  “Duh.” Rafael cracked his ned took a long spear from his iory. “All we’ve established so far is that Gun has the qualifications to challenge me. As for the rest...” He theatrically span the spear in his hands. “We’re only just getting started.”