*>Vadium: Damn, she split from us. But it's fortunate that we're still together.*

*>Euphrates: Right? She was pretty terrifying as a party leader.*

*>Vadium: ... I guess we got lucky that those two showed up.*

*>Euphrates: Yeah. But why did she split off? She was definitely suspicious of us.*

*>Vadium: I dunno, man. Maybe you're overthinking it? She didn't seem that scary to me.*

Hearth Ember's intuition was right - Euphrates and his friend Vadium indeed had malicious intentions. The two were planning to sabotage the hunt, but with Hearth Ember's wariness, they weren't sure if they'd be able to pull it off.

However, when Abandoned Snow and Fae Sol showed up, Hearth Ember's wariness vanished. Perhaps she'd messed up and accidentally sent them alone?

And from how Abandoned Snow and Hearth Ember spoke to each other, Euphrates deduced Fae Sol wasn't a close friend of theirs like Icurus was. So, being alone with her was the best-case scenario.

If Hearth Ember's group found the magma slime first, there was nothing they could do about it. However, if *they* found it first...

*>Euphrates: We're taking all of it for ourselves, right?*

In other words, they would kill Fae Sol. A two-way XP split would naturally be worth more than a three-way split.

*>Vadium: Yeah, but can you even deal with her?*

Vadium wasn't blind - he'd been monitoring Fae Sol's behavior. Though she didn't kill *every* mob she saw, her accuracy thus far was 100%. Was she leaving some alive on purpose, or did she only take shots she was 100% confident to hit?

Euphrates knew he was outclassed when he saw this accuracy.

But what about the skill that was guaranteed to hit: "Target Toss"? Even if you used it, it still took time for the pellet, a projectile, to fly through the air. If you couldn't lead your shots properly, you wouldn't even be able to hit a straight-moving target. Fae Sol demonstrated she was familiar with not only the pellet's projectile speed, but the effect of gravity on it as well.

The throw of pellets was aided by the system - you didn't have to use much force to send it flying. Euphrates even witnessed Fae Sol flick the pellets in a strange manner; she was getting an absurd amount of speed on her shots with minimal movement.

As someone who didn't play in the beta, he wasn't familiar with Synergy's mechanics yet. Fae Sol... was. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he couldn't win. Was Vadium just taunting him?

*>Euphrates: Obviously not alone. But there shouldn't be a problem 2-on-1.*

*>Vadium: Ha, didn't think our school's "darts god" would admit defeat so easily.*

Euphrates wanted to roll his eyes in annoyance, but he stopped himself.

*>Euphrates: She's a beta player, remember? Obviously she's more familiar with this game than I am. But it won't take me long to get used to this.*

All he needed was a little practice. However, to practice, he needed practice targets. And right now...

*Whzzz...*

Two pellets whizzed by Euprates' ear and clocked a dragonfly square in its abdomen.

*-10*

*-10*

When the second pellet connected, the bug dissipated into a bundle of XP.

How was he supposed to find practice targets with this inconvenience?

As noted earlier, she wasn't killing *every* mob, but Euphrates wanted to show off his skills as his school's "darts god" as quickly as possible. And to do that, he needed all the practice he could get!

"Hey, can you stop?" he asked.

"Hmm? Stop what?"

"Stop taking all the kills."

"I'm only taking the ones you're not targeting. Don't worry about me."

What? Didn't she know what she was doing here? Apparently, he had to spell it out for her.

"You're clearly hogging all the XP."

"You think I'm stealing your kills?"

*>Euphrates: Back me up here, Vlad.*

*>Vadium: ... Fine...*

"Obviously. Did you just think we'd sit quietly and let this happen?"

With that, Fae Sol sank back into silence.

*>Euphrates: Wow, you're a menace.*

*>Vadium: I didn't expect it to work, either.*

Several more mobs cropped up, but Fae Sol didn't take any action. It was peaceful, and it was Euphrates' time to shine! 

 

*>Name: Living Grass*

*>Level: 3* 

 

A thin wall of grass about 1 metron high threatened to lash out. With the target in his sights, Euphrates launched his weapon!

*>Vadium: Hahahaha man you seriously missed that big of a target?*

The pellet flew wide right hitting nothing but air.

Though he was annoyed at his friend's taunts, Euphrates focused up and launched another one forward. This time, he wasn't going to miss!

*-7*

*>Euphrates: How much HP does it have left?*

*>Vadium: Good question...*

If you appraised a mob, it would only show you its name and level by default. The two didn't realize it, but a basic appraisal item was required to view other stats like HP and MP.

The only thing Euphrates could do was launch another pellet and hope for the best.

*-9*

Even with this second shot, the mob didn't die. Euphrates was about to launch a third shot, but they were now in melee range. Vadium stepped up and swung his sword...! Well, it was an extremely dull "sword", but that's how he treated it.

*-10*

Finally, the living grass withered away.

*>Vadium: Man, you suck.*

*>Euphrates: This is harder than it looks, okay? All you have to do is walk up and whack it. Meanwhile, I'm required to calculate vectors to even be remotely useful.*

*>Vadium: Man, why you gotta bring up math when we're playing a game? What a buzzkill.*

While the two bantered, another mob entered their sights. 

 

*>Name: Young Clay Doll*

*>Level: 2* 

 

It was 1 metron tall and shaped like a bell. A bit of a smaller target, but Euphrates wasn't going to miss this time! He used his ability "Target Toss" and struck the immobile clay... thing. If he missed an immobile target with an ability that guaranteed to hit, he wouldn't be qualified to be called his school's "darts god"!

*-10*

Now that this skill was on cooldown for 5 seconds, he manually fired his next shot.

*-10*

Another direct hit! Yet, the monster was still alive.

*>Vadium: Dude, you suck.*

*>Euphrates: ...*

*>Vadium: But don't worry, man. Young Vlad's here to save the day.*

Vadium stepped up to swing his sword again, but before his weapon reached its target...

*-10*

The clay doll exploded into white light right in front of their eyes...

"Are you kidding me?"

Vadium was furious, and Euphrates instantly knew who the culprit was. After all, the source of the final tick of damage was a pellet that whizzed from behind him again.

"What are you doing?" Euphrates asked as he looked at Fae Sol. Though they had accused her of kill stealing earlier, it was only to make her stop shooting. Now, however, it was a genuine offense.

"Hmm... what do you mean?" Fae Sol nonchalantly toyed with a pellet in her hands looking completely clueless.

Euphrates grew upset at this farce. "What do you mean 'what do you mean'? You really stole our kill this time."

"Oh? I 'really' did? So that means you falsely accused me last time, right?"

"??"

What did last time have to do with this? Now, she was just straight up admitting it!

"If you steal kills, you probably won't get to join many parties in the future."

"Thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind," she said as she launched another pellet.

*-10*

While Euphrates was berating her, Vadium had been fighting another mob. Yet, this pellet struck before he could finish it off. In other words... another blatant kill-steal.

What the heck? She'd been so obedient until now. Neither of the two friends could understand Fae Sol's change in attitude. If possible, they wanted to rid themselves of this annoyance.

*>Euphrates: Fae Sol's kill-stealing from us. Can we kick her out?*

This message was sent in the party chat, so all 6 party members saw it.

*>Abandoned Snow: Wwwwwwwwwwwwwww*

*>Hearth Ember: That's regrettable, but you three probably need to work together to take out the magma slime. It'll be difficult for only two of you. If you want, we can try to join back up. Where are you?*

Joining back up was the worst-case scenario. Not only would their XP be split 6 ways, they wouldn't be able to get their hands on the magma slime's loot.

*>Vadium: Don't worry about it, we've got it under control.*

*>Hearth Ember: Hm... Alright.*

This was troublesome. If what Hearth Ember said was true, they couldn't kill Fae Sol. After all, how were they going to collect the loot if they died first? On the other hand, they weren't receiving much XP due to her persistent kill steals.

*>Vadium: You think we should get rid of her right now?*

*>Euphrates: ... No, just bear it. If Ember's right, we'll genuinely need three people for the raid. The magma slime's probably worth more than the useless mobs she's stealing from us anyway.*

The silver lining here was that Fae Sol wasn't stealing *every* kill, so they were still getting something out of this.

*>Euphrates: But we will get rid of her eventually. I think we can do it like this...*