Nia's 6th qualifier match proceeded smoothly. She got some kills on Bot and Mid and also chased away the Monk, who has been dominating Top. The eeam couldablish their footing for the rest of the game and Nia's team rode their momentum all the way to victory.

  VICTORY

  "Ok," Nia nodded. Now, she had 2 wins and 4 losses. ly an amazing score but she was getting toward that sweet 50-50 ratio. The st thing she wanted was to end up in Bronze. Everybody said that pce was MMR hell. Scary.

  For her 7th match, some schmuck stole her Jungler role again. Nia called the role as soon as the sele s loaded but the guy just went ahead and took it anyway. Everybody online was a bully.

  This time, she ended up as the Carry. This wasn't so bad, actually. Marksmen were kinda like ranged assassins. They usually didn't have as much siarget burst, but their basics were fast and hit like a truck, so they were fun to py.

  "Ranger is ok?" Nia asked.

  "Yeah, it's fine," Yuel nodded. "What's wrong? You’re not sulting Tipmancer's tier list this time?"

  "Figured you know the tier list like the back of your hand so it’s faster to ask."

  "Heh, I see," Yuel wasn't sure how to feel about it but it robably a good thing, right? Little by little, Nia grew to trust his knowledge and opened up to him. That’ll make it easier to teach her hings going forward.

  Yuel is a pretty good app. Nia o herself. It's faster to ask him stuff than to sear Tipmancer. I better use him for everything. Ez life.

  The uping match seemed promising. She nabbed herself a Ranger and she had the trusty Yuelmancer app in hand, whiew literally everything there was to know about the game. The odds were in her favor. Or, so she thought.

  "Eh? What's he doing?" Nia blinked. Her Support, the Padin, just straight up charged into eerritory all by himself. Um, hello? You fot to ping that you’ll be attag...

  An ally has been killed!

  "Derp," Nia mumbled.

  "Derp indeed," Yuel nodded. "I have a bad feeling about this match."

  Unfortunately, Yuel's hunch was on point. That Padin was a total wack. He kept aggressing during random situations without any shot-calls. He always either wound up dead et heavily injured, barely getting away thanks to Nia’s help. It was a shitshow.

  "Supports are the worst," Nia pouted.

  "Ahem," Yuel cleared his throat. "I py Support."

  "Ah. Well, I hope you py good Support."

  "I'm much better than this Padin, that much I guarantee."

  Thanks to the Padin's amazing supp, Nia stantly found herself in 1v2 situations aually lost the ne.

  An allied Turret has beeroyed!

  No amount of advice from Yuel could possibly fix this predit. When one pyer oeam ying stupid and it was the Support of all people, the team was doomed.

  DEFEAT

  "Fun," Nia dropped ba the chair and put down the troller. "That's enough for today."

  "You've only pyed three matches," Yuel said.

  "Yeah, that's a lot..." Nia used her small palm to cover a yawn. "Nap time." She curled into a ball on top of the chair and fell silent.

  "Don't sleep here."

  "Zzz."

  Wait, did she literally fall asleep like that? Yuel raised an eyebrow.

  The girl became a bck hairball. Her faint breathing could barely be heard under her long spaghetti hair. It was su odd sleeping posture. Did she practice it at home? If not, it was a miracle she could fall asleep like this.

  "What's wrong?" Kai asked. "Did you knock her out with your lectures?"

  "I did no such thing. She just said she needed a nap so there she is, napping."

  "Huh?"

  "Yeah, exactly. She ft out passed out in this aosture."

  "Huh, alright then," Kai didn't even know what else to say. "So, how is her qualifier?"

  "Two wins, five losses"

  "I thought you’re here to help her glide through it."

  "I'm no magi. Not much I do about Junglers who don't gank and Supports who have no brain."

  "Fair enough," Kai nodded. "So, how is she? Pretty goht?"

  "She's alright," Yuel said. "There's still a lot to work on but she's willing to learn, that's the most important thing."

  "Yeah, exactly," Kai nodded. "So, it's official. Nia is the new member of Stratus."

  "No objes here," Yuel said.

  "Splendid!" Vi spread his arms theatrically. "The Vanishing Phantom joins the Den of Undiscovered Potential! With her oeam, we shall be able to deliver invisible ganks!"

  "Sick, yo!" Lars excimed even though he probably had no idea what this was even about.

  "That's cool and all," Luke said. "But, that'll only be relevant in like two years, right? After all, you got yours truly for jungling."

  "Oh," Vi lowered his hands. "Yes, indeed. We already got ourselves the Meme Jedi! Maybe the Vanishing Phantom be a secret te some matchups or something."

  The Meme Jedi, huh. Yuel wohere was no denying that Luke was a solid pyer and he pyed his memes well. But, memes were memes. No matter how effectively one could wield a Rogue in Rahe e the petitive se will eat it alive. Luke’s memeing skills might be enough to take out some weaker teams but they'll not work oroeams in the region.

  So, something had to ge. Either Luke will have to pick csses which were at least mid-tier or, perhaps, Nia will have to py Jungler instead.

  we really entrust her with something like that? Yuel shuddered. It sounded like suicide. With that said, Nia definitely had the knack for being an assassin-type Jungler and she was willing to learn. If Yuel tutors her well, Nia might bee strong enough to py as the team’s Juhis year.

  But, Luke is one year of experience ahead of her and he learhings as well. Decisions, decisions. Yuel couldn’t tell what will be the best for the team. The best-case sario would be for Luke to start usi Jungler csses while Nia improves enough to be a viable secret tech. I o try w on both fronts at the same time. Though, I promised to not nag Luke about his meme picks for a while, so I’ll focus on Nia for now.

  Time passed by. Seds turned into minutes and minutes into hours. Nia kept sleeping on the chair like a hairball. It was bizarre but apparently it worked for her.

  Meanwhile, Yuel joihe others for a few games in Ranked. After they finished five games, the spaghetti hair monster woke up from her extended slumber.

  “Ah,” Nia’s little eyes peered through her long bangs. She looked kinda drunk. “Ah, oh.” She fished in her bag and took out a bar of chocote. ch. ch. She slowly bit away at it like a hamster.

  “You awake?” Kai asked.

  “Yep,” Nia nodded. Arifying jolt shot through her after she fihe bar of chocote. The sweetness spread through her body and tickled her senses.

  “We’re ing up for today,” Kai announced.

  “Oh, I see.”

  “You should keep pying at home,” Yuel said. “Finish that qualifier so you join us in Raomorrow. If you need more advice, you e py at my pce.”

  “hew!” Luke whistled. “Somebody here is a predator!”

  “Huh?” Yuel blinked.

  “Disgusting,” Kai scoffed at him for some reason.

  “What did I do now?” Yuel frowned. “I just want to help her in the qualifier and teach her hings along the way.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you gonna teach her aaaaall sorts of stuff.” Luke winked.

  “Shame on you, inviting a dy you’ve just met to your pce,” Vi shook his head. “Not very gentlemanlike of you.”

  “Yeah, Yuel is a bold bro,” Luke nodded. “The girl just joined and dude is already hitting on her! Haha.”

  “Scary,” Nia created some distand eyed Yuel with suspi.

  “Wha, that’s not...” Yuel sighed. “She just got a lot to learn about the game and I’m sure I teach her. There are no ulterior motives here. Besides, we won’t even be alone. Lars will be there as well.”

  “So, it’s a threesome!?” Luke jumped.

  “I’m disappointed in you,” Kai averted her eyes as if Yuel was too disgusting to even look at.

  “Hey now,” Lars intervened. “Don’t do my dude dirty like that. He’s already married.”

  “Oh, so you two already married? grats” Luke cpped.

  “Haha, dude, pls,” Lars lightly smacked Luke on the back. “Our dude Yuel here is married to Mancers! He ain’t gonna cheat on the game with some girl.”

  “Indeed, indeed,” Vi nodded with profound uanding.

  “Yeah, he’s a total Manerd,” Luke agreed. “We shall dub him Nerdmancer!”

  “Makes sense,” Kai nodded. “Sorry for doubting you like that.”

  “So,” Yuel narrowed his eyes. “Are we doh the ‘making fun of Yuel’ hour? I just wao help Nia improve but okay, fine. I suppose it was indeed premature of me to ask a girl I’ve just met to e to my po o make me out like some Cassanova for it. I guess Lars and Behe only ones who believe in me.”

  “Oh, um, I just...” Ben mumbled. He has been standing on the side the whole time without saying a word. “You really like giving advice so I figured it’s just that.”

  “Yes, exactly. At least somebody here is on my side,” Yuel scoffed. “Anyway, jokes aside, feel free to e over if you want some help.”

  “I dunno about that,” Nia was still giving him funny looks. She didn’t happen to take the jokes seriously, did she? Sigh.

  “It’s alright, no need for that,” Kai said. “You e to py at my pstead. I’ll teach you stuff. That’s safer than staying at that predator’s pce, don’t you agree?”

  Will these guys drop it already!? Yuel waved an angry fist.

  “Hm, ok,” Nia o Kai’s words.

  And she accepted, just like that. Yuel sighed. He had to admit defeat here. All he wanted was to help Nia with learning Cssmancers. He had no ulterior motives whatsoever. Sigh. Whatever.

  Yuel just had to wait until Nia trusts him enough to start joining him and Lars for their afternoon practice. At her current level, she definitely hat extra boost of training to catch up to the rest. Hopefully, she’ll uand that eventually...

  DarkestCymore