Chapter 103: Crooked Crown

Luxy held the ancient scroll so carefully that Jaxir found himself doing the same when he accepted it. The parchment felt dry beneath his fingers, with cracks running along the edges and sections so thin that light passed through them.

"My family has protected this for generations." Luxy’s usual merchant smile softened as she looked down at it. "It is a copy of an ancient Natural method used to reforge the body, but the impression inside has almost completely faded. You may have one use left before the scroll crumbles, so whatever you comprehend from it will be yours alone."

Jaxir’s eyes flickered as he remembered what she’d explained about copied circulation methods. He nodded and stored the scroll without opening it, unwilling to waste even a little of whatever remained inside before he was ready.

"Actually, I might have something that helps with that." he said.

He pulled the Sparkle Sensory Bead from his Inventory and showed her the description. Luxy’s eyes brightened before she’d even finished reading, and by the time she looked up again, her expression had become almost embarrassingly enthusiastic.

"Yes. Absolutely." She leaned closer to inspect the bead again. "If this maps your internal pathways accurately, you won’t have to discover your body’s structure while attempting the reforge itself. Your odds should improve considerably."

Jaxir smiled. "How considerably?"

"At least 20%."

His lip twitched.

Luxy apparently noticed and waved one hand. "For this method, that is excellent."

"I’ll choose not to take that personally." he muttered.

He put the bead away, but another problem had already started bothering him. Jaxir had been logged out in this cave for hours, and the Natural who’d been hunting him hadn’t exactly seemed like the type to lose interest just because his target disappeared for a night.

"I’m being chased by a Natural, by the way." Jaxir scratched at his cheek while Luxy’s expression immediately changed. "I’ve been sitting here long enough that he’s probably much closer now, assuming he isn’t already nearby. I need somewhere I can do this without getting interrupted."

Luxy’s humor disappeared. "Then succeeding is even more important than I thought."

"That’s reassuring."

"I’m serious, child. The Naturals aren’t following you with ordinary tracking alone; they’re following the character of your Mana and the traces it leaves behind." Luxy pointed toward the scroll inside his Inventory. "If you successfully reforge your constitution, the way your body carries and expresses Mana will change with it. Your scent won’t disappear completely, but the trail they’ve been following should become much harder to recognize."

Jaxir’s eyes lit up.

That was considerably better than a 20% chance at becoming stronger for reasons he didn’t fully understand yet.

"So this might get them off my ass too."

"If you survive it."

Luxy’s smile returned. "Return to Twinkle Village. I’ll prepare somewhere safe enough that no one should interrupt you."

Before Jaxir could ask what exactly she meant by safe enough, the badge connection flashed and Luxy vanished from the cave.

"Helpful."

Jaxir stepped outside a moment later and immediately realized why nobody had found him while he slept. The cave opened near the edge of a steep rocky cliff, with broken stone dropping away far beneath him and no easy path leading up from below.

Then he looked down and his lip twitched.

A woman stood near the base of the cliff, one hand resting against the fur of an enormous fox with two long tails sweeping behind it. Her clothing carried the same rough, natural style Jaxir remembered from Rovan, and even from this distance there was something familiar about the way the fox watched the stone above them.

The woman had clearly been there for some time, circling beneath the cliff and checking the rock face for a route upward. Jaxir stared for another second before realizing that if he’d chosen a normal hiding place, there was a decent chance he’d have logged back in to someone standing over his body.

"This game is way too damn realistic."

The woman’s head snapped upward.

Jaxir didn’t wait to see whether she’d spotted him.

He stepped off the cliff, let himself fall long enough for the height requirement to register, then summoned the Sapphire-Emerald Glider Wings behind him. The enormous feathers snapped open as the Glider effect caught, throwing him away from the cliff before the woman below could do much more than stare.

If she was anywhere near as strong as Rovan, Jaxir wanted nothing to do with her right now. He could come back and be brave after his constitution was reforged.

**

Twinkle Village looked worse than Jaxir expected.

There were no guards waiting at the entrance anymore, while several shops had broken shutters, missing doors or shelves visible through smashed windows. Patches of grass had already started pushing between stones along the road, and without the Village Head or the old enforcement structure keeping everything in place, the entire settlement looked like it had been abandoned halfway through a riot.

Jaxir passed through the entrance without anyone stopping him, despite Gravity’s earlier ban. Whether the collapse of the village authority had weakened its enforcement or there was simply nobody left willing to care, he wasn’t about to complain.

"That fell apart fast."

Luxy’s shop was the only building that looked prepared for the new environment.

Wooden boards reinforced every window, heavy metal braces covered the door, and enough added locks sat across the entrance that Jaxir wouldn’t have even know where the door was in the first place if not for the fact that was the only logical place to leave locks.

Jaxir approached the front step and the world shifted.

He blinked and found himself standing inside the shop without ever touching the door.

Luxy sat behind the counter, looking entirely too pleased with herself. "Did you like the renovations?"

"Very welcoming."

"People have become less polite since you killed everyone responsible for keeping order."

Jaxir laughed as Luxy climbed down from behind the counter and waved for him to follow. She led him through a rear room and down a narrow staircase hidden beneath the floor, stopping only after several turns carried them much deeper underground.

The final room looked nothing like the shop above.

Smooth stainless steel covered the walls, floor and ceiling without a visible gap between them, while a heavy door sealed behind Jaxir with a deep mechanical lock. There were no windows, no furniture beyond a low seat in the center, and no obvious way for Mana or sound to pass through.

Luxy folded her hands behind her back. "This room is completely isolated. What happens from here will be up to you."

Jaxir looked around once, then nodded.

"Good enough."

He sat in the center of the room and drew in a slow breath before pulling the Sparkle Sensory Bead from his Inventory. The tiny object glowed faintly between his fingers, almost harmless-looking compared to everything else he’d received from the Sparkle Village Head.

Jaxir pressed it against his forehead and the bead sank into his skin.

Thin tendrils spread from it before he could react, slipping deeper until they connected with something behind his eyes, and Jaxir’s breath caught as his awareness exploded inward. His body stopped feeling like flesh wrapped around bones and became an enormous world filled with pathways, organs, channels and countless tiny structures he had never consciously felt before.

Golden lines raced through all of it.

They spread through his body in impossible detail, branching through muscle, bone and vessels until Jaxir felt like he was staring at an entire world contained beneath his skin. Then, without warning, every golden line snapped into silvery-blue.

Jaxir’s eyes glazed over and a crooked crown appeared beside his head.