Chapter 105: Physique

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[Common Mana Body Reforging Successful]

[You have gained the Contingent Title "Physique Elite"]

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[Physique Elite]

[Your body has been reforged beyond the natural limits expected of your Level.]

[Gain +2 Body Stats per Level.]

[Mana Reinforcement]

Consume 20 MP per second to reinforce the body from within.

Gain +10 Body Stats per Level while active.

Body Stats gained through Mana Reinforcement increase physical strength, speed, coordination and reaction speed, but do not increase Maximum HP.

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Jaxir’s brows rose before another screen replaced it.

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Name: Jaxir Chance

Class: Magic

Level: 8

Alignment: Bad ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Experience: 20,302/40,000

Coins: 429,744

Marks: Jester

Titles: Archmage; Rulebreaker; Physique Elite

HP: 210/210

MP: 3,300/3,300

Core Stats

Body: 21

Mind: 330 (+300)

Free Points: 0 Abilities

Body: N/A

Mind: Cast (Lv41); Channel (Lv43); Attune (Lv47); Wither (Lv38); Bind (Lv35); Fracture (Lv37); Entropy (Lv5); Unravel (Lv5); Drain (Lv7); Haunt (Lv8)

Divine Abilities: Encore; Luck of the Draw; Roll of the Dice; Sleight of Hand; Last Laugh

Divinity Points: 0

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Jaxir pursed his lips while reading through the changes again, then gave a slow nod. 16 permanent Body Stats was already enough to more than triple what he’d possessed naturally, and unlike the temporary reinforcement, those points increased his HP normally as well.

Considering he’d only managed to reforge himself with Common Mana, that was a pretty good outcome.

The part that interested him more wasn’t actually the number.

Jaxir focused on Mana Reinforcement and felt the new pathways inside his body respond before he even activated it. Until now, most of the physical things he’d accomplished with Mana involved applying force from outside himself, whether that meant using Twinkle Mana to attract his feet toward a wall, repelling himself from a surface or copying some portion of a Vestigem Card’s effect around his body.

This was different. The reforging had created pathways that allowed Mana to reinforce his body directly.

Jaxir activated the effect for less than a second, and his muscles tightened as Mana rushed into them with none of the awkward resistance he’d grown used to. At Level 8, the full effect would give him another 80 Body Stats, but burning 20 MP every second meant he’d chew through 1,200 MP in a single minute.

"Yeah, no."

He shut it off almost immediately.

There were very few situations where Jaxir could imagine willingly emptying his Mana pool just to become stronger or faster, especially when Mana was still the source of nearly everything else he did. The value was in the pathway itself, since Vestigem Cards that altered movement, reactions or the body no longer had to be crudely recreated by wrapping Mana around him and forcing the result from the outside.

He could imitate the change from within instead.

Twinkle Step was the obvious example. Jaxir had already learned to reproduce pieces of the Card’s effect without consuming one, but doing it had always taken far more Mana and attention than the actual Card because he was manually creating attraction around his body.

Now he had another option.

Jaxir grinned as he started toward the stairs. If the same principle carried over to other physical Vestigem Cards, the Common reforging had given him considerably more than 16 Body Stats.

Luxy was waiting upstairs.

Or at least, Jaxir assumed she had been waiting.

When he stepped back into the main shop, he found the old woman sitting behind her counter with what looked like enough turkey legs to feed several people piled around her. She had one in each hand, sauce streaked across one cheek and enough grease coating her fingers that Jaxir stopped halfway into the room.

Luxy froze.

Jaxir stared at her.

"Busy?"

She ignored that completely and dropped both turkey legs onto the plate before looking him over. Her initial surprise sank into disappointment so quickly that Jaxir almost laughed.

"You failed." Luxy’s shoulders dropped. "I suppose expecting success on the first attempt was already asking too much, and with only a damaged copy—"

She stopped and her eyes widened.

Jaxir watched her expression change before she suddenly shot out from behind the counter and grabbed his arms with sauce-and-grease-covered hands.

"Hey."

Luxy didn’t care.

She turned one of his arms over, pressed her fingers against his shoulder and then stared up at him with her mouth hanging open. Whatever she could sense through the new constitution had apparently answered her question.

"You actually succeeded." Her fingers tightened around his arm. "So fast? How is that possible? It’s only been half a day."

"Well, don’t sound so surprised." Jaxir chuckled as he looked at the grease she’d already smeared across his sleeve. "You’re hurting my feelings."

"I..."

Luxy’s eyes started watering.

Jaxir recognized the warning signs immediately.

"Before you start praying again, how do I increase the Grade of Mana I can use for the baptism?"

Luxy’s tears stalled.

She blinked several times, then frowned at him as though he’d asked why he couldn’t grow another head.

"You don’t."

Jaxir’s smile faded slightly. "That’s not a very useful answer."

"There is no method." Luxy wiped beneath one eye with the back of her wrist, leaving a small streak of sauce near her temple. "The Grade of Mana your body can withstand during reforging is determined by bodily talent. You are either born capable of translating Mana into physical growth, or you aren’t."

Jaxir folded his arms.

Luxy shook her head. "That is one of the reasons the Naturals are so feared. Their race possesses an abnormal compatibility between Mana talent and bodily talent, allowing them to turn magical potential directly into physical potential in ways most races simply cannot."

"And humans?"

"A human capable of what you just did might appear once among billions. Perhaps trillions, depending on how strict your definition is." Luxy pointed at him. "The fact you succeeded at all already places you among those freaks, so don’t start complaining that Common isn’t good enough."

Jaxir nodded along politely.

He didn’t believe her. Let alone the fact that there weren’t even close to a trillion people on Earth, he simply refused to accept that Common was where his body had to stop forever. Plus, were there a trillion NPCs in the game? He found that hard to believe too. How many data centers would you need to store all that information given how complex every NPC was?

There was Uncommon Mana above it, followed by Rare, Epic and Ultra, and those were only the Grades Jaxir currently knew existed. If his body couldn’t withstand them now, then he would make it capable of doing so later.

Somehow.

Luxy narrowed her eyes. "You’re not listening."

"I’m listening."

"You have that look."

"I have a very trustworthy face."

Before Luxy could answer, a small notification appeared at the edge of Jaxir’s vision.

He paused. It was a message.

Jaxir had never actually received one inside Divinity before, and his first thought was Nick. After disappearing across half the region, killing the final Village Head and then vanishing again, Nick was probably wondering where the hell he’d gone, especially now that they could finally start preparing for the Nightmare Dungeon.

But the sender wasn’t Nick, it was Lue.

Jaxir opened the message.

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Luecious Luscious: [They’re ready to see you. Let me know when you can make it to the town.

Since the three Village Heads are dead, you should be able to leave the Tutorial Zone early.]

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Jaxir’s gaze flickered.