Chapter 11: Cute Foxes

The feeling in his chest was irrational. Jaxir knew that it was, but it had been there for a while. A small nagging at the back of his head that told him that he was pathetic over and over again.

He had finally started to have some fun, but now that voice had come back, and it was right.

He couldn’t even do a video game right. He had basically given up in real life, lost everything he had but meaningless, vapid money, and now he was about to lose again.

’No.’

Jaxir’s eyes glowed.

He had repeated that it was "just a game" so many times now, almost like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

The memories swimming around in his head right now, the cryptic letter from his parents.

This had always been more than a game to him from the moment it made his eyes brighten for the first time in a long time.

Jaxir’s hand reached for Concussive Wave, the only card he had that could deal with this situation. If he was going to waste a card like this, fine. He would just have to do better on the next round.

But then something in his mind clicked.

He recalled the circuits racing through the card and then his staff almost seemed to move on its own. As though grabbing onto an instinct he didn’t know he had, he used Cast, warping and changing its shape.

Chi.

A ripple of white mana spread into the surroundings and Jaxir lost almost 20 MP in a single sitting.

A wave hit the two foxes sending them spiraling back.

Jaxir didn’t have the time to sit and wait for the result, he immediately used a normal Cast against the wall-running fox, killing it.

He rushed a couple steps forward then turned to face the last of the two, raising his staff up high and raining down a pair of bullets at it.

The fox tried to dodge once and was hit squarely, its body being sent skidding back. It lost its balance and tumbled over, right into the path of the second Cast as though Jaxir had calculated it all from the very beginning.

The last of the two foxes vanished into motes of light.

Jaxir exhaled a breath and he looked down at his hand. There was a flicker in his gaze for a moment, and then came a glow.

Just then he had reshaped Cast to match some of the shape that Concussive Wave took on. Although it didn’t deal any damage at all, and it used up a large amount of MP, there were two benefits to it.

For one, it could push lighter weight enemies away from him to give him time to breathe. He was almost sure it wouldn’t work against anything more than 20 or so pounds.

The second benefit was that it worked in a complete 360 degree pattern.

"If I refine it, I think I can lower the MP cost."

This was great, though. Jaxir realized that if he used Vestigem Cards for inspiration, he didn’t have to fumble around for ways to improve Cast as much as he had been.

"This is definitely only useful in very specific cases, though. I can’t turn Cast into a fire attack like Flare Burst. But I could technically copy the shape of Flare Burst."

Jaxir shook his head. Doing that would be useless. Flare Burst only worked because of the fire damage and the bright light. Trying to copy it without the element would lead to a weaker result, not a stronger one.

What he needed were other Vestigem Cards with abilities that could be applied to neutral mana.

A flickering light caught Jaxir’s attention and his head turned to see that the motes of light of the first fox he killed had reformed into the outline of a card. It radiated out a light and then solidified.

Jaxir had had Luck of the Draw for a while, but he hadn’t gotten a single card to drop from it. It seemed that this would be his first.

A smile spread across his face. He walked over and picked it up.

―

Name: Twinkle Step

Grade: Uncommon

MP Cost: 4

Description: Apply twinkle twinkle energy to yourself and gain an attraction to walls and surfaces. Does not increase speed, but will allow easier scaling of walls and a brief hold to hang from ceilings.

Duration: 30 seconds

Recommended Classes: Magic; Ranged; Melee

―

"Nice."

Jaxir had been expecting to always get Common Cards from these drops, but he guessed his Divine Ability just said that it would give him a 1% drop rate, it never said anything about the scale.

Meaning, if a group of mobs was meant to drop higher level cards, Jaxir would have a flat 1 in 100 chance of getting them so long as said mobs were normal creatures and not elites or something like that.

Jaxir slotted the card away. Or, rather, he tried to.

―

[Deck cannot hold Vestigem Cards beyond Common Grade]

―

"Oh..."

Jaxir frowned. That wasn’t very convenient. He guessed that he would just have to hold onto the card, then? There wasn’t really another choice.

The cards were slightly bigger than normal playing cards by about 20% or so in both length and width, and even in thickness. They had a strong metal character to them and though Jaxir felt like he could bend it, it wouldn’t be easy.

He didn’t really need both of his hands to battle anymore, so he could only hope that there wasn’t too much of a problem to hold it like this.

Jaxir headed forward and ran into his next group of foxes quickly. It seemed a Nightmare Dungeon wasn’t going to allow him any time to rest.

But this time, he was sharper and faster than before. He refused to allow the same mistake to happen again, so he began to change his approach.

Blasting out speedy bullets was great, but when he had more than one enemy he had to focus on at a time, there was no way he could track them all accurately with his periphery vision alone.

So, he needed an attack with a wider range. The obvious answer was to turn his magic bullet attack into more of a magic blade, but that was easier said than done.

The edges came out fuzzy, and the first time he used it to attack, it pushed more than it cut, doing very little damage. And because it didn’t land flush on the foxes, it was better as a delay tactic than an actual attack.

[-3]

[-3]

Realizing he wasn’t going to master this in this battle alone, Jaxir adapted once again. He turned his eye to one fox, tracking the other out of his periphery vision with a mix of side eyes and quick glances.

He sent one focused magic bullet at the one he focused on, sending ripples of mana blades out at the other to keep it controlled and back.

His mana blade hit the ground, the twinkle twinkle fox managing to dodge even as its companion was hit square in the face.

[-12]

However, the moment the blade hit the ground, it shattered and sent splash damage up and at the fox before it could dodge again.

"Good." Jaxir thought, his eyes glowing. This was exactly what he wanted.

[-1]

[-1]

If he couldn’t find a way to sharpen the blade properly, he would take advantage of this instead. He had seen how splash damage worked in this game during his battle with the trio who ambushed him. It turned out he was right about how he could use it.

[-12]

Jaxir hit the first fox again and it died with a yelp.

He turned his attention to the second and it didn’t last very long under his rain at all, dying just as pitifully.

"This game is so flexible." Jaxir said aloud. "Now. Next."

Jaxir rounded a corner and froze.

"... Shit."

―

Name: Twinkle Twinkle Bear

Level: 4

HP: 300/300

―

Jaxir entered a small clearing, and the instant he did, the music drummed up again.

Before the bear even opened its eyes, its fur bristled and stood on end, gaining a slight red tinge from its usual dense black. The bear seemed to double in size...

And then its eyes opened.

A pair of what once were a resplendent gold became deathly crimson.

The bear roared.

"... What happened to all the cute little foxes?"