Chapter 17: Math

Jaxir chuckled as he stumbled to a stop, scratching the back of his head with his staff-wielding hand. The action was about as awkward as he felt right now.

"Hey, buddy. Let’s talk this one out, hm?"

He received a roar in response and then the bear rushed into a charge.

Time seemed to slow for Jaxir, his mind reaching an unprecedented level of focus. Everything seemed to point to one singular conclusion.

He was screwed.

Whether it was his abilities, the stats of the Kindled Boss, or just the raw math of it all, he was completely screwed.

The worst of it all was the last of those three points, because it was the most sobering. Assuming the bear just let him stand here and pelt it to death with quickfire magic bullets, even if Jaxir did 10 damage a pop he would need to land 5,000 of them. Even with his staff, that was at least 10,000 MP, which was more than 30 times the amount of MP he had right now.

None of that even mentioned the fact the bear wasn’t just going to sit there and let him attack it. And by the same token, it had the same Endure ability as all the other twinkle twinkle bears dialed up to a whole other level.

By the time it got to half HP, its defenses would be so high that the most damage Jaxir could probably do was -1 at a time.

No matter how you looked at it, this was a boss you were supposed to fight with a team, a ridiculous number of consumables―not just including Vestigem Cards, but also HP and MP replenishers―and set items at Epic or greater at the very least.

Travelling between regions and tutorial zones was basically impossible unless one reset their character and got lucky enough to get deposited in the region you wanted.

In addition, tutorial zones got barred once one reached Level 11 as well.

Because of that, the specific combination of wealth, skill, and luck that was needed to clear this already rare instance made it so that this particular iteration of dungeon had only been cleared twice before, each time with a full slate of three.

There was a reason this dungeon didn’t give Experience. If it did, considering how many times you would have to clear it for one shot at this Rare Instance, everyone would long be beyond Level 10 before they got there.

All of this flickered through Jaxir’s mind in an instant. He even spared one thought to realize that maybe just two days ago, he wouldn’t have had enough energy to be this sharp.

But that also reminded him of one very important thing...

His body might not be able to withstand a death in this game.

He should have listened to his doctor and waited the month out. At least then, losing here would just mean a slight reset for his character.

But now...

The bear was already closing in, a scent of death filling Jaxir’s nose.

It was peculiar. As fast as his mind was moving now, and as slow as the world seemed, he felt that he shouldn’t be so familiar with this scent...

One might think that because of his parents and Max that he should be, but this was different.

Memories that shouldn’t have been his own flashed by quickly, stacking one after another until his eyes were a murderous sort of chilly cold.

His silver eyes radiating a stormy, cool fog.

Jaxir made a decision.

No matter what it took, he wasn’t going to die here. This boss was going down.

He wasn’t going to allow anything to get in the way of his life moving forward.

Jaxir finally moved.

The room was large. The bear had slumbered on a throne fit for a king, wide enough to accommodate its enormous body.

The ceiling was easily 12 meters or so above, and the diameter of the room was at least three times that.

However, that was where the description stopped. There was nothing in the room. No cover, no barriers, just a wide open space and the perfect region for the king to gather up its momentum and hit a charge that sent spirals of swirling gold twinkle mana rampaging around it.

For a moment, its mana grew so dark and dense that it was hard to even see its body in the speeding bullet it had become.

An ability, no doubt.

Jaxir’s movement wasn’t to dodge, though. He pulled the last Flare Burst he had from his card holder. Other than a last use of Static Charge, there was now nothing left in there. The three Vestigem Cards he had now were the last he would have.

Chi.

His mana poured into the card, filling its circuits in a fluid pattern Jaxir couldn’t have been more familiar with.

BANG.

The arc of fire slammed right into the oncoming bear as Jaxir dashed to one side.

The king turned its body toward him roaring, but the instant the flaming ball of violence hit it, Jaxir skidded to a stop, stumbling in a bit of an awkward gait. He slammed his fists into the ground to stabilize himself and then dove in the opposite direction.

BOOM.

Jaxir instantly noted that just because his body wasn’t as unhealthy as it was in the outside world, did not mean that he had all the athleticism he was used to having back at his peak. He had almost gotten one-shot there.

The bear missed him by a hair because of his stumble and shot by him. His Body Stat was too low to rely on maneuvers like that, even if he was sure he could have done it with his real body when he was healthy.

More shockingly, though, the blast of Flare Burst did no damage at all, likely because the charge skill the king bear had just used had some defensive properties too.

Fortunately, it was still blinded.

Without missing a beat, the instant the king bear rammed into the cave wall, Jaxir raised his staff as he stumbled back up to his feet.

His lips moved with a great amount of speed, a silent cast leaving his lips. He moved on instinct, his chant becoming a focused stream of mana that wrapped up the shadows beneath the twinkle twinkle bear king and latching it down.

Chi.

The moment Bind took effect, Jaxir ran toward a wall. He just needed to make sure he didn’t get a sudden blast of mana at his back.

He was already leaping as his mana flooded into Twinkle Step.

He had never been more focused in his life. Every twitch, every bend and curve of the mana, he paid attention to it all.

If Cast could mimic Concussive Wave, then there was no reason Cast shouldn’t be able to mimic Twinkle Step now that his mana had its character.

That was the only way he was going to survive this.

The only shot he had.

And he was going to take it.

Jaxir’s soles bloomed with a twinkle of mana, a surge flooding down his legs.

To his surprise, the feather set he was wearing also seemed to react a bit. He felt lighter, freer, and the moment his toes contacted the wall, gravity shifted and he felt like he was walking on flat earth.

Jaxir’s eyes lost focus.

All this time, he was thinking about twinkle twinkle mana the wrong way.

Because he had met the twinkle twinkle foxes first, he got locked into the idea that it was some sort of mesmerizing, illusion type mana or something.

But was it?

No. Whether it was foxes or the bears, they were bending light toward and away from them. That was how they cast their illusions, that was why the bears were such good tanks, that was why Vestigem Cards like Twinkle Steps and Twinkle Anchor could exist.

From the very beginning, twinkle mana was a gravity controlling mana.

Something shifted inside of Jaxir and he burst up the wall, sliding just out of range of a swipe of the twinkle twinkle bear’s paw.

Jaxir accelerated and he suddenly found himself moving like he was a Melee speed specialist.

A wide grin spread across his face as he made it to the ceiling, aiming his staff down.

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[Your Comprehension of "Twinkle Mana" has reached Kindled status]

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