Chapter 23: Easy Pickings

Jaxir cursed, half laughing, and half actually annoyed. But it wasn’t all that hard for him to just leave the items where they were and charge ahead.

Why did this game not have an inventory system?

Regardless, he wasn’t going to wait around just to be surrounded. And because of Sleight of Hand, he knew that these two didn’t even have any more Vestigem Cards on them anyway.

That was the hidden benefit of Sleight of Hand, actually. He knew exactly how many cards his enemies had on hand. The only drawback was that he could only learn the exact identity of the one he ended up swiping.

Jaxir rushed ahead, deciding to conserve his mana. It seemed that he wasn’t going to have the chance to practice combining his movement with his Twinkle Mana just yet.

Luckily, his Body Stat was now over 50. He quickly checked the map to make sure he had oriented himself in the right way.

More of it was beginning to gain color and details, but the tutorial village was still a glowing orb in the middle of a sea of black for him. He could only tell what general direction it was in, but he couldn’t tell what might block his path there.

The town should be about three kilometers according to the legend, though.

Jaxir found himself laughing aloud. It wasn’t very loud, and more like a low chuckle, almost like he had a bubbling excitement within him that he couldn’t contain.

This was fun. So fun.

Not even half a minute later, Jaxir ran into another group.

This one had four in it, and Jaxir could tell by a glance at them that they were little different from the first gold farming group he had met.

"It’s him!" one of them shouted.

His head snapped back under the weight of a Jaxir Cast for his troubles.

[-32]

Jaxir’s grin widened when he saw how much damage his simple Casts were doing now.

He yanked his staff across the air as though pulling mana in through the action. The twinkling starlight bloomed and stretched like currents, the world sparkling beneath his might.

Pa. Pa.

Two of the warriors that charged for Jaxir were sent skidding back by the first attack.

[-37]

[-37]

A mage, the fourth and last of them, managed to finish their chant, a large, swirling fireball appearing in the skies.

Well, "large" was doing a lot of heavy lifting. It was about three quarters the size of a head, and formed of a dirty, orange flame Jaxir could feel was the product of a low-level Cast.

The speed it flew through the air with was even more pitiful. In fact, saying it "flew" was doing even more heavy lifting. It was more like it was lobbed up and then slowly fell down under the weight of gravity toward Jaxir.

The problem was that the ball of flames wasn’t very dense and the further it flew, the more the winds nicked and pulled at it.

By the time it was falling down toward Jaxir, he felt like it had probably lost at least 30 to 40% of its damage output.

He just side-stepped it, not even wasting the mana to counter.

As he dashed to the side, moving faster than any of the melee class on the battlefield, he was already casting more rapid fire bullets.

He only did 32 damage to the first guy he hit, but 37 to the other two melee. That should mean that the first guy had higher defenses, and considering the shield he was holding, he was probably the first tank class Jaxir had come across.

Well, the first human tank class, anyway.

"Lucky me," Jaxir said with a grin.

Pa. Pa.

[-37]

[-37]

He had managed to hit and stall the tank first. Now their battle formation was completely out of whack, and the tank himself was only now rapidly catching up.

He charged ahead, raising his shield up before dashing between the pair. It looked like he was about to use some sort of shield bash, and Jaxir reacted in kind, sending out a pair of magic bullets at him.

But just as the tank braced himself, Jaxir grinned and the magic bullets split apart.

Jaxir might not have figured out how to fuse his twinkle mana into his movement yet, but controlling his Cast skill from afar had become as easy as breathing.

The two arcs curved away from the tank as he ducked his head behind his shield, hitting the two melee classes flush again.

[-41]

[-41]

The sound of the mage chanting ended again right at that moment and Jaxir’s gaze flashed over to him, raising his staff.

His chants filled the air, but they were more forceful, the sudden rustling of the leaves and the swaying grass responding to his call as though he was gathering all the mana in the world toward him.

The tank roared.

Jaxir had just finished his chant and all of a sudden the Bind Hex he had been about to cast on the magic class was ripped out from its target direction and it collided with the tank instead.

Shadows rippled out from underneath the tank and he froze in place for a brief instant.

Jaxir blinked, not having expected that to happen. He sheepishly rubbed his head for a second.

"Well, that’s awkward. I forgot other people have skills too."

The two melee class had finally recovered from constantly being knocked back. They approached Jaxir from the left and right, but he could tell their speeds were lowered. They had already lost more than half their HP and they were closing in on a crippled state.

But they were still dangerous.

Well, not really. Considering whatever Jaxir’s defenses were now, he’d imagine they could probably only do a little bit of damage.

But he’d prefer not to stress his heart against enemies like this.

Chi.

A rush of compressed mana surged out in a sweeping arc. Jaxir’s 50 MP of Twinkle Mana burst out all at once again, colliding against them and sending them into a spiralling, sprawling mess.

[-23]

[-23]

They heavily collided against trees, groans leaving their lips as they struggled to sustain themselves.

And at that very moment, a bolt of lightning descended from above, right toward Jaxir’s head.

"What the hell? You can use more than one element?"

Now Jaxir was regretting picking the Hex Path. This was so damn cool.

Unfortunately for the maze, Jaxir’s sensitivity toward magic was simply ridiculous at this point. Even as he spoke, he wasn’t reacting to the bolt itself, but rather its actual formation.

He dodged before it even registered to his sight.

The bolt landed right where he had been, scorching the grass as the magic user collapsed to a knee, huffing for breath.

"Well, that’s unfortunate." Jaxir clicked his tongue. "Out of mana already, huh? Been there."

Jaxir raised his staff and grinned. "Now let’s end this, shall we?"

Two crippled melee classes, a tank that couldn’t use any tank skills, and a mage who was out of mana.

Easy pickings.

It wasn’t even half a minute later than another quartet of beacons lit the forest.

Jaxir was already dashing away, a new Vestigem Card in his hand.