Chapter 4: Fun

The first thing Jaxir felt was the wind on his face. It split along his bony nose, pushing against his eyes a bit. The feeling was just too real.

He reached over and touched a tree. The rough bark almost bit back at his fingers, scraping at their tips and his palm.

Jaxir realized then he couldn’t quite recall the last time he had even been outside. He had forgotten how beautiful and peaceful it could be.

DING.

Jaxir heard the echo of a chime and reflexively looked above his head.

A crimson arrow pointed down at the top of his head, a timer ticking down from three seconds, to two, and then one before the arrow disappeared.

"What...? That can’t be good..."

Jaxir opened his status screen and saw a new timer pop up. This one was for a full five minutes and it had already ticked down into the four minute range.

"Oh. So I guess that arrow is going to appear again in five minutes and sustain for three seconds before disappearing."

Jaxir saw a map populate at the corner of his eye. Right now, only the general five meters around him or so was clear and everything else was shrouded in shadows. He further guessed that when that red arrow was above his head, he probably appeared on everyone’s map.

"That doesn’t seem very fair."

Jaxir found himself smiling for some reason. It was just a game. Compared to the stakes in real life, who cared?

Granted, this "game" had apparently put the memories of another man into his brain. But half of Jaxir felt he had just spent so long in isolation he was losing his mind.

Maybe this was exactly what he needed.

"I should move." Jaxir made a decision pretty quickly, a sharpness he had long forgotten starting to refine his thoughts again. "But first."

He pulled out his Vestigem Cards, all three of them.

―

Name: Concussive Wave

Grade: Common

MP Cost: 2

Description: Release a wave of force from your position in all directions. Deals damage and pushes enemies back two meters.

Recommended Classes: Magic; Tank

―

Name: Flare Burst

Grade: Common

MP Cost: 2

Description: An explosion of light and heat at a target point. Deals damage and blinds all enemies in a 3-meter radius

Recommended Classes: Magic; Ranged

―

Name: Static Charge

Grade: Common

MP Cost: 1

Description: Charge yourself. The next time an enemy makes contact, they take burst damage.

Recommended Classes: Magic; Tank

―

The descriptions were pretty simple, and the MP cost was shockingly low. Jaxir could use almost a hundred of them before he ran out of mana.

But that was what made Vestigem Cards so powerful. They were one-time use consumables, but they did a lot of the work for you and they cost almost nothing.

The problem was that the game didn’t let things remain that simple.

There were three ways to get your hands on cards in the game. The first was for a beast or boss to drop them, the second was to buy them, and the third was to craft them yourself.

The first issue was that the drop rate was pitiful, the second issue was that Vestigem Cards were obscenely expensive relative to their power output, and the third issue was that the creation of cards required Divinity, which meant you not only needed to be a servant of a God, but you needed to accomplish tasks to please them and earn the Divinity you would need as a reward.

A rustle made Jaxir’s head snap in a certain direction.

"Did I take too long?"

A small fox stumbled out of the bush. Its side looked like some large animal had just taken a bite out of it.

Jaxir blinked for a moment. He had been expecting some real threat, but this little thing...

Blood dripped down to the grass as it stumbled closer and closer.

Jaxir suddenly felt some odd fluctuation through the air and he moved before he knew what he was doing.

The "injured" little fox suddenly lunged at where he had just been.

―

Name: Twinkle Twinkle Fox

Level: 2

―

The wound on the fox’s side vanished when it realized Jaxir had seen through it, but almost instantly after this it disappeared―quite literally. It was shrouded in twinkling lights for a moment and then it was like it had been erased from the world.

Jaxir frowned. "... I can still see you."

The fox was frozen in place, staring up at Jaxir. It wasn’t hard to guess what it wanted to do. It wanted to wait until Jaxir turned his back to it, then it would attack.

Luckily, on top of being stupid, the fox also didn’t understand English.

Jaxir made a show of turning, but in reality, he had pulled Concussive Wave from his pocket.

The Twinkle Twinkle Fox bent forward and released a low growl before lunging.

At the same instant, Jaxir poured his mana into the Vestigem Card.

―

[You have unlocked the Mind Ability "Cast"]

―

[You have unlocked the Mind Ability "Channel"]

―

[You have unlocked the Mind Ability "Attune"]

―

[Hex Path Branch Abilities are now available to learn]

―

There was a ripple in the air as Jaxir felt a suction at his palm. A blue fog shot out in a wave, slamming against the small body of the fox.

It released a little "yip" upon contact, a red "-12" appearing above its head.

It slammed against a tree soon after and a "-4" appeared.

Then it vanished into motes of light.

―

+2 Exp

+1 Copper

―

A skill tree unfolded before Jaxir.

At the very top, "Cast" lay.

―

[Cast (Mind Ability)]

[Raw mana released at a target. Low damage, but the seed of everything]

―

Beneath "Cast" on the second level, there were two abilities. "Channel" and "Attune".

―

[Channel (Mind Ability)]

[Holds Mana in an ability―the longer it is held, the more potent and powerful the release]

[Unlock Requirement: Level 1 Cast]

―

[Attune (Mind Ability)]

[Passive. Reduces MP cost of all abilities. Scales with ability level]

[Unlock Requirement: Level 1 Cast]

―

Beneath these three abilities and two tiers, was a third tier shared by three abilities: "Wither", "Bind", and "Fracture". However, all of them needed both "Attune" and "Channel" to reach Level 10 first.

The level of the abilities seemed to be independent of his actual level, which was probably a good thing. If killing a Level 2 at Level 0 only gave him +2 Exp, he had a feeling that grinding levels in this game would take a ridiculous amount of time.

For now, it seemed that his hex path specific abilities would take some time to awaken. The three abilities he had now were abilities that all Magic Classes had.

―

Name: Jaxir Chance

Class: Magic

Level: 0

Alignment: Bad

Experience: 2/100

==

Marks: Jester

Titles: N/A

==

HP: 40/40

MP: 160/160

==

Core Stats

Body: 4

Mind: 16

Free Points: 0

==

Abilities

Body: N/A

Mind: Cast (Lv1); Channel (Lv1); Attune (Lv1)

==

Divine Abilities: Encore

―

’This will have to be good enough for now."

Jaxir went on the move. He cast a gaze down at his faded Vestigem Card. It looked like it was going to crumble any moment now if he left it be, so he triggered Encore.

His vision felt like it multiplied, his mana moving through the intricate circuits hidden within the Vestigem Card.

―

Cast Lv1 > Cast Lv3

―

Channel Lv1 > Channel Lv3

―

Attune Lv1 > Attune Lv3

―

By the time it was finished, Jaxir’s abilities had gone up by two levels each. But Divine Abilities didn’t seem to have levels to them, so Encore remained the same.

"That was easy."

Jaxir checked his timer. There was still a good three more minutes before that ticker appeared above his head again.

"I should pick up the pace."

He was going to need to escape this area, then find a way to kill 49 more of those foxes to get to Level 1, otherwise he was screwed.

He had started this game pretty late. Though whoever was still around the Tutorial Village was bound to be weak, he didn’t want to find out firsthand if he didn’t have to.

A smile spread across Jaxir’s face. That was already the second time today.

"... This is kind of fun."

Not long after Jaxir left the area, there was another rustling and a team of three appeared.

"The blinker appeared here, no?"

"Yeah, I’m sure." The only woman amongst them nodded. She was wearing a combination of the brown linens Jaxir had had on, and... feathers? Certainly an odd design choice.

"We’re going to have to hurry up. We got lucky that we’re so close by, but if the guild finds out we’re chasing quests instead of farming coins, we’ll lose our jobs." The second of the men said.

"Don’t worry about that," the first man said. "Who cares? It’s rare for such an easy quest to pop up. The reward could change our lives. Don’t worry about this guy, Vera. Find us his trail."

The woman bent down to the ground, her eyes glowing with mana.

"This way."

She shifted the bow she strapped to her back and took the lead.