Chapter 6: Level Up!

"Whoa, you’re fast. Way faster than me, that’s not good." Jaxir said.

The swordsman raised his sword and Jaxir pulled out another Vestigem Card.

"No!" The swordsman turned and dodged.

Jaxir raised his other hand and sent out a magic bullet that landed on the man’s back as he tried to roll away.

"I’m getting better at that."

[-6]

By the time the man realized Jaxir was bluffing, he had already been hit a second and third time.

[-6]

[-7]

The last one hit the swordsman’s hand, sending his sword spiraling out of his control.

"Oh? I can do that too?"

The swordsman rolled to his feet, casting a gaze at where his sword had spiraled off to.

[-5]

Jaxir attacked once again in the brief instant of distraction. He cast a glance at his MP, realizing that he really didn’t have much left over.

Realizing that he was going to be kited to death at this rate, the swordsman roared with fury. Ignoring his sword entirely, he opened his arms wide and charged at Jaxir.

Without hesitation, Jaxir raised up his final Vestigem Card again. He had never put it away in the first place, ready for this moment.

"I’m not falling for that again you bastard!"

The swordsman lunged, but Jaxir poured some of his last reserves of MP into the card and a spark of electricity danced through his body.

Jaxir tried to dodge right after, but he was too slow compared to the swordsman. Still, this was exactly what he expected.

"I’ve got you―!"

The swordsman lunged and grabbed Jaxir’s foot, only for a blast of electricity to bombard against him. Freezing for a small instant, his eyes could only widen as Jaxir fell to the ground, stomping out his heel at the man’s forehead.

[-17]

[-1]

[-1]

[-1]

The swordsman regained control of his body, but it was too late.

"Bye bye," Jaxir said with a wave of his hand that was swiftly followed up by a bullet of magic that slammed right into the man’s head.

He had gained just enough time to charge up another one.

[-61]

―

Attune Lv9 > Attune Lv10

―

Channel Lv9 > Channel Lv10

―

[You have killed player "Brad Freeman"]

―

Jaxir exhaled a breath. "That was a ride."

―

+34 Experience

+161 copper

―

Leveled Up!

―

Name: Jaxir Chance

Class: Magic

Level: 1

Alignment: Bad

Experience: 0/200

Coins: 401

==

Marks: Jester

Titles: N/A

==

HP: 45/45

MP: 180/180

==

Core Stats

Body: 4

Mind: 18

Free Points: 0

==

Abilities

Body: N/A

Mind: Cast (Lv10); Channel (Lv10); Attune (Lv10)

==

Divine Abilities: Encore

―

"Oh, cool. Leveling up replenishes all my MP."

―

[You have cleared Quest "The Clownish Criminal"]

―

Rewards

Jester System

>Select "3" new starter Vestigem Cards

>5 Divinity Points

―

"Jester System? What’s that?"

As though to answer Jaxir’s question, there was a shift in the air and a new status screen appeared above his head.

―

Jester: Jaxir Chance

Divinity Points: 5

Divinities:

Encore

Locked Divinities:

Luck of the Draw (5)

Roll of the Dice (5)

Sleight of Hand (15)

―

The screen was pretty simple. Other than the floating silver-blue glyphs or runes or whatever they were around it. Some of them looked like jester hats, and Jaxir could have sworn that one of them actually looked like an actual dancer hopping from foot to foot in some wild emoting dance as they held out an "L" on their forehead.

"Those numbers should be the Divinity Points they cost to awaken? But what are they?"

―

[Luck of the Draw (Divine Ability)]

[Increase odds of a Vestigem Card drop. Unranked beasts will now have a baseline of 1% odds. Ranked beasts will remain unaffected by Divine Ability]

―

[Roll of the Dice (Divine Ability)]

[Common Vestigem Cards now have odds of multiplied effects]

50% chance of 10% strength increase

20% chance of 20% strength increase

20% chance of 30% strength increase

10% chance of 40% strength increase

―

[Sleight of Hand (Divine Ability)]

[Sense Vestigem Cards in possession of player or NPC and swipe one of them at random for personal use]

Cool Down: 00:01:00:00

―

Jaxir nodded to himself. "Cool."

He didn’t really need to think much. He used the five Divinity Points he had just gained to unlock Luck of the Draw. He couldn’t afford Sleight of Hand anyway, while Roll of the Dice was only useful if he had actual cards to use in the first place.

He only had one more card left, and he still needed to use Encore on it otherwise it would blow away in a current of ash.

1% odds weren’t exactly all that great, but he was going to have to try and grind levels anyway. Unless he was killing players, Experience came slow in this place it seemed. So he was probably going to get a lot of unranked kills under his belt anyway.

"For 1% odds to be given from a Divine Ability, the normal drop rate is probably terrible."

After selecting his new Divine Ability, Jaxir picked out his three new Vestigem Cards from the starter deck. Since they had served him well, he didn’t see a reason to try and fix what wasn’t broken. So he picked up one Concussive Wave and two Flare Bursts.

He did think about picking up another Static Charge, but he instead just used Encore on the one he had left.

As good of an idea as it sounded to have a last line of defense, had the swordsman managed to tackle him instead of lunging at his leg, or just punched him, even if Static Charge had activated, Jaxir had a feeling he would have been out of commission.

He was worse than a glass cannon. His best odds at performing well was to not get touched at all at this point.

―

[Deck is now full. Upgrade deck to increase slot limit]

―

"Well... that sucks."

It seemed the card holder they gave him could only hold four cards at most. But... luckily for Jaxir, this game was truly realistic.

The moment you died, you lost everything, it seemed. All the weapons, armors and treasures they had on them were here as well.

There were a total of five things of importance.

The first three were their weapons. One staff, one bow, and one sword. Though, the bow also had a quiver combo that Jaxir counted in the total.

The other two things were the armor that the swordsman wore and the feathers on the body of the woman.

Jaxir wasn’t able to equip the armor. Apparently, his Body stat was too low, and he found that when he tried to carry it around, it was too heavy. So he could only leave it there. However, the feathers...

―

Name: Feathery Touch Set (1/3)

Grade: Common

Level: 1

+2 Body stats

―

The feathers were woven into an odd shawl of sorts. So, Jaxir just draped it over his body.

He felt himself become a lot lighter. He felt faster all of a sudden by a good amount.

Well, his Body stats had just increased by 50%, so that shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Finally, Jaxir took the card holders off their waists. Unsurprisingly, they were all empty. Considering you only got three Vestigem Cards at the start and how rare they were in general, it wasn’t a surprise they wouldn’t have any.

―

[Deck Limit reached. You may only equip three Decks at once]

―

Jaxir’s lips pursed. "Lame."

He tossed one of the card holders to the ground and clipped the other two to his waist along with his original one. That should allow him another eight card slots.

"I guess I should try and get to that Tutorial Village now?" Jaxir thought aloud. "The timer’s gone, and the quest is cleared. So maybe being Level 1 is good enough?"

Problem was Jaxir wasn’t exactly sure where the Tutorial Village was. Luckily, when he looked on his map, he found that a halo had appeared around a new zone.

There was a huge black unmarked area between him and it, but on the other side, there was a logo that read "Tutorial Village".

"I guess that direction, then."

As Jaxir made his way forward, he had no idea that the deaths of the trio he had just killed had already been registered by their guild.

Right at this moment, the three of them had woken up in the real world, gloominess marking their faces as they realized they would have to file a report about what happened.

They all immediately called one another. If they wanted to keep their jobs, they were going to have to get their stories straight.

And unfortunately for Jaxir, that was going to require sacrificing them at the altar of their selfishness.