Chapter 75: Opportunity

Jaxir burst back into the light with his staff already raised, mana gathering along its length before his feet had even found solid ground. He spun toward the nearest movement and found Nick crouched on a thick branch several meters above him, one knee lowered and both daggers angled outward as though he had been halfway through arranging himself for some dramatic reveal.

Jaxir moved fast enough that Nick never got the chance.

They stared at each other for a few beats, Jaxir’s staff still aimed upward while Nick remained frozen in a pose that looked considerably less impressive now that someone had caught him preparing it. Nick cleared his throat, straightened on the branch and adjusted one sleeve as though none of that had happened.

"We’ll never speak of this."

Jaxir lowered his staff as laughter slipped out of him. "If you say so, my knight in shining armor."

"Ah." Nick waved a hand and made a show of blushing as he turned his face away. "It’s the least I can do."

A notification chimed before Jaxir could make that worse.

―

[Quest Cleared]

[Rescue Nick]

―

[Reward Received]

[Divinity Quest]

―

[Divinity Quest: Heads of the Trifecta]

Objective: Slay the Village Heads governing Twinkle, Sparkle and Glimmer Villages.

Progress: 1/3

―

Jaxir’s lips pursed as he read the final line, his gaze lingering on that one-third for longer than the rest deserved.

The good news was that one leg of the three was already done. But since when did a reward just mean more work? This game really was bullshit.

’Of course.’

Before Jaxir could decide whether he wanted to complain about being assigned divine chores without consultation, Nick dropped from the branch and landed lightly beside him. Whatever ability had dragged Jaxir through the ground had brought them far enough from Glimmer that the village was nowhere in sight, leaving only thick forest and the distant sounds of creatures moving through the brush.

"We should talk."

Jaxir raised an eyebrow. "Are you breaking up with me?"

Nick rolled his eyes hard enough that Jaxir almost expected them to fall out. "I was actually going to tell you something useful, but sure, we can do that instead."

"You’re the one who said we needed to talk."

"Do you want to know how I pulled you out of there or not?"

Jaxir gestured for him to continue, though the grin remained. Nick sighed once before leaning back against the tree and folding his arms, his expression losing enough of its usual evasiveness that Jaxir paid closer attention.

"I used to be a pretty good assassin-type player."

"Huh?" Jaxir held up a hand before Nick could get another word out. "There isn’t an Assassin Class."

Nick stared at him for several seconds before his face twisted. "You really are new to this game, aren’t you?"

"I have told you that several times."

"Yeah, and I don’t believe you." Nick pushed away from the tree and shook his head. "But fine. There are five main Classes, each with three starting Paths, but those aren’t nearly as restrictive as they look when you’re choosing them."

Jaxir already knew that much from his own Magic Class and Hex Path, but Nick continued before he could interrupt again.

"Once players reached Level 10, comprehension starts becoming much more important to what their Class actually became, with most of that customization beginning through the Root Abilities.

"Roots are the most malleable Abilities you have," Nick continued. "The more you customize them, the more those changes start influencing your L1 Abilities and everything above them, so two players with the exact same Class and Path can end up fighting nothing alike."

Jaxir’s brow furrowed at the mention of Level 10.

He had already made quite a few changes to his Cast already, and he certainly wasn’t Level 10. He had copied Vestigem effects with it, changed its flight paths, compressed it, multiplied it and rebuilt the way it interacted with different mana characteristics, so why was Nick talking as though this only became possible at Level 10?

Unless he meant something else by manipulation?

Jaxir filed that thought away while Nick continued. Whatever Nick was describing might have been a deeper change than simply understanding an Ability well enough to use it differently, and if there was another layer waiting beyond Level 10, Jaxir wanted to know exactly where the line sat.

"Take Melee with the Speed Path," Nick went on. "People call certain builds Assassin even though Assassin isn’t technically a Class. You can focus comprehension into Strike until it’s faster, quieter and harder to notice, or change Stance until your presence becomes difficult to pick up in the first place."

Jaxir nodded as the idea settled into place, but his attention had already turned inward. He had spent almost all his experimental effort on Cast, while Channel and Attune mostly remained what they had been when he received them, even though there was no reason those Roots should be any less malleable.

If Cast had changed this much under his hands, what happened if he started pulling Channel apart? What about Attune?

The thought sank its hooks in immediately, but Nick clapped once in front of him before Jaxir could disappear into another training plan.

"Anyway, that’s not why I brought it up. I ended up getting mixed together with one of the dark cults, pissed off the wrong people, got killed back to Level 0. Then got lucky enough to find a way to stumble across provinces before the people hunting me finished the job."

Jaxir waited for the rest, but Nick didn’t provide it.

"Sounds like you’re skipping a lot of the meat of that story." Jaxir laughed as Nick’s expression made it clear that was intentional. "Dark cult, wrong people, murdered all the way back to Level 0, magical province escape. Nothing worth elaborating on there at all."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Nick waved him off. "Do you want an opportunity, or do you want to sit here and gossip like little girls?"

Jaxir chuckled and gestured for him to continue, though he was increasingly certain every detail Nick had skipped was probably more important than whatever came next.

"Go on."

"The armor the Village Heads wear is special." Nick’s entire demeanor changed as he spoke, his eyes sharpening while a grin started pulling at his face. "I have it on good information that if we bring all three sets into a Nightmare Dungeon, we can trigger an even more special instance."

Jaxir’s attention shifted immediately to his Enhanced Inventory, where Grimm’s armor now occupied one of its spaces. Nick noticed the change in his expression and grinned wider.

"If we play our cards right, we can make out like bandits. Several Divinity Shards at minimum, and there’s a real chance we can get an Ultra out of it."

Nick looked close to salivating.

Jaxir raised an eyebrow. "Is Ultra really such a big deal?"

His uncle’s people hadn’t seemed particularly bothered by the possibility of him owning one when Sinha laid out their restrictions. Ultra had been the highest grade they were apparently willing to let him touch without complaint, which had left Jaxir assuming it was valuable, but nowhere near the kind of thing that should make Nick look ready to sell a kidney.

Nick almost slapped his forehead.