Chapter 76: Inheritance

Nick’s face twisted.

"You saw how hard it was for me to get an Epic item, right? Six months. I stalled my Level for six fucking months to get one, and now you’re asking me if an Ultra is such a big deal?"

Jaxir looked down at Reflection of the Light, then at the staff in his hand before looking back toward Nick. He understood what Nick was getting at, but the evidence currently wrapped around his body wasn’t helping his case much.

"Doesn’t seem that hard to me."

Nick blinked slowly. "You know I’m a deadly assassin, right? I will find you."

Jaxir laughed and continued through the forest. "Alright, fine. Let’s say we do all of this and get our hands on this Ultra item, what then? There’s only one of them, and it sounds like I’m going to have to do all of the work."

"Hey, hey, who said you have to do all the work?"

Jaxir looked at him with a level gaze, letting the silence hang for a moment between them.

Nick held his gaze for a moment before rolling his eyes. "Fine, fine. You’ll probably have to do 80% of the work."

"That’s better."

"I was going to grind out at least two complete Epic sets and assassinate the Village Heads myself, but I’m running out of time." Nick’s expression soured a bit as he glanced back in the direction of Glimmer. "And you just put a big-ass target on my back, so I don’t know if I’ll get the chance anymore."

Jaxir nodded before something clicked.

Back in the inheritance dungeon, Nick had already been wearing an Epic pair of Glimmer boots, then he had entered the feather gate after their fight with the Demi-Goddesses. If Jaxir had gotten the Epic Glimmer inheritance from his own gate, then Nick should have gotten the Epic Feather one from his.

So why was Nick talking like he had failed to get what he wanted? And if he already got what he wanted, why was he still pretending now? It was like he was allergic to not playing the pig.

Jaxir looked over.

Nick caught the look almost immediately. "Alright, alright, alright."

Jaxir kept looking.

"You’re still lying to me and I can’t even keep a few secrets?" Nick started chuckling, but Jaxir didn’t bother answering. "Fine. When I was stealing the items to complete your sets, I completed mine too. I have two complete sets right now, I’m just not wearing them."

Jaxir nodded slowly.

That made more sense. Nick had been useful in the dungeon even without the extra equipment, and if those sets gave him enough Body to actually survive being caught in a real fight, Jaxir could see him being useful for more than finding treasure and disappearing whenever things got dangerous.

More importantly, the ability Nick had just used to drag him through the ground was convenient enough on its own. Having a quick escape valve for when things got dicey sounded perfect. The problem was that Jaxir didn’t really understand its limitations just yet.

Nick was obviously hiding some cards.

Jaxir didn’t particularly care. He had enough of his own secrets that complaining about Nick keeping a few would have been a bit shameless.

"But you still haven’t answered the question."

"I honestly don’t know what the Ultra item is." Nick shrugged. "What I do know is that this is a rare instance inside an already Nightmare Dungeon. Just triggering the Nightmare Dungeon itself is difficult, so going a step beyond that is bound to come with a ton of opportunities."

Nick spread his hands. "I can’t tell you what drops or whether there’s only going to be one thing worth fighting over. How about we decide when we get there?"

Jaxir thought about it for a moment before nodding. This was probably the most honest thing that Nick had ever said to him. One of these days he was going to have to find out more about how Nick ended up in this situation, though. He had a feeling that the reason Nick refused to believe he was a newbie at the game was because he assumed that he was in a similar situation to himself.

"How we split things will definitely depend on your contribution. If you just push me to the front lines every time, I’m taking everything."

Nick looked offended. "Do I look like that sort of person?"

"Yes." Jaxir nodded.

Nick opened his mouth, but a faint commotion carried through the forest before he could answer. His head turned toward the sound before he immediately started moving again.

"Oop. We should go."

Jaxir raised an eyebrow. "I thought you just pulled us through the ground."

"Listen, I’m not a god. I got us maybe half a kilometer away from the village." Nick waved him forward. "We need to move. I’m pretty sure half the server is chasing us at this point."

Jaxir grinned. "Alright, let’s go."

His Weightless Boots carried him forward the moment he leaned into his run, and Nick accelerated alongside him. They hadn’t gone far before Jaxir ran out of patience and reached into his Enhanced Inventory, pulling out the first of Grimm’s three drops.

Nick noticed instantly.

The dark metallic object was small enough to fit in Jaxir’s hand, thin lines of gold spreading across its surface. Jaxir ignored the look coming from his side and focused.

―

Name: Gravity Ward

Type: Class Inheritance

Grade: Epic

Requirements:

Melee or Tank Class

Glimmer Mana — Uncommon Comprehension

[Allows the inheritor to pursue the Gravity Ward Class.]

―

There was a sudden crash beside him.

Jaxir looked over and found Nick recovering from a branch he had somehow managed to trip over. The man caught himself before hitting the ground and immediately continued running, but that didn’t stop the string of curses slipping from his mouth.

"Dogshit fucking luck."

Jaxir raised an eyebrow. "How am I lucky? I can’t even use it. It only works for Melee and Tank Classes."

Nick’s lip twitched.

The look he gave Jaxir was different this time. For the first time since they met, he seemed to be seriously considering the possibility that Jaxir had been telling the truth about being new.