Chapter 77: Inconvenience

"You really have no idea how much Class Inheritances go for?"

Jaxir pursed his lips and kept running. He definitely didn’t.

At this point, though, he was tired of trying to convince Nick that he knew almost nothing about Divinity. Somehow, every time Jaxir admitted he didn’t know something, Nick looked at him like it was part of some larger lie.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Rare Class Inheritances are easily worth as much as a Level 20 Epic Set. That one probably isn’t Rare, now is it?"

Jaxir didn’t answer.

"Fuck." Nick glanced toward the inheritance again. "Even for a Region Boss, the drop rate on that couldn’t possibly have been high. Maybe one percent at best, and that’s already taking into account how difficult Grimm was."

He shook his head. "Normally even a singular Epic item wouldn’t have odds that good, let alone an Epic Class Inheritance."

Jaxir looked back down at Gravity Ward.

If Nick was right, the item in his hand was already worth something around the same ballpark as the Level 30 Epic Set being offered for his head. That was a strange thought, considering how much chaos that bounty had caused already.

But, at least selling it wouldn’t be as annoying as it would have been a few days ago. Reflection of the Light gave him a way around the problems that had kept him out of Gravity’s cities, which meant banks and auctions were options again. That said, whether he actually wanted to sell something this rare was another question.

"What are you supposed to do with a Class Inheritance?"

"After Level 10, it basically guides you down the proper path of comprehension." Nick hopped over a fallen log while he spoke. "Instead of fumbling around on your own, it gives you a direction for tweaking your Root Abilities toward the Class you’re inheriting."

Jaxir listened more closely.

"L3 Abilities are still pegged to your starting Class, but at L4 you can start awakening more unique Abilities. There are people with crazy enough Titles who can create their own, but they’re rarely as good as the base options."

Nick glanced at Gravity Ward again. "An Epic Inheritance basically guarantees you a path toward some pretty elite L4 Abilities. Not to mention it’ll usually guide you toward higher levels of mana comprehension too, and that’ll put you a cut above most people on its own."

Jaxir’s eyes narrowed. He couldn’t use Gravity Ward normally, but that didn’t necessarily mean there was nothing inside it for him.

Vestigem Cards weren’t meant to teach him their Abilities either, yet after studying their circuits and understanding the mana moving through them, he had recreated several of their effects himself. He hadn’t gotten a chance to gather Glimmer Vestigem Cards like he had Twinkle ones, and considering how useful Twinkle Step, Pulse and Vacuum had become, he had wanted to see what Glimmer could do for a while now. Maybe this was his chance.

More than that, though, something about the drop itself bothered him.

If Nick was right about the odds, then Gravity Ward hadn’t just been a good drop. It had been an absurd one, and Jaxir had spent enough time dealing with Divinity’s strange coincidences to at least wonder whether there was more to it.

There was somewhere he could test that thought, and he already had another reason to go there.

Jaxir shifted direction slightly.

"Let’s go to Twinkle Village."

Nick stared at him. "You can’t be serious. You know we’re being chased right now, right?"

"No time like the present." Jaxir grinned. "Let’s clear it all today."

He picked up his pace before Nick could complain, storing Gravity Ward back inside the Enhanced Inventory as the Weightless Boots carried him over the uneven forest floor. A few curses came from behind him, but Nick still followed.

Of course, Nick didn’t know that the real reason Jaxir was in such a rush was because of a time limit looming over his head. His uncle had supposedly given him a week to decide, but something told him that a man who could backstab his own dead brother’s child, his own fucking nephew, wasn’t exactly a man of his word.

The moment news of what was happening here started to become common knowledge, the other foot would certainly drop. Jaxir still didn’t know exactly what he’d do to get himself out of this, but what he did know was that he had no intentions of backing down.

Jaxir reached for the second Region Boss drop while he ran.

This one was a crystal about a quarter the width of his palm, clear on the outside with dark-gold mana slowly swimming through its center. He had assumed it would be another mana Blessing the moment he saw it, but the description that appeared in front of him made his expression change.

―

Name: Gravity Blessing

Grade: Epic

Level: N/A

[Drill Gravity Mana into the physical vessel, breaking down and reconstructing the body to better endure and express gravitational forces.]

[Reconstruction requires three days and three nights.]

[The user’s character will remain incapacitated for the duration of the process.]

―

Jaxir made a weird face.

That was very different from the Twinkle and Glimmer Blessings he had already seen. Those changed mana itself, while this thing apparently wanted to tear his body apart and put it back together.

He read the last two lines again. Three days.

Jaxir didn’t have three days to lie around helpless, especially not now. He had a Divine Quest pushing him toward two more Village Heads, Golden Fleece was still hunting him, half the people around Glimmer had just watched him pocket a Region Boss’ loot, and he was currently running away from the consequences of all three.

But... there was also the small matter of his 50 HP. The idea of rebuilding his body suddenly sounded a lot more interesting when he remembered that. Would it be able to help him with that?

Still, being incapacitated for three days was impossible right now. Jaxir turned the crystal between his fingers, wondering whether the process had to be completed exactly as written or if there was some way to cheat it.

Then he noticed Nick wasn’t talking anymore.

Jaxir glanced over.

Nick was running beside him with his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets, his gaze completely focused on the crystal.