Chapter 87: Enemy

Luxy didn’t answer immediately. She took the Gravity Blessing from Jaxir’s hand and turned the small orb over beneath the light, studying it long enough that the amused look she had worn a moment ago disappeared.

"You shouldn’t use this." She placed it back on the counter between them and looked up at him. "Not if you intend to continue opposing the Minor God of Gravity."

Jaxir frowned. He needed the blessing badly enough that part of him immediately wondered why he should care what an NPC thought about it, but Luxy had already proven that calling her an ordinary NPC was probably stupid.

"Why?" Jaxir picked the orb back up and rolled it between his fingers. "It just tempers the body, doesn’t it?"

"It tempers your body with Gravity Mana." Luxy tapped the orb with one wrinkled finger. "Learning from another path is one thing, child, but allowing the Mana of a God you have openly opposed to tear apart your body and rebuild it is something else entirely."

Jaxir’s brows rose as Luxy continued.

"A Minor God has far too much authority over his own path for you to treat something like this casually. You can study Gravity, learn from it, even imitate pieces of its comprehension if you are capable enough, but filling your body with his Mana would practically be laying out a red carpet and inviting him inside of you to poke around."

Jaxir looked down at the orb again, and the longer he stared at it, the more obvious the problem became. Gravity had already marked him several times, empowered enemies against him, banned him from an entire Province and put a bounty on his head, so willingly letting the bastard’s Mana rebuild his body probably should have bothered him a lot more than it had.

Oddly enough, it still didn’t bother him as much as it should.

That same arrogance he had been noticing lately stirred somewhere inside him, quiet but unmistakable. Some part of him seemed to find the idea that a Minor God could control him so ridiculous that it hadn’t even bothered considering the possibility seriously.

Jaxir put the Gravity Blessing away and pulled out the other reward Grimm had dropped, allowing the Class Inheritance to settle into his palm. The requirements had never meant much to him since Nick had already explained that people could build themselves toward so-called Dual Class setups, and if the Gravity Blessing strengthened his Body enough, meeting the Melee or Tank requirement had never seemed completely impossible.

"And this?" Jaxir held the inheritance toward Luxy. "If I managed to push my Body far enough to qualify for one of those Dual Class setups, would using this cause the same problem?"

Luxy barely needed to look at it before nodding. "Worse, in some ways. The Blessing would place Gravity Mana inside your body, but an inheritance teaches you to walk the path itself, so I would advise you to stay away from both."

Jaxir sighed and put the inheritance away with the blessing. "There goes that plan."

Luxy watched him for a moment before her expression softened. "I told you before that I am not here simply to sell you things, child. If you truly wish to temper your body, then I can guide you toward a method that uses Light Mana instead."

Jaxir immediately looked back at her. "Now that sounds more useful."

"It will not be simple." Luxy rested both hands against the counter. "Before I can give you that method, all three Village Heads must fall."

Jaxir blinked, then started laughing.

At this point, killing the Village Heads was solving so many problems that he almost felt bad for them. He already had a Divine Quest pushing him in that direction, there were matters tied to the Goddess of Light that required the same thing, and now Luxy was offering him a way to fix his miserable Body on top of it.

"What is that now, three reasons?" Jaxir grinned. "I think I’m getting pretty good value out of the same three murders."

Luxy didn’t smile with him, and that was enough to make Jaxir’s amusement fade.

"What?"

"I did not want to give you this task so early." Luxy looked toward the window for a moment before meeting his gaze again. "If all three Village Heads fall, this Region of Peace will begin to lose the structure holding it together."

Jaxir assumed Region of Peace was simply what people here called the tutorial regions, but Luxy’s expression made it clear that the consequences went beyond a few low-level villages losing their leaders.

"The level controls and boundaries are held together by the Village Heads. That alone would cause enough trouble," Luxy continued, "but the greater concern is the Naturals. Once the structure weakens, they may sense the abnormalities hidden throughout this region, and if they understand what has been done here it could lead to war across the Province."

Jaxir blinked at her. "Isn’t that a good thing?"

Luxy gave him a tired look, but Jaxir didn’t think the question was unreasonable. If the three sisters had stolen pieces of the Naturals’ path and built their own power from it, then letting the original owners find out sounded pretty convenient from where he was standing.

"In some respects, yes." Luxy sighed. "But there is a difference between creating an opportunity and starting a war before you are prepared to benefit from it."

She straightened slightly behind the counter.

"We are not ready, and there are still many innocents in this Province, including people who remain loyal to Her Holiness. If the Naturals move against the Church of Gravity now, those people will be swept up along with everyone else."

Jaxir rubbed at his chin while he considered that, then remembered the warrior he had escaped from only hours earlier.

"What if a Natural has already appeared here?" He cleared his throat when Luxy looked at him. "Would they be able to tell something is wrong just by being inside the region?"

"No." Luxy shook her head without questioning why he was asking. "Simply entering the region would not be enough."

"Even with one Village Head already dead?"

"Still no." Luxy folded her hands together. "As much as I dislike admitting it, the Minor God of Gravity did not make careless preparations."

She then went on to explain that while his influence over the mortal plane was limited, being one of the 108 Minor Gods still gave Gravity power Jaxir had barely begun to understand. So long as even one village remained properly connected to him, the larger structure would continue hiding what it was meant to hide, which meant establishing three separate anchors had already been excessive.

"Many of my ancestors believed that was one of the true reasons he married all three sisters," Luxy added. "They gave him three separate connections to this region while also serving as the bridge he needed to harm Her Holiness."

Jaxir thought about that for a moment before another question came to him.

"If he’s that powerful, why is he so worried about mortals?" Jaxir leaned against the counter. "The Naturals seem ridiculous, but they’re still mortal, right?"

Luxy smiled at that. "There are many old stories of mortals killing Gods."

Jaxir raised an eyebrow, and Luxy’s smile faded as she continued.

"More importantly, every God requires a foundation for their faith. Someone like the Minor God of Gravity, who did not reach his position through his own talent and comprehension, depends on that foundation even more than most."

Jaxir understood what she meant almost immediately. Gravity could not freely descend into the mortal world and solve every problem himself, which meant his followers and powerful mortal servants were what allowed his influence to continue spreading.

"If the Naturals become angry enough, they do not need to kill him," Luxy explained. "They only need to tear down enough of that foundation, just as his faction once helped tear down the foundation of Her Holiness."

Jaxir’s grin grew wider the longer she spoke.

That sounded useful.

Luxy suddenly hopped onto the counter and flicked him square in the forehead before Jaxir realized what she was doing.

[-25]

Jaxir stumbled back and clutched his forehead, staring at the tiny old woman who had just taken half his HP with one finger. "Ow... what the hell?"

"Get your head out of the gutter." Luxy climbed back down and dusted off her hands. "The Church of Gravity is impossibly vast, and Minor Gods are not the only divine beings capable of acting in the mortal world."

She pointed at him for emphasis.

"Demi-Gods still retain a touch of mortality, which makes sending them here far less costly. If you anger a Minor God enough, there are much easier things for him to send after you than himself."

Jaxir continued rubbing his forehead. "That had to be against the rules somehow."

Luxy ignored him. "If you still wish to proceed, defeat the remaining Village Heads and I will give you the Light tempering method, which should incapacitate you for only half as long as that Gravity Blessing."

Jaxir sighed as soon as she finished. Somehow, yet another reward had turned into another quest. This game really hated him.

"But... there is another way." Luxy hesitated before looking toward the two items he had just put away. "The method is a secret of the Naturals and carries dangers of its own, but if you trade me the Gravity Blessing and Gravity Ward inheritance, I can give it to you without charge."

Jaxir’s eyes immediately lit up.

Luxy noticed and slowed down. "However, using it may make you an enemy of—"

She stopped talking.

Jaxir already had both items held out across the counter, grinning so brightly that Luxy could only stare at him.