Chapter 150: Heresy in Threefolds

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Quest: Heresy in Threefolds

Type: Special Class Quest

Grade: Legendary

Description:

...

You have inherited the attention of their scattered legacies, and the first steps of the road they failed to complete have opened before you.

Objective:

Leg 1: Obtain one Legacy Fragment belonging to each of the Three Mage Gods.

Mage Alchemic God: 1/1

Mage Formation God: 0/1

Mage Combat God: 1/1

Leg 2: ???

Leg 3: ???

Rewards: ???

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Jaxir stared at the two completed portions for a moment before his gaze dropped to his Reflection Staff. The Grand Archmage Crystal had come from the Mage Combat God, which explained that one easily enough, while the two pages of the Mage Alchemic God’s Tome sitting inside his inventory had apparently been enough for the quest to recognize the second. That left only the Mage Formation God between him and whatever Leg 2 was hiding.

"Shouldn’t be too hard."

Jaxir chuckled as he dismissed the window, though he had absolutely no idea where he was supposed to find the legacy of a man who had apparently died long enough ago for entire kingdoms to disappear around his name.

He had stumbled into the first two without even looking for them, so all he needed to do was keep wandering around and murder a few more things on the level of tutorial village heads until another priceless ancient inheritance fell into his lap.

The thought reminded him that he was still standing inside a dungeon.

Jaxir looked around at the ruined island, where silver-blue light faded from the water and hundreds of severed willow leaves drifted between reflections of the fireflies above. He had gotten so distracted by Grand Archmage and the quest that he had completely forgotten he was supposed to be checking how badly getting lost in the maze had ruined his clearance time.

The answer arrived as soon as he thought about it.

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[Drowned Willow Witch has been slain.]

[Nightmare Difficulty Cleared.]

Clearance Time: 01:19:42

[Drowned Willow Dungeon Leaderboard (Nightmare)]

1. Gravity Church [Edrin Sol, Maura Quill, Oren Pell, Suri Avel, Nemea Rhun] (01:13:57) (Perfect Clearance)

2. Golden Fleece Guild [Corin Voss, Adisa Marrow, Ryven Kade] (01:16:31) (Perfect Clearance)

3. Jaxir Chance (01:19:42) (Perfect Clearance)

4. ...

5. ...

6. ...

7. Violet Seraph Guild [Vesna Adair, Nadia Ferris, Ilona Thraece] (01:27:18) (Perfect Clearance)

[New Top 3 Clearance Recorded.]

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"Third." Jaxir rubbed his chin while looking at the six-minute gap separating him from first place. Considering he had wandered around a moving maze for close to an hour without knowing how it worked, then brute-forced his way into a boss room that punished him for doing exactly that, he couldn’t find much to complain about.

That one was on him. If he had bothered reading the government’s information packet instead of skimming until he found a Magic boss that looked interesting, he could probably have shaved a ridiculous amount of time from the run. Third place should still pay well enough to make the detour worthwhile, though.

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[Top 3 Nightmare Clearance Rewards Generated.]

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Three objects appeared above the lake, each wrapped in a separate sphere of pale light. The first was a thin green book whose cover looked less like leather than overlapping leaves pressed into the shape of one, while faint strands of mana drifted toward it from the water, moss, roots and even the humid air. Jaxir reached out and caught it.

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Name: Friend of Nature

Grade: Epic

Level: 15

Type: Class Secret

Path: Destruction

Description: The world possesses mana long before a mage commands it.

[Learn to perceive compatible mana contained within natural elements and draw upon that mana while forming Root and Branch Abilities.]

[MP supplied by the environment will reduce the user’s personal MP expenditure.]

[Efficiency varies according to environment, Mana compatibility, Ability comprehension and control.]

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Another notification opened the moment his fingers touched the cover.

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[You have encountered your first Class Secret.]

[Class Secrets have been unlocked on your Status.]

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Jaxir blinked and opened the new section before curiosity could lose to patience. Unlike Abilities, the page didn’t show Levels beside anything, and most of it remained blank except for a few headings belonging to the Magic Class. Apparently there were entire layers of progression Divinity didn’t bother showing until someone actually stumbled into them.

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Class Secrets

Magic: 1 Discovered

Destruction: Friend of Nature

Conjure: N/A

Hex: N/A

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"So that’s what you were doing." Jaxir looked back toward the remains of the Willow and finally understood another piece of the fight. Friend of Nature described almost exactly what he had watched the Witch accomplish, using the lake and surrounding air so naturally that its own mana barely seemed to carry the burden of its spells.

He stored the book and reached for the second reward, which turned out to be a seed barely larger than the end of his thumb. Its shell looked like dark polished wood, though a thin green vein pulsed through the center each time Jaxir brought mana close to it. The screen that appeared made him raise an eyebrow.

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Name: Treant Seed

Grade: Epic

Level: 15

Type: Class Secret

Path: Conjure

Description: Life answers most readily to that which nourishes it.

[Bind this seed to the user’s mana and feed it compatible natural Mana to cultivate a Treant Companion.]

[The Treant’s growth, characteristics and Abilities will be influenced by the types and qualities of Mana supplied throughout its development.]

[Only one Treant cultivated through this Class Secret may exist at a time.]

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Jaxir rolled the seed between two fingers while another piece of the Magic Class fell into place. He had known Conjure existed since choosing Hex, but he had thought of it in the most obvious way possible: summoning things, creating things, probably throwing around familiars whenever punching somebody yourself sounded inconvenient. It seemed at least one direction of the Path could grow its own companion from infancy and shape what that creature became through the mana fed into it, though that made sense.

"Magic tamers." Jaxir smiled as he stored the seed beside Friend of Nature. Destruction could borrow strength from the world, Conjure could apparently raise pieces of it into companions, and Hex took what already existed inside an opponent and made their life considerably worse.

Which brought him to the last reward.

The final sphere of light drifted toward Jaxir before he even reached for it, and the object inside was smaller than either of the others. The moment he saw the dark silver glow wrapped around it, his grin began spreading, because one line appeared above the item before the rest of its screen finished forming.

Path: Hex

Jaxir reached out.

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