Chapter 197: Tough Scenes (this is actually - 196)

Chapter 197: Tough Scenes (this is actually Chapter 196)

[Please read this Chapter before the last one]

Jaxir woke up the next morning to sunlight pushing in around the edges of his curtains. He stretched until his shoulders cracked, then covered a yawn with one hand as he sat up.

Considering everything that had happened in Divinity, he had slept a lot better than he expected. Though, that probably had something to do with knowing he’d finally gotten exactly the opportunity he needed to deal with his uncle’s deadline.

After washing his face and pulling on some old clothes, he headed outside. The Kinext blinking and waiting for him downstairs could wait a little longer.

The front lawn had come a long way since he’d first started working on it. That was exactly the problem, though. Now that everything else looked decent, the empty stretch near the curve of the driveway stuck out even more.

Jaxir grabbed a shovel and started carving out a small garden bed there, clearing the edge and turning over the soil while he thought about what he actually wanted to plant.

Flowers were the obvious answer. However, the moment he thought of flowers, Jahbri came to mind.

She had always hated lilacs, since they were poisonous to cats, and she had an almost unreasonable obsession with those furry little demons.

At the same time, she constantly claimed she didn’t like getting flowers at all. Yet, every single time Jaxir bought her some, her eyes lit up before she remembered she was supposed to pretend she didn’t care.

She’d been too proud to ever admit she liked them. The result? To this day, Jaxir still had no idea what her favorite flower was.

"In that case, I guess we’ll start with some hydrangeas and go from there."

He pushed the shovel deeper into the soil and widened the edge of the bed by another few centimeters.

"I’ll order some tonight."

"Finally this house is getting in order!"

Jaxir looked toward the bottom of the long, curved driveway.

An elderly woman was walking past, with so much energy in her stride that he doubted she needed help getting anywhere. She waved at him, then looked over the lawn with open approval.

She didn’t seem the least bit concerned that her first compliment had also insulted the entire property.

Jaxir laughed and leaned on the shovel.

"It’s been a real eyesore," she went on with a smile. "Nice to see somebody finally doing something about it."

"Thanks, ma’am, I’m trying my best."

"Good for you."

She started walking again, then pointed at him once.

"I’ll bring you some cookies later and leave them by the door. You still look like you need some real meat on your bones."

Jaxir laughed again and waved as she carried on down the street.

He couldn’t find much reason to be offended. Old people tended to say whatever came into their heads, and considering what he’d looked like a few months ago, she wasn’t exactly wrong.

Compared to back then, ’still needs meat on his bones’ was practically a glowing review.

He finished shaping the garden bed, cleaned the dirt off his tools, then went inside to shower.

As for the Kinext? It had been flashing notifications at him for most of the morning.

Jaxir dried his hair with a towel while he checked the missed calls, then stopped.

All six were from Lue.

For a second, he thought about pretending he hadn’t seen them yet. But, he knew Lue well enough to know how that would end. Ignore him for another hour, and he’d be standing at Jaxir’s front door.

So, when the Kinext lit up a seventh time, Jaxir accepted the call.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

Jaxir held the Kinext a little farther from his ear. "Oh, you know, out and about and such."

"Are you insane?!"

Jaxir laughed as he walked to the kitchen. "What did I do this time?"

"You know exactly what you did!"

Lue sounded like he’d been waiting hours for permission to start yelling.

"Maelis is Level 27, Jax, and we’re almost certain she’s a Knight Commander. You’re asking to get your teeth kicked in!"

Jaxir opened the fridge and looked inside. "It’s just a video game. What’s the worst that can happen?"

"A COMPLETE CHARACTER RESET!"

Jaxir paused with one hand on the fridge door.

"Oh, well, I’m only Level 9. Won’t be too hard."

The Kinext went completely silent for several seconds. Jaxir could practically picture Lue’s face on the other end, mouth open, trying to decide whether he was being serious.

He started chuckling. "Alright, what’s the real problem? You wouldn’t call me seven times just because I challenged somebody stronger than me."

That was the thing about Lue. Yelling was normal. Seven calls in a row wasn’t.

Lue exhaled so hard that Jaxir heard it through the connection.

"Do you know anything about Combat Arenas?"

Jaxir pursed his lips and pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge.

"Nope. I didn’t even know if they existed or not, I just assumed they did since every video game has ’em."

"You’re going to be the death of me, Jax." Lue didn’t sound angry anymore, just tired. Somehow, that made it feel a lot more serious.

"Combat Arenas in Divinity exist, sure, so congratulations on guessing that part right, but they aren’t normal arenas."

Jaxir twisted the cap off the bottle and took a drink, waiting for him to go on.

"Arena battles in Divinity come with much harsher consequences than ordinary player deaths. A normal death outside might cost 1 Level if the dude doesn’t have any of those cursed items on him, but in The Arena, the minimum penalty started at 5..."

Jaxir stop drinking for a bit. Five Levels from Level 9 would drop him all the way down to Level 4. And that was the minimum.

"And it gets worse when you challenge somebody with an Arena ranking." Lue paused just long enough to make sure Jaxir was listening. "The higher the gap between your rankings, the more collateral the lower-ranked challenger has to put up if the other person accepts."

Jaxir leaned back against the counter. "I’m guessing Maelis isn’t the lowest level?"

"Maelis isn’t just some normal noble combatant!"

Lue’s voice shot right back up.

"She’s fucking Tier Four as of last night, while you have no battle record at all, which automatically puts you at Tier One!"

Jaxir slowly lowered the bottle.

Tier One against Tier Four. Even he could do that math.

"Someone challenging a player three Arena Tiers above them gives that player the right to demand the highest collateral available." Lue’s words came faster and faster as his frustration built back up. "That means if Maelis accepts your challenge, she can set the loss condition to a complete character wipe and claim every item in your possession."

"Ah..."

Every item in his possession.

The Black Light Fang. The Scepter of the Black Pack. Arcane Rejection. The three Compendiums, along with the Black Gem Alpha and the Treant sitting inside one of them.

Jaxir stared out the kitchen window for a moment, replaying the announcement he’d blasted across Marr Town yesterday.

Looking back on it, asking an extremely angry Level 27 Knight Commander to meet him in an arena he’d never bothered researching might have called for at least one search beforehand.

One would have thought, anyway.

He nodded slowly to himself.

"...I did not, in fact, know that." Jaxir took another drink of water, then chuckled. "Tough scenes all around."