Chapter 21: Mark of Ire

Jaxir couldn’t help but chuckle when he read the notifications. It was more amusing to him than anything.

Here he thought he was getting some great treasure, but instead the moment he touched it he got a curse and a stern reprimanding to boot.

"This Minor God of Gravity sure is real petty."

Jaxir shook his head, but then he looked at the Fragmented Divinity again. What was he supposed to do about this one, exactly?

―

[The Jester System has offered to absorb the Fragmented Divinity. Would you like to proceed?]

―

Jaxir blinked. He had a feeling that this wasn’t as simple as it looked. But... the Fragmented Divinity was heavier than even his new staff was, and he still didn’t have an inventory, so carrying it around would be a problem.

Now that he had a new deck holder, that was less of a problem since he had a free hand now. But he also had more flexibility in movement with his Twinkle Mana and Feather Set armor as well, flexibility that would plummet the moment he started carrying this thing around.

"The god could get more angry if I did that, though..." Jaxir said, pursing his lips a bit.

As though in response to his words, something flared up within Jaxir and an intention that wasn’t exactly his own, and yet felt so very familiar, flared up.

An unbridled sort of arrogance, as though the thought of a Minor God getting angry with him wasn’t a thought worth wasting time on.

Chi.

The Fragmented Divinity burst apart, and large streams of it flooded into Jaxir’s body.

―

[You have received {25} Points of Divinity]

―

[The fury of the Minor God of Gravity has been stoked]

―

[Your Common Mark of Ire has been upgraded to a Rare Mark of Ire]

―

[You have been cursed with a Rare Mark of Ire. No stat debuffs have been applied, but servants of the Minor God of Gravity will receive a +25% boost in strength when battling you, and will be able to sense your exact location within 10 kilometers]

―

"Oh. Fantastic." Jaxir laughed, or rather he thought he did.

If someone could see his face now it would have looked like more of a sneer than anything else, the twitching outline of a silver and blue jester’s hair appearing around him for just the briefest of moments.

It vanished just as quickly, but on the inside a decision had already been made.

This Minor God and Their followers didn’t need to exist anymore if this was the case.

Jaxir wasn’t even conscious of the decision, his thoughts didn’t even linger on it much at all. Instead, he just calmly exchanged five Divinity Points for Roll of the Dice and then 15 more for Sleight of Hand.

That left him with five points remaining, but there was nothing else on his list to exchange for, so he could only leave things there.

Now he had four Divine Abilities. They would surely be helpful.

Maybe he’d be able to use Sleight of Hand to steal cards from the guild members chasing him soon enough.

"Time to go."

The moment Jaxir said the words aloud, a portal appeared and he smiled as he took a step out through it.

**

Aidylan stood outside of the valley with a serious expression on his face. The lack of twinkle twinkle foxes was... unnerving.

During the hibernation season, the population of twinkle twinkle foxes in the region rebounded. Usually, there would be one huge sweeping clearance that took place at the start of the spring to summer season when the dungeon became popular to use again. Only then would most be safe to even approach the dungeon.

But right now...

There were none.

"Did you see the list?" Aidylan asked a man to his side.

This man was amongst the group of coin farmers who had been around here earlier for the commotion. He and his team of three had arrived before Aidylan had.

"No, we only saw the colors." The man replied respectfully.

"And?" Aidylan pressed.

"We... I don’t know, maybe we saw wrong."

Aidylan’s eyes narrowed. "What did you see?"

"The colors, they... well, they suggested a Nightmare Clearance."

Aidylan felt his heart skip a beat.

Checking leaderboards wasn’t as straightforward as it was in Divinity. There were only really two main ways. The first was to be physically present during a change, and the second was to check the registration of the dungeon.

A dungeon registration was listed under the town, territory, or Divinity it fell under the umbrella of.

For the Twinkle Twinkle Dungeon, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Minor God of Gravity. But this territory in specific fell under the Twinkle Demi-God who followed the Minor God of Gravity.

As such, the most straightforward way to check for leaderboard changes now was to go to a temple of the Twinkle Demi-God, pay a fee, and then read the dungeon’s registry, or get someone to do it for you.

There were a few other convoluted ways, but being present and this method were the most common. As such... while they were in the wilderness, Aidylan could only take the man’s word for it and that left him feeling uneasy.

Wasn’t it just one man? How could he clear a Nightmare Dungeon on his own? Even if it was to the lowest level of clearance―.

The world shook and Aidylan’s pupils constricted as a twinkling light pulsed below. A portal opened up and Jaxir walked straight out.

**

Jaxir squinted a bit. He didn’t immediately notice the people at the top of the valley. The first thing he scanned for was actually for danger. He had no idea how fast the foxes in this area respawned.

Only then did he look up and see the people at the top.

Jaxir blinked, then he waved.

They didn’t wave back.

"Well, that’s just rude."

Jaxir shook his head, then looked to his left and right.

He had gone down without a plan to get back up. Technically now he could get back up pretty easily with his Twinkle Step Vestigem Card, but he didn’t want to use such a valuable card on something like this.

"Maybe..."

Jaxir picked the opposite wall of the valley from where everyone stood. He had already been warned, and since these people weren’t even friendly enough to wave back at him, why would he put himself in a situation where they could just pelt down attacks at him.

He waved his staff and MP that had already been accumulating around it charged his feet.

"Let’s see..."

Jaxir put his foot up on the valley wall and pursed his lips.

"This doesn’t feel very sturdy, but..."

SHU.

The wind rushed around Jaxir and he suddenly found himself quickly moving up the valley walls. He had almost forgotten that his Body Stats had a +50 attached to them now. Matching that with his Twinkle Mana felt like he was literally flying up.

His legs raced up the wall and soon, he had reached the first ledge.

After that, it was too easy. He hopped from ledge to ledge, kicking the wall when necessary until he reached the top of the valley, his legs flailing before he came to a calm, knee-bent drop.

"Haha!" Jaxir held his hands out like he had just stuck a landing in a gymnastics competition. "Not bad."

He was going to have to work on that.

This moment definitely proved that he could use his Twinkle Mana to do more than just use Cast for magic bullets and scythes, he could use it to enhance his movement as well. But he needed a lot more practice.

Jaxir turned around to face off against Aidylan and the other three. He gave them another wave.

"Hey, are you all from that guild? Um..." Jaxir scratched his head. "Never mind, I forget the name of it."

Aidylan grew serious. He was familiar enough with the game to know a Magic Class genius when he saw one. Jaxir’s foundational abilities were at Level 20 at the very worst. Meaning... he was probably already a Magic Elite if not better.

That was the only way for someone to use Cast like he just did.

"We are from the Golden Fleece Guild." Aidylan said. "Are you the one who killed our gold farmers?"

Jaxir blinked. "Gold farmers? Oh. Those guys attacked me first."

Aidylan’s gaze became colder. "Return everything you took from them, plus 10x, and the guild can let this go. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to hunt you down to Level 0 and place a bio marker on you. Regardless of what you do, how you reset your character, or where you appear, you will be on our hit list. Make your choice carefully."

Jaxir’s head tilted to a side. "To level 0? How many levels do you lose when you die?"

"One." Aidylan found himself responding for someone.

"Gotcha, gotcha. Well, then. Good luck with that, I guess."

Jaxir turned around to leave.

"Did you not hear what I said?" Aidylan shouted.

Jaxir waved over his head.

Aidylan’s expression darkened.

"He is headed toward the tutorial village." Aidylan said to those around him. "I want a guild writ drawn up with his face on it. I don’t want him to step foot within a kilometer of safety."

Aidylan’s gaze landed on the feathers on Jaxir and the staff in his hand.

Regardless of what dungeon difficulty Jaxir cleared, there was certainly good stuff on him. Starting with those two things there.

Aidylan was fairly sure...

That was Epic Grade equipment.

Jaxir wouldn’t get far before he caught up.

Aidylan turned around, his sword shaking.