Chapter 37: Sparking Third Eye

There was a deep flicker of annoyance in the depths of Jaxir’s eyes. Or, maybe annoyance wasn’t quite the word he was looking for.

He had gone out of his way to allow Marti into his team. Every instinct he had said no, not because he thought Marti would do that to him, but because he was still growing used to not being alone.

The fact the second person he opened up to after Lue ended up, quite literally, stabbing him in the back left a terrible taste in his mouth that he couldn’t seem to wash out.

Maybe if not for Lue’s existence, he would have sworn off teaming up with anyone ever again.

Jaxir looked down at his hand and took a deep breath. He knew he couldn’t allow himself to fall into that rabbit hole. And he certainly wasn’t going to let a snot-nosed kid who thought a little bit too much of himself be the reason.

He continued to walk forward, passing through the forest with strong strides.

The items that had been on Marti’s body were all in his inventory now. He didn’t take a deep look at them because they were all Melee Class items he didn’t have much use for. But most of them weren’t actually Epic Grade items either.

Marti was outfitted with a full slate of Rare items, far better than the average player, but not enough that Jaxir would lose his head over them.

The Vestigem Cards were a little interesting as well. He didn’t have any Healer Class ones on him for some odd reason, but he did have three Melee Class ones that Jaxir added to his growing pile.

The one Epic grade item that Marti did have, though, was pretty cool.

―

Name: Sparkling Third Eye Set (3/3)

Grade: Epic

Level: 10

[Unlock the map halo effect before Level 11. Double its effect.]

―

Jaxir hadn’t had any idea what that meant originally, but when he put the necklace on, there was a shift in the map at the corner of his eye.

It became split into two zones. One zone was a slightly brighter, more colorful ring around Jaxir. The second zone was the rest of the map, most of which was black and covered by a fog because Jaxir had yet to explore those areas, and the rest of which was a bit duller.

Within the brighter zone, dots started to appear. And when Jaxir focused on those dots, he could actually see their level and name.

They were mob creatures.

Suddenly, it became clear just how Marti was finding targets so much faster than he was. It was almost like he had ranged senses now.

What was even better than that in Jaxir’s opinion, though, was the fact that he didn’t have to lay eyes on a place to illuminate it on the map anymore. Instead, everything within this halo lit up instantly.

The range was a bit odd, and almost felt a bit large, but maybe that was the benefit of an Epic item.

It was exactly 98 meters of radius, for a total of 196 meters in diameter.

At least this item made Jaxir feel a lot better. He wasn’t sure if it worked on other players just yet, but right now that didn’t matter to him.

As he moved along, his killing efficiency skyrocketed. When the sun was at its greatest peak, he finally got a notification he had been waiting for.

―

[Level up!]

―

Name: Jaxir Chance

Class: Magic

Level: 5

Alignment: Bad

Experience: 2/5000

Coins: 1,149,766

==

Marks: Jester

Titles: Mage

==

HP: 570/570 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

MP: 510/510

==

Core Stats

Body: 57 (+52)

Mind: 51 (+25)

Free Points: 0

==

Abilities

Body: N/A

Mind: Cast (Lv30); Channel (Lv30); Attune (Lv30); Wither (Lv10); Bind (Lv10); Fracture (Lv13)

==

Divine Abilities: Encore; Luck of the Draw; Roll of the Dice; Sleight of Hand

Divinity Points: 0

―

Jaxir stood over a disappearing creature he had never seen before. A twinkle twinkle badger, it was called. It seemed more aggressive than the foxes for sure.

If the bears had been tanks and the foxes more speed melee, then the badger was more destructive and heavy handed, like a warrior wielding a glaive or something.

They had slash attacks that were a bit hard to track because of the light bending ability of their Twinkle Mana. But so long as you maintained a distance, you could pepper them to death pretty easily.

What Jaxir was actually focused on, though, was how slow his leveling progress had been recently. He still hadn’t budged from Level 30 on his Root Abilities, and his L1 Abilities, other than Fracture, were all still at Level 10.

He didn’t seem to acknowledge that he was already moving ridiculously fast.

"Maybe I need a training montage or something."

Jaxir chuckled to himself and continued forward.

He managed to level Fracture up because he learned a secret about it. He could use the fault lines it created to enhance his chances at landing a critical hit.

All he had to do was get better at landing critical hits with Fracture to level it up. And that probably meant that the other L1 Abilities also had hidden mechanisms he needed to unearth to push them forward.

"Easy enough."

Jaxir cracked his back. He still had a long way to go before he was anywhere close to where his quest location was, but at least he’d have something to distract himself with.

As for his Root Abilities, Jaxir innately felt he wouldn’t have to push too hard. The more he used them, the more they would level up. He just needed to acclimate, then they would move again.

That said... if he wanted to keep the benefits of his Mage Title, he was going to need to get his Root Abilities to Level 40 before he got his L1 Abilities to Level 20.

"Badger target practice it is."

Jaxir grinned.

**

Marti sat with his hands practically pasted together. One would have thought his wrists were shackled and his fingers chained to one another.

He looked down at them, resting the sides of his palms on the dingy wooden table of the bar. While he could feel the several gazes on him, his eyes didn’t acknowledge them.

The others didn’t seem to be in too much of a rush either.

The burly man who had made the fact he didn’t want a kid on their team looked half a second from blowing his top.

But another man, this one a lot more light and nimble looking, looked like he was going to blow his own for a completely different reason. He rolled his lips over themselves, biting down on them hard to stop himself from laughing.

Marti always took so much pride in his equipment, but now he was in newbie linens and his face looked covered in ash and soot.

Usually, it took 24 hours before you could come back in game, but through some special methods with harsh penalties, you could speed that up. And now Marti practically looked like he was on trial.

"Borus," Kaina looked at the burly man pointedly, "Luka," she said to the man on the verge of bursting into laughter, "watch yourselves."

Borus didn’t say a word, but Luka snorted and stifled a laugh, took a deep breath, then held his hands up.

Marti looked at him and glared.

Luka finally couldn’t hold back and it was like a dam burst forth.

"I can’t, I can’t, I’m sorry, Captain K, I’m sorry. Just look at him. He looks like his hair got used as a mop head. The arrogant little shit really got his chest kicked in." Tears fell from Luka’s eyes as Marti tried to lunge across the table.

"MARTI!" Kaina’s bark of rage immediately froze the teenager in place.

His back hit the bench so fast it almost looked like an illusion that he had moved at all.

"This isn’t a joke, Luka," Borus said coldly. "Do you know how much we invested into that equipment? Do you know how rare the Sparkling Third Eye Set is? We spent forever grinding to get it, and he couldn’t even wait until we completed it before he went and lost it.

"He was supposed to be our best scout. We slowed our leveling for him specifically. And now what? All our efforts are in someone else’s hands?"

Luka chuckled again, but didn’t refute.

In the corner of their little bar area, the most quiet of them, a small man wearing what looked like goggles shook his head. They called him Sejan.

"Marti. Why don’t you tell us what happened?"

Marti took a deep breath and exhaled. "Be mad at me all you want, but we’re wasting daylight. He told me where he’s going. Just give me some Uncommon equipment and let’s go."

The teenager looked like he was practically raging within.