Chapter 43: Out of Luck

Rin looked at the notification she received with narrowed eyes.

Someone marked with the Ire of a God had come nearby? Who was that?

"You three enter. Clear the quest quickly. I will handle this." She said.

Tayo hesitated. He didn’t know as much as Rin did, but he knew enough to know that no one simply got marked with a God’s Ire.

A single glare from Rin was all he needed to know that he most definitely shouldn’t say another word.

"Let’s go. Telik, Zay."

The two didn’t say a word as they rushed into the quest. At this point, they thought Rin might point her staff at them if they stepped out of line.

Rin didn’t even watch them enter. Instead, her frown deepened. She picked at a string that wrapped around her neck and was buried within her robes, pulling it out.

’There’s enough here to protect me for a battle. But...’

She shook her head.

’A direct battle is no good. We need to get this new group in to prep for the Realignment, we can’t afford any mistakes. In that case, I’ll lay a formation down instead. So long as there’s enough of a delay, it should be fine.’

―

Name: Divine Suppressive Necklace

Grade: Epic

Level: 30

[Restrain Level to any point within 20 Levels. Abilities of L1 and above tiers will be locked. Cannot be used to enter Dungeons or participate in any Instance Events]

[Mana Limit: 3,000]

―

Using the necklace, Rin had restrained herself to Level 10. However, if she began to use her strength, she would start eating into the Mana Limit. Essentially, she could only cast 3,000 MP worth of spells before it ran thin.

Logically, this was more than enough for any one battle, especially against a far weaker opponent.

What made this necklace so powerful was that while it restrained her L1, L2, and L3 Abilities, her Root Abilities weren’t affected at all. Given how high leveled they were, she would not only not need to use much MP, but it should be more than enough to deal with a group of newbies.

The problem was... she wasn’t sure if she was facing a newbie at all. What newbie could receive the Ire of a God? So, she chose her contingency plan instead. After all... she wasn’t the only one who could get her hands on such a method.

Her faction was paying a pretty penny to make sure nothing went wrong, and she wouldn’t be the reason they slipped up.

She would deal with this first, and once those three idiots came out...

Then she would go hunt for the reward that came with taking down someone a God hated.

Her eyes blazed as she held out her staff. She couldn’t use her stronger Abilities, but she had other methods.

Bracelets hidden within her robe sleeves began to jingle. One after another, they were pulled free from her wrist and began to hover in the air. They separated into seven loops and then shot out in just as many directions.

Slowly, a fog began to accumulate in the surroundings, a dense Twinkle Mana filling the air. Every bit of light that touched it scattered in all directions.

Soon, the surrounding half a kilometer was entirely shrouded in mystery.

**

"Uh..." Nick looked at a wall of fog up ahead, completely baffled.

"Is that supposed to be there?" Jaxir asked.

"No?" Nick said in a voice that squeaked a little bit.

"You don’t sound very sure."

Nick grimaced. "This wasn’t here before. But I can’t tell if it’s a normal phenomenon or not."

"It’s Twinkle Mana," Jaxir suddenly said.

"Twinkle Mana? Like the mana they use at the church?" Nick’s expression became serious. "That probably means that this is something they put to keep us out. This is a problem."

"Why’s that?"

"Well, aside from the obvious, there are three main worrying professions in the Gravity Temple. Their tanks are especially ridiculous, and their mages are broken, but it’s their illusionists that really take the cake.

"If we step in there, we’ll probably be trapped until it dissipates on its own or the illusionist lets us out."

Jaxir blinked. "What about their healers?"

"They do have healers, as would any church. But the Gravity Temple isn’t as good as some others in healing. Why?"

"Just curious. I haven’t seen any healer classes yet."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "You can recognize Twinkle Mana but you don’t know something so basic?"

Jaxir laughed. "I just started playing the game. I don’t know how much of this works."

"Just...?" Nick blinked. "I don’t believe you. Whatever, it’s fine. Anyway, we’ve probably been made. This sucks, we’re out of luck."

"Out of luck? Why?"

"You really don’t know? Only three people can clear the quest per season. We’ll have to wait until the next hibernation cycle before we have a chance."

"Why didn’t you say that earlier? We don’t have time to waste, then."

Jaxir immediately tried to walk forward, but Nick grabbed him.

"What are you doing? If you step in there you won’t know up from down. The illusionist will be able to pick you off whenever they want. You’ll die and lose everything before you even know what happened."

Jaxir shook his head. "I recognized it was Twinkle Mana because I have Twinkle Mana. Plus, this Twinkle Mana isn’t very good either."

Nick blinked. "... Come again?"

"Here." Jaxir extended the end of his staff toward Nick.

"What’s this?"

"Well I’m not going to hold another grown man’s hand, now am I?"

"You can really make it through?"

"We’re wasting time here. Are you coming or not?" Jaxir pressed.

Nick took a deep breath. "Alright, fine. Let’s do it. If we die, I’m coming back to PK you till you’re back at Level 0, I swear it."

Jaxir laughed. "Whatever you say. Save that fire for whoever’s at the end of this."

The moment the duo stepped inside, Rin’s gaze sharpened.

"... Two of them?"