Chapter 156: Whatever

The moment Jaxir reached Level 9, mana rushed back into him until his reserves were full again, and the pressure surrounding the clearing expanded with it.

Several Magic Class players stiffened as whatever control they had managed to recover disappeared beneath the weight of his mana once more, though none of them looked interested in testing what that meant now.

Jaxir rolled one shoulder and glanced over the notifications floating around him, finding himself far more interested in the Experience than the people staring.

Killing players really was efficient. He had learned back in the tutorial region that a player dropped whatever unused Experience they had accumulated toward their next Level, which meant someone sitting just beneath a breakthrough could theoretically be worth an absurd amount.

Though... the numbers he’d gotten today were almost disappointing by comparison.

Most of these people were well above Level 10, and Jaxir doubted moving from Level 15 to 16 took anything less than hundreds of thousands of Experience, if not far more. Yet a surprising number of the people he’d killed had only given him amounts in the low thousands, which meant either he had been unbelievably unlucky or there was some method experienced players used to protect themselves from losing too much.

Considering how aggressively people PKed in Divinity, the latter sounded much more likely.

’I’ll ask Nick.’

Otherwise, why wouldn’t someone simply hunt players all day and level faster than everyone grinding beasts? Jaxir could probably gain another Level fairly quickly if he started killing everyone who remained around the dungeon, though he had no interest in rushing toward Level 11 anyway.

Once the gap between his character Level and Root Abilities shrank below four Tiers, Grand Archmage would disappear and Archmage would take its place again.

Jaxir looked across the marsh and found dozens of people looking back at him, but the enthusiasm from earlier had vanished. Weapons remained in hands and a few people were standing near dropped equipment that wasn’t theirs, yet nobody made the mistake of stepping toward him.

Jaxir chuckled and rested the Reflection Staff across his shoulder.

"Well, if everyone’s done."

Nobody objected.

Jaxir shrugged and started to turn away when slow clapping came from the trees beyond the clearing. The sound carried easily through the silence, steady enough that Jaxir stopped before taking his second step and looked toward the person walking out from beneath the canopy.

His first thought was that she was a very handsome woman.

She was beautiful without question, though there was nothing delicate about her. Bronzed armor wrapped around a powerful frame, sleeveless across shoulders broad enough to make the breastplate look fitted rather than oversized, while a pleated skirt of metal strips fell over legs carved through with visible muscle. A red cape trailed behind her, a gladiator’s helmet rested beneath one arm, and a long spear sat comfortably in her other hand.

Her hair drew almost as much attention as the rest of her. One side had been buzzed nearly to the scalp with the shape of a harp etched into it, while the other side remained longer and fell across one eye as she walked. Jaxir noticed several people staring at the harp before quickly looking away.

He glanced toward his map.

The person who had followed him out of the city had remained far behind for most of the trip, careful enough that Jaxir had only noticed them through the map in the first place. They had maintained their distance even after he entered the swamp, never approaching closely enough to force him to deal with them, and Jaxir had eventually lost track of the matter once he entered the dungeon. Whoever that person was, patience and discretion seemed to be the entire point.

Jaxir looked back at the woman.

She was nearly two inches taller than him once the raised sandals were included, wearing bronze armor and a red cape while carrying a spear longer than most people were tall. Nothing about her suggested she spent her afternoons creeping between trees and carefully staying outside someone’s awareness. If she had followed him through the swamp dressed like this without being noticed, then stealth deserved a much broader definition than Jaxir had been giving it.

’So not her.’

That likely meant someone else had followed him, and this woman had arrived separately.

Whispers started moving through the clearing before Jaxir could think much further.

"What is she doing here?"

"The auction’s coming up."

"They sent someone personally?"

"It’s been a long time since String Quintet did that."

Jaxir’s attention sharpened.

He had expected them to react once word spread about what happened to their blood-condensing method, but he hadn’t expected them to put someone important in front of him this quickly. His uncle hadn’t even managed to make his next move yet, while String Quintet had apparently seen his name appear on a dungeon ranking and sent someone capable of reaching him almost immediately.

’Fast.’

Jaxir didn’t mind. He had been wondering what String Quintet would do once they realized their auction item was no longer quite as exclusive as they thought, and getting the answer now saved him the trouble of waiting. More importantly, whoever had followed him earlier was still unaccounted for.

The woman stopped about two meters away.

Up close, the difference in size became even more obvious. Jaxir had spent most of his life being the one who looked down during conversations, yet even with his height he found himself looking slightly upward as she tucked the helmet more firmly beneath one arm. She grinned at him with a look that could have only come from a seasoned jock.

Jaxir recognized that sort of smile. He’d probably worn it himself plenty of times.

"I hear you made out with quite a lucky opportunity, Jaxir Chance."

"Did I?" Jaxir chuckled. "You’ll have to enlighten me. I’ve had quite a few of those."

"Oh?" Her grin widened as she looked him over again. "The videos didn’t warn me about that quippy mouth of yours. Should I see if it’s still so quippy after I pull your tongue out?"

"I would say come and find out." Jaxir nodded as though seriously considering the offer. "But my tongue is already bought, paid for, and reserved for a lady who’s even more intimidating than you are, but a lot prettier."

Her eyes narrowed. "Is that the route you want to go?"

Jaxir blinked. "What route is that?"

The woman stared at him for several seconds before the amusement disappeared from her face. "I’ll make this nice and simple for you, Jaxir Chance. Return the item you took back to the auction and allow it to proceed as it should."

"Or what?"

BANG.

Jaxir didn’t see her move.

One instant she stood two meters away, and the next something struck him hard enough to send him skidding backward across the marsh. His defenses ripped mana out of him so quickly that the pressure surrounding the clearing collapsed before he had even finished stopping himself.

―

MP: 1,087/3,800

―

Jaxir looked at the number.

More than two thousand mana gone from one casual strike.

The woman looked down at her hand.

For the first time since arriving, genuine confusion crossed her face, and Jaxir understood exactly why when she looked back at him without hiding it. She had expected to receive a death notification.

"Whatever." She shifted the spear in her grip. "If you don’t want to cooperate, you can just die now."