The first individual Tom’s scrutinizing gaze had fallen upon was a young dungeoneer in his late twenties.
At a cursory glance, the blonde-haired man— with his scruffy beard, mundane brown eyes and a set of clearly well-worn equipment, faded silver with accents of red running along its edges and sides— wasn’t all that different from the rest of the dungeoneers frolicking along the district’s main street.
He had a sway to his step, a mug of some cheap, dubious ale clenched in his right hand as he kept up with three other adventurers, likely members of his party.
There were three reasons that, in Tom’s eyes, distinguished the blonde-haired man from his fellow comrades. A intimidating long spear, a thin yet imposing pillar of a deep blue metal tipped with a translucent crystal, casually slung across his back was the first. It couldn’t be higher than an uncommon grade, but the simple fact that the dungeoneer carried the weapon so openly and casually meant that he wasn’t afraid of any reprisals or attempted thefts.
The second reason was far subtler— his gait. While his comrades, for the most part, seemed genuinely drunk as the shambled forward, laughing and clapping each other on the back at a particularly amusing jest, the blonde-haired dungeoneer only seemed to be feigning his drunkenness. There was a natural alertness to his steps, an ingrained caution that Tom’s high Proprioception had clued him in on.
Finally, [The Fool] seemed to think highly of the dungeoneer in question. Above his head, a piercing red light had twisted and twirled until it had painted the image of an androgynous jester with blurry, shifting facial features— a familiar sight at this point— with the number ‘28’ written next to it in a sharp, knifing font.
28 Soul Power was the required cost to cast Active Shroud: Maya on the dungeoneer. Which was both a surprising and stark contrast to his party members, who had not even crossed a twenty.
Zenakris Renain had required 34 Soul Power, which had been a whopping number for his SP reserves back then.
And Zenakris had been a Noble, a powerful one at that.
There was no way that Tom would allow this opportunity to slip by him.
‘Active Shroud— Maya.’
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For a long moment, the blonde-haired man believed that he was going to fall. Then his instincts kicked in and stabilized his footing as he took a step forward.
The world’s momentum, which to him had seemed frozen in place, consumed by an eerie, all-consuming stillness, resumed again.
The man found himself walking down a decently populated street, finding himself feeling quite calm as he shuffled past groups of young armored men and women.
“Jayce? Are you alright?” A feminine voice of concern rang out from his side. He found himself angling his gaze towards his left, somehow not surprised to see the people walking by his side— two men, both a little younger than him and a woman in her early twenties, her vivacious light violet hair causing his gaze to linger a little longer.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” He replied with what seemed to be a practiced response, effortlessly concealing the disdain he felt for the trio with impeccable ease.
That was odd.
Jayce didn’t know why he felt disdain towards his own teammates.
‘Jayce,’ he mused in the privacy of his mind and memories came flooding back to him.
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The brief moment of amnesia was long forgotten as Jayce stepped into the territory of the Zelez Dungeon.
He had taken a moment to examine his status, unsurprised to find the level 16 [Light Arrow] card as his Soul Card. Although it was just a common card, ‘just’ was perhaps a misnomer when one considered that he was only four levels away from hitting the level cap.
That made Jayce a good deal more powerful than his party members.
Whereas they took a slow and methodological approach towards clearing the insectoid level 9 [Dark Crawlers], Jayce deftly employed his spear to deal shallow puncture wounds to any arachnid that stepped into his attack range.
He stood his ground instead of applying guerrilla tactics and cycling between party members, which was a big part of the reason why his group had come to appreciate him so much.
Whenever a light arrow was fired, it ended up finishing the [Dark Crawler] he was targeting—without fail.
His party members weren’t, by any means, oblivious to his prowess. Dungeoneers could be described as reckless, yes. Intrepid, if you looked at it in a different light. Foolish? Occasionally.
Very few, however, could be considered stupid. At least not among those that survived longer than a couple months in this trade.
He clearly outclassed the others when it came to skill, even with the tip of the iceberg he had revealed. That, in their eyes, made him a good candidate to recruit but… they weren’t really threatened by him.
The simple fact of the matter was, [Light Arrow] was simply a weak card, even among common ones. And unlike others, Jayce did not have, no, he simply refused to slot any other [Common] card into his deck.
Not that it would have boosted his prowess by a great deal, for it had taken him far too long to get his [Soul Card] to level 16.
His [Light Arrow] might be a relatively weak and fairly easy to counter ability, but that didn’t change the simple fact that any ability was pretty effective at such a high level.
Being underestimated though, was fine with Jayce.
In actuality, it was the very reason why he had agreed to partner up with the trio to begin with.
The others were generally competent in their own rights. Jayce didn’t consider them companions, but at the same time he held no animosity towards them either.
The party he had chosen was merely a foil to attract the prey.
Jayce knew that the [Uncommon] ranked spear that he had inherited from his father was enough to attract the attention of the Nameless District’s more ruthless sort. Yet he had slung it across his back, making his way across the crowded thoroughfare that was the district’s main drag before entering the Zelez Dungeon, multiple times.
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Those powerful enough to actually be a threat to him wouldn’t be moved by a mere uncommon weapon. After all, if they were worth their salt, [Uncommon] ranked weapons could be obtained from the Zelez Dungeon.
The only thing that moved such people was cards.
That left the opportunists, those seeking a shortcut to power.
Murder was taboo above-ground and it was in no one’s interests to have the Royal Knights scouring through the Nameless District for the guilty.
Inside the dungeon though, was a different matter entirely.
Groups were not regularly targeted, because as long as even one witness managed to survive, the veracity of his testimony could easily be verified by the Royal Knights.
Which was precisely why Jayce chose to sneak out on his party’s rest day, unbeknownst to his fellow companions.
On that day, he had made no show of his presence. His spear was safely tucked within his inventory, a hood partially obscuring his face as he entered the Zelez Dungeon—alone.
Bait had to be sufficiently convincing, after all.
Most dungeoneers wouldn’t notice anything awry. Heading into the dungeon alone didn’t always have to be risky— not if you stuck to the periphery of the dangerous areas and took down weak monsters like [Nether Devils]. The returns would be poor, yes but money was money.
But those that had been observing him over the past few weeks, lusting after his prized spear…
They would know.
And indeed, Jayce wasn’t surprised when a solitary dungeoneer tried to ambush him around half an hour into his exploration.
He had known well in advance, naturally. While Dungeons didn’t quite allow its explorers to set any traps, Jayce skirted the line with a single-use, common rank artifact. The delicate translucent threads he had weaved along his path couldn’t harm the weakest of phantasmal beasts, let alone a trained, equipped dungeoneer.
They served but a single purpose. And indeed, when the gem in his hand was suffused with a deep red hue, Jayce knew.
There was no guarantee that the one pursuing him was human.
But Jayce’s instincts told him that his quarry had come.
And he had continued walking forward, his exposed back deliberately left unguarded for his pursuer.
The fight that ensued had been a challenging one.
When Jayce had instinctively pivoted to meet his attacker, his heart had lurched. He had been prepared to face elemental attacks, but the bolt of lightning arcing towards him sent a bone-chilling wave of terror down his spine.
Lightning was not an element easily found at the Common Rank, simply because of the elements’ sheer potency.
His instincts told him to run, to dive out of the way but… just barely, Jayce had managed to hold onto his conviction.
An aegis of golden light expanded outwards from the tip of his spear, shielding him from all frontal attacks.
Had he guessed wrong and the lightning card he had encountered was of the uncommon rank, it would puncture through his shield and fry him to death almost instantaneously.
It didn’t.
The lightning that arced across his light shield’s surface was too weak to penetrate it, too weak to do anything but incapacitate him for a few seconds.
Jayce’s gaze flitted to his attacker, not entirely surprised to see a shortbow there, a tensioned arrow pointed in his direction.
A smirk had spread across Jayce’s visage as he shot forward.
Those looking to ambush others tended to collapse when faced with prey that fought back.
That was what his father, a former vassal for a Noble Family unrelated to Renovia’s Nobility, had taught him.
He had also taught him how to kill those who tended to place an over-reliance on their cards, which… happened to be most dungeoneers, atleast among those he’d encountered.
Arrows harmlessly bounced off Jayce’s shielding as he charged forth with a vengeance. Another lightning bolt was released in his direction, but Jayce didn’t let that halt his momentum as he maintained his pace.
The light aegis he was relying upon was a function of his uncommon weapon— a defensive uncommon weapon, easily making its value skyrocket to twice that of an offensive weapon of the same rank— and for the few minutes he could use it, Jayce was confident that no ordinary attack would be able to pierce it.
Soon, he was within striking range.
His foe had let out a battle cry as he, long having abandoned his bow, reached for the sword sheathed at his waist.
The aegis shielding Jayce flickered out of existence as he planted both his feet on the ground, his hands firmly latched onto his spear’s haft as he let it explode outwards in a wide arc.
[Titan’s Sequitur: Tempest]
HIs foe tried to and even succeeded in guarding against his strike, but that did little to halt the burgeoning momentum behind his strike.
A cloud of dust was kicked up in the air as his would-be attacker was sent careening backwards, skidding across the dungeon’s rocky and uneven surface.
Only giving his enemy moments to come to terms with the counter-assault, Jayce had launched himself in pursuit.
He wielded his spear like one would a glaive, having primarily focused his stats on Physical, with Proprioception coming in second, nearing a third of the total investment.
Unlike most other dungeoneers, Jayce had almost completely neglected his Mental Stat in favor of his strengths. He hoped to bolster his deficiency in the stat with artifacts later on, but he wasn’t concerned about being interrogated by Royal Guards.
After all, he hadn’t done anything wrong— unless possessing anything valuable at all was a sin.
His second arcing blow was barely dodged. The third was a lancing thrust that tore away at the man’s leather armor yet miraculously left him unscathed.
His foe was now desperate and Jayce wasn’t surprised to see lightning building up in his left arm. He responded with a light arrow of his own, targeting the man’s arm without hesitation.
A painful cry was screamed out as the man’s arm twisted backwards.
Jayce took full advantage of the distraction and this time…
His thrust didn’t miss.
The Titan’s Sequitur had come to an end and his enemy… was dead.
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As Jayce slapped away an oncoming [Dark Crawler] with a casual arc of his spear, he couldn’t help but wear an odd expression on his face.
He remembered feeling nothing but cold satisfaction when he had killed the bowman that had tried to assassinate him.
So…. Why was he feeling… guilty?
Only then did he notice an unfamiliar weight looping around his neck.
“What in the…,” Jayce trailed off as he raised the card before him, holding it by the lanyard it was tied to.
A name was scrawled across the mundane card, in a language that Jayce shouldn’t have been able to recognize.
And that face, though he could have sworn that he had never seen the teenager pictured on the card, why did it feel so….familiar…
Almost as if he was looking at a portrait of-
“Oh,” Jayce muttered aloud, blinking as he took stock of his surroundings. Cracks ran across the periphery of the dungeon walls, a little outside his immediate view.
“I guess things really are easier the second time,” Tom muttered to himself and then actively exerted his own willpower over the Maya he had fallen into.
With a Mental Stat of 36 reinforcing his efforts, it didn’t take long before the cracks visibly intensified.
And then, with a final resentful groan, the world shattered.