Being stronger means nothing… the more power you have, the easier it is to break what you should be preserving… Tian Gui's aqua eyes were set firmly as he spoke. And in Xenon's head, he quietly, resolutely disagreed.
Control is necessary if you want to protect the masses, but if you're pledging to protect just a few… then it's not as big of a priority, is it? It was a fundamental rift in philosophy - one where the red haired teen felt his age old pretenses filling in the differences between them.
After an interlude of grinding, Xenon decided to take some personal time browsing on the auction site. Books seemed to be popular among the Gamers as of late, granting new and very
real magic. As the resident performer, he almost felt a little left out.
That Mana theory book that Alexander bought earlier seems like it'd be useful, but… Xenon wanted more than just mana. Then, his eyes landed on an interesting entry.
A book on Magic Mentalism.
The term was very familiar to him - in stage magic, mentalism was comprised of mind readers, clairvoyants, and telekinetics. It was a neighboring field to his usual sleight of hand maneuvers. Magic Mentalism in this sense, however, appeared to utilize Mana theory to oscillate Mana with the mind. The familiarity of lexicon and foreign quality of principle intrigued Xenon's curiosity moreso than anything else.
One hefty purchase and a UFO later, Xenon had some new literature to delve into. But first, he opened up his windows, distributed some points, and came across an option when he tapped on his maxed focus skill:
Choose Method of Advancement
[Single]
[Supplemental: Study on Mana theory]
Ripe with curiosity, Xenon impulsively tapped on the Supplemental option and received a number of other windows. The most notable of them was a description of a new talent:
Mental Oscillation Theory (Rank 8, 8 AP) (Level 1, 0/13)
+1 WIS, +16 MP. Acquire the Mental Oscillation Score 1/3 (WIS) + 1/4 (INT).
When Mana Oscillates it is capable of being commanded by Mages to create Magic Phenomenon. By focusing firmly enough and applying your newfound knowledge of Mana Theory to your thought process as you Oscillate your Mana, you can make very basic affects with Mana using this 'Pseudo Magic' and Novice Mentalism Ability.
Strengthen all regular Beginner Mana Skills by 10%.
Before more experimentation could occur, however, a new round of company appeared at the base of hilltop. Members of yet another unfamiliar team, decked out in fashion, and rather high leveled to boot. Like the previous times, Xenon left himself a slight bit apart from the conversation, opting to stay at where he was sitting with the auction laptop poised on his lap. He tried to look like he was browsing away on the device, but was actually trying to listen in on the conversation attentively. Everything seemed pretty congenial - questions were asked, answers were exchanged. There wasn't even tension, per se, just a natural wariness between both parties. Though, there was definitely a pregnant silence that came with Tian Gui and Shouko's questioning about death in the games.
Are they hiding something? Or do they genuinely not know the answer?
But before more could be exchanged, an odd window appeared.
A… new purchase option has appeared. Alert the purchase chest? Xenon tried to decipher the spiel.
Is there something wrong with the gamer power or something? Who is this message even from? He briefly looked around at the other gamers, confusion evident in his expression. The message obviously said something about checking the purchase chest, but it's warped nature literally screamed suspicion. Team huddling also wasn't really an option with the peacock members waiting at the foot of the base, though. Xenon mulled a bit.
He walked carefully to the purchase chest, circling it until he stood right behind it.
If something's coming out, I'm not going to stand in front of it. The red haired teen apprehensively rested his hands on the lid and pried it open... only for nothing to happen. Xenon let out the breath he'd been holding, then crossed over to the front.
The menu had automatically switched over to the miscellaneous tab, where everything seemed more or less normal, except that the "Small favor from Arcadia" had become a string of corrupted text that read: Vkfle13..Onkggn+ID (15 coins).
It looks like it's been garbled, kinda like the message... In fact, the entire window seemed somewhat glitched, implying that something was obviously wrong. Xenon decided to kill two birds with one stone and notify the other gamers with a message while testing the messaging system. He typed:
Hey guys, you might want to take a look at the purchase chest. It's looking glitched.