Rexus ~ Chapter 11!

Oh dang! It's time to see a little backstory! 

Jess and Jaxon had decided to keep moving, hoping to find a more defensible location than an open clearing. As the light faded further, their pace began to slow. Jaxon looked over at Jess as she straightened up, he back crackling had caused him to almost begin drooling. 

Jess saw him looking at her with a flushed face, and got the wrong idea once again. “You seriously aren’t going to be able to focus unless we do this, are you?”

“I… I don’t think I will.” Jaxon admitted, swallowing and inspecting her closely. She blushed a flaming red, looking down and muttering.

“I think you’re pretty cute too, and I guess this is just a game…” She looked up at Jaxon with a sultry expression on her face. “Alright, let’s do this.”

“Are you sure? Right here in the forest?” Jaxon’s smile had stretched across his face, distorting his expression to an almost inhuman level. 

“You have that bed thing?” Jess’s words were barely out of her mouth when Jaxon was unfurling his chiropractic table and getting ready. She sat down and looked up at him as he came close. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, I never do this sort of thing.”

“That’s okay, I just hope that I get you interested in doing this more often, especially in real life.” Jaxon motioned for her to lay down. “Lay on your front?”

Jess was beet red as she lay down languidly. “I just can’t believe- Gah!”

You have been paralyzed! time remaining: 10… 9… 

“Adjust!” *Crack*! Jaxon efficiently adjusted the lady; properly aligning her head, spine, and limbs for the first time in her character’s life. “Adjust! Adjust! Adjust!” 

*Crack*! *Crack*!*Crack*!

Jess’s health dropped by a tenth on the final adjustment. As Jaxon stepped back, the paralysis wore off and she flipped off the table and flew at Jaxon with her hands stretched into claws. “I’m going to murder you!”

Jaxon easily dodged out of the way and avoided the subsequent attacks. “What in the world are you doing? Why do people keep attacking me after I help them? Oh! I see! You are testing out your new levels of dexterity and strength. That’s fine then, but I don’t know if this is the best location to do that. The sun is going down.”

Jess didn’t respond, firmly set on tearing chunks of bleeding meat out of this infuriating and confusing man! The most frustrating part? She couldn’t land a single hit on him! “Stop moving so I can kill you!”

“Why would I do that?” Jaxon was hardly needing to use any effort to avoid her attacks, but was starting to realize that she was attacking him in earnest.

“I thought we were going to…! We were…!” Jess couldn’t properly form a sentence, she was frothing mad and blushing the darkest red Jaxon had ever seen.

“What? Oh! Ohh…” Jaxon shook his head and did a double backflip, keeping his feet flat on the ground until his palms were touching the ground, and vice versa, until he was in a normal position again. “Oh, sweetheart, I didn’t realize. I really didn’t. I haven’t been propositioned in… what, going on thirty-five years now?”

“I propositioned you?” Jess stopped attacking, his words penetrating her thoughts and blowing away all her expectations of humiliation or ridicule. “Who are you?”

“My name is Jaxon, I am a Chiropractor.” Jaxon bowed in half without moving his feet or bending his lower half at all, making Jess feel ill. Human bodies weren’t supposed to move like that. “I am ninety-two years old, and have been stuck in a room doing research ever since I sold my practice forty years ago. When this game came out, it gave me a chance at finally forwarding my research legally, as well as allowing me to reclaim the body I had in my youth. I wasted it then, and I decided that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. I feel terrible for this misunderstanding, truly I do.”

At that point, as Jess was gathering her wits to form a decent reply, Jaxon saw a system message he had never seen before.

Due to a special action and extreme effort, you have trained a characteristic point! Charisma +1!

“Why did that message have all that extra floof?” Jaxon was more started by that fact than the actual gain. “Normally it just says the stat and ‘plus whatever’. Ah, I see you are confused. I just gained twenty-five percent more charisma than I had before this moment.”

“You got a boost of a quarter?” Jess calmed down, trying to understand the issues at hand with logic instead of stabbing. “Wait. Jaxon, what is your raw score for charisma?”

“Five.” He responded instantly, obviously pleased by this upgrade. “I hadn’t gained a single point in the entirety of traveling with my usual companions, there must be something special about you!”

Jess slunk back, his words touching on her nerves after this whole incident. “I see. No wonder people have such trouble around you. Now I’m not surprised that the Wolfmen liked you! I guess they have the same type of manners, so it makes sense.“

Jaxon opened his mouth to respond, snapping his jaw shut as a message appeared in his vision.

Night has arrived in the forest of trials. Doubling the amount of predatory monsters. Good luck on your survival!

“I do not like the sound of that.” Jaxon continued looking around for a location they could defend. Nothing appeared, just like all the other times. It was almost as if this area were intentionally cleared of any beneficial structures, caves, or other such easy survival options. “Why don't we hunker down in the underbrush and see if we can’t get some sleep? Even if the number of monsters in the area is doubled, we still haven’t actually seen any.”

“Are you kidding right now, old man? We’re being stalked by at least four monsters! They are right on the edge of my visual range, and every time I stop paying attention they dart toward us.”

“What? Where?” Jaxon flailed around in the deepening darkness, his uncontrolled hands cracking like whips as he made sharp turns and sudden changes to his speed. Not seeing anything, even though the creatures were watching him hungrily, Jaxon snorted and blew a raspberry. “Whippersnappers, making up stories to scare people! You’re the girl who cried Wolfman!” 

Right then, Jess realized that she could escape him right now if she wanted to. There would be no witnesses, and the darkness impeding his already low perception would ensure that the Monk was claimed by the wildlife. This thought was instantly countered by another. She had also realized that this was the first time since she had started playing that she was having fun. Jaxon was strange, infuriating, and incredibly vexing… but he was also genuine, straightforward, and frankly hilarious now that she understood where he was coming from with his outdated humor. Old men were adorable.

“If I’m going to stay with him, I need to do it properly.” She winced as she opened the social tab in her status window and left the party that she was in. Without the option to track her, they should never be able to find them in the wilderness. “There goes getting into that guild. Maybe it’s for the best. I’d feel bad about robbing someone’s Grandpa.”

“What are you mumbling about to yourself over there? Whatever, I’m going to take a nap. Stand watch, will you?” Jaxon started settling down onto the ground, and Jess’s eyes went wide as the darkness-cloaked beasts darted in.

“Jaxon, look out!” Jaxon hopped up from the ground, spinning in place like a blender and smacking away clawed hands to the sound of loud screeching. As the creatures got close to the Monk, they were easily identified as some form of monkey. Possibly a variant of howler monkey from the sound they began releasing as soon as their sneak attack failed.

Ah-whooo! The throaty howls shattered the still night air; the sound repeated in the distance and echoing through the forest. The cries were full of rage and excitement as the monkeys called their brethren, their message clear: a challenger had arrived… and it was dinner time.