Grey waved a hand in front of Globb’s face, but he received no response at all. It was like the gnome was frozen in time.
After that didn’t work, he pushed him, yanked on his jaw, even poked at his eyeball, but no matter what Grey tried, Globb had become like a glitch in the game.
Frustration threatened to bubble over for Grey.
It was always one step forward and three back. He thought he was so close to achieving something, anything, and now this happened.
Something told him that if not for the weird situation with his Nexis Suit, Globb probably wouldn’t be frozen right now. It didn’t make any sense at all for him to be stuck in such a limbo. In fact, if not for the problems with his Nexis Suit, Globb would probably be giving him more details about this "Wicked Forest Witch."
Grey took a step back and forcefully exhaled.
Those bastards watching him right now were probably getting quite a lot of fun out of this. Did they get off on watching him struggle? Maybe he’d be caught in some blooper reel on some viral short on whatever stupid social media aliens used.
Grey pressed his hands down onto the thick gridded mat in front of him, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths.
’Alright, I don’t have much time. Focus.’
Grey chose to pivot.
He pulled over the deluge of stuff he had ripped from Fitz’s and May’s bodies before dumping them. It didn’t look like there was much at all, but Grey only cared about one thing in the pile the most.
The necklace.
He held it up in his hands, but nothing happened. This wasn’t a surprise. He already expected it.
Usually, when one held an item that was within your Nexis Suit’s parameters to understand, an information box should appear. Grey obviously didn’t have one, so he had never gotten a proper introduction until now.
But he was sure that he could force the issue this time.
He adjusted May’s suit on his forearm and placed the necklace down on the mat. Then, he focused.
Soon, he got exactly what he wanted.
—
[Rare Item Detected]
—
Name: Looping Necklace
—
Grey felt a bout of emotion when he read the name, but he pressed it down. It was a good thing he did because the looping mentioned here didn’t seem to have anything to do with what he was used to.
—
Name: Looping Necklace
Rarity: Rare
Accepted Type: Recursive
Restricted Type: Linear; Branching
Description: An auxiliary item of focus and precision. Reinforce muscle memory and smooth the transition of evolution.
Abilities: Gain one additional stat point for every 10 received. Skill learning +100% up to Level 20. Skill learning +50% up to Level 40. Skill learning +10% beyond Level 40.
—
Grey blinked.
He didn’t understand what any of this meant.
Well, that was an exaggeration. Sure, the Name, Rarity, and Abilities were clear enough. But what was this about Types? And the Description was so... vague.
’Type... Type... wait, is this Type thing the reason why I can use May’s Nexis Suit but not the others?’
May also seemed to have a very reclusive and withdrawn personality. The idea that she would be the one to get the Rare Item from the Loot Box didn’t make sense with the much more aggressive Fitz there.
Sure, Fitz had also seemed a bit two-faced. But if he was going to kill May for the item anyway, it didn’t make sense for him to let her wear it first.
In that case, maybe due to the restriction on the item, Fitz couldn’t use it.
But if Fitz couldn’t use it, why would he decide to kill May, then?
That was when Grey remembered that every other time he had found May’s body, it had been right in front of the safe room. And right before he had left the safe room the last time, the barkeep had tried to tell him about a shop.
Had Fitz wanted to sell the item in hopes of getting something that he could use?
’Then maybe he came here instead of going back to the shop like he did last time because he didn’t want to run into me in the safe room...’
One after another, things clicked together, and Grey could finally make sense of the last few loops he was in.
It wasn’t until this loop that Fitz had run into Grey within the safe room. During the first few loops, he hadn’t considered running into Grey while selling the necklace because of that.
So this time, he came to Zone 234 first. When he saw that Grey wasn’t in the city square—at least initially—he chose to kill May quickly and deal with the consequences later.
The temptation of a Rare Item was too high. Especially since this Rare Item had come from a Loot Box on the verge of becoming Epic.
But that left the elephant in the room.
’Can I use this necklace without a Nexis Suit?’
Grey looked at the item. It was quite unisex, all things considered. It had a gold chain, but its pendant was a ruby prism drop. Well, maybe that was more feminine than Grey was giving it credit for.
Realizing he had nothing to lose, Grey put it around his neck and immediately felt something.
It was like electrical currents were rushing out to the tips of his fingers and then back. It looped once, then again, and then once more before finally settling down.
Grey didn’t see any notifications, but he checked his status page through his pinky ring regardless. When he saw the changes, he couldn’t help but grin.
—
[Name: Grey Temolt]
[Frame: Prometheus]
[Pending Quests: 2]
-
Stamina: 10/10
Sync Rate: N/A
Energy Reserve: N/A
-
STR: 11 SPD: 11
DEX: 11 INT: 11
END: 11 PER: 11
-
Harmonic Stats: N/A
Free Stat Points: 0
-
Abilities:
Body
Resistances: N/A
Combat: N/A
Enhancements: N/A
Mind
Resistances: N/A
Combat: N/A
Enhancements: Lv2 Goblin Warlord Spirit
—
All of his stats had gone up by one. But most important...
Goblin Warlord Spirit was now Level 2.