Rexus: Side Quest recap

After the human victory over the Wolfmen, Jaxon rejects attacks on civilians and leaves his party to seek his own specialization. He protects Wolfman refugees, gains directions to a dangerous temple, and travels there with Jess, a would-be robber who becomes his scout and partner. Their solo and duo trials end in death and respawn, but Jaxon's generosity earns him the Bonecruncher specialization and the sentient hand-weapons Lefty and Terror. The pair formally join forces, train and equip themselves, then accept a coerced bargain with Backattack's assassin guild to enter a permadeath dungeon. They clear all four layers, gain replacement Graverobber's Kris weapons, and convert the dungeon from rewarding character deaths to rewarding defense of other players. Backattack orders his guild to attack anyway. Jaxon and Jess bargain for time, fight free, and return to Joe with temporary player-killer auras. Joe names the paired living weapons Rexus.

Previously: Jaxon is a monk and chiropractor aligned with Joe and the Wanderers. His unusual combat practice treats anatomical manipulation as professional care, making him effective but alarming to others. Joe is a capable team leader and ritualist connected to Pathfinder's Hall, while Aten holds a command role in the guild. The human-Wolfman conflict has reached open war, and Jaxon enters this side story as part of the human forces. Beyond that immediate struggle, Joe's ritual work, restrictions surrounding his shadow power, and an unresolved regicide conspiracy remain continuing concerns for the wider group.

Jaxon dies in the final fighting of the human-Wolfman war and loses a level, then spends his long respawn delay studying anatomy and combat. The completed victory quest raises him to level 11, but he refuses to join a new advance against defeated Wolfman civilians. Dissatisfied with the offered advancement paths, he leaves his party to pursue an individual specialization. Local Wanderers later drive him from town because his forceful treatments frighten people. In the wilderness, Jaxon protects a group of Wolfman women and children from human bounty hunters. Their elder asks him to travel with the refugees, teaches him their language and customs, and gives him a token that provides neutral standing while worn. She also directs him to a remote temple where a one-attempt solo trial may grant a powerful specialization. Jaxon now has safe passage through Wolfman territory and a destination for his independent path.

On the way to the temple, Jaxon crosses the 100-Dexterity threshold and raises Adjust and Acupressure to Master rank. Jess follows him in secret, intending to complete a player-killer guild test by murdering and looting him. Wolfmen capture her instead, and Jaxon trades his services for her life. She accompanies him without forming a formal party, still withholding her original purpose. Inside the Forest of Trials, death or retreat carries experience and memory penalties, hostile trees attack anything touching them, and predatory primates multiply after dark. Jess saves Jaxon from the environment, abandons her old party, and decides to protect and travel with him. With no safe way to log out, the pair flee for two days while exhausted and wounded. Jaxon refuses to leave Jess behind during the final ascent. Together they reach the temple's upper ledge with the specialization trial still ahead.

The temple separates Jaxon and Jess. Jaxon studies animated skeletons, clears several solo rooms, and earns records for both slow investigation and rapid victories. He spares frightened noncombatants but suffers severe wounds against chained demi-humans, then an unseen creature kills him and permanently ends his solo eligibility. After respawning with the Body Compression skill, he finds Jess held by her former guild. The pursuers take his valuables and demand recovery of their missing dagger. Jaxon and Jess discover that entering together opens a duo trial. They survive illusions, disease, sharks, demons, and venom by relying on Jess's perception and Jaxon's endurance, with each sometimes dying and returning under the trial's reduced-health rule. An overwhelming final room kills them both. Their run ends with a single shared unique reward awaiting division, forcing them to decide how to handle an award that cannot fairly be split.

Jaxon gives Jess both pieces of the unique armor set rather than weaken it by dividing the reward. That choice earns him the Mythical Bonecruncher specialization, though accepting it costs ranks in several established skills. Bonecruncher unlocks mana and transforms his hands into sentient living weapons, which he names Lefty and Terror. They begin feral and require feeding, experience, and discipline. Jaxon and Jess fight their way back through the forest, complete his specialization quest, and gain Battle Meditation. They formally create a party with complementary duties: Jess scouts and plans, while Jaxon handles direct combat and develops his new weapons. At a Wolfman outpost, Roderick helps them trade primate hunting results for supplies. Jess receives matching bone daggers, and the living weapons reach level 3 through repeated hunts. Rested and better equipped, the pair leave the outpost to confront the player-killer guild and resolve the missing Graverobber's Kris that keeps Jess blacklisted.

Backattack's assassin guild captures Jaxon and Jess with drugged drinks. Backattack offers an agreement: if they enter the guild's four-layer dungeon, its treatment of them will end and the dagger's secret will remain protected. The dungeon warns that death inside permanently deletes a character, yet the pair enter under the guild's pressure. Jess scouts while Jaxon insists on clearing every layer. They destroy stone-like defenders whose combined gazes generate intense heat, defeat enemies that trap targets inside an electrified circle, and overcome three coordinated giants. In the final layer, Jess kills a harp-bearing boss before its summoned imitation of Jaxon can develop into a serious threat. The pair become the dungeon's first complete victors. Each receives a Graverobber's Kris, and they gain a temporary choice over the dungeon's future. Rejecting its experience siphon from deleted characters, Jess converts it to reward players for defending members of their own race. The change closes the dungeon for a day and ends their control.

Outside the dungeon, Jaxon gives Backattack one Kris to satisfy the original bargain and trades the second for an amendment preventing Backattack from sending others after either traveler. Backattack exploits the remaining language by ordering his guild to kill them while claiming they are not being hunted. Jaxon wagers Jess's Kris for five minutes of non-aggression and wins an arm-wrestling contest by using his living weapons. The enforced delay allows Jaxon and Jess to injure their attackers and escape into the woods, although both acquire temporary player-killer auras in the fight. They return to the scoured village and meet Joe and his companions. Joe uses his magical presence to drive away a hostile local group, then examines Jaxon's transformed hands. He proposes Rexus as the collective name for Lefty and Terror, and Jaxon accepts it. Jess remains Jaxon's party partner, while Backattack's network survives and the fugitives must keep clear of others until their auras fade.

Jaxon and Jess leave the repurposed permadeath dungeon with a Graverobber's Kris apiece, but Backattack turns his guild against them at the exit. Jaxon trades one weapon for a restriction against sending others after either traveler, then wins five minutes of safety by wagering the other in an arm-wrestling match. The delay lets the pair escape into the woods, although fighting other players gives both of them temporary player-killer auras. They return to the scoured village and reunite with Joe, who drives off a hostile local group. Jess remains Jaxon's armed party partner and tactical lead. Jaxon is now a level 12 Bonecruncher with Battle Meditation and two partly trained living weapons, Lefty and Terror, which Joe collectively names Rexus. Backattack and his assassin network remain active, the pair must avoid others until their auras fade, and the postwar human-Wolfman conflict and Joe's larger Wanderers concerns remain unresolved.