Coming closer to the bandit group, Jax stayed behind a tree and started to use his natural power to make small roots come out of the ground, which would undoubtedly help him were there to be a physical fight. As he slowly pushed them to come out from the earth to overcome obstacles, the bandits invested in the conversation never noticed the environment's changes.
Once everything was ready, Jax used his lightning magic to create a chain-lightning attack and disable the bandits as fast as he could. As soon as the first bandit screamed from being hit by lightning, Jax amplified the sound via sound magic, making the bandits panic even more and confuse them. He only needed a short moment to take them out.
There were precisely 37 bandits as he had counted them beforehand. With the first getting hit by lightning, which soon followed a few more as the chain lightning attacked them one after another, Jax used earth magic to shake the ground and lift a few small walls around the encampment. After all, he didn't want them to flee while taking care of the rest of them.
As the bandits finally found him, they rushed towards him but soon stumbled on the tree roots. As soon as they fell, he used water magic to make the one who fell panic while he used nature magic to entangle and bind them with the roots. Once they were out of the combat, he turned to the six others who were still rushing towards him, albeit wet due to the water magic and once again used chain lightning on them. They were extremely conductive due to the water. While Jax focused on the lightning that fell upon them, he noticed an arrow shot by the bandit just before getting hit by lightning. Moving out of the way, Jax shot another lightning bolt on the said bandit, making him fall unconscious.
As Jax finished the bandits, he looked around, and after confirming that all 37 bandits were unconscious, he used nature magic to bind them all on the ground.
Once done, Jax went to the chariots and rummaged through them, finding a suitcase with Jewels in them. Seeing the Jewels, he knew that under normal circumstances, the items found by completing a job are the property of the wizard. As such, he didn't feel shame in taking the money as he needed it to pay for his accommodation.
After setting the suitcase full of money apart from the rest of their loot, he continued to search only to find a small box which looked very precious with three silver keys inside. Looking at them and wondering their use, Jax figured he might as well take them as he could just ask the others in the guild what their functions were. Anyway, he could tell they were not ordinary for two reasons. Firstly is because they were in a small high-quality box. The second reason was the most important. There was no such lock that went with this kind of key.
As he set the keys apart, he continued to look and finally found the violin, which was similar in a high-quality box. As he saw the violin, he set it apart and continued to look through their belongings before confirming that there was nothing else he planned to take. He took the box of keys and stored them in his pocket while carrying the box and the suitcase.
Confirming that the bandits were still perfectly tied down, he left towards the town of Magnolia in a hurry. However, before leaving the forest, he felt that going into town with the suitcase would look weird, especially since he would get the guards. As such, he used his nature magic to make a hole in the tree and store the suitcase inside before sealing the hole again. He then demarked the tree by making a small wall of dirt around the tree, and he then left to get the guards.
As he entered the town, he didn't wait for long and directly went to the town guards. After showing proof of being a member of the Fairy Tail guild by showing his back, the guard captain looked shocked at the Fairy Tail guild mark but still took twenty subordinates and a few carriages to follow Jax as he led them through the woods.
Merely five minutes later, Jax and the guards arrived in front of the bandits who were still bound by the tree roots.
"Here they are. Do you want me to neutralize the bandits again before unbinding them or just unbind them, and you'll take care of the rest?" Jax asked as he didn't want to waste too much time on this.
"Eum, mind neutralizing them again before unbinding them? It'll be easier to transport and arrest." The capital said with a hand on the back of his head and a small laugh of embarrassment.
"Yeah, sure, no problem," Jax answered as he simply shot another chain-lightning at them, hitting them all one after another and bringing them to unconsciousness.
As the guards were ready, Jax moved the roots to lift them, and the guards rapidly went to arrest them and put them in the specially made carriage to bring them back to prison. As they did so, Jax used some magical power to set the roots back in place in the ground and covering them up nicely. Once Jax set everything back in place, he lowered the wall of earth he had made and stopped the fire camps the bandits had started. Right afterwards, the silver-haired boy used some water magic to water the trees appropriately and, in a sort, thank them for the help. Although he knew that they didn't have a consciousness, they had helped and watering them was relatively easy to do, so he figured he would show his thanks to the trees this way.
As Jax had cleaned up the battlefield and the land went back to normal, Jax turned around and brought them to the magic carriages of the bandits.
"Right. There was a bounty on this bandit group of 50,000 Jewels, and at the same time as the one who caught them, you have the right of their possessions. As such, we propose to buy the four carriages for 10,000 Jewels each including the items in them unless you want something?" The guard captain said respectfully as Jax who although he was only
"That's fine by me. Do I need to come back with you, or are you able to pay directly here?" Asked Jax as he didn't want to return to the forest once again after dealing with the guards.
"Ha, there is no need to worry about that. We always have bank cheque with us in case something like that ever happened." The captain said while going in their chariot and getting a blank cheque.
He soon came back and filled in the information for an amount total of 90,000 Jewels. As soon as he gave it to Jax, he nodded and wished him a happy day as he left with the caught bandits.
Jax was still surprised. He had just made an extra 90,000 Jewels in addition to his job reward, the suitcase full of Jewels and the three silver keys he had found.
However, no matter what happened, he had to move on. As such, he went back quickly to the tree he had stored the suitcase, and Jax collected it while making the mini wall of earth disappear, and he once again watered the tree before leaving towards the studio of Miss Leslie.
---
Half an hour later, Jax stood, once again, in front of the door as he knocked on it.
A moment later, the same beautiful young woman with a green dress appeared at the door and seeing Jax. She was shocked. Especially since she saw her special violin box, as she received the package without saying a word, she opened it quickly, and upon seeing the violin unharmed, Jax saw her smile in relief.
"Thank you for the help, Jax. I appreciate it." She said while giving him a sweet smile.
"Give me a moment. I'll go and get the money I owe you." She continued while she turned in the house and left the door open.
As Jax was waiting, he looked around the house and saw nothing in particular and just listened to the sound of the young woman walking rapidly in the place going to collect her money.
It didn't take very long as a few minutes later, as she came back with a small paper which was another bank cheque of 75,000 Jewels.
"Well, thank you, and I wish you a good day," Jax said as he turned around and started walking back towards the guild.
"Thank you, you too." The young lady wearing a green dress said with a charming smile before turning around and closing the door.