Half an hour later, Jax arrived back at the guild with a suitcase full of Jewels, two cheques and three silver keys, which he still had no idea of their use.
As he arrived at the guild, some members turned to him and started asking him questions.
"So, Jax. Today was your first job, how did it go? You didn't miss it, did you? If so, the master is going to be mad."
"Nah, no problem, I finished the job with no problem," Jax said with a smile as he went to see the master who was sitting on the counter.
"Master, I finished the job I took. There weren't any problems, and I even got more money thanks to the bandits I stopped. I got the 75,000 Jewels from the job, 90,000 jewels for the bounty on the bandits and their carriages, a suitcase full of Jewels. I have no idea how many, and I also found these three silver keys. I have no idea what their uses are." Jax said. He then showed his loot to the master with a bright smile on his face but a troubled one as he showed him the three silver keys he brought back.
"Congratulations on finishing your first job Jax, I was sure you would be able to complete it easily." The master said with a sincere smile on his face.
"As for the Jewels, the guild has a banking system if you want to store your money here. You don't have to worry about it since the money is safely stored, and even if the guild were to disappear, the money would still be safe. It's also useful when you want to use the money since you won't have to go to the bank to get money and can get it directly from the guild." The master said while taking a small pause to drink from his mug.
"In that case, please do master. I have no idea where the bank is anyway, and I don't know what to do with those two papers." He said while showing the two bank checks to the master.
"In that case, you leave your money with me, and we will take care of it. Right, since you started to take jobs, you will have to pay for your accommodation. You were aware of that, yes?" The master said with a light tone.
"Yes, I know, master. How much is it per month?" Jax asked with concern about not being able to pay for the month.
"It is currently 50,000 Jewels each month since it is a small apartment. The girls have Fairy Hill at 100,000 Jewels per month with a better environment, but since you are a boy, you'll have to stay in the apartment or rent your own. However, you don't have to worry about this month since it has already started and the guild collects rent on the first of every month. As such, you still have three weeks of free lodgings." The small man answered Jax and gave him some extra information along with information about Jax's circumstances.
"I see, master." Said Jax as he nodded his head. "Right, can you tell me what those three keys are?" Asked Jax as it had been bothering him for a while already. He did indeed find the keys to be quite exciting, but if they were just standard keys, then he would just get rid of them without wasting another moment on them.
"Yes, they are celestial spirit gate keys. Those three are silver keys, which are simply uncommon, but they still sell for about 20,000 Jewels, even for the most useless ones. Celestial spirit mages use them, but there aren't a lot of them. Jax seeing that you are interested in those keys, why don't you keep and collect them? You don't currently need the money, and the gate keys can be a memento of your first job. If you want to know which celestial spirit keys they are, you can go to the guild library. There should be some information about gate keys there." The master said with a grandfatherly smile.
"I see. I'll keep the keys in that case," Jax said while continuously looking at the three celestial spirit gate keys.
"Well, master, I'll go and look at that book a little bit before going to sleep. Tomorrow I'll take another job." Jax said as he left the master, never looking away from those three keys.
As he left the counter where the master was watching over the guild, he made his way directly towards the guild library. The library was in the guild's basement and wasn't often used as most mages, once they started doing jobs, didn't care much about reading. Jax was slightly different as he still loved reading despite the thrill he felt while on assignments.
As he got down the stairs at one corner of the guildhall, Jax pushed the door and habitually went towards the shelves full of books. As he looked at the dozens of stands, Jax felt a little discouraged, but after thinking about those keys, which he found extremely interesting, he decided to spend some time searching for the book.
As such, Jax spent the next few hours reviewing the books one by one until he found, on the ninth shelf, a book related to the celestial spirit keys. Taking it off the shelf and confirming that it was indeed what he was looking for, he took the book and went back into the guild building hall.
As he returned to the guildhall, he went to the building's bar and ordered a few cookies, a small cake and a glass of juice. When he was younger, for about a year, he had been influenced by the women in the guild and had been very careful about what he ate. However, once he learned that with the amount of training he did, there was no need to worry about overeating, the silver-haired boy started to eat whatever tasted good when he was reading. He had to enjoy life, didn't he?
Going to a free table far from everybody else with his book, food and juice, he started to read his book, only to be interrupted when a random fight started in the building hall. Looking at them with a lifted eyebrow, Jax confirmed that there weren't any strong wizards in the group, meaning the fight would be pretty tame. As such, he just continued to ignore them and returned to his book.
As he lifted a cookie with careful use of his wind magic, he turned the page and started to take in the explanation of the celestial spirit gate keys.
From what he could understand, the gate keys were the keys that allowed a celestial spirit mage to summon a spirit from another dimension to help them. There were various uses for them, but they were most useful as fighters or pets for the more tame ones.
The mages separated the celestial gate keys into two types of keys, the gold and the silver ones. There are a total of 12 gold keys and countless silver keys. No one knows how many different silver gate keys there are. However, according to a rumour in the book Jax was reading, there is supposedly another completely black key. However, it was merely a rumour, and he couldn't confirm whether or not it was real. Furthermore, from what he could gather, a mage or another supernatural being had named the keys after each constellation.
After reading this part, Jax mostly understood the use of the celestial spirit gate keys. However, he couldn't understand the reason for him liking the keys so much. After thinking for a moment, Jax didn't think further into it and merely figured that in the future, the silver-haired boy could just collect them while on his mission. Anyway, it wasn't as if he was in significant need of money, and even if he was in the future, he could just sell them for the same price.
So, as Jax was continuing to read the book to find out which keys he had, he decided that in addition to the collection of the pearls, he would collect the celestial spirit gate keys on his missions.
Once Jax understood what the keys were, he decided to find which one he possessed. So, he slowly started to turn the pages, comparing the keys he had with the book's pictures. Finally, after another hour of research, he confirmed that the three keys he had were of the gate of the Canis minor key, the gate of Esdes key and the gate of Aritra key.
Happy with his discovery, he put them back in the small box he kept on his person before bringing back the empty plates and empty glass of snack and juice to the bar counter. After which, he took some snacks and went back to his small apartment.
'Alright, tomorrow morning, I'll take a job in the exterior of Magnolia. I want to explore, but most importantly, I need to find those pearls to continue to improve.' He thought as he left the book on the side of his bed, changed into his pyjamas, brushed his teeth and shut the light before going to bed.
---Author note
Is there a reason for collecting the celestial spirit gate keys? Yeah, there is. In the anime such as Fairy Tail or One Piece, whenever I plan fanfic, the MC must collect either the keys or the fruits... reason? It just feels weirdly fulfilling for me to have my character collect the keys or devil fruits... I'm just that weird...I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Ps: I will introduce more gate keys since it wasn't very developed in the anime. So, there will be new keys but only for the silver.