Next week following their arrival in Caelum, ten groups of dark mages met Jax and Sara and attempted to abduct the young lady. Thankfully, those groups were mostly weak wizards who thought highly of themselves. Amongst those ten, two attempts came from C-rank wizards and one shot from a B-rank wizard. Jax cleaned up rest the moment they arrived.
From attacking during the night, at the village when they were visiting or at the beach when Sara was relaxing, Jax had to always be on guard. Due to the frequent attacks, Jax and Sara had to bring new dark mages to the magic council branch every day. Now, according to the workers there, the cells were almost full.
With the funds of the various dark wizards he had captured, Jax made a total of 134,754 Jewels, bringing his total to 252,474 Jewels in his wallet. Now he considered himself quite rich of a man, and he was happy that he would be able to buy a lot with the money he had. Not to mention the job reward he still hadn't received, he felt quite right about his newfound fortune.
Moreover, thanks to the various attacks from the mages, Jax had the opportunity to practise his magic, and the grooves of all of his magic were full except for the water magic, which was currently 37% complete. Something interesting had happened the moment Jax filled the first groove of all of the ten magics. He could now feel the various pearls around him. Although he couldn't feel any water pearl, he could feel one pearl for all of his magic, and they were all quite close to him.
After understanding that what he felt were the pearls, Jax could assume that as long as the ten grooves were full, the closest pearl to him in every magic would attract him. This function would allow him to become stronger and continue to grow his magical powers without being blocked by the lack of pearls.
From what he had been feeling, there were a total of six pearls in Caelum, and Jax intended to gather them all before the end of his two-week trip. Moreover, he had an excellent opportunity since the young lady had learned a few days prior that her friends would be coming two days later due to some complications. As such, Jax proposed to go and visit the kingdom of Caelum since they were there, and this would allow him to gather the pearls.
As such, that morning, Jax had collected the bags for travel and inserted them in his shadow thanks to his dark magic and was ready to depart along with the excited Sara, who had been bored for the last few days.
"Are you ready?" Jax asked as she walked down the stairs from the third floor.
"Yes, we can leave immediately." She answered as she left the door first and Jax closed and locked the door behind him.
"Alright. Let's go to town first, and we will take the train towards our first destination." Jax smiled at her while they left the villa behind and made their way to the train station rapidly.
As they arrived in the village, they made their way to the train station immediately. They didn't want to waste too much time, especially when they already didn't have much time.
As such, Jax and Sara spent the two days on the road, visiting various cities, entertainment facilities and eating local specialties. They saw a total of four towns, Dawndenn, Dimwall, Drycoast and Dragonvale. Amongst those four towns, Jax managed to collect the six pearls present in this country. Since he already knew where those pearls were beforehand, it was easy to collect them.
However, after collecting the six pearls, he could only feel three pearls, which were the pearls of fire, earth and light, the only magic pearl he hadn't found yet. Jax located those three pearls back in Fiore.
As for the ones collected, he found the pearl of air on the top of a mountain on the edge of the ocean. The pearl of lightning he had seen in an old tree. It seemed to have received multiple lightning attacks in the last few years. The sound pearl which he found in a weird animal who had eaten the pearl. As for the fairy pearl, he found it in a valley of flowers. The pearl of nature in a deep forest and finally, the pearl of darkness in a deep cave.
With a total of seven pearls collected, he was a B rank mage in all seven magic. Of course, he would have to develop them nicely to become the strongest in the future.
With the pearls in Caelum collected, he and Sara both made their way back to the villa. In those two days, she had a lot of fun, a lot more than being stuck in her estate. After all, although the villa was big and there was even a private beach, there were only the two of them, and they couldn't necessarily be considered friends. However, now that the two days had passed, the delayed trip of her two friends would undoubtedly be there the next day and going back to the villa was a must.
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The next day, in the morning, as Jax and Sara had come back the previous night, the silver-haired boy received information from his magic that there was someone trespassing and coming closer to the villa. This matter had him fully awake as he immediately got up and changed into his clothes before making his way to the young lady's room.
"Sara? Some people are coming closer to the villa. Do you mind confirming if they are your friends for me? I wouldn't want to attack them by mistake." Jax said as he knocked at the door.
"Yeah, yeah, give me a moment. I'm coming." She answered as he could hear the sheets on her bed move as she got up.
"So, where are they?" She asked as she came out of her room in a skimpy outfit. Since the day he had to heal her, and she had shown herself in her underwear, she was less shy and didn't bother hiding her body as much as before.
"Right on the front, they are about 800 meters from the villa," Jax said as he escorted her to the other side of the third floor so that she could see in the distance.
"Yeah, they're my friends. You can let them enter." She replied as she got excited and went back to her room to get changed.
Hearing this, Jax kept silent and went down the stairs to the first floor to the entrance to welcome the three tall girls who were slowly walking with their bags in their shoulder.
"Welcome, please enter." Said Jax as he opened the door courtly for the three girls.
They immediately entered, and just as they were going to ask Jax, the young boy cut them off. "Was there anyone else who was supposed to arrive at the same time?" He asked as they thought for a moment before replying negatively.
"I see. Please enter and make yourselves at home. There are some rats to take care of." He continued as he went outside the villa and closed the door behind him.
The nature magic had sensed a total of fifteen different intruders near the beach. As such, before any of them noticed him, he rushed towards their location while starting the various defensive measures he had already planned. The earth began to wave as if they were on the ocean. The roots started to bind them, the sound stopped travelling to their ears, preventing them from hearing anything, water from the sea churned up and tried to drown them as darkness appeared all around them, reducing their vision as much as possible.
And finally, when eight of the fifteen mages had fallen, Jax used his light magic to flash a bright light, blinding them due to the previous darkness. Finally, using his fairy magic to boost his speed, he started shooting bolts of lightning, stunning the last ones before the roots began to intertwine them. Along with the speed boost, he ran to their location and started to slam them behind the head, knocking them unconscious.
After having collected the pearls and improved his magic, it had reached the B rank in everything except light, fire and earth. It had greatly improved his ability to fight with other mages, and it had also enhanced his magic amount and the strength of his spells, making him quite strong amongst the B rank mages in any of those magics. He didn't doubt that filling the second groove in any magic would make him about as strong as an A rank mage.
After having taken care of those fifteen dark mages amongst which he believed there were a few B rank mages, he strengthened the binding of the roots and went back to the villa to confirm the safety of the four girls. He didn't believe he missed any enemies, but just to be sure. The task had proven to be more challenging than estimated, and he didn't want to take any chances.
"Are all four of you alright?" Jax asked as he entered through the door and saw the four girls waiting for him near the villa's entrance.
"Ha! You see! I told you he would be fine even against dark mages! He was the guard I chose after all!" Sara bragged to her three friends as she had a big smile on her face. She hadn't been worried at all about Jax's safety after all the fights there had been. While bragging, she even decidedly forgot that she had been reluctant to have him as her guard previously.
Sara then turned towards Jax with her eyes saying, 'You better give me enough bragging material' as she asked: "How many dark mages were there this time?" As if she didn't care about it, as if it was a trivial affair to have dark mages after you.
Jax smiled simply before answering. "There were a total of fifteen dark mages this time amongst which were four B-rank mages and the rest were C-rank mages." He took a small pause before continuing, deciding to give her what she wanted. "I would like to ask if the young miss would allow me to escort the four ladies to the village while I bring the enemies to the magic council. I am sure they have cells ready for them." He asked politely, giving a small bow to Sara.
As Jax lifted his head towards Sara, he saw happiness in her eyes as she saw how many mages he had taken down and the awe in the eyes of her three childhood friends. "Yes, I'm sure we could take half an hour to walk and visit the village while you take them to the magic council." She replied with a nod as she knew she couldn't keep the dark mages in her backyard for very long.
"Alright. If you'll excuse me, I'll go and prepare the enemies for travel, and we can leave in half an hour if it is okay with you?" Jax asked as he needed some time to search the dark mages and collect what was useful. If he didn't order them, the members magic council would, and they already received a sum for every dark mage captured. As such, he didn't feel bad for collecting the money and other useful items on them. Not that they would be using them anytime soon.