Leaving the mansion behind him, Jax made his way to the train station on the island. He was planning on leaving the island and arriving on the mainland by the end of the day.
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At 10 in the evening, Jax finally arrived on the mainland. He was currently standing on the pier of the city and was figuring out what to do. He had two choices. The first one was to find an inn to sleep at and leave the next day by train. The second one was to leave immediately with his magic to collect his pearls and go to Fairy Tail. At that point, he would most likely arrive at 8 in the morning, and he could just relax all day before going to sleep early.
Thinking about it for the moment, he wasn't that tired, and with his magical power, he didn't need to sleep every night. As such, he immediately used his air magic to lift him in the air while using his fairy magic to speed himself up.
Feeling the three pearls remaining, Jax showed a faint smile as he thought all three of the pearls were in the same direction. However, considering his location, he would have to pass through the forgotten desert, where he would most likely find a pearl or two. However, the silver-haired boy didn't mind much. He had food and drinks with him, and he would spend most of the night in the desert, meaning it wouldn't feel too hot.
Leaving the town immediately, he flew towards the desert at a low height. It wasn't that he didn't want to fly higher, but with his current magical strength, it was better to stay close to the earth as it would allow him to save magical power.
An hour later, thanks to his high speed, he managed to see from afar the mountains. The mountains were right next to the desert. In other words, he would arrive soon enough, and he was right as he saw sand as far as he could see.
Closing his eyes slightly to feel the pull of the pearls, he turned slightly towards the right and moved directly into the desert. Honestly, except for wind and sand, there was nothing in the desert. Thankfully, due to the sun being down, the wind was cold. It was undoubtedly better than sweating due to the heat. He simply used his fire magic on himself to keep a suitable temperature and continued on his way.
Half an hour later, as he flew even faster thanks to the wind flowing from behind him, he felt the pearl not far away. Slowing down, he started to look towards the pull and soon enough, he could only feel the power under his feet. Using his earth magic, he moved the sand until he finally saw a pale brown pearl lying in the bottomless pit.
Shaking his head, thinking that other people would never find his pearls if they were all hidden like that, he took it, and it instantly melted in his palm, disappearing. At the same time, Jax could feel the improvement of his earth magic. If before he could only move ten shovels worth of dirt at once, then now he could shovel thirty or forty.
Feeling the increase in his magical power, he smiled and turned towards the next pearl he felt. This time he turned towards the mountain and made his way as fast as he could. However, only two hours later did he arrive at the side of the hill, and still, the pearl he was looking for was most likely at the very top of the mountain.
By this time, his air magical power had almost all disappeared. As such, he used his newly improved earth magic to help him move up by controlling the earth into a makeshift elevator. As he was slowly moving upwards, he could only lament that earth magic was undoubtedly slower than air magic. By the time Jax reached the top of the mountain and arrived near the pearl he was looking for, the air magical power had almost half recovered, enough to let him go down the hill and do quite a bit of travelling. After all, he didn't intend to be in the desert by the time the sun came up.
Searching around for a bit, Jax came to the highest peak of the mountain and found the light pearl stuck in the earth as it collected the sun all day long. Breaking the ground encasing the pearl, he took it and left towards the last remaining pearl he could sense.
Moving on, it took four hours to enter the neutral grounds. Sometimes, Jax used his air magic, and some other times he simply used his fairy and lightning magic to boost his speed while using the earth to help him pass through ravines whenever there was one.
Jax then continued to travel deep into the neutral grounds. The sun started to light up the surroundings while he finally found the last pearl remaining. This pearl had been a pain to collect as it was directly in a pit full of magma. He had no idea how that pit or that magma appeared. However, he only knew that when he collected the pearl, the magma immediately cooled down, and it seemed as if the heat was an illusion as the temperature went back to normal.
With the fire pearl finally collected, Jax collected one of each pearl, and now he had the strength of a good B rank mage in all of the ten different magic he possessed. Closing his eyes to enter his inner world, he saw the ten smaller statues, a single pearl on the top of each. Walking towards the bigger one, he saw that every part of his body had a different colour.
The left hand of the statue was white, representing air, the right hand was blue, meaning water, the left foot was red representing fire, the right foot was brown representing earth, the left leg was orange representing lightning, the right leg was green representing nature, the left arm was yellow representing light, the right arm was black representing darkness, the torso was pink describing the fairy magic, and the head was purple representing the sound magic. While the colours had indeed appeared, it was still quite pale, and he didn't doubt that the more pearls he collected, the more colours would appear on the giant.
While he had no idea what the giant form of himself meant, he didn't believe it would be harmful to himself as it strengthened him. He wouldn't hesitate to continue improving his magic.
Getting out of this meditation, he felt quite relaxed, and the sleepiness from before disappeared as he smiled and started to make his way to Magnolia. He couldn't wait to go back to the guild. It was the first time he had taken such an extended mission, and he wanted to relax for a few days before taking another task.
As such, by the time it was 9 in the morning, right when the guild was the busiest, Jax finally arrived in front of the gates and pushed them lightly, entering the ever so lively guildhall. Smiling at the fight which had just started, Jax moved out of the way as a mage flew over to him and simply made his way to the counter of the guild where the master was seated drinking.
"Hi, master." Said Jax as he didn't see him.
"Hi Jax, so how did your last job go?" He asked while taking another sip from his mug.
"It went well at the very beginning. However, from the moment we got on the boat, it started to get harder. The first group of mages started attacking us directly on the ship during the night. I had to... get rid of them." Jax said while getting his head down. While he did not regret what he did, the boy didn't know what the master would think because he killed three dark mages.
As Jax finished his sentence, the guild's fight stopped as they all gave each other a look. They all knew that at some point, he would have to kill someone. However, no one ever had to kill someone when they were seven years old. They usually killed their first enemy once they became adults. However, Jax had to do it at seven years old and alone.
"And how did you feel afterwards?" Asked the master as he was trying to find the best words to reassure Jax.
"Extremely bad. Once I got rid of the bodies, I hurled everything I had in the toilet on the ship and distracted myself with my gate keys." Said Jax as he slowly lifted his head back up, looking at the master.
"Well, normally you would never have to kill at such an age since it's only in dangerous situations where you normally have to kill or when they are deemed enemies by the magic council. Do you have any nightmares about it?" Asked the master as he wanted to see how shaken up Jax was.
"No, you know I've lived worse. I know the dark mages were enemies, and they chose to be dark mages by themselves. It just didn't sit well with me at the beginning. However, I also knew that it was either them or me." Jax shook his head and continued. "Besides, with the gate keys to distract me, I've been good."
"I see. What happened afterwards?" Asked the master as he knew the job shouldn't have gone well, judging from the fact that he had to kill the first day.