"The next day was fine since there were no other dark mages on the boat. They were about D-rank in strength. However, I found that the abduction request was of 500,000 Jewels. The job immediately changed from a D-rank job to a C-rank job. However, I decided to continue it." Jax stopped as he took a sip of juice.
"When we arrived, we were attacked on the first day. It continued as such for the whole week until a group of B-rank mages attacked us. At the same time, we discovered that the request had changed from 500,000 Jewels to a million. By that time, I didn't have much problem fighting with B-rank mages, so I continued the job." Said Jax as everyone in the guild was listening to him speak.
"It was the day before we left that it became harder. A mage with A-rank strength attacked us. I managed to knock him out, and we left the next day back to Divide island, where I had to leave her to her father. All in all, I managed to take care of an A-rank mage. The job changed from a D-rank to an A-rank job, and I was paid a million with a few celestial gate keys. Moreover, I got a lot of loot from the dark mages, which I took before giving them to the magic council." Jax finished with a smile while drinking his apple juice and asking another worker at the bar.
"Oh? So you took care of an A-rank mage. Well, considering your strength, I'll allow you to take B-rank missions and considering that it is your second job, we will have to talk about the guild fees." The master said while leaving his mug aside.
"Every member of the guild has to give a total of 5% of their gain on the mission to the guild to keep it running. The five percent is on the base job. As such, it will be 5% on the 240,000 Jewels, which is 12,000 Jewels. You understand?" The master asked while looking at Jax.
"Yeah, I already knew about it. It was amongst the knowledge I gained while studying with the others." Said Jax as he took out 12,000 Jewels and gave it to the master.
"Right! Did Laxus come back? I didn't see him for a while." Asked Jax as he looked at the master.
"He should be back tomorrow." Answered the master as he took back his mug and started to drink again.
"Alright answered Jax as he went down to the library. He had finally finished the book, and he was ready to find another one. However, before that, he wanted to identify the ten celestial gate keys Sara's father had given him previously.
Taking out the keys and leaving them on the table, he opened the book and started finding them. Thankfully, he had already read this book so, he knew where to find the information. Half an hour later, he had identified all ten silver spiritual keys. They were the keys of Myrzoa, Berium, Arctites, Vetis, Carus, Clerus, Octolus, Seletula, Goritula and Halidia. Along with his previous seven silver keys and his black key, he had a total of eighteen celestial spirit gate key.
Storing his keys, he put back the book in the library and randomly took another one, which seemed interesting. With this, he went back upstairs and contrarily to what the master had expected, Laxus had already come back from his job and was currently sitting on the stool near the bar.
With a smile, Jax went to him and tapped him on the shoulder before taking something to eat from the worker at the bar. Previously he had only drunk, but now that he saw Laxus eating, he felt quite hungry as well.
"Yo Jax, how did your job go?" Asked Laxus between two mouthfuls of his toasts.
"Pretty good, harder than expected but still doable," Jax answered back with a smile.
"Made any progress in that magic of yours?" Asked Laxus as Jax could see that he was preparing to hit him.
"Remember how I was better than you last time we met? Now I'll flatten you." Jax said with a cocky smile as the guild members backed away, and Laxus dropped his toast before hitting him as hard as he could.
However, before he could hit, Jax dodged the attack and used the bar counter to support his weight as he gave a hard kick to Laxus, who flew into a table. With a smile, Laxus got up and said: "Let's see if I can beat you today! You could beat me before due to your high number of magic. Now I'll kick your ass." He shouted as he lunged towards Jax as fast as he could.
Blocking the attack with an arm, Jax retreated a bit before he rushed back into the fight. With fists hitting each other, Laxus was the first one to fall to the ground as Jax rushed towards him only to have Laxus electrify himself to protect himself from the hit.
Backing slightly, Jax levitated in the air and sped up while boosting his speed with fairy magic. Rushing towards Laxus, Jax electrified himself as well while mixing it with his fire magic. Hitting directly in the face of Laxus, he flew straight into the wall as Jax used his sound magic to disorient him while he was trying to get up and gave him a knee to the head.
Laughing at Laxus for being hit, Laxus got up and released even more lightning around him and shot a beam of thunder towards Jax, who simply controlled water to direct it to the ground. Smiling, even more, Jax stared at Laxus before using his dark magic to creep towards Laxus slowly and finally latched on his shadow as Jax rushed towards him.
As he saw Jax rush towards him, he tried to move and lift his arms to defend, but the shadow slowed him down and eventually, Jax stopped his fist right in front of Laxus's throat, effectively winning the duel. "Haha, it seems you have begun to slack off huh," Jax said as he tapped on Laxus's shoulder and released the dark magic.
"Damn, you've gotten stronger huh," Laxus said to Jax as the two of them made their way back to the bar to eat their food.
"Yeah, I didn't have a choice. B-ranks targeted me and an A-rank dark mage on my last job. If I didn't become stronger, I'd be dead." Jax said as he started to explain his last job and what he had gone through. As he spoke, Laxus was more and more surprised at the difficulty of his previous employment, and when he compared it with his, he understood why Jax had to become stronger as soon as possible.
"What about you? What have you been doing the last few weeks?" Asked Jax as he knew that Laxus had just come back from another job.
"Well, for my last job, I had to get rid of a few monsters which hunted down the villagers when they tried to farm. Before that, I had to capture some bandits. Nothing complicated. It may be the reason why you have overcome me now. Laxus said while shaking his head. They had been friends for a long time now. As such, there were no bitter feelings when one surpassed the other as it only meant that they had to work harder. Moreover, it wasn't the first time one beat the other. The two boys were used to it.
"In that case, I'll take harder jobs." After saying so, Laxus got up from the stool and directly went to the job board to take another job. Thinking about it, he didn't have anything else to do in the guild if Laxus was gone. As such, Jax forgot the idea of taking a break and went to take another job.
Job after job. It was the only way to become stronger. To fight, to be disadvantaged and to learn how to surpass oneself. Jax and Laxus had the same idea in mind as they both chose jobs they thought to be fitting, and as the boys both decided on a job, the two friends looked at the other and saw that they had the same kind of job. It was defeating mages. This job was the best way to grow stronger as fast as possible.
Back on the bar counter, the master looked at this with a fond smile on his face as he drank from his mug. The attitude of the two also seemed to set some older members, and soon enough, the guild became almost empty as almost all of the members took a job to complete.
The master, looking at the job board which had lost almost a quarter of his requests, a number which would typically be two weeks of work had been done in an instant thanks to the two younger members of the guild. At this point, the master smiled even more profoundly and gave himself a tap on the back for having decided to take younger members in the guild.