As the boy pushed the doors open, it attracted the attention of everyone in the guild. Jax, who had just finished healing a civilian who had come to him due to a broken bone in his arm, got up and went to the new boy. "Welcome to Fairy Tail. What is your purpose in coming here?" Asked Jax with a smile while looking at the black-haired boy.
"I want to talk with the master of the guild." He answered impolitely.
Lifting an eyebrow at his attitude, Jax shrugged and pointed towards the master sitting on the counter. "Right, you should wear your shirt back first." He said as he noticed the boy taking his shirt off before walking towards the master.
Seeing the surprised expression of the new boy, Jax knew that he was simply another weird guy. Walking back to the table where he had been practicing his fairy magic, a guild worker brought his food and juice before he started to eat his lunch.
As for the other boy, he had walked to the master while putting his shirt back on. "You're the master of the guild, right?" Asked the kid as he looked at the short master.
"Yes, what's your name, kid?" Asked the master as he stopped drinking.
"I'm Gray Fullbuster. Do you know of any way to reverse the effect of the Iced Shell spell?" He asked as he seemed to take this topic very seriously.
"Iced Shell? The only method I know to reverse the effect would kill the caster as well. Once someone cast the Iced Shell spell, they kill their target by encasing them into the ice with their body. They place a curse upon themselves to transform into ice for eternity in exchange for their target's life. Theoretically, the only way to cancel the Iced Shell spell and allow the caster to have their body back would be to have a mage able to break a curse and a healer with the strength of the four gods of Ishgar. Unfortunately, currently, there is neither a curse-breaker nor a healer mage of this power in Ishgar. Maybe in the next ten years, but currently, there isn't anyone close to this level." Answered the master while shaking his head and giving a glance at Jax. He knew that Jax's fairy magic allowed him to heal and break curses. However, currently, he only had the strength of an S-rank mage and was far from the ten saints, not to mention the God of Ishgar, the four strongest wizard saints.
"Is there no one strong enough?" Asked Gray with an unwilling look.
"Indeed, currently, there isn't anyone strong enough to do it. The strongest known wizard in healing and curse-breaking magic is only S-rank. He is still far from the ten saints and even further from the god of Ishgar. What do you plan to do now?" Nodded the master as he heard Gray's words.
"Then, can I join Fairy Tail?" Asked the boy once again as he remembered his teacher's words, which was to become powerful in his magic.
"Sure." Nodded the master as he gave a signal to a guild worker who went to get the magic stamp tool.
"Where do you want your guild mark and which colour?" Asked the worker as he prepared the tool.
"Dark blue, on my right pectoral." Answered the boy immediately as he took off his shirt completely.
"Well, alright." Answered the guild worker, a little weirded out that he took off his whole shirt when he only had to lift it.
"Can I now take jobs from the guild?" Asked Gray as the only thing remaining from his teacher was to become stronger. Maybe if he became stronger, he would find another way to bring his teacher back.
"Not now. You will have to take a bit of training before starting. JAX!" Answered the master before shouting Jax's name in the guild building.
"Yeah?" Answered Jax as he got up and approached the master.
"I want you to train him to be ready to take jobs for the next two weeks." Said the master as he turned around and drank from his mug.
"I don't need him to teach me anything. I'm sure I'm stronger than him anyway." Replied Gray to the master as he refused to be taught by Jax.
"Jax is an S-rank mage of Fairy Tail and also one of the strongest members. He will teach you for the next two weeks before taking a job. It's a requirement of this guild." Answered the master immediately as he wanted to use this chance to help Gray integrate properly into the guild and make sure he was ready to take jobs.
The new boy frowned but didn't rebuke as he turned to Jax with an unconvinced expression. "So, what do we do now?" Asked the boy aggressively.
"Go behind the guild to train." Answered Jax as he turned to walk towards the back of the guild. At the same time, hearing that there would be a fight between Jax and Gray, the other members got up and walked behind the guild. Jax had once trashed everyone in a fight, and it now became some ritual for new guild members. As for the members who went to watch the fight? They always felt better when Jax trashed another member as it showed that they weren't that bad either.
As Jax was walking in front of Gray and leading him to an open space behind the guild, Gray took this chance to attack from behind with his ice. Unfortunately, as he slowly took his pose to create his magic and shouted the name of his magic, Jax didn't bother to turn around and had more than enough time to make an earth pillar that blocked the ice attack. He then sent a lightning bolt back at the black-haired boy who thought his magic had hit the target and felt good about himself.
Falling to the ground, electrified by the lightning bolt, he tried to get up. Before he could, Jax created a water geyser and electrified it with the spell 'electrified surface,' which kept Gray down as he received shocks at a specific interval. During this small battle, which the members almost didn't see, Jax kept a hand in his pants pocket and looked bored as he watched Gray try to get up only to fall again.
Seeing the boy more honest after being shocked a couple of times, Jax started asking questions.
"Is ice your only magic?"
"Y-Yes." Answered the boy unwillingly while still being shocked.
"How long have you trained your magic?"
"Six months."
"Do you know how to read and write?" Asked Jax as he hoped, he answered yes.
"Yes, I know." Answered the boy, much to Jax's relief as he didn't want to teach someone to read and write.
"Okay. For the next two weeks, we will train here in the evening from six to nine. During the day, you will think about how to improve your magic and communicate with the other members as they will be able to give you some ideas. Right now, it's 18:30. We will start training immediately. You attack, and I defend while I give you advice. Start." Said Jax as he stood on one side and waited for Gray to attack.
This way, two weeks rapidly passed.
During those two weeks, Jax trained three hours every day with Gray, and during the day, he would exchange a few words with the new guild member in between the civilians who came to get help. While Gray's power didn't change much during this time, his magic became much more diverse with everyone's support, and he could now use his ice magic more fluently.
During the two weeks, he had spent in the Fairy Tail guild, Gray became more active and lost his always gloomy aura. Although he was getting beaten up by Jax, he also learned from the other members that it happened to them and that he would get used to it. And sure enough, after two weeks of getting beaten into shape by Jax, Gray got used to it.
Finally, as promised by the master, Gray took two jobs with Jax. As he always did with the other new members, he led the first job while Gray took the lead on the second one, with Jax helping him from behind. Finally, on his third mission, Jax followed secretly and let Gray do everything by himself.
Once Gray finished the mission, Jax made his way back to the guild building and went to see the master. "So, how was his first solo mission?" Asked the master as he saw Jax stopping next to him.
"Everything's fine. Gray had some trouble here and there with the job but nothing major." Answered Jax as he took a glass of juice the worker gave him. "He'll become a good mage in the future. Also, as always, for the housing, I'll let him stay at the house. At this point, I think I'll make this a building for the Fairy Tail guild members, and in the future, I'll make another house for myself if I want more privacy. It's not like I need money."
"Moreover, I'm currently trying to learn teleportation, and if I can understand it correctly, then I can have my house wherever I want in the range of my teleportation. Maybe I'll find a better neighbourhood somewhere. Well, of course, I don't plan on moving yet." Continued Jax as he shared his idea of making the house he built a new dormitory area for the guild members in the future as it would allow them to save more money until they moved out.
"No problem, if you don't mind having more members living in the house in the future, it will help a lot with the new members. However, there is something we need to talk about." Said the master as he looked gravely at Jax.