The Description

It took more than a stab to kill the giant bear. Jax had to struggle to kill it. The bear squirmed in pain too, which made it much harder to kill as well.

But in the end, after pushing all but his elbow into the bear's eye, Jax managed to kill it.

The bear shined with light for a second as three Navi stones flew out from its body. These Navi stones were white as well, so they had to be Opal stones.

"Are all white Navi stones Opal stones? Or are there more colors as well?" Jax asked.

"All white ones are indeed Opal stones," Gemma answered. "There aren't any other colors in this carriage. Even in the next carriage, you will have a hard time finding Emerald stones."

Jax slowly nodded.

After getting the stones, he didn't immediately head back. Instead, he inspected the threads around the bear's body.

Feeling around it, Jax realized that the threads were actually weaker than what the moth had used on him. The only reason the bear had been stopped was that he had used so many of them.

Unlike the moth's spell, however, just cutting a single thread here wouldn't have freed the bear from the restriction. The bear was simply wrapped so many times.

"Can you see the threads?" Jax asked Gemma.

"I can if I want to," Gemma said. "It is invisible to a regular person, though."

Jax smiled. He became quite curious to learn more about the rest of the spell. So, he climbed atop the corpse of the bear and lay on its soft fur as he brought out the Ascendant Status.

[Ascendant Status:]

Name: Jax

Path: Mind

Navi Stage: 1-Star Opal

Highest Cart: 10

Helper: T-1388C (Gemma)

Time Remaining: 36 Days

[SPELLS]

[SKILLS]

[INVENTORY]

[MAP]

[TICKETS]

[REQUIREMENTS]

[RESTRICTIONS]

Nothing had really changed here, but the SPELLS category should have something new now. He opened it.

[SPELLS (!):]

DIVINE THREADS

Jax saw the (!) and was curious about what it meant, but it turned out that it was simply indicating that he could not learn another spell, nor could he get rid of this one.

Jax had understood as much from the start, however, which was why he had been so devastated at having been forced to learn a spell under such duress.

Now that he had, there was nothing much to do about it except accept that he had it. So, he opened up the spell and read it.

———————————

[Divine Threads]

Creates threads up to 15 feet away from the Sorcerer.

If targeted at someone or something, the threads directly appear around the target and can wrap around it as many times as the Sorcerer wishes.

If there is no target, the threads appear from the Sorcerer's fingers, with one end attached to the finger they appear from. The Sorcerer can let go of the thread as he wishes. Any force strong enough to break the thread can also rip it away from the Sorcerer's fingers.

The thread's thickness, durability, and elasticity depend on the Navi quality of the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer can choose to use less Navi to reduce all of the thread's properties.

The Sorcerer can also assign an elemental property to the threads created. The assignment must happen within the first five seconds of creation. Each element affects the threads in its own unique way.

[

Unlocked Elements (1)

Wind: Threads assigned with the Wind element are weightless and cannot be seen with the naked eye.

To unlock more elements, the Sorcerer must absorb a set amount of elemental Navi and use the spell with it.

]

All elemental threads disappear on their own in 2 hours. Regular threads will never disappear.

The Sorcerer can choose to dissolve any thread within an hour of creation to recover a portion of their Navi spent. The longer the threads remain in use, the less Navi they will regain.

There is no restriction on how quickly this spell can be used again.

—————————

Jax read through the spell a few times, trying to absorb all he could about it. In places where he couldn't understand, he asked Gemma.

"What does it mean by Navi quality? Is that different from the Navi stage?" Jax asked.

"Navi quality is simply the quality of the Navi you possess. Some have better, some have worse. For most, it is a negligible difference, but there are some whose Navi quality surpasses what they should have according to their Navi stage," Gemma explained.

"How do I tell where I stand?" he asked.

"You need to get your Navi tested. There's a slime that glows based on the Navi it is fed. You can test it with that," Gemma said. "Although, I think you can only find that slime in the 9th Carriage and above."

"I see," Jax said, continuing on with the spell. "So… what are these elements exactly? I don't think they're what I think they are. It feels odd to think of Wind as an element."

"Hmm? Was your home world perhaps advanced? They must've figured out the natural elements," Gemma said. "In the Celestial Express, elements are the fundamental forces of nature, like Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth."

Jax thought for a bit. "So it means that I can assign these elements to my threads, huh? But it says I need to absorb elemental Navi. How do I find that?"

"Oh, those will be a little difficult," Gemma said. "Most of the time, only Boss monsters drop Navi stones that are elemental in nature. You will either have to kill a lot of Boss monsters or buy them from others."

Jax raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" he asked. "Can you tell me how many elements there are?"

"Of course. There are exactly 22 Elements."

Jax paused for a moment. "22?" he asked just to confirm.

"Uh-huh. 22," Gemma replied. "They are divided into Regular, Rare, and Ultra Rare categories, with the latter two very difficult to find. You should focus on the four Regular elements—Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water—for now, since those will be the easiest ones to find."

Jax had to imagine this was going to be impossibly difficult to do. "I won't go for all 22, I guess," he said in the end. "I will just have to get the ones I get."

He looked back at the spell. "This last bit—does it mean that there is no cooldown?"

"Yes!" Gemma replied excitedly. "There's hardly ever a spell without a cooldown. Isn't that incredible?"

Jax wouldn't know about that, given how new he was, but seeing Gemma's reaction, he figured it must be a rare thing.

"What's your verdict on this spell? Is it good or not?" Jax asked.

"It's good," Gemma said. "It has my stamp of approval."

Jax smiled. "I think I quite like it too."