Loot

After taking some time to get his thoughts in a row, Jax stood up, ready to leave.

However, before he did, there was something else he needed to do.

He needed to loot these people.

Jax looked at the warrior he had just killed and saw a dagger laying on top of his torso. He reached down and grabbed the bloody dagger. It was the thing that had stabbed him.

Jax felt a little annoyed at that sight. Thankfully, he was numbed up. He checked the man's body and saw that he had been wearing leather armor, but his axe had absolutely ruined it, so he left it alone.

Jax went over to the first warrior he had killed and searched his body for loot, but he left behind none. That surprised him a bit.

"Was his Inventory empty?" Jax asked.

"Perhaps," Gemma said. "Or he could just be an unregistered individual."

"Unregistered… you mean someone who was born here?"

Gemma gave an affirming hum.

Jax left that man and went over to the sorcerer, who turned out to be wearing metal armor. However, his axe had ruined it too. But unlike the leather, the metal could be sold and repurposed, so Jax took brought it out of the man. He also took the six white stones that were laying plainly on top of the man, which made Jax feel so much better about it all.

Finally, he went over to the archer and took the bow she held. What she left behind as loot were three identical arrows.

Jax wanted something better, but he supposed this was good enough for him. Once he took the bow and arrows, he left the place so that the field could devour them entirely.

Jax left the woods after that, returning to the training center to both get food and get his wounds looked at.

After some time, he returned to Loma's butcher shop later that day to continue learning with him. He told Loma what had happened earlier, and the man freaked out.

"I told you it was dangerous to go alone. There are many such bastards trying to take advantage of the lone warrior or sorcerer. Did they take your stones?"

"Take my… no. I refused to give them anything. Why should I?" Jax asked.

Loma raised an eyebrow. "And they let you go?"

"No. I killed them all."

Loma paused for a long second. "You… killed them all?" he asked.

"Each one," Jax said. "Damn bastards hurt me quite a lot though. Apparently, one nearly took out my kidneys. Thank god he missed."

Loma still couldn't get rid of the stunned expression on his face. It was simply unbelievable to him that a single man had taken out a party of killers. He asked more questions and was repeatedly stunned.

"I was lucky, really," Jax said. "Their sorcerer had a spell that he needed to continuously use, so he couldn't use other spells. I might have been in trouble if he did."

Loma seemed troubled. "Do you still wanna go do our thing tomorrow?"

"Of course!" Jax said quickly. "This can't stop us. I'm more ready now than ever. I can't wait for tomorrow."

Jax returned later that evening and had the treatment center look at him once more. The ointments they gave him stung quite a bit, but they also healed him quite quickly. The wound on his abdomen would take some time, but the other wounds would be healed by tomorrow.

Jax absorbed the energy from one of the stones again, this time getting both faster and less wasteful with it. Once his sea was filled, any more he absorbed would only serve to improve his Navi stage. That wasn't exactly a waste, but Jax didn't want to miss out on using every single bit of the Navi he was absorbing.

So, he began using his Navi at the same time, creating the best threads he could with it. He held the stone in his left palm and created the threads with his right.

Five individual threads began spooling on the ground next to him as he used the spell continuously, drawing on the power within the opal stone. As he was doing that, Jax suddenly felt the Navi coming into his sea redirecting itself toward his mind.

He was too confused to realize what was happening at first, but when he did realize what was going on, he quickly dropped the stone, no longer drawing anything from it. The threads still flowed out on the other side.

"Shit!" he grunted a little, the panic in his heart fading away.

"What happened?" Gemma asked, noticing his change.

"The Navi tried to go to my mind to be used by the spell," Jax said. "I lost control of it when I tried to absorb it and use the spell at the same time."

"Oh! That's normal," Gemma explained. "You won't get hurt if you take things slowly. It's only when you draw on so much of it that it becomes a problem."

Jax nodded. "But how do I stop it from going to the spell instead of to my sea?"

"That's just something you'll have to learn on your own. It's difficult, but I'm sure you will succeed easily."

Jax sighed and tried again.

It wasn't so easy doing the two things at once. Every time he tried, he had to stop a few seconds later as he had no control over it. On its own, he had no issue doing either of those things.

But together, it felt impossible. It felt akin to using one's muscle that they had never used before. It was a strange sensation, prone to incorrect movement. The only way to get better with it was to use it more.

Jax needed to train more with it.

After what felt like an hour of training, Jax felt a mixture of fatigue as well as rejuvenation. His mind felt tired, but his body felt refreshed.

Jax wanted to go to sleep, but he also wanted to take the time to look through the loot which he hadn't had the time to.

So, to start, he brought out the bow and arrows.