18 Ch.18 Time at the beach

After getting the okay from Sara, Jax once again left the villa, going to the fifteen mages he had taken down. When he arrived, they were still unconscious and were all tightly bound by the roots.

Taking the closest dark mages from him, he made sure he has knocked out again with another bolt of lightning before unbinding him and starting to search him. This time he was lucky as he found quite a bit of money and ten explosive lacrimas. It wasn't the first time he saw such lacrimas, but it was the first time since the beginning of the mission that dark mages owned such a lacrima. This discovery made him furrow his brows as he bound him again before moving to the next dark mage.

Once again, he found a wallet with money in it. However, what made him turn serious was that this dark mage also had explosive lacrimas with him. Jax continued to search the C-rank dark mages first, and without exception, he found explosive lacrimas and money on them. Binding them all back together, he turned towards the B rank mages, which he stunned once more before searching them.

However, what he found made him smile a little as he confirmed that the four B rank mages were not in the same group as they had the symbol of four different dark guilds. From what he could understand from this situation, each of those groups had previously sent mages after him and Sara. However, seeing that none managed to complete the job, they decided to fight together and probably fight against each other for the reward in the end.

Searching them and seeing four abduction tasks confirmed his deduction that those were from different dark guilds. Having taken all of them down also meant that the chances of being attacked by dark mages were almost minimal as Jax finished the mission's leaders and many of their members. Collecting explosive lacrimas, money and a communication lacrima each, Jax broke the communication lacrima as he couldn't use them and finally bound the four mages along with the rest of the group.

With a smile, he silently counted his loot and was pleasantly surprised as he found a total of 530,000 Jewels along with 150 explosive lacrimas. Now that he estimated the whole, he figured that this task might have been taken as a joint operation by the four dark guilds. It was the only reason he could find that the eleven C rank mages had 30,000 Jewels each on them, and the B rank mages had 50,000 Jewels each. Moreover, each of them had ten explosive lacrimas. Jax could see that every dark guild put a lot on this mission. Even too much as Jax quickly looked at the abduction job and saw that the price had once again increased.

The previous abduction mission offered a reward of 500,000 Jewels, and now it had doubled, increasing the total amount to a million. It seemed that whoever wanted to abduct her was desperate as he raised the amount by quite a bit. He frowned slightly but didn't care too much as there wasn't a lot of time left on this vacation, and they would be going a few days later.

After binding the dark mages and storing his loot in his shadow, he brought them to the villa before taking the four girls to visit the village while dropping the dark mages to the magic council.

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When they returned to the villa, the four girls immediately rushed to get changed into their swimsuits as they made their way to the beach. This private beach, which had previously been tranquil, became alive as the four girls played various beach games. They sometimes swam in the ocean or played volleyball on the beach.

Jax, who had joined them on the beach, was lying in the sun, reading his book. It was the vacation he wanted. Some girls played on the beach while the young boy sat in the sun and did his favourite pastime, reading. While he wasn't sexually interested in them due to his young age, it didn't stop him from appreciating the sight as he sometimes controlled the water for the girls to play. Making various forms or throwing them in the air with a push of magic to let them fall into the water of even making a slide in the water, allowing them to slide directly in the water and see the pretty sight of the fishes in the water without having to care about air.

As he read the book, Sara came closer to him and looked at what he was reading from behind before taking a gasp as she pointed at a picture in the book. "Do you like those kinds of keys?" She asked while pointing at the golden key pictured in the book.

"Hum, yes I do. I don't know why I like those keys so much, but they calm me, and I have a weird obsession with those keys. So, I collect them as much as I can." Jax explained while keeping his attention on the book in front of him.

"Eum, if you'd like, I can give you a key like that. I have one with me. However, it's not golden or silver like those keys." She said while pointing at the pictures on the book. "But golden with black circling on it." She said while turning her attention back to Jax.

"I'd love to, but if I'm right about what key you own, I can't take it. It's most likely worth a lot of money, and I'm not rich enough to pay for your key." Jax said while shaking his head. He, of course, wanted the key. However, he wasn't about to cheat something out of their things, especially the one he was supposed to protect during her trip.

"Well, give me a moment." She said while running back to the villa.

A few moments later, she came back with a slightly panting breath as she put her hand on her knee to catch her breath. Jax, who looked at her, enjoyed the scene as he saw her chest, which was barely covered by her bikini, rise and fall rapidly. However, after a moment, he turned his attention to the key in her hand.

The black key had a little bit of gold on the tip and along the key's body. However, the rest of the key was black as there was a serpentine figure that spiralled around the key up to the top. This key was remarkably similar in the description to the rumoured black key in the book. While there weren't any pictures in the book, the author believed that the key would be slightly golden due to being on par with the twelve zodiac keys, but due to not being a sign, there would be black to signify its difference from the other zodiacs. Not only that, according to the book, the black key would have a serpentine figure on it to represent the constellation of Ophiuchus. With all of these descriptions together, the book's author believed that there was only a single black celestial spirit key globally, the gate of the snake charmer key, Ophiuchus.

With his eyes not leaving the key, Sara laughed and threw him the key before declaring: "Alright, this is now yours. I can see that you like it very much. Not to mention that I bought it from a stall for 500 Jewels, don't talk to me about money. After all, you saved my life countless times and considering that the mission jumped from D rank to B rank and now it has increased to A rank after we found this new job request, this can be considered a gift from me as thanks." She said she didn't want to talk anymore as she started to make her way back to the beach.

Jax didn't wait as a smile plastered his face as he said: "Thanks for the gift, I like it very much." As she heard him say so, she also smiled sweetly before going back to play with her friends. During this time, Jax continued to scrutinize the newly gifted key. This key was one of the world's rarest, and there wasn't another one of it in the world. He hadn't thought he would find such a key in this place, but the boy was glad that he had taken this job.

This way, Jax continued to play with the key until it was time to eat. The four girls had fun that day, and this incredible atmosphere continued until the last day of the trip. On their last day, Jax repurchased the ticket for the journey and the boat left at 2 in the afternoon. The trip back to Divide island would take a total of two days.