Melayne resigned to the seat at her side, her brows covered in sweat as well. She seemed to have been panicking as much as he did.
Ning had long since gained his composure to their side.
"You didn’t go to the Hermit?" Jax asked.
"I found her on the way there," Ning said. "I told her what happened, and she seemed to know."
"I’ve seen many idiots drink the Wine Hermit’s wine directly off the bottle," she said. "Never this much though. You should know by now that his wine is very concentrated. You need to dilute it by 10 times to properly use it."
"I thought that was just for regular wines that the taverns use," Jax said, breaking heavily.
"It’s not," Melayne said. "It’s strong. Which surprises me that you managed to go through it all without falling unconscious."
"I don’t fall unconscious to pain," Jax said. "I grow more awake."
Melayne raised an eyebrow. "Why’s that?" she asked.
Jax shrugged. "No clue. Something to do with my race I think."
"Are you not a human either?" Melayne asked.
"I don’t know," Jax said before turning to Melayne. "You’re not a human?"
Melayne shook her head. "I used to be a dwarf," she said. "I think that’s why I got the blacksmith related skills. I wasn’t a blacksmith in my tribe, but our people were known for forging great weapons that were to be used by the great heroes to fight the hordes of monsters that came from the well."
Jax didn’t understand much of what she said. "I don’t really know what I am," he said. "Gemma said I’ll find out in the next Carraige."
They turned to Ning. "What were you before you came here?"
Ning thought for a bit. "Mostly human, I suppose."
Melayne frowned. "What does that mean?"
Ning could only laugh in response. Seeing as the crisis had gone away, they decided to order their meal.
They ate quietly for the most part as the day’s work had left them famished. Ning was the first to be done. Once finished, he looked at the two and asked, "We’re taking tomorrow off, right?"
"I don’t think it’s fair to Lucille if we were to go hunting without her. We are a party after all," Melayne said.
"Thought so," Ning said. "Then I’ll see you guys the day after tomorrow."
"Sounds good," Jax said.
Ning left first, followed by Melayne after she finished her meal. Jax still had a bit to go through his food, but he wasn’t feeling as hungry anymore. The wine had ruined what appetite he should’ve had.
He leaned back against the table, waiting in hope that he could continue eating. As he did, he considered what else he still had to do in the village. The girls from his first tavern had stopped visiting him since forever ago.
It was such a long time ago that he almost forgot that it used to be a daily thing back then. Although, weirdly enough, he didn’t miss it at all. His daily hunt wore him enough every day now for him to want to do anything else with his free time except rest and maybe improve his Navi stage.
He remembered back to what Lucille said about wanting to reach the next stage as soon as she could, and he found the same determination in himself. He opened his inventory and saw the image of the Emerald navi stone within it.
He had two of them now, so he could only imagine just how good they were going to be for him.
Jax finished the rest of his meal as soon as he could and went back to his room to start absorbing the energy. Just like Lucille, he too wanted to go at it for as long as he could.
Gemma floated around him as he pulled out an Opal stone and began absorbing it. She talked to herself as much as to him while she zipped around. She tended to not speak when others were present with him. He didn’t know if she was shy, or if she was talking to the other helpers.
She wouldn’t say.
Since the other two were Ascendants as well, Jax was certain they both would have helpers with them for a long time.
Jax slowly lost himself to the dull nature of absorbing Navi. The familiar pulse of energy coursed through his body, finding its way to his Sea of Navi. At the same time, Jax created thread from his other hand, spilling them out on the ground next to him.
Since his absorbing technique allowed him to use spells at the same time, he found it quite useful to turn his Navi into the best threads he could make. With enough threads, he could maybe even sell it to people who wanted it.
There were a lot of different use cases for his threads. He even thought of braiding some to make whips, but that would need his Navi quality to improve far more than what it was right now.
Jax started with the Opal stone to get his body acquainted with Navi passing through them. It was akin to simple warm up before one got into a set of rigorous exercise. Some time later, when the last of the Opal stone was absorbed away, Jax brought out the Emerald stone and clutched onto it.
He prepared himself for what was to come and began absorbing.
He wasn’t prepared enough.
The Emerald stage Navi was a raging energy, seemingly boundless in its capacity. It strolled through his body like a flood did in a small village, ravaging everywhere it went.
Jax focused on the Navi, helping guide it through his body to the best of his ability. The pain was there, like forcing something big into something small. But he persevered, and as the Navi reached his Sea, he felt it expanding.
Jax hadn’t broken through. He was still far from breaking through to the next Navi stage. But with just what was happening to him right now, he could see just what he would achieve once he did successfully manage to break through to the Emerald stage.