Jax took off his shirt slightly and checked the wound on his shoulder. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as he feared it would be. The skin would need to be sewn together, but after applying a bit of ointment he had bought in preparation for such injuries, he was ready to continue.
The ointment wouldn't heal his wound, but it would provide relief and stop the bleeding. That was all he could ask for from something that was not a potion. A potion would do so much better, but the only healing potion he had with him today had been wasted by that old man.
Jax still somewhat regretted losing those three stones, but considering he received the Axe in return, he wasn't very mad about it.
He spent some time with the dead lizard, butchering it as much as he could. He was still very bad at it, but after the bit of lessons from Loma the other day, he was much better than he would have been on his own.
He just needed more practice.
It took Jax another ten minutes to fully butcher the lizard from its hide to its organs. He wasn't taking any with him, though, so he simply left it there for the field to devour after he left.
"Not even an hour has passed, and I've already earned what I spent this morning," Jax said with a slight grin. "The Dead Woods really is so much better than the grassland. Especially the fact that I do not have to worry about whether my kill will give me a stone or not."
"But it is dangerous too," Gemma said. "Are you sure you don't want a party? It would be so much easier if you did get a party."
"No," Jax said immediately. "I don't want a party. I told you, I like being alone."
"I get that, but you really will need a party. Some of the trials in the upper carriages require that you have a party. And it's very important that you know what sort of people you are partying with from the start. Otherwise, there will be problems."
"Gemma, you know I don't have that sort of time," Jax said. "We have barely four weeks remaining before I go to the Maze. And I can't even use all of the four weeks, since I have to manage the time it takes me to reach the Maze in the first place."
"I know..." Gemma sounded resigned. "I am just doing what I am supposed to do: help you."
Jax stopped. "I'm sorry if I sounded like a jerk. I really appreciate all the help you're giving me. I just don't want a party right now. I'll find one when I need one."
"Alright, I'll bring up the topic again once you're in another carriage. And oh, looks like I'll have to talk to you later."
As Gemma disappeared, Jax saw the giant monster before him.
It was as tall as him and much wider than it was tall. It was gelatinous, formed from a translucent material with seemingly a lot of water content.
One could see through its body to the two opal stones at its core. The beast had no eyes, no face, and no other feature than just the blob that was its body.
Jax had encountered a Slime.
It had a tinge of brown to its body, which was quite difficult to tell if one wasn't paying attention. That was because this one was of a corrosive nature and could corrode metals and clothes if one wasn't careful.
"Wow, I expected this to be large, but not this large," Jax said. He knew giant slimes were hundreds of times as heavy as regular slimes, which put them at about three to four times heavier than Jax.
Jax was only capable of carrying around something twice as heavy as him, so the slime was certainly quite heavy, even for him.
"Alright, how do I deal with this one?"
The slime had no eyes, but it could tell when someone was close by. Each time it did, it moved toward them slowly.
Jax had no reason to panic as such slimes were mostly harmless. They had no attacking capabilities, so the only way for them to kill someone was to simply devour them.
Drowning a person inside their body was their preferred method of killing. However, considering how slow they were, Jax could simply continue walking around, and they wouldn't be able to do anything.
That was great, but there was a problem. Jax couldn't do anything to it either.
There was only one way to kill this slime.
And that was to completely cleave through the slime in one strike so that its body couldn't assimilate again and become one. If a person was capable of separating them entirely, this slime would die.
There were other varieties of slimes that were capable of duplicating when cut apart like that, but this one was not one of them.
Jax looked at his dagger and his short knife. Neither of them could do anything close to dissecting all of a slime in one instant.
He stepped away from the slime, wondering how he was going to do this.
'I don't really need to kill it,' Jax thought. 'I just need those stones.'
He didn't need to kill the monster for that. He just needed to get his hands dirty. The slime wouldn't die from him taking those stones, but then he didn't care about that.
"But..." Jax thought. "I can't reach inside without going all the way in. And if I go in, I'll start to float in its body, at which point I will essentially drown. I need a way to get back out."
A party member would be greatly helpful here, but Jax didn't have any. He only had himself.
Himself... and his one spell.
A single thread released from his fingertip as he pulled it out. He looked toward the tree to the side, an idea coming to his mind.
"All I need is an anchor, don't I? As long as I have that, I should be safe."