Jax stared at the Earth stone in his palm, awed at its sight, and yet disappointed all the sa. The brown orb pulsed with a strong Navi energy, stronger than anything else he had seen before. But, it was of no use to him at all.
He had already unlocked the Earth elental threads after all.
"Nice kill," Lucille said, arriving next to him. Her eyes were still on the bone-white staff on her hand. "This is an incredible artifact. Do you mind if I keep it?"
Jax looked toward her, grimacing a little. "Sure, but I might have to sell it afterward so do return it. Or you can pay for it."
"Sothing wrong?" Lucille asked, noticing his pained expression.
"Yeah, my arm," Jax said with a sigh.
The others gathered around him as well, their attention first at the look he had gathered next to him, and then at the slumped arm next to his side.
layne cringed at the sight. "That arm is definitely broken," she said as she brought out so ropes from her inventory and made a makeshift sling for him. "Without any treatnt, you’re looking at about a week before it’s back to normal."
"A week?" Ning raised an eyebrow. "What about if he uses potions?"
Jax flexed his fingers, wincing at the sharp pain that shot up his arm. "I should be able to heal in 3 days with a decent healing potion. I’ll have to take a step back when it cos to fighting for those 3 days though."
"Or, you could just get so healing wine from the Wine Hermit. Should cut it down to a single day," layne said.
"Healing wine?" Lucille looked skeptical. "I’ve heard of healing potions, but wine?"
"Trust , it works," layne said.
Jax was surprised. "The Wine Hermit’s wine heals people?"
"What? You didn’t know? Don’t you sell him stuff every other day?" she asked.
"I only sell and never really buy anything," Jax said. "I thought people mostly bought wines for the tavern and such."
"The Wine Hermit makes more than just regular wines. Do not underestimate any of the hermits."
Jax nodded. "Anyway, here’s what I got from the gorgon."
Five Erald stones clinked against each other on his lap, their fluorescent green color a sight behold. The Erald Earth stone was also next to them, a much darker shade of green –nearing brown, followed by a peculiar amulet next to them all.
"Five Erald stones," Lucille said with a delightful voice. "A single Erald stone is supposed to be far more potent than even six or seven Opal stones."
"It is," layne explained. "They also help improve your Navi stage incredibly quickly. You three should use them as soon as you can."
"How about you each take two, and I’ll take one," Ning said. "layne doesn’t need to improve her Navi stage, so we can give her the Opal stones instead."
layne was the most accepting of the bunch.
"We should hold off on the earth stone until we actually need it," layne said, picking up the elental stone. "I could make so strong rune for an armor or a shield for one of us with this when we need it."
Jax nodded and lifted the final item. The gorgon amulet was an inky black dallion, heavier than it looked. Three gorgon heads were carved into the front, their serpentine tongue seemingly projecting out of the amulet itself.
He concentrated, trying to gain information about the artifact, but nothing ca to him. The notifications were vacant. "We should buy one of those one-ti use scrolls that lets us see information from these artifacts."
"No need. It’s a protective charm," layne said. "It can block a single spell’s effect from soone in the Erald stage. Each ti you use it, though, it needs to be recharged. It also protects against petrification spells, and that ability recharges on its own every six hours."
The group turned to stare at her. Ning was the first to voice what they were all thinking.
"How do you know that?" he asked.
"I have a skill that lets see into artifacts," layne said. "I am a master smith, after all."
The group nodded slowly as that made sense to them.
"But, that’s not really the reason why I know." layne reached beneath her shirt and pulled out an identical amulet, its black surface gleaming dully in the light. "I got mine a long ti ago when I fought the boss."
"You fought the gorgon before?" Lucille asked.
"Back before I got my quest. I used to go hunting around with my party a lot," layne said, tucking her amulet back beneath her clothing. "Anyway, this should go to soone like Jax or Ning. It’s difficult to decide who needs it among the two."
Jax pocketed the amulet and gathered the erald stones. "We should head back now that the boss is dead. We can distribute everything properly once we’re back in the village."
The journey back felt shorter than their initial trek into the forest. They encountered many monsters along the way, but those were dealt with so easily that one wondered if they were supposed to be scary to begin with.
Once they reached the village, they found a quiet corner to divide their spoils. The Erald stones were split as they had decided previously and the Opals stones were divided to equalize the previous split.
Jax kept the Gorgon amulet for himself after Ning refused to take it for so reason. Lucille also ntioned how big a hand Jax had in defeating the boss, so he deserved it entirely.
layne ended up keeping the earth stone for her armor crafting, although she promised that she wouldn’t use it without asking them for their permission first.
"Give your weapons," layne said as they finished. "I’ll check them over and return them to you at the tavern later."
Lucille stood, clutching her share of the erald stones. "I won’t be seeing you guys tomorrow then. I want to reach the fifth stage as quickly as I can, so I’m going to spend the whole day just absorbing Navi."
"Ooh, that’s not a bad idea. I should do the sa. Good luck with that," Ning said.
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