Jax took his portion with a smile and saw it add up to what he already had. After he sold what he brought back today, that would be quite a bit more.
Tomorrow, he would have earned over 120 stones in 3 days. At that rate, he would be earning 1,200 stones in just a month, perhaps even more if things went better.
Jax was going to have more than enough money to pay back Carlton. But what was he going to do when he did have it? How was he going to find Carlton?
’I will have to leave this valley, won’t I?’ he thought. He would have to go to the city where he would be able to find him.
"I can’t think of that for now," Jax thought. He couldn’t let expectations take him away from reality.
The reality was that Jax had less than 200 stones at the mont, let alone 2,000. He would need to work harder to find it.
Gram walked over to Jax. "You keep practicing that skill," he said. "And not just with your axe either. Try it with forks, knives, daggers. Anything you think of as a weapon can be made stronger with Weapon Fortification."
Jax nodded slowly. "I see," he said. "Thank you for the advice."
"No problem," Gram said. "I’m just looking out for you. Anyway, I need to leave now. Keep training."
"Okay," Jax said. "See you tomorrow."
Gram stopped suddenly, turning around in confusion. Everyone else looked toward Jax as well, carrying a similar expression.
"What?" Jax asked.
"Tomorrow is break day," Sho said. "I’m sorry, did I fail to ntion that? I must’ve failed to ntion that."
Jax narrowed his eyes. "What?" he asked. "Break day?"
Sho nodded. "After every 3 days of hunting, we take a day as a break. Mostly to rest and catch up with family and friends. We should’ve told you. I’m sorry that we forgot."
"Wait... so we don’t gather tomorrow?" Jax asked. "But..."
"You can always join soone else’s party if you want to," Gram said. "But I suggest you just rest for tomorrow. Spend your day training your Weapon Fortification skill."
Jax thought for a bit. He could do that. He could also do so other things.
Now that he was thinking about it, there were a few things he had been wanting to do that he couldn’t because he didn’t have the ti to. But now, with this break...
"You’re right," Jax said. "I will take the break. Alright then, I’ll see you all in 2 days."
Jax finally walked his separate way, going back toward the tavern. He was far too tired to want to do anything else right away. Visiting layne, going to the Ink Hermit, and selling his stuff at the Wine Hermit could wait for later.
Jax returned to the tavern for so food. The midday al was perhaps a highlight of his day. Getting to just sit down and eat when he was so hungry was heavenly.
After finishing his al, Jax returned to his room where he cleaned up and took a short nap.
Around evening, before the sun set, he left the tavern and made his way toward the smithy in order to check on the progress of his armor.
He hadn’t seen l in nearly 2 days, so he wondered what was going on. If it were 2 days prior, he would’ve likely believed her to have run away from this place with his stones.
But considering how many stones one could earn by just hunting in the forest, it was clear that she had no reason to take his asly stones.
Jax entered the smithy and quickly found layne’s workspace. It was at the back of the smithy, next to a really hot furnace.
"l!" Jax shouted over the noise of the smithy and called for her. It took multiple shouts to catch her attention.
layne had been in the middle of quenching a curved piece of red-hot tal when she turned around. Her eyes narrowed for a mont. She turned back around, and waited a few seconds until the tal was fully quenched.
She lowered the heat of the furnace by just a tad before walking toward Jax.
"What are you doing here?" she had to speak loudly in order to have Jax hear her.
"Trying to see how far along you are. Is my armor done?"
"I’m mostly done," she said. "It should be ready by tomorrow evening."
"That’s great!" Jax replied. "I only wanted to know that. I will leave now."
l watched him turn around and leave. She thought for a mont and quickly walked up to Jax, stopping him.
Jax turned around. "What?" he asked.
"What weapon do you use again?" she asked.
"An axe," Jax said. "Why?"
"Do you want to try and improve it?" she asked.
"Improve?" Jax asked, not understanding what she ant.
"Maintenance, even upgrades," she said. "It’s mostly to make sure the weapon isn’t close to breaking. It could be dangerous to leave a weapon in the middle of battle."
Jax knew she was correct, but...
"Don’t you have my armor to make first? We can talk about it later."
"I can do it in my free ti when I don’t work on the armor," she said. "Besides, I’m not going to do much to your axe. I’m only going to check the structural integrity of the weapon, after all."
Jax thought for a bit and saw reason in her words. He did need to make sure that his weapon was without any flaws. And this was a good opportunity as well, since he wouldn’t be hunting tomorrow.
"Alright," Jax said, bringing out his axe.
layne looked at his axe and nodded a little. As she turned it around, however, her eyes narrowed a little.
"Are you seriously using an axe with no runes?" she asked.
"The ones with runes are expensive," Jax said.
"That’s bullshit!" layne said. "Leave the axe with . I’ll add runes to it, free of charge. It will be much stronger."
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