Single Spell Sorcerer-Chapter 133: The Fang Heights

Leaving the forest proved easier than any of them had expected. The monsters they encountered were so weak compared to the combined force of their party. They had been fighting these monsters for months now with no issue, so going through them now was a breeze.

Lucille’s newly evolved Water Guardian spell also made their journey almost leisurely.

The spell manifested as an octopus-like creature that surrounded Lucille protectively, its 8 tentacles ready to strike at any threat. The tentacles were fast and precise, like pressurized water jets that shot at enemies the moment they arrived.

The thing could also leave Lucille’s side and envelope the enemy. In that case, instead of protecting someone, it bound them inside of it instead. If the enemy wasn’t strong enough to escape in time, it slowly died from drowning.

However, before it could fully drown, Lucille’s thunderbolt would strike down at it. The spell paired perfectly with the water octopus, amplifying the damage even more than before.

The octopus was so much better than the Water Shark that the Lakeborn Monkey had summoned, that it was no question that it had evolved.

"This spell is perfect for me," Lucille said as her guardian dispatched another weak monster with a single water blast.

They camped each night during their journey. They had packed enough for the next 5 days, including camping necessities. Jax made several attempts to observe the forest resetting at night. However, while people were still present, nothing happened. The part of the forest they were in seemed to remain static even at the time of reset.

However, there was no doubt that it had reset since new monsters came for them in the morning once they began traveling.

In less than five days, they emerged from the woodland and found themselves standing before a city that dwarfed Oak Village in every way.

Fang Heights, the city, was a sprawling settlement at the base of the mountain range, with some of the city climbing up into the mountains themselves. Tens of thousands of people could be seen walking through the streets of the city.

Jax stared at the developed infrastructure, proper stone buildings, paved roads, and what appeared to electric poles with proper light setup. The carriages that ran through the streets seemed better as well, made of metal instead of simple wood.

"This is much more advanced than the tenth carriage."

"That’s how it works going forward," Lucille explained. "All carriages become more developed the further you progress, until you reach the sixth carriage. Then it starts regressing again."

"Why?" Ning asked. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"It has to do with the number of people who reach a physical bottleneck at the sixth carriage," Lucille said. "The trial there is one of life and death."

Jax frowned. "Aren’t all trials like that?"

"Not necessarily," Lucille replied. "Most trials have a chance of everyone surviving if they’re skilled or lucky enough. But the trial from sixth to fifth carriage requires people to die for others to advance."

Ning looked at her sharply. "How do you know that?"

Lucille didn’t answer. "The next carriage will ask a lot of money from us, so we need to save up as much as we can from henceforth."

They found lodging in the city and settled in for what would likely be an extended stay. Melayne and Jax headed to the local shops to sell off the accumulated weapons and armor.

They purchased it for enough stones that it was a bit of profit for Jax. Almost all of those items had some sort of runes, and a few of them even had Spell slots, allowing for their price to skyrocket, compared to what he had paid Melayne for commission.

All in all, what he had spent 2500 opal stones for, had now returned him nearly 4000 stones. It was the biggest haul of his life within the Celestial Express. Not to mention, he already had thousands of stones with him already.

He checked his inventory and found that he now had close to 7000 Opal stones. Even giving 2000 stones to Carlton would still leave him with 5000.

Jax inquired about water opal stones and found that those people had it. The price made him wince, however, since the exchange rate seemed to be quite high –over 50 opal stones for every Water stone. Other stones were even higher, based on their rarity.

Jax saw a Space Navi stone that went for 2000 regular stones. There was no way he was going to be purchasing that.

He bought just 4 Water stones for now, hoping that would be enough. The others would have to wait for him to get to them through bosses.

Meanwhile, Melayne surprised him by buying a collection of spell scrolls with her money.

"We need to be saving money," Jax said, concerned. "Why are you spending it on so many scrolls?"

"I’m trying to make money, not save it," Melayne replied cryptically.

"What are you talking about?"

Melayne just smiled and didn’t elaborate further.

On their way back to their lodging, Jax suddenly remembered something important. "I need to contact Carlton about paying him."

Together ,they searched around and found a communication center, where he found a large magic circle designed for long-distance messaging. The operator explained that it could send messages directly to someone the user had met before, appearing as a notification on the other end.

Jax composed his message: "This is Jax, the guy you saved after the trial. The 2000 stones are ready. How should I arrange payment?"

It cost him 30 Opal stones to send a single message.

"Now you wait for a response," the operator said.

While waiting, Jax noticed smaller artifacts on display that caught his interest. Upon asking, the operator explained what those were. These were miniaturized versions of the magic circle that connected to any messaging circle in the vicinity and could send messages from anywhere a person was.

It did cost a lot more than using a circle if the other person didn’t have such a device, but if they did own it, it cost much less.

Perhaps the best part about these was that they worked from anywhere within the carriage, including dungeons.

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