Single Spell Sorcerer
Chapter 46: Cruel

Chapter 46: Cruel

The Giant Black Bear was perhaps the strongest beast in terms of pure physical strength. It didn’t have as much speed compared to the wolf or as much agility as the spider. But it had pure strength and a hide that could defend against most attacks.

From what Jax understood, the bear was, in fact, even stronger than the Spider Queen in terms of pure strength.

The bear swiped its paw at Jax, who quickly jumped back to dodge. When the bear landed, he used his spell again.

Ten threads appeared around the bear’s legs this time.

The bear struggled to move and roared. It seemed to use all of its strength, and the threads tore away.

’Damn, even ten isn’t strong enough to stop you?’ Jax thought.

He moved backward and waited for the bear to lunge at him. If nothing else, the bear was thankfully predictable. Still, he took care not to trip or lag behind. The bear would absolutely rip him apart given the chance.

Jax waited for the right opportunity and used his spell again. This time, he created fifteen threads.

The bear truly struggled this time, and even as it roared and desperately attempted to get out of the constriction, it couldn’t.

"So, fifteen is your limit, huh?"

It could very well be that its limit was much earlier than fifteen, but for the sake of simplicity, he decided to let it be that.

The bear could easily get out of this constriction should it be able to break apart a single one of the threads. Jax hadn’t used multiple spells to create each one of the loops and had instead used a single spell.

So the thread that constricted it was technically just a single string.

Using fifteen spells at once in such a short period was damn near impossible, after all. Using a single spell took time, so the more he needed to use, the more he needed to be able to consider each spell as its own thing.

Thus, Jax mostly used the spell normally unless he needed to use many loops at once.

The bear continued growling and fidgeting, but it couldn’t get rid of the threads. So, Jax decided that it was time to kill the monster.

However, he wouldn’t kill it so easily. He needed to test something.

A single string looped around its massive body, covering it entirely. As it appeared, Jax gave it an element.

Poison.

The thread gained a subtle green color, signifying its element. Since the poison thread was supposed to slowly hurt the monster until it died, Jax decided to check just how long it would take to do that.

Jax waited by the side and watched. He asked Gemma to keep track of the time, but he wasn’t sure if she was doing so or not. She wouldn’t reply to him at all when he was in the midst of a fight.

The bear kept growling, but its voice became weaker and weaker as time passed. Jax watched as it slowly lost its energy as death came for it.

Finally, when everything got quiet, the bear shined, and three stones flew out of it.

"Did you get the time for me?" Jax asked as he took the stones.

"Eight minutes and twenty-two seconds."

"Wow, that is longer than what I thought it was. If it takes eight minutes to kill a bear, how long will it take to kill the Spider Queen?"

"Who knows?" Gemma said.

"You do, don’t you?"

Gemma simply giggled.

Jax began dismantling the corpse to take out its heart and eyes.

"Don’t you find it quite cruel to kill a beast like that?" Gemma asked. "To just watch as it slowly dies?"

Jax paused. "Is it?" He hadn’t considered anything of that nature at all.

"I’m just asking. I have no opinions myself," Gemma said.

Jax thought for a moment. "Maybe I would find it cruel if I didn’t know these monsters were created every night in this field. It is not as if they have a life of their own. Their sole purpose is to empower us, isn’t it?"

"Yes, but still..." Gemma said. "I’m talking more about the way in which it was killed, not the fact that it was killed."

Jax shrugged. "I don’t think I care. Dying is just a purpose it needs to serve for me to get stronger. However it dies, that has no bearing on the outcome for me."

Gemma didn’t say anything for a while before saying, "You really are quite a callous person, aren’t you? I wish I could see what it is that made you this way."

"Sadly, we cannot," Jax said, a light chuckle in his voice.

"Sadly, I cannot," Gemma concurred.

Jax returned to butchering. After he was done, he checked his Navi reserve and went on to fight a few more beasts before returning safely.

Starting the next day, he would begin searching for the boss’ lair.

Jax prepared everything he needed to survive the boss the day before and woke up early in the morning to go find it. Hundreds of people were ready outside, each one excited to earn more stones that day.

Jax wondered how many of them were going to make it to the maze. Many of them were most likely waiting to reach the 5-Star Opal stage before leaving for the maze for the best chances.

Truthfully, that was most likely the best choice Jax could take right now. But the best was not what he was searching for. He was searching for the fastest way, and that way happened to be what he was doing.

Jax saw a few familiar faces along the way. The 4-Star Sorceress from Danny’s group was there too, along with a new member that he didn’t recognize.

Danny wasn’t there at all. Thinking about it, he hadn’t seen Danny in a long time since the man wasn’t even in the training center at all.

He wondered where he could have gone.

He ignored all of that thought and ran to the Cobweb Forest in search of the Spider Queen.