Single Spell Sorcerer
Chapter 97: Encounter with the Iron Leopard

Chapter 97: Encounter with the Iron Leopard

Jax wasn’t entirely sure if he had succeeded or not, but something was definitely happening. Navi was flowing into his weapon, but whether that had done anything or not was something he could only find out by using the weapon.

So, Jax pulled the axe up high and swung it down.

The axe chopped into the Treehopper, but not all the way through it. It stopped part of the way through, needing Jax to pull it back out before swinging down.

Even half-dead, the monster was still squirming.

Gram kept an arrow on the bow, ready to use if needed, while Kaya prepared her spells just as well.

"Cici, don’t buff him," Sho said, stopping the woman from doing something. Cici thought for a moment and nodded.

It took Jax 2 swings to kill the Treehopper, but 3 to completely cut through its body. At the end of his last swing, the axe dug deep into the ground, while 5 opal stones floated before him.

"I knew you could do it!" Gram suddenly said from the back. "That was great!"

Jax pulled the axe out and took the 5 stones. He turned around toward Gram and the others, surprised. "I did?" he asked. "But I couldn’t kill it in one swing."

"Oh, the Skill. No, you still have ways to learn it," Gram said. "But you did the very first thing that many struggle to do. You managed to flow your Navi into your weapon. That is honestly half the struggle. The other half is just becoming more efficient with it until it becomes a Skill."

"Ah!" Jax finally understood. He had a small success, which was truly nothing less than what he could ask for today.

Sho stepped forward, slapping Jax’s shoulder. "To do it so quickly, you must have incredible control over your Navi. I’ve seen others struggle for days to get to where you just reached in a single fight."

Jax felt incredibly proud hearing all of the praises, but he couldn’t let it get to his head. His talent had little to do with his ability to control his Navi.

It had more to do with his path being that of a Sorcerer. Being able to control Navi was a basic requirement, after all.

Jax quickly pulled out some daggers and poked out the Treehopper’s eyes. It took him no time at all to do that, so he could leave with the others immediately, in search of other monsters.

They fought many monsters again today, this time getting around faster than yesterday. Jax was a little more aware of how to butcher each monster, so he could get their organs or other items that could be sold to the Wine Hermit.

He checked the herbs around the forest each time, each time saddened that he was likely missing more money by not taking what he should. In fact, he even thought of packing some random herbs back with him just in case he got lucky.

But, that would be a bad idea.

Instead, Jax focused on training his skill, which improved slowly. At the rate he was improving, Jax was told that he would be at the level of having a skill in about 3 more days.

As for whether he would get the skill in 3 days or not was not something any of them knew. Most skills that warriors learned were something that automatically unlocked for them. Most didn’t have to learn anything like Jax did, which was why they were so bad at guessing when one would gain a new Skill.

After training for a long time, Jax was beginning to feel tired. He could go around for an hour or two more, but any more than that would be impossible.

He was lacking on Navi too.

They had defeated 23 strong beasts by now — Jax took count this time — and had gathered around 120 stones. Weaker beasts that died in a single hit weren’t counted.

To beat yesterday’s record, they would need to kill at least 4 more beasts, which they were certain they could do. Some of them were even excited.

However, they never expected to meet a Wild Boss as their next monster.

Inside a large clearing in the middle of the forest was a large mound of black rock, atop which rested a clouded leopard. It appeared bored, laying on the rock without doing anything, and yet its presence was a source of fear for everyone there.

The Iron Leopard, one of the 3 Wild Bosses of this forest, was not something they could easily stifle.

"Sho, what do we do?" Cici asked, panicking. A boss was something that would reward them a lot if they managed to kill it. However, the chances that they did manage to kill it were highly low considering their current composition.

The beast would be a 1-Star Emerald beast, and not a single one of these people was anywhere close to being as strong as they were.

Jax frowned upon seeing the boss, knowing that there was absolutely no way they were going to fight.

"Mark the spot," Sho said. "We can’t fight this thing. We’re leaving."

Everyone knew that was for the best. Although, Jax did wonder why they had to mark this location on the map. He was certain that boss locations changed every time they were killed.

Or perhaps, were they hoping that no one would get here somehow in the time they became strong enough to fight this thing?

That’s a stupid thought. There’s no way they’re this stupid. They must have other reasons to do this.

Jax took one last look at the sleeping leopard, his eyes moving to the black mound that was its resting spot. In the middle of the boss area, that black mound was not something irrelevant at all.

It was something important that one could gain upon killing the beast, for it was an ore to one of the strongest metals that could be found out here.

That was the ore of Black Lead, the metal with which Jax’s new armor was going to be made.